Dear {NOMEUTENTE}we never end discovering and learning something new. Those who don’t think so are people who surrendered and don’t live on curiosity any more, satisfied with what they have done and known. On Sunday February 10 Identità di Pasta will confirm all this. Of course it is right to celebrate the past, to propose again the dishes of that certain year and so on, but the scope is different from that of the contemporary palate, from what today is perceived as true and topical. For instance, I would never eat a cutlet served with plenty of foamy burnt butter poured on it when it is brought to the table, and I certainly don’t restrain myself when eating. Today I wouldn’t, even though forty years ago it was the rule and sounded very good. Now that butter has become poison to me too, and for years.
So why being surprised if Luigi Taglienti on Monday 11 at Identità Naturali is going to propose Aio, oio e peperoncino (Pasta with oil, garlic and chili pepper) well different from the postcard we all have in our heart representing the greatest expression of cooking at midnight? In Milan the chef from Trussardi will explain his Aglio e olio, which has all the four canonical cardinal points, except for garlic and oil. It has both spaghetti and chili pepper. And of course oil and garlic, even though under different shapes than those well known to all of us, scents and smells which compose a rainbow leaving no doubts about what we are going to eat. It’s always pasta, old and modern at the same time.
Paolo Marchi
texts by Gabriele Zanatta
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Identità di Pasta, fourth edition  Tomorrow, Sunday, February 10 2013. It is the date of the fourth edition of Identità di Pasta, a format which now has become a supporting pillar of the framework of Identità Milano, an idea conceived from an exchange of views between Riccardo Felicetti from the homonymous pasta-factory in Predazzo, Trentino region, and Paolo Marchi, founder of Identità Golose. «That day of 2009», Felicetti recalls, «we talked to each other and decided that time is ripe to look up at pasta from a point of view of development and research. Contents to go into thoroughly and seriously to try to go beyond the two Gulfs, where pasta was already excellently proposed. A moment I decided to sponsor, allowing the speakers to address the audience without bonds, prejudices or any kind of restriction».
Three years have seen a total of 24 classes, all characterized by a natural thrust to confrontation: «From Elio Sironi in 2010 (picture) to Alessandro Gilmozzi in 2012 we have attended classes proposing extremely avant-garde approaches as well as classes under the banner of the purest tradition. All have marked an unquestionable truth: the basic role of pasta in the history of Italian culture. A path we want to follow also in the next days».
Continuity will be assured by Eleonora Cozzella, M.C. from the first edition: «Over the last three years», the journalist from Espresso Food and Wine explains, «we have seen two movements: a first ‘ally ally home free” movement, when chefs started understanding that pasta could be treated following unusual, even very creative ways. A fallen taboo. And a second movement, more topical, when the avant-garde decided to focus on improving great traditional pasta dishes, as it appears for instance in the fast carbonara by Davide Scabin. Anyway, these years are all marked by a phenomenon more important than others: finally focus is very much on the product».
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Baronetto and 18-year old stuffed ravioli During the first class of Identità di Pasta (at 10.30 am) on the stage with Matteo Baronetto, there will be 18 years of alchemies concentrated in the shadow of Carlo Cracco. The saga of a couple which originated in Erbusco in '95 but really started its way in the three years 1996-1999 with the restaurant Clivie in Piobesi d’Alba, real creative anteroom of the haute cuisine salon in Milan. «I remember them as terrific years», Baronetto recalls, «there was Adriano-style energy, I mean that risk was much more marked than today. We dared without being afraid not to be appreciated».
In the province of Cuneo of that time the classical dichotomous distribution of pasta was 100% fresh pasta and 0% dry pasta. Notes of forerunning creativity touched by the Ravioli stuffed with goat’s milk and edible boletus with herbs, an archetypal dish dating back to 1997, first example of button ravioli. «I remember that I used to go to Giaveno in the week-ends with a plastic jerry can to buy goat’s milk. The curd was the ravioli stuffing which melted when warmed up». Ante-litteram pasta stuffed with inspiration.
However, 15 years have passed. In the middle there is frenzy for ravioli, tagliolini, tagliatelle, agnolotti, maccheroni, rigatoni, spaghetti we are soon trying to sum up in the Identità website. What about the class on February 10? Still secret. We would be happy if the dish in the picture, now in the menu in via Victor Hugo, were the protagonist: Ravioli stuffed with tongue and parsley mayonnaise, lemon and cumin, a reinterpretation of boiled meat. A past that is back screened by contemporary times. «The tongue is boiled in the classical way. There is no garlic. Parsley mayonnaise replaces the piquant sauce with herbs and garlic. No butter, no sauce. Just a bit of ground and toasted cumin to add the rustic scent of the fireplace». Placed in Cracco’s salon.
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Petza: Sardinia on his shoulders Say the word “pasta” to Roberto Petza (at 11,10 am) from the restaurant S’Apposentu in Siddi – Marmilla area, north of Cagliari – and a world will open up for him. Or better a whole island, Sardinia, once a basin of durum wheat for the whole Italian territory which is no longer so because of disastrous company policies which over the years have lead important pasta-factories to close.
Including Casa Siddi, a glory of the drowsy village up to the Nineties when it was taken over by Callisto Tanzi’s Parmalat to be relaunched. Apparent intentions which actually were hiding the opposite purpose: eliminating a troublesome competitor. In fact it was closed a little later. A few days ago Petza has explained to us how much he is interested in revitalizing durum wheat and pasta shapes of the Sardinian tradition.
During the class he will give in Milan the chef from San Gavino will efficaciously demonstrate how to start from local pasta, blowing off the dust covering old recipe books. He will test with us the theory and practice of shapes such as marraconis filaus, tallutzas, lorighittas and semolina pillus. Pasta shapes placed to dry on the roofs of this beautiful group of liberty buildings in Siddi, which has been restored a few years ago. Filaments which do not require dies but the wonderful durum wheat of the Cooperativa Madonna d’Itria in Villamar, unwilling to forget its glorious pasta past.
Thanks to these heroes our chef can find the strength to tilt at windmills. And to take on a demanding role: that of «innovator of productive processes able to spur on local development respecting our territory and history». |
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Frank Rizzuti’s three passports Pasta by Frank Rizzuti (at 12, 05 pm), chef from Cucina del Sud in Potenza, has three passports. The first and natural one bears the stamp of Lucania with the difficulties to survive of its peasants in the Post-War period: to obtain wheat, and therefore flour, they used to go on a pilgrimage to large landowners. They sipped with care the quantities obtained to prepare bread and pasta, mainly orecchiette and strascinati, the same shapes of the close-by region of Apulia (second passport), which has a lot to share with Basilicata from an historical point of view. And they looked with envy at the “Sunday pasta”, the wiredrawn one which arrived from Gragnano: smooth penne, candele, spaghetti. Luxury for a few.
The third passport of Rizzuti’s pasta is from the region Calabria, because the chef is awarded one Michelin star thanks to his buzzards at Dattilo in Strongoli: as soon as our chef passes the regional borders he immediately wears the mask of the very different ingredients typical of Crotone. Dry pasta plays the main role: especially cavatelli, flirting with broccoli, peppers and fish to make it lively.
However, his class in Milan will be fully Lucania-oriented. With two dishes: one which smells of burnt wheat and the second which dictates again the rules of Pasta and turnips, another fresh banner of the border between Apulia and Lucania. We leave details to his speech, while we divulge his spirit: «I will start from the concept of respect for cooking, tradition, and the client», he reveals on the phone, «But mainly respect for ourselves as human beings. The freedom to bring up to date our culture and tradition. This is what makes us men».
(in the picture, Tortello stuffed with tomato, burrata and oregano).
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The pasta spaceship by captain Milone We are already in the Sala Blu 2 waiting with our mouth wide open for the pasta tastings by Christian Milone, on whose content there is still a (ill-concealed) top secret. We are authorized to disclose the equipment the guy has asked for to the production of Identità to furnish his Gastronavicella (Gastronomical spaceship) from Pinerolo (Turin), which is landing in Milan at 2,15 pm: a kneading machine, a puff-pastry machine, a microwave oven, a Thermomix, some Gastronorm containers plus chopping boards, spoons …..
To do what? To prepare, for instance, the dish shown in the picture (we don’t reveal the content but we do state the name of the photographer: Bob Noto), but mainly to favor the metamorphosis processes he likes so much. Milone dixit: «I love to shape it and use it according to the recipe and the sensation I want to create. Sometimes it is simply a wrapper, other times a consistency or even the main taste of the dish. It may accompany a sauce or can be served with no sauce at all. In short, it may be that I consider and call ‘pasta’ also a food I shouldn’t consider as such».
New edible objects, then, that will also recall the udon, extremely different cousins from the Land of the Rising Sun. Because the entire world is pasta. Or better, «pasta is democracy: it’s the same for the rich and the poor and allows you to prepare haute cuisine dishes with a few cents. It’s like the woman of your dreams because it’s like you want it: underdone, overcooked, plain, with sauce, hot, cold…». Word of captain Milone.
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Anthony Genovese: restrained creativity «A restrained creativity shall be impressed on pasta because today people need to be reassured rather than scared. It’s better to concentrate on the product, without exaggerating with experiments». Words which cause surprise especially if pronounced by the creative chef of the three worlds (Italy, France and Asia, his countries), Anthony Genovese.
The chef from France and Calabria shows an unparalleled universal knowledge of the product: in the menu at the Pagliaccio there are always dry pasta, two stuffed pasta dishes, one long and one short shape of pasta. «A deep-down passion», he explains, that is now represented by the Ziti allo stocco e ‘nduja (in the picture, we have written widely about it here), the blockbuster of his clients, «only the Italians, because foreign clients hardly appreciate underdone cooking, they don’t understand it», exactly like those coming from abroad have difficulties in fully understanding the goodness of Maize flour tagliatelle with lentil cream and streaky bacon «because the combination pasta/legumes, very popular in Italy and especially in the South, is an hostile subject to the others», he explains.
On the contrary, there is a cross-border agreement upon Potato gnocchi (kind of dumplings), «a game which winks at Japan», with white turnips cooked in the saké, a bit of sausage and turnip tips. As well as upon the simple Tortello stuffed with potato cream and rice flour, steamed, heated up in the frying-pan and served with broth and prawn stuffing. What about the class in Milan (at 3,05 pm)? «I will prepare two extremely East-oriented dishes, but with well recognizable tastes. Because there is no sense in exaggerating with fireworks any more ».
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Davide Scabin, destroyer of hierarchies «What can happen if for instance ingredients claim new relations, upsetting traditional hierarchies?». This was the question Alessandra Meldolesi asked herself in the section called “sua pastità” (his holiness pasta), contained in the volume 6 (Six), Autoritratto della cucina d’avanguardia in Italia (publisher Gianfilippo Coletta, pictures by Bob Noto). Among the six chefs she was examining there was also Davide Scabin (class at 4,00 pm), who was still on the verge of causing «the upsetting of traditional hierarchies». A revolution about pasta today unprecedented in Italy.
It all started at Identità London, June 2010, annus domini of the sharing with Felicetti, the armed arm of the chef from Rivoli: at the Atelier de Chefs in Soho guests were overwhelmed by the force of a Check Salad with the 5 main dressings of Italian cuisine, Sushi made with pasta conchiglioni, Five spices fruit salad, Tagliatelle with tomato and orange and the unforgettable Spaghetti Pizza Margherita (picture), which would very soon become the manifesto of Identità Milano 2011. During that same congress Scabin proposed “slight” (as he called them) variations, which actually were not so slight: we remember the conchiglioni to be accompanied to fake sushi rice made with emmer ditalini.
During the last year edition, instead, he proposed the Big baked onion stuffed with spaghetti and vegetables: a simple dish with the corollary of the infusion cooking, very important to respect the thickest shapes of pasta. Not to talk about the samples of pasta shake and Pasta and salad which enchanted the Americans at Eataly last fall. Then let’s ask ourselves: what’s next? Soon we will know.
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The dolomitic relations of Gilmozzi As for Milone (see above), the desire to attend the class given by Alessandro Gilmozzi (at 4, 50 pm) starts automatically when we secretly read the equipment the guy has asked for the production: «Pacojet, non stick pans, 2 cooking pots». In short, the before and after of cooking, two time intervals within which the shy chef from the Molin in Cavalese (Trento) is moving even with impudence, trying to get the best sometimes from the one and sometimes from the other. Using the techniques that better can help him defining his “dolomitic relation with pasta”, the title of his speech which has a double meaning since there is also a cycle-metaphor.
The peak of pasta shall be reached in 2 times that we can here reveal only because the titles are vague, meaning all and nothing at the same time: 1. “Aromatization in the distillates and berries” 2. “Pasta and a territory”, a speech focused on the kamut tagliatelle by Felicetti including, among other things, venison pop-corn, only apparent follies, you’ll see, exactly as the one exhibited with his pasta Marshmallows. An ideal continuation of the class in the Sala Blu given last year, when the chef engaged in the “Sweet sensations of pasta” caused by the combination of 330 different herbs and the emmer pasta this time candied with fir-tree honeydew. And the fading Kamut tagliatelle ice-cream, with butter, cardamom and emmer (in the picture) and the Emmer pasta macaron with emmer used as a worthy substitute of almond flour.
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Monosilio: one thousand and one carbonara The big bowl full of carbonara shown in the picture is still in the greediest dreams of the writer. The picture was taken on the occasion of the last edition of Ein Prosit in Tarvisio, last November. The dish was prepared by Luciano Monosilio, chef of the Pipero al Rex together with Alessandro Pipero, maître of the Pipero al Rex in Rome and protagonist of a speech at Identità di Sala on the same day.
As we all are fond of carbonara from time immemorial – including the most relentless revolutionaries – it will be a universal joy to find again this dainty dish on the stage, at the end of the long Identità di Pasta day. This tasting will close the class of Monosilio (start at 5.40 pm), focused on the contrast (assonance?) between a classical and a creative version of the historical dish. There is something also for those who cannot wait until Sunday: Pipero and Monosilio will prepare it also on Saturday February 9, in the close by kitchen of the Milano Food and Wine Festival.
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