Monograno Felicetti

Dear {NOMEUTENTE}
In the opening news in this issue of Identità di Pasta, Riccardo Felicetti uses a very true and very beautiful word: sharing, the energetic and happy sharing that dominated on the day dedicated to pasta.

I go further by looking at this photo depicting him, all dressed up, with Massimo Bottura to the left and Giuseppe Di Martino to the right, half hidden behind Stefano Vegliani. They’re scooping up a pot of pasta with pesto non-pesto. See, as soon as you put us Italians in front of a pan with spaghetti, we can’t contain ourselves. There’s the very important sharing of ideas and then there’s the equally important sharing of a fork turning around, a movement that is very dear to us, very Italian, which we invented and no-one can improvise.

There are many populations eating without a fork, knife and spoon are much more important, but the four dents are essential to fully enjoy pasta and it seems like Italians always have one in their pocket.

Paolo Marchi
Content by Carlo Passera, photos by Francesca Brambilla and Serena Serrani
 

Felicetti and the year of sharing

A concept emerges from the photo above [left to right, Massimo Bottura, Riccardo Felicetti, Giuseppe Di Martino and Stefano Vegliani] that in my opinion characterised more than others the sixth edition of Identità di pasta: sharing.

We have shared, altogether, during an entire day, moments full of content and interest on a theme that is hardly exhausted, in fact, it still has wide margins and horizons that need to be entirely explored: the idea that pasta can be interpreted following formats that draw from the best tradition and present it with a modern approach.

A mature vision that gives dignity, once and for all, to a product that until recently was hardly tolerated. Today I feel very satisfied to have fully supported Paolo Marchi’s project, the first creator of this day. My wish is that people will soon speak about pasta not only during that day at Identità Milano, but all year round. And in the kitchens of the greatest restaurants, in Italy and abroad.
Riccardo Felicetti
 

Marianna Vitale: chords for warm pasta

With her Impepata di cozze (photo) Marianna Vitale goes right to the heart of the South – recalled in the name of her restaurant in Quarto, Naples, called Sud – yet passing through Johann Sebastian Bach: the German composer was the author of The well tempered clavier applying an innovative (for the time) system of tuning that allowed to appreciate the acoustic extension further; so in parallel Vitale illustrates her “well tempered maccherone” tuning pasta in a different way, 5-10°C less than the standard serving temperature (around 55°C), to give us the new palate notes of a delicious, complex “pasta soup” – with various formats, as in a sort of Mesca Francesca – which meets a cream of mussels («The necessary protein structure»), one of pepper and one of raw sea urchin – that is to say sweet and sapid notes – plus the acidity of lemon juice.

A blast of taste, to which the different service temperature is perfectly functional: «Serving a colder dish than usual, I manage to let people perceive the various aromas I want to underline in a stronger way». A truly great offer, though we also appreciated the previous idea, cold spaghetti with a hot tomato sauce and sweet and sour mayonnaise (with beer vinegar and honey): the pasta is roasted, that is to say it is first cooked normally, then fried with garlic, oil and cooking water, and finally seared in another pan (so the thermic shocks continue with the different hydration given by the sauce) giving a sense of roast and smoking.

There’s a hint to pizza, the spaghetti have a slightly burnt crust that recalls the edge of a Margherita. «My goal is always to serve succulent pasta that can stimulate chewing – the chef says – This indeed activates salivary enzymes, which, through the taste buds, send impulses to the brain».
 

Costardi: the kings of rice widen their horizon

Different perspectives, unusual points of view at Identità di Pasta. As the one offered by the Costardi brothers, Christian and Manuel, who abandon their totally-rice world, of which they are the undisputed dominators, and face another Italian first course... for them, however, this is hardly a first course! If any, it becomes a snack, for instance a special Spaghetti Western in which the noun is the first term and translates into pasta cooked in infusion – as often the case, if not always, in their kitchen – in a garlic and chilli pepper broth, and then fried. It is therefore transformed into a crispy cinema-style snack, paired with barbecue sauce.

Cinema-style, though metaphorically speaking, is also the tribute they dedicate to Milan and Expo 2015, a true re-interpretation of a very classic marrow with gremolata: Pàca Felicetti – that is to say smaller and gentler paccheri – are filled with marrow guaranteed by Cazzamali. The base is a vegetable sauce, then the gremolata, saffron pistils and Maldon salt. A finger licking dish.

The finale is sweet, with Oriente, «the idea is to use logics and preparations from other places with pasta», says Manuel, who after all has already worked with sweet pasta in the past. So he prepares noodles (steamed, puffed in boiling oil and then cooled down in ice) and dives them into a spicy (cardamom, pepper...) chocolate broth, plus orange zest and a sprinkle of white chocolate slush, made with liquid nitrogen, as if it were grated cheese (photo). What is important is to break the usual mould, «Italians are too used to think about pasta as a first course only».
 

Fantin’s linguine speak fluent Japanese

The inspiration for Manuel Costardi’s sweet pasta comes from Japan, just like this chef – who is in fact 100% Italian, born in Veneto – and receives a big round of applauses. Luca Fantin, best chef according to the 2015 Identità Golose guide, works at restaurant Bulgari in Tokyo, inside the Bulgari Ginza Tower, and combines Italian style with extraordinary Japanese raw materials.

Therefore he makes us discover some incredible Japanese oysters, as big as a hand, which arrive from a village called Mie, six hours from the capital: they live in extremely pure water – partly marine – salty – and partly fresh, they eat kombu sea weeds, are hand picked and then stay for two weeks in demineralised water.

He uses them to season linguine with sea lettuce (that is to say lettuce left to marinate for 8 days and dehydrate with sea salt, and then part of it is cooked in the same water in which the pasta boils – thus becoming an infusion – and is then cut into strips to garnish the linguine as if it were a sea weed, of which by now they have acquired the aroma and texture; part of the lettuce is dried for two days with a fan to obtained a savoury powder). The oyster is blended with scallion, oil and wine to make a cream for the linguine.

Before that, however, an oyster is served that was smoked with apple skins and lettuce, with the salt crystals from the lettuce itself (photo). Finally, Fantin vacuum cooks (at 70°C for 24 hours) a cheek of wagyu, with tail and tendon. The result is a fantastic ragù sauce to season the maltagliati braised with butter and rosemary and then seasoned with crispy cabbage and jap tomatoes, a variety requiring very little water which therefore concentrates sweetness and acidity.
 

Berton and the art of regenerating conchiglie

Even Andrea Berton, high classic training, is a chef who “was born with rice”, rather than with pasta. And he tells a story: «I didn’t use dry pasta in the kitchen. I had to face this product later, after I lost a challenge with Riccardo Felicetti: we were in the mountains and competed against each other. I’m a good skier and I didn’t think he would ski better than me...».

The chef cooks the pasta to 40%, then chills it at - 30°C and regenerates it in the cooking sauce itself, when he’s to serve it: this way he has the chance to prepare many portions, in a fast way and without the risk of missing the right cooking point. He presents two dishes that have leek as their main ingredient («It lends itself to many interpretations»), with results that range from delicious to extremely delicious. The vegetable is powdered (roasted and then dried) and sprinkled on the rigatoni, reinventing the classic and often disappointing “frutti di mare” recipe, with mussels, clams and smooth clams which he opens right in the cooking water, plus a parsley mayonnaise he made by reducing fish broth with peanut oil.

In another case leeks give their aroma to a broth, as recently often the case in Berton’s kitchen as he’s working with passion on broths. He adds it to the conchiglie (shell shaped pasta) with a cream of liquorish and soy milk, fresh lentil sprouts and watercress sauce (photo). The broth is made by toasting leeks, then putting them in water and ice: the resulting liquid is strained and chilled. The conchiglie are also chilled following the method above, and are regenerated in this broth.
 

Enrico Croatti, kneading towards the infinite

Young Enrico Croatti, from Rimini, dishing out at Dolomieu in Madonna di Campiglio, has very clear ideas. For him, "Healthy Intelligence" is, for instance, walking "empty handed towards the infinite", the title of his lecture at Identità di Pasta recalling the incredible ascent of climber Paul Preuss who in 1911 reached 2,883 with his bare hands, alone and without ropes, and he even suffered from poliomyelitis.

Croatti’s ascent, instead, passes through two dishes. The first is very tasty and offers unusual pairings: Kamut rigatoni with sea urchins and bull testicle (photo), plus a sort of "sea marrow" made by emulsifying two parts of marrow and one of sea urchins. It is then absorbed in some stale bread – the kind left over in the pantry – by stir-frying it, and then added to the rest.

The second dish presented is Memory of a village-style rabbit, a dutiful tribute to a land, Trentino Alto Adige that welcomed the chef. The protagonist is once again Pàca Felicetti, which in this case faces an unforeseen destiny. It is cooked as usual but then it is processed in a pasta machine after it is sprinkled with some flour obtained my milling toasted Pàca (at 110°C for 3-4 hours). The result is a sort of de-structured Pàca, a light veil of pasta that marries the rabbit (legs and shoulders are braised in a casserole tin, the back is minced when raw and then kneaded with the offal, so as to make a sort of sausage, whose jus will be then concentrated) with taggiasche olives, kidney marinated with vin santo and scallion and a crispy crust of Grana Padano.
 

Scabin, the genius: amatriciana in a pressure cooker

A spectacular Davide Scabin, the now recognised emperor of pasta (he also told about the time when he began to work with it: in 2008, a «man came to me and asked me why I didn’t have any dish with dry pasta in the menu. I replied: because it is banal. He returned six months later with a pack of his pasta and said: "Please, make it non-banal"». The man was Riccardo Felicetti).

The chef from Rivoli with his usual histrionic attitude, presented us with three brilliant ideas: 1) pasta in burnia, that is to say kept in a jar, under oil: you can put it in the pantry, it is ready to be seasoned, «in 2011 with Spaghetti pizza margherita we would quickly put the pasta in the oil to create a thermic shock. Today we leave it there and it keeps perfectly». It remains al dente for a few days, «for it to remain al dente longer, we’ll see you next year». A real idol; 2) the "pasta play dough”, that is to say overcooked and blended pasta, which turns into a dough with which one can easily work. In the past, Scabin had made soufflés, sofficini or beautiful doughnuts with this, and they don’t absorb oil. This time he makes a taco shell; 3) pasta (in a medium-small format) cooked in a pressure cooker, with its sauce, «don’t say I can’t cook».

There are three pluses: it is cooked quickly, in 11 minutes an extraordinary rigatone with amatriciana sauce is served; it wastes less water, as only 18% of the water normally used to boil pasta is used. Scabin predicts saving 17 billion litres in Italy, in one year; it easily goes beyond 100°C, thus creating the Maillard reaction, without exasperating the product, but constantly keeping 120°C: «Different reactions are generated during the division of the sugars. It is interesting, we will develop this system much further».
 

Mantuano’s pasta bauletto is gluten free

«We should not give up in the face of those who run the production of Italian sounding ingredients abroad» Davide Scabin admonished from the stage of Identità di Pasta, telling about his still new experience in New York with Mulino a Vino: «Thinking that “they can’t tell the difference, over there” is a mistake: I let Americans taste true Italian flavours and they go crazy. They tell the difference right away!».

After him, the ode sang to true Italian products by Tony Mantuano was thus perfectly timed. With his Spiaggia in Chicago he’s been dishing out Italian fine dining for thirty years and always has Mr and Mrs Obama, who celebrated the presidential election there, as his guests: «I educate the palate, I explain what the excellence in the Peninsula is with regards to food and let people eat it. The results? We’re well ahead with extra virgin olive oil but far behind with balsamic vinegar from Modena...».

Being very interested in allergies, together with his sous chef Chris Marchino (the origins of both are clear: they’re cumpaisà) he prepares two delightful dishes: Spelt linguine with broccoli leaves, pine nuts, garlic, grana padano and balsamic vinegar from Modena (photo), and then a delicious Bauletto made with a pasta made with mushroom flour (thickened with xantana), enclosing a fresh cheese and seasoned with lots of butter and black truffle. Perhaps not very light what with all the butter and cheese it oozes, but certainly gluten free.
 

Viviana Varese’s couscous pasta

It is then the turn of Viviana Varese, who shares the success of her Alice with all of her stuff, there’s even the person “in charge of dreams”, and offers the eight key words for professional growth in (high) cuisine: love and passion, responsibility, altruism, respect, attention, organisation, critical sense. It’s a winning (and compelling) formula but then you also need a little madness: the one necessary, for instance, to conceive Follia, a re-interpretation of the classic cacio e pepe pasta.

These two elements are made liquid: thus pepper water, made with an infusion of seven different types of pepper (20 grams per litre) and then pecorino water (3 hours at 75°C, then strained and thickened). They are poured over some splendid multi-coloured gnocchi, cooked in the oven and made by thickening six blended vegetables with Japanese kuzu root: spinach, beetroot, turnip, yellow carrots from Polignano, purple cabbage and pepper. To be served warm.

The pasta starter presented by the chef, instead, is cold, «because for me pasta served as a first course must be hot, no excuses». The Cappellaio matto (photo), therefore, that is to say a pasta couscous with broccoli cream (broccoli, oil and garlic), with broccoli meatballs, anchovies breaded with pasta flour and the heart of a broccoli stalk cut into small pieces and fried in butter and a foam of bagna cauda (syphoned, «we blanch the garlic five times to avoid any unpleasant consequence for the breath», Varese explains smiling).
 

Bottura waves the Italian flag. Made of pasta

Massimo Bottura dreams of a Po Valley as clean as it once was, of a river delta rich in flora and fauna... He thus takes a picture of it: an edible one. To recall the aroma emanating from the wood burning in the fire places of the large buildings in which people would process eels right after they were caught and ducks right after the hunt, he toasts the flour with which to compose the ravioli («Containers of ideas. But they also tell about those who prepared them, about where they come from», the chef says) which he fills with eel, in this case vacuum cooked at low temperature, with the gelatinous component surfacing in the chiller.

He pours a good quantity of duck broth on it, and even some pomegranate concentrate, and makes irony of the incapacity of rolling out pasta in a proper way, outside the nation’s borders (two years ago, a dish of his, called Ravioli with leeks, foie gras and truffles, had a precise subtitle: Dream of a French of making pasta like an Italian). He then prepares pasta with pesto without any pesto (cooked in water and basil, seasoned with a cream made from the surfacing part of an infusion of parmesan, plus a cream of pine nuts for the final creaming), before his main dish: the Spaghetti that wanted to become lasagne. The former are cooked, blended, mixed in different mixtures with tomatoes, spinach/chards and parmesan.

The result is a pasta he dries, obtaining a very thin veil in three colours, a real “Italian flag” made of pasta which he then passes under a special grill to give it «the special, lightly burnt aroma typical of the lasagna crust, the most delicious part». The once spaghetti wave on the plate with a base of tail, cheek and veal tongue sauce and a delicate parmesan cream: «This is the Italian style lasagna-fiore».
 

Spaghetti arrabbiata with herbs by Biagiola

The dish in the photo is the Spaghetti arrabbiata by Michele Biagiola, one of the most applauded dishes presented during Identità Piccanti. The thoughts from which this dish was born sound exactly like this: «We step on earth and herbs without even realising what we have under our feet». In his hands, the bitter assumption is transformed into 7 notes of spiciness. “We’re no longer the biggest country in terms of pasta consumption. Because we have got it in our heads that it makes people fat, while we are so proud of all this risotto-technique, and in fact we’re just multiplying amides”. So let it be pasta. A base made with oil, garlic, chilli pepper and home made tomato purée (in fact made by Le Case in Macerata) with yellow tomatoes “because they stick better”, is the trick the chef uses against the risotto effect. Starting from this delicate and yellow base a journey literally begins with a definite trajectory: the spaghetti, rolled out on the dish are eaten left to right, in steps marked by seven herbs for as many notes of “increasing arrabbiatura”.

We start with rocket salad “a recognisable, pungent and fresh bitterness”, then a “more spicy” pepper, then water cress “marking a first pause, because even though it is hotter, it is also refreshing, it prepares you to the next step, because it is fresher”. An almost aquatic herb, which grows close to spurs or very humid areas, and only when the water is fresh, sweet and crystal clear. “The fact we can get it inside our property makes me proud”, the chef smiles. The journey continues, another fork, spaghetti and mustard, “this is common brassica, terribly infesting, it grows everywhere and it has a strong mustard flavour”, so the intuition of the chef transforms farmers’ swearing into a blessing, a silent agreement of mutual help.

Then there’s nasturtium “which has an even stronger and more marked spiciness”, and sagebrush “they call it this the herb of the future, thanks to its miraculous anti-cancer properties. For me it recalls something different, the capacity of anesthetising the palate thanks to its strength”. This is not all. The great finale is with absinthe, the last herb “it is the hot peak in the dish”, with sprinkled damned notes and chopped ginger. You don’t need instructions to use your fork, just a little attention.
Sonia Gioia
 

The Scammaro and the pride behind Torrente’s colatura

The main ingredient in Italian tradition was a topic covered far beyond Identità di Pasta (and Identità Piccanti, see the news right above this). The dish in the photo is the scammaro that Pasquale Torrente of restaurant Al Convento in Cetara (Salerno) presented when closing his lecture entirely dedicated to traditional anchovy colatura from Cetara, within Identità Estreme.



Scammaro comes from the Neapolitan verb “scammarare”, and means the opposite to “scammarare”, meaning “eating fat”. Scammaro, in other words, is the frittata that priests would have during lent, “outside the rooms”, that is to say “without meat”. The spaghetti frittata with olives, capers and anchovies that is traditional of Naples, fried following tradition, with Torrente becomes cooked in the oven and enriched with the aromas of anchovy colatura. «Which comes from Cetara only», the chef from Salerno underlines, «I have nothing against the fish sauces they make elsewhere, but let’s call a spade a spade». Correct.

(photo by Lisa Casali)
 

Piccolin’s Spelt linguine in Cortina

As soon as Identità Golose in Milan ends, just enough time to put everything into place and we start again. The presentation of XXL, 50 piatti che hanno allargato la mia vita last Friday in Cortina gave me the chance to dine at Ariston, run by brothers Fabrizio, in the dining room, and Roberto, in the kitchen. The two Piccolin are not yet 80 altogether, tel +39.0436.866705. I was impressed by the chef’s philosophy, which leads him to present a tasty and rich cuisine, though also light and digestible.

In the photo, the dish that Roberto can never remove from the menu, even now that it is certainly not the best season for tomatoes: Felicetti Bio spelt linguine with raw tomato, rocket salad and almond strips. They are truly enjoyable.
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