Dear {NOMEUTENTE}a long week-end in Tarvisio and Malborghetto for Ein Prosit, which has enabled me to discover how the collaboration between the Felicetti pasta-factory and Davide Scabin was born. The answer couldn’t certainly be “because Davide is very good”, we can take this for granted. The point comes later: Scabin possesses the skills and has the view of different sceneries for the use and cooking of pasta.
We Italians are tied by our palate and our history of “underdone pasta”, by that point suspended between the “still too underdone” and the “Damn, it’s overdone”. We actually don’t like overdone pasta in all its shades and therefore it is clear that a chef is enslaved by perfectly underdone spaghetti, he can play with the sauce but that’s another thing.
Scabin has literally removed “underdone pasta”, stressing other aspects. He creates distractions so that he can creatively cook in peace and quiet and when the result is ready and served it has different shapes compared to what is known and we cannot apply to it the same judgment categories of perfectly cooked spaghetti.
I hope that soon others will follow, with their ideas, on the way for innovation, also making mistakes however useful to understand which are the paths to follow with success.
Paolo Marchi
Texts by Gabriele Zanatta
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Pasta protagonist too at Ein Prosit, with many ideas A week-end that we of Identità have lived also in Tarvisio and Malborghetto, where the Friuli ends up and Austria and Slovenia begin and where every year in November, for 12 years now, Ein Prosit is organized, an exhibition of great wines, very good products and cooking classes involving several horizons.
Pasta has arrived on Saturday with the lesson by Davide Scabin, a long journey into the future, and on Sunday with that by Nicola Fossaceca, a homage to his land, a mix between the Abruzzi (he) and Molise (his parent), with a glance to the East. The owner of Combal.zero, in Rivoli above Turin, told of his challenge with a special “enemy” because thinking of new kinds of pasta in Italy is like revising frankfurters and sauerkraut in Germany or the t-bone steak in Argentina. It is almost taken for granted that everything is known and there is nothing more to do. In this sense, Riccardo Felicetti during dinner, prepared by Scabin, told how the collaboration between them was born. Two years ago, at the Salone del Gusto 2008, the pasta-manufacturer from Trentino went to Combal for dinner and when they served him a truffle risotto he asked why they hadn’t used tagliolini (thin soup noodles). Answer by Davide: “Because pasta is banal”. Then it happened that the two met at Identità 2010, came to know each other until the spark, Felicetti who presses the chef to think about the future of the most beloved dish of us Italians.
And during dinner on Saturday, at the hotel Edelhof in Tarvisio, the chef from Piedmont presented the Maccheroni soufflé Felicetti Island in the menu, a soufflé made with overdone maccheroni and transformed into an island in the middle of the sea, represented by a bag of blue-colored hot water, with an elegantly tasty ragout, one of those that, in the kitchen and armed with a spoon, would make you empty the cooking pot. Lastly, a fondue of Grana Padano cheese.
PM
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Ravioli in ventricina broth by Fossaceca: the dashi of the Abruzzi Nicola Fossaceca, owner of the Metrò in San Salvo, on the coastline between the Abruzzi and Molise, gave a very good lesson in Malborghetto starting from a product of his land, the Ventricina, pork dressed with chili pepper (roughly cut with the knife), spicy but not coarsely violent, without preservatives (apart from shrewd producers), still strongly linked to the artisanship of single families such as that of Stefania, the fiancée of the chef.
Two worlds have met, because the onion ravioli (the borettane onion variety, written with one R and two T, small and cooked with salt) have been served in a broth made with ventricina which recalls Nicola (and all those present) of the dashi, the Japanese broth prepared with kombu seaweed and katsuobushi, dried tuna fish, first smoked and then fermented.
The ventricina broth, where the chili pepper mitigates its spicy character, recalls of it and I remember also David Chang at Identità London 2010 who explained as the more tuna fish is becoming a rarity the more pork is replacing it in the katsuobushi, dried too after being smoked and fermented, almost as a piece of wood.
The onion ravioli with ventricina broth are regularly served at the restaurant.
PM
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Somen, pasta coming from Japan When we talk about pasta we should come down from the pedestal centered on Europe and look Eastwards. However not to brush up the tale of Marco Polo who was the first to import pasta from China to the old continent: this is a myth of American origin which is well disclaimed here.
On the contrary, we should turn to Japan to realize that there too wheat flour has been used for centuries to give shape to many varieties of pasta which, starting from the thickest “spaghetti” to the thinnest ones, today are called udon, soba or somen.
The latter is the thinner and probably the most ancient of the three (they say it dates back to the 13th century). Today it is quite popular in summer, when it is introduced into semicircular bamboo canes laid out almost horizontally that have to be seized with sticks and dip into the tsuyu, a popular hot broth made with katsuobushi.
There are hundreds of somen manufacturers all around Japan but, here too, there is a difference between industrial and artisan production. One of the most over-careful is called Takada Syoten and his pasta has already pricked up Claudio Sadler’s ears. Thinner than very fine vermicelli, the somen by Takada is obtained from durum wheat flour (instead of superfine flour as the great majority of this kind of pasta), rolled and mixed with extra-virgin olive oil (instead of the prevailing seed one) and water from the Nara sources, in the Honsu island, the most suitable area. The manufacture is impressing because the “balls” of dough aren’t rolled and then cut up but they are twisted for several meters: even a 3 kilometer noodle can be obtained from 1 kilo of mixture (in industrial manufacturing the maximum length is one kilometer). Then there is the drying time, which is abnormal to our standards: up to 24 months. There are several applications in the kitchen: the somen in the picture (by Zanatta) are the stuffing of a mackerel in broth. But this is only one of the solutions prepared by the chef of the Osaka in Milan, another lover of this kind of pasta. The somen by Takada is imported to Italy by Bridge That Gap.
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Boglione and the egg whispering to (white) truffle Pasta and truffle, which are the logics of this matching? They are endless, because these two families host very different children. Therefore, when in a city do as the citizens do.
In Piedmont, for instance, temple of the tuber magnatum pico and region where historically dried pasta doesn’t play the master, the precious hypogean mushroom from Alba and its surroundings finds its perfect combination when finely grated over fresh pasta.
Well, ecce ovo. This is what pillars of the Langhe traditional restoration think, such as the Alciatis that in Santo Stefano Belbo have it grated over the agnolotti del plin by the unforgettable Lidia (but they grate flakes of black truffle even on the dried cod ravioli).
And this is also what Alessandro Boglione, chef of the restaurant of the Castello di Grinzane Cavour thinks, who is trying to make this gastronomic monolith lighter. His all truffle tasting menu (120 euro, 150 including wines) starts rightly from Egg: poached egg with raschera cheese fondue. Then, to taste, fresh pasta with white truffle flakes melted on top («which, to be authentic, shall recall of the garlic smell», he explains smelling the nugget before grating it, pictureZanatta). There are the Tajarin with mountain butter and sage which are like «an omelet per forkful», the chef explains to efficaciously show how many yolk he uses to make the tagliolini (thin soup noodles). And then there are the Ravioli del plin that can be stuffed with fondue or meat and vegetables. All egg/truffle combinations that up to now are winning over any other matching or risk. Those who do not agree, write to us. Ps. This year at Boglione the white truffle is available until January.
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Felicetti and the meaning of biological agriculture Biological agriculture: an expression which isn’t less vague than “molecular cooking” because it hasn’t been created by scientists but by politicians or journalists. A biologist would object that in nature all processes, including GMO are actually defined by vegetable/animal (and therefore bio) agents/organisms, exactly like in the kitchen there is an interaction among molecules even only pouring salt in the cooking water of pasta.
According to the EU definition, biological agriculture is however the agriculture which «exploits the natural fertility of soil fostering it with limited interventions and promotes biodiversity of the environment where it operates, avoiding the use of synthesis products (except for those accepted by the Community regulation) and genetically modified organisms.»A long series of producers of different food products originates from here, from tomatoes to wine, who can operate within the above limits with a more or less wide margin. However what do we mean exactly when we talk about biological pasta? Here again, the sensitivity of those who apply the law counts more than the strict obedience to the law itself.
Riccardo Felicetti of the pasta-factory of Predazzo in the Trentino region, started his biological way in 1996, with the ambition, today realized, to give origin to Monograno, a line which wasn’t simply a good product but a biological product able to confront with the needs of high level restoration. All this, «coming back to the agriculture before the industrial revolution, which is first of all a message of respect for the territory and the families living in it from generations» he explains «the excellent biological product is the one which, from the selection of the single grain variety, to the selection of the farmer who doesn’t use synthesis products in the field, to the miller extremely careful not to mix biological grains to conventional grains, to the cleaning of the silos in the factory, keeps a consistent basic principle: not to offend mother nature with harmful short cuts».
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RECIPE 1/Heart of palm noodles by Alex Atala Pupunha heart of palm noodles carbonara-style (mixed with beaten eggs and diced fried bacon) by Alex Atala, chef of D.O.M. in San Paolo, Brasil. Dish presented at the Milan congress Identità Golose 2009 (picture by Brambilla/Serrani).
Ingredients for 4 persons
2 pupunha hearts of palm
for the carbonara sauce
10 beaten Gemma eggs
160 g grated Grana Padano cheese
200 cream
80 ml bacon fat
salt and pepper
to finish
10 g truffle butter
5 g finely minced parsley
100 g bacon
Preparation
Cut the pupunha heart of palm in the longitudinal sense using a thick blade mandoline. Weigh 4 portions of 130 g each. Cut the bacon in small dices, put it in the pan and fry it on a low flame until it is crunchy and golden-brown. Take the bacon away from the pan using a skimmer and lay it on blotting paper. Put the bacon fat aside. Mix well eggs and cheese in a container. Add the bacon fat and, at the end, the cream. Cook the heart of palm noodles in water with coarse salt, until obtaining standard noodles (about 2 minutes). Melt the truffle butter and add it to the minced parsley.
Finishing
Put the cooked noodles in a pan, add the carbonara-sauce and salt. Mix them with a circular movement for the dressing to thicken quickly, taking care for the eggs not to make clots. Place the noodles in the middle of the dish and sprinkle a handful of bacon and pepper over it. Trace a line on the dish around the noodles with the truffle butter and parsley juice.
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RECIPE 2/Roe cannelloni by Riccardo Agostini The Cannelloni (rolls of noodles dough) stuffed with roe and curd with onion and beer sauce by Riccardo Agostini, chef of the Piastrino in Pennabilli (Pu), dish presented at the Milan congress Identità Golose 2009 (picture by Brambilla/Serrani).
Ingredients for 4 persons
250 g egg fresh pasta
200 g roe flesh
200 g cow curd
20 g Grana Padano cheese
0,5 g sweet marjoram
0,5 g chive
33 cl red beer
100 g gold skin onions
1 dl vegetable broth
extra-virgin olive oil qs
Fine salt qs
white pepper qs
dehydrated onion rings
chive
Preparation
Cut the roe flesh into dices, preferably the haunch which is free from veins. Then, using the Pacojet, we obtain a very smooth pâté. If necessary, pass it through the thin sieve too. Put the roe flesh in a bowl to flavor with salt and white pepper, olive oil, sweet marjoram and chive, all finely chopped.
Mix them all and, once ready, put the roe stuffing into a sac-à-poche. Prepare the other part of stuffing by sieving the cow curd after having drained it well for 24 hours, wrapped in a cotton cloth. Put this stuffing into a sac-à-poche too.
Roll out the egg dough very thinly and obtain 12 rectangles measuring 4x8 cm. Boil the pasta dough in boiling water and, once done, drain and cool. Sprinkle a cloth with Grana Padano cheese and lay the dough rectangles over it after draining them well. Sprinkle again with Grana Padano cheese even on top.
In the middle of the rectangles, lay the stuffing of roe and curd close by, in order to obtain two small 6 cm long parallel cylinders. Complete by rolling up the dough rectangles, closing also the sides not to let the stuffing leak during cooking.
Cut the onions in thin slices and have them sear on a low flame with olive oil, taking care that they don’t color and change the taste of the sauce. Once the onion water has evaporated, add the vegetable broth and bring to the boiling point, regulate the taste with a bit of salt, control the cooking of onions. Once they are ready, add half of the red beer, whip finely and pass through fine sieve. Thicken the remaining part of beer reducing it on a low flame in order to obtain a sauce. Polish the surface of cannelloni with some olive oil and steam for 4 minutes. Put the onion and beer sauce in a soup-plate, lay the cannelloni in the middle, sprinkle with some drops of thickened beer and finish decorating with dehydrated onion rings and chive.
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Piment d’Anglet casarecce by Josean Alija Piment d’Anglet Italian casarecce by Josean Alija, dish in the menu now at the Ristorante Guggenheim in Bilbao, in the Basque area of Spain. The 12 pieces of dough are cooked, in groups of 3, in 4 differently aromatized broths: rosemary, basil, piment d’Anglet and dried cod skin. Alija will be a speaker at the congress in Milan. |
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