Dear {NOMEUTENTE}
There’s no escaping it: during the four days in Paestum for Le Strade della Mozzarella festival as soon as possible, between the morning and the afternoon lessons and the various dinners, when a chef threw spaghetti into boiling water, the tomato sauce ready in the pan, everyone around started smiling because soon, in a matter of minutes, a plate of spaghetti would be ready. There’s no escaping it: the Italian DNA originates from this, is developed starting from pasta with tomato and basil. This dish should deserve to be acknowledged as a World Heritage.
Paolo Marchi, content by Gabriele Zanatta |
| |
Marianna Vitale, the long pasta tamer  There are footballers who only have one foot, usually the right one, tennis players who are phenomenal when playing on clay and as soon as the surface gets faster they lose places (and vice versa), skiers who are halted by lack of courage or pilots who keep up their foot when it rains: we all have our strengths and weaknesses. Marianna Vitale, chef and patron at restaurant Sud in Quarto (Naples), tel. +39.081.0202708, mobile +39.327.0104725, has the gift of enhancing pasta, the long formats in particular.
Not that I didn’t enjoy her Vitello Stonnato (veal served with a triumph of blue tailed fish instead of a cream of tuna), quite the contrary, however, her Spaghettoni with sea urchin and mozzarella di bufala, Anemones and Eight shellfish, broad beans, pecorino and wine have put my mind at rest, there was flavour for the palate and cuddles for the mind.
Two different recipes for spaghettoni, in the photo the one with a cream of sea anemones, and a sort of large tagliatelle in the shape of a pentagram on which to free the shellfish, a richness completed, without any chaos, with a spring base of broad beans and pecorino. What a blast.
To finish: Marianna has a restaurant in a side street, with a fast-track road close by, in an anonymous town like Quarto, a dorm-city for 40 thousand people who work in Naples, a city in which the local government was dissolved because of mafia’s infiltrations. The first chef to complain that it’s hard to work in Milan, Florence or Rome, that there’s a very harsh competition and people know nothing of cuisine, will be invited to close down and move for a couple of years next to Vitale. We’ll see if they will still be wining.
Pmar
|
| |
Felicetti: artisanal and industrial  I’ve been asked to define the difference between industrial and artisanal pasta production. I’m very glad to answer. The premise is the fact that today, in many ways, this difference doesn’t make sense any longer. Once it was a custom to distinguish small factories from large ones, often using the image of old ladies hand-working the mixture, demonstrating a higher quality of the former. This is just smoke and mirrors, a myth we need to leave behind us, and not only with reference to pasta.
In my opinion, the real distinction worth making today is the same we find in the automotive industry: just like we can find economy and custom-built cars, we can speak of pasta at popular prices and premium price pasta. Each product is the result of a marketing choice: one kind pasta satisfies most people while the other pleases more demanding palates. It’s not a question of better or worse quality: they are simply different, made to respond to the different targeted market segment. After all, for instance, prêt-à-porter and haute couture go finely hand in hand, and this is no recent thing.
However, it is possible to make a further distinction between those who produce premium price pasta: many are good and many are not as good. In my opinion, a good pasta producer (previously known as “artisanal”) is the kind that doesn’t limit itself to the aesthetic improvement of the packaging (an element of increasing strategic importance). A good pasta producer is the one in which the producer’s skills are marked in the raw materials, and not vice versa. I believe that, today, a true artisan is the person who can translate an agricultural product into a food product by adapting the production plant to the wheat, and not the wheat to the production plant.
A great pasta master is the person who, in front of a sudden thunderstorm, knows how to change all the drying diagrams, regardless of the geographic position or of the dimensions of the pasta-factory in which he is working. It’s the person who knows how to interpret the raw materials in order to highlight their potential characteristics. It’s the person who knows very well that just by changing the atmospheric pressure, the entire structure of the pasta can change. It’s the person who knows how to avoid sudden damp drafts causing damages. These, in my opinion, are true artisans. People who can be found in pasta-factories that we could have once defined as “artisanal”, but whom today we can also find in the so called industrial pasta factories, why not?
Riccardo Felicetti |
| |
Strade della Mozzarella in the orbit with Scabin Last night the curtain fell on Le Strade della Mozzarella, a great event focused on one of the many masterpieces the world often loves more than we love and respect it ourselves as Italians. The festival organised by Albert Sapere and Barbara Guerra, in collaboration with Consorzio della Mozzarella di Bufala Campana was hosted this year inside the Savoy Beach Hotel, again in Paestum (Salerno).
The first lesson was the one given by Davide Scabin on Monday morning. Three concepts, the third one being the Space spaghetti, thanks to which the chef from Torino referred to the lecture he held at Identità Milano in February 2013, when he presented the menu that was to accompany astronaut Luca Parmitano in the space. “This is a preview before Expo, a development of the food designed for space stations. I basically put the tomato and basil spaghetti in a vacuum pack, real al dente spaghetti, which, when necessary, I will heat up in a bain-marie for 4 minutes.
Here in Paestum I do so by pouring them on a cream of mozzarella, smoked provola, capers, oregano and tomatoes, in other words the classic scents of pizza, except for the provola. The advantage of this pack is that you can store hundreds and hundreds of portions of spaghetti al dente that are already ready, you just need to warm them up”. Totally genius.
Pmar |
| |
Scabin’s tagliatelle: back on Earth  And then people wonder why this newsletter always refers to Davide Scabin. Over here, the chef from Rivoli is like parsley because of he has analysed pasta from an atypical point of view. The one of a designer, rather than the one of a chef, it was said, and his Maccheroni soufflè and the Pasta sushi series – just to name two prototypes – already stand out as monoliths in the history of durum wheat avant-garde.
The eyes, however, are projected ahead because this big chef knows already well the path that has been drawn. He knows that the future always comes from the present. In fact, in the veins of this high cuisine professional worth of the 50Best – this year at number 51 – flows the blood of an inn keeper and one day we will ask him to tell us about the evolution of trattoria Combal in Almese from which everything started. Meanwhile, we listen to the resounding echo of what has happened in trattoria Blupum in Ivrea, opened only a few weeks ago, under his supervision.
We’ve already summed up the concept of the restaurant in this newsletter’s issue 412. Here we stop a little to remember the touching Tagliatelle with Bolognese sauce - Felicetti tagliatelle, made without adding any water, only Matt durum wheat semolina and organic eggs.
They arrived at the table still in the pan, with two curly knobs of butter on top of the sauce (photo), a trick that recalls the habit, as kids, when they were taken out of the water bowl. At Blupum the waiter mixed everything in a few seconds, reproducing the trick typical of the best popular establishments, generating expectation and salivation. The latter where then pleased by one of the most craveable classics of Italian cuisine. Scabin is the one to return as a winner, back on Earth, after having sent pasta into the space. |
| |
Manuel Costardi’s durum wheat cannolo This dessert was created for Le Strade della Mozzarella. In fact, to tell the truth, Manuel Costardi has always had this idea of adding pasta in the last line of the menu – almost entirely risotto-based. The pastry chef, the sweet alter ego of brother Christian at Cinzia in Vercelli, had the good idea of cooking pacchero pasta in a stock made with orange zest and vanilla pods. The cooking time is 12 minutes, slightly more than for al-dente pasta and, please remember to use Scabin’s trick for the boiling. The 100°C of the boiling must last for 5 minutes, then it’s best to reduce the flame for the remaining 7 minutes. In this way, the pacchero pasta, cooked for half the time at 90°C will not break.
After the cooking, you remove it from the water, you cool it down and then fry it twice in oil (first you fry the outside part, then the inside). You sprinkle some powdered sugar on top and then fill it with a cream of buffalo milk mozzarella, orange, lemon, vanilla and cinnamon, with a little touch of cooking orange. Under the pacchero goes a drop of bitter marmalade, which needs to support but also to balance the sweet side. When tasting it, unless you know it already, it’s hard to tell the difference from the classic cannolo. But this is durum wheat. Brilliant.
|
| |
Gilmozzi’s evanescent raviolo  Even Alessandro Gilmozzi of Molin is a fixed protagonist of Identità di Pasta, both considered as the newsletter you’re reading, and as the day that for years has been enriching the Milanese congress. We’ve always seen him at work with dried pasta (but considered as though it were even marshmallows or macaroons). During a trip to Cavalese this time we’ve found a delicious fresh pasta. Which is, however, very unique.
Ravioli with hare, mushrooms and quince apple are the final act of a thought that began, as many dishes created by the great chef from Val Di Fiemme, with a trip to the local library. When lending an old cookbook, he bumped into the recipe for Talleri alla chitarra pasta with potatoes, cabbage and sausage, a traditional dish now forgotten (but not in the Wine bar on top of Molin, controlled by delicious sommelier Manila Mauroni).
Tallero, named just like the old coin from Trento, was also a type of fresh pasta in the shape of a disk, atypical because it used more egg white than yolk. A thin and light layer that was often served even with hare meat sauce. The hare raviolo starts from here: the local game here marries the sweet notes of Elio Barbugli’s quince apples, a small producer from whom Gilmozzi also buys saffron. There’s a wild note, a sweet one, but also the floral one thanks to the mauve flowers from the latest harvest. Behind all these sensations the pasta is wise enough to disappear, almost forgotten.
|
| |
THE BOOK/Extrapasta, which oil on which pasta  The title of the book published by Cinquesensi, the second in the Extraricette series, is “Extrapasta” (96 pages, 10 euros). The "extra" element, in this case, is extra virgin olive oil because it is hard to imagine a closer match in the infinite combinations of the Mediterranean diet. There are 63 recipes for pasta, experimented by 30 “web chefs” with the approval of Enrico Bartolini, chef at Devero and author of the introduction, and the pairings made by Piero Palanti, Luciano Scarselli and Luciana Squadrilli, the latter a historic columnist in our Frantoio Squadrilli series on the Identità website.
The book has two interesting elements: extra virgin olive oil is used in the different recipes not as a banal corrector or as a final condiment to the dish, but as an essential interpreter in the various levels that compose the dish. And here comes the second element which is the fact the recipes are divided into four categories: those using extra virgin olive oil for the dough, those using it for the filling, those using it for the sauce or for the finishing of the dish.
The pasta formats used are once again the proof of the extraordinary variety that exists in Italy: there are cavatelli, pici, maltagliati, pincinelle, scialatielli, tortelloni, cannelloni, straccetti, bavette, fusilli, linguine… And each recipe can be repeated because one must say that foodbloggers, unlike cooks, never give a step for granted, not even the most basic ones.
So, for instance, what in the case of the Kamut and buckwheat tagliatelle with broccoletti, mussels and dried tomatoes by Maria Greco Naccarato of kitcheninthecity.it? For this dish, Luciana Squadrilli, at the end of the process, invites to dare «With a single-variety oil from Coratina olives, a variety from Apulia with intense fruity notes and a marked bitter character». Instead «If you prefer something less bitter but as intense as for aromas, Sicilian monocultivar Tonda Iblea is perfect, with its unmistakeable tomato aroma».
|
| |
RECIPE/ Corzetti with 'nduja by Davide Oldani This is Davide Oldani’s latest trip around pasta. A trip that starts in Cornaredo, stops in Liguria and arrives in Calabria demonstrating that regional cuisine as we knew it no longer exists: Italian local traditions can go out of their fences and happily combine each other, as if they had always been sharing the same horizons.
Corzetti (or crosetti), are disks of pasta made with a wood mould and are usually paired with pesto. In this super tasty recipe, instead, they have a delicate marine aroma thanks to a very creamy mussel sauce. Nduja and amaranth pleasantly add to the mixture their spicy and earthy notes.
Corzetti, mussel sauce, 'nduja and angelica aroma
Recipe for 4 people
INGREDIENTE
for the corzetti
300 g bread crumbs
100 g flour
150 g grated Grana Padano
5 eggs
75 ml water
15 ml extra virgin olive oil
10 g salt
for the mussels
500 g mussels
20 g butter
2 g maizena diluted in cold water
100 ml water
2 g white vinegar
for the ‘nduja
100 g salami paste
3 g powdered hot chilli pepper
20 ml water
for the finishing
3 g powdered angelica
20 g amaranth
METHOD
For the corzetti
Knead all the ingredients together until you obtain a smooth and homogenous mixture. Wrap it in cling film and leave to rest in the fridge for at least 1 hour. Remove from the fridge and roll out to a 2mm thickness. Using a pastry cutter, cut out the corzetti. Cook in boiling and salted water for about 3 minutes, drain and cover with a little extra virgin olive oil. Place them on a plaque with baking paper, cook at 200°C for 4 minutes. Remove from the oven and keep to a side.
for the mussels
Warm up a casserole tin with tall sides, add the cleaned mussels, cover with a lid and leave them to open on a low heat for about 3 minutes. Drain them and filter the cooking water. Boil the cooking water from the mussels and thicken with maizena, remove from the stove, add the butter and a little white vinegar. Keep to a side emulsifying with a hand blender.
for the ‘nduja
Process the salami pasta with the other ingredients. Keep to a side.
FINISHING
Compose the dish in layers, alternating corzetti and ‘nduja, finishing with the sauce, the mussels (without their shells) and the powdered angelica. On top, place the amaranth, previously hydrated and fried.
|
| |
RECIPE/Ricchebono and the evolution of pesto  Potato tortelli, pesto made with the mortar, French beans and toasted pine seeds. The dish is signed by Ivano Ricchebono, chef at The Cook which only a few days ago moved from Genova Nervi inside Poggio Hotel in Arenzano, this time west of the Ligurian capital, leaving in fact the city without any Michelin stars. The recipe is the expression of a moderate evolution of the classic pesto dish, with the difference of the pasta used, a tortello, which leaves the famous green sauce outside, with an excellent cream of French beans to complete the range of aromas.
Potato tortelli, mortar pesto, French beans and toasted pine seeds
Recipe for 4 people
INGREDIENTS
for the pasta
200 g 00 flour
2 eggs
for the filling
1 kg potatoes
50 g Parmigiano Reggiano
salt to taste
Prepare a normal fresh egg pasta and roll it out thin. Wash the potatoes and cook them in the oven, then peel them and mash them, add the parmesan and season with salt. Form some pasta squares and put the filling in the middle, close in the same of a triangle and shape the tortelli.
for the French beans cream
100 g French beans
1 small leek
1 potato
Extra virgin olive oil
Butter
Salt to taste
Slice the leek and brown it in the pan with oil and butter. Add the French beans removing the two ends, and the potato, peeled and diced. Add some vegetable stock, season with salt and cook. Process the mixture in the blender and then strain to obtain the cream. Boil the tortelli in salted water and season them with melted butter. Place the French beans cream in the dish, add the tortelli and garnish with the pine seeds – toasted in a pan or in the oven.
for the pesto
2 bunches of basilico genovese D.O.P.
20 g Italian pine seeds
1 or 2 garlic cloves (depending on taste)
200 g mature parmesan
50 g pecorino sardo or fiore sardo
A few flakes of cooking salt
g 100 Riviera ligure extra virgin olive oil
Using a mortar and a wood pestle, press the garlic and the pine seeds until you obtain a cream. Gradually add the basil leaves, carefully washed and dried and a few flakes of salt. As of this moment, do not press but mixt the leaves with a circular movement on the walls of the mortar. Mix everything until you obtain a cream. Add the parmesan and the pecorino sardo, mix everything with the help of a spoon and finish by gradually pouring the extra virgin olive oil.
|
| |
The perfect calamarata by Beppe Stanzione Calamarata with peas and shoots, buffalo sour cream, red prawns from Santa Maria di Castellabate, a standing ovation dish by Beppe Stanzione, a very reserved and careful chef at Trabe, the starred restaurant inside Tenuta di Capodifiume in Paestum, tel. +39.0828.724165. |
| |
|
