Dear {NOMEUTENTE}I was interviewed yesterday by Radio Siani, a long and pleasant chat with journalist Marina Alaimo on the subject of Expo. At the end, Marina asked me about my dish from the past. By doing so, she triggered an ocean of personal memories: “Nice, firm yellow polenta and Trenette with pesto”. Polenta reminds me of the cold months in the mountains, pesto of the summer by the sea in Levanto.
I then attended Christian Milone’s lesson on pasta, and when everything, really everything, was finished, together with Alice Cairati from Mondadori I devoted myself to the pan in which the chef from Piedmont had finished the rigatoni, leaving some on the base. The photo at the end speaks by itself. How can you resist? Indeed, we could not.
We all have in our mind something dear, perhaps it sleeps until the light turns on. Even pasta “in bianco” is part of my DNA without being linked to a precise place or time. This is perhaps because I was born in Milan, where one there was almost only butter, but everything for me is marked by pasta, butter and grana. Over time, however, I also understood that extra virgin olive oil enhances high quality spaghetti in a way butter could never do. Butter, if really good, is selfish, it speaks about itself, overshadowing the rest.
No matter what: long live pasta “in bianco”.
Paolo Marchi, content by Gabriele Zanatta |
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An opportunity to create the future  When entering Expo, the first thought I had was that it was a huge opportunity. For Italy, which can once again restate its privileged role in the global food and wine scene. For producers, who can show sincere, genuine and really original products and models – and for visitors who can taste the original version and not just a more or less faithful interpretation (Japanese or Spanish sounding) of the same products.
Expo, however, is an opportunity especially for the global food community, which can finally express high values, indicate a movement of thought that can lead to radical choices in terms of nutrition. I’m convinced that the next 6 months can truly condition the general direction in terms of food. Starting from the Carta di Milano, a document that will be essential. I’m very happy that we can all discuss these topics in a non-banal way and for such a long time.
Riccardo Felicetti
PS we will speak about pasta and its role in the future of global nutrition in the next newsletter |
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Milone at Expo: Consommé Celestina returns «Eat up or it will get cold» is what a parent constantly reminds a distracted child. Christian Milone wants to back out of this reminder for good. So, at work on the stage of "Identità di Pasta" at Expo, yesterday, he chose to serve lukewarm pasta, not too hot and not too cold, because this is the best way to enhance its flavour.
What flavour? First of all, that of the pasta itself, rigatoni mat by Monograno Felicetti (with Riccardo Felicetti first happily in the audience, then on the stage, illustrating the strange story of a pasta factory founded in 1908 in Predazzo, which is not a hamlet of Gragnano but is in fact in Trentino). Then the flavour of the seasoning: rigatoni are «seasoned as in a carbonara», but not too much. Grana Padano 24 mesi is added at various stages, grated, «as if the pasta was breaded», with extra virgin olive oil and ginger, which is partly a homage to the previous edition of Expo – the not very successful one in Shanghai – and partly gives aromatic strength and the heat lost by the pasta. On the base of the plate there’s a juice made with Piedmontese peppers, made by roasting and juicing them, adding tapioca flour as a thickener and then more pepper juice (in this case from raw peppers) to give a herbaceous note. With some sprouts to garnish, the pasta is ready to be served.
This was the second of two recipes. The debut was a tribute to the Eighties and to the dish of Milone’s First Communion: Consommé Celestina. Today it is completely forgotten but it was in fact a very popular dish at the time: crepes were cut into stripes as if they were tagliatelle and immersed in a clarified meat broth. The young chef from Gastronavicella-Trattoria Zappatori in Pinerolo reinvents it: the crepes are green, aromatised with basil; the broth is made with a fish base; finally, there are molluscs and prawns to give complexity and a noble touch to a dish which –Milone stresses – was very much respected before sinking into oblivion.
Carlo Passera |
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Cannavacciuolo: 10 years of sublime linguine  Villa Crespi, the kingdom of Tonino Cannavacciuolo on lake Orta, in the shade of the famous minaret, is open again since a couple of weeks ago. The menu is all worth discovering thanks to its many new dishes. Yet there’s one that the big chef from Vico finds it hard to remove: his now famous Linguine di Gragnano, small calamari and rye bread sauce (in the photo by Brambilla/Serrani).
The recipe, conceived in 2005, is one of the many manifestations of Cannavacciuolo’s revolution: the introduction of dry pasta in the menu of a high profile restaurant. The choice, which today appears banal, was not so in late-millennium Piedmont, when the bullying of agnolotti and ravioli would discourage any intrusion, let alone dry pasta, and from the South too. «At first, when I decided to put paccheri and spaghetti in the menu at Villa Crespi», the big chef recalls, «everyone looked askance at me. Even the dining room director would shake his head. I didn’t give a damn and followed my direction. Today there’s no important restaurant that doesn’t bet on durum wheat».
Of all the pasta first courses, Linguine with small calamari and bread sauce are the most classic of all the chef’s classics. A dazzling dish, always popular. It’s all because of the two main carbohydrates in Italian culture, pasta and bread, put into the same bowl. Not a Neapolitan inspiration, as many others, but Sicilian: «On the island», says Cannavacciuolo, «you can find them together in endless versions. In fish recipes, in first courses... Sometimes even cannoli are dipped in bread crumbs. In the end, I didn’t invent anything, I just recreated a popular custom».
He does so very well since 2005, when it appeared for the first time on Orta San Giulio’s scene. At the time, bread came from Fobello and was baked by the great baker of Valsesia Eugenio Pol. Then the chef started to use bread from Coimo. In 2013, the indigenous turning point: «We make the rye bread for the sauce ourselves». So they can fully control raw materials and optimise costs. |
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Leandro Luppi’s egg pasta for celiacs  Can you make fresh pasta for celiacs? This is what Leandro Luppi, chef from Vecchia Malcesine on Verona’s bank of Lake Garda, one uninterrupted Michelin star for the past 12 years, wondered. «I was not satisfied with all the flour varieties for celiacs I was testing for pasta and bread», the chef recalls from the early days, «the result was always tasteless, easy to forget». He then tried to make something without flour, «yet it is impossible to knead eggs with corn flour or potato starch, because they are too ‘wet’: you need a huge amount of starch and, in the end, the dough is hard, it is too solidified».
How could he thus reduce the liquid component in the eggs, to make a dough worthy of that name? «By cooking them in boiling water», a simple and brilliant intuition. For his gluten free fresh pasta Luppi thus blends the hardboiled eggs with a small amount of corn flour, «some 30 g for 200 g of boiled egg», he explains, «The result is a surprisingly soft dough. You cool it down for a few minutes in the chiller at -5-10°C, roll it out on baking paper and use it without any difficulty, as if it were normal fresh egg pasta».
You can use it for tagliatelle, ravioli («keep in mind they will be rather delicate») or a classic sheet of pasta, as in the case of the recipe we tasted, with a guazzetto alla Busara (photo by Elena Tonolli), tomato sauce, crustaceans and/or sea fruits from Veneto’s tradition. A rich and delicious dish tasting exactly like fresh egg pasta. «But you can choose any sauce: in winter, even with sausage ragout, in the warm months with very classic asparagus and prawns». Celiacs are thankful. |
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Viva l’Italia: Lola Torres’ fresh egg pasta Identità Expo also means that from now until 31st October every Sunday afternoon we will participate in the cooking classes organised by Convivium Lab’s teachers. The first one, totally focused on fresh egg pasta, was given by Lola Torres, a talented artisan specialised in chocolate with a long lasting passion for this emblem of Italy.
Even the debut dish in Rho is Italian, both in terms of ingredients and colours: it’s no chance it is called Viva l’Italia and here’s how the author explains it: «It’s a sheet of pasta made with eggs and a small percentage of basil cream, giving it a green colour. This is made by blanching the basil leaves in salted boiling water for a minute. The leaves are then blended and olive oil is added. The colour of the pasta changes, not its texture, which is quite similar to the classic version. The dough percentages: for 200 g of flour I used 80 g of egg and 50 g of basil cream. It is easy to roll out, both by hand and with a normal pasta machine. Should it be too soft, add some flour. Shape as a cappellaccio».
The filling «is made with goat ricotta, which I love because it is suitable for those allergic to lactose and, in general, is easier to digest and tastier. I added a teaspoon of basil cream to this too, and then I put it into a pastry-bag. The sauce is made with a good homemade tomato purée, cooked for 40 minutes with a garlic clove and some extra virgin olive oil. Upon opening the cappellaccio the Italian flag appears». Taste buds are also pleasantly surprised by such an effective dish. The next event with Convivium Lab at Identità Expo is scheduled tomorrow at 4 pm. The theme: Sweet and vegan, vegan cakes that are good for our health, with Luisa Di Bella. Pasta will return in September. (photo credits Brambilla/Serrani) |
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RECIPE/Spaghetto Milano by Ribaldone If there’s a dish that was cleaned up in no time, in these first 9 days at Identità Expo, that was Spaghetto Milano by Andrea Ribaldone, chef at I Due Buoi in Alessandria, who for a semester will work at the temporary restaurant in Rho (photo by Giorgio Annone). The first dish, which also opened the “Identità di Pasta” format last week, was born from a request made by Paolo Marchi, who some time ago invited the chef to present a dish that could be a homage to Milan.
The recipe is based on Monograno Felicetti spaghettoni cooked in water with a little salt, and creamed with a previously cooked risotto alla milanese. That is to say, as the chef himself explains, «intentionally overcooked, creamed with Grana Padano and butter, and then blended to make a saffron rice cream». A gremolada is prepared on the side with orange and lemon zest, parsley, extra virgin olive oil and a small garlic clove: it is all blended and placed on the creamed spaghetto. Here’s the recipe, step by step.
Spaghetto Milano
Recipe for 4 people
INGREDIENTS
400 g spaghetti Monograno Felicetti
2 thick sliced pieces of ossobuco
30 g tomato paste
50 g ossobuco jus
1 carrot
1 onion
1 celery stick
1 bay leaf
120 g Carnaroli rice
saffron stems
1 l vegetable stock
1 lemon
butter
parmesan
parsley
extra virgin olive oil
METHOD
For the ossobuco ragout
Dice the celery, carrot and onion into a small brunoise; place the ossobuco in a vacuum pack together with the bay leaf and salt and extra virgin olive oil. Cook for 10 hours at 71°C, then cut the ossobuco for the ragout, add the vegetables, the tomato paste and the jus and cook for 20 minutes.
For the rice cream
Prepare a traditional risotto alla milanese, toasting the rice, then adding the vegetable stock, the saffron stems, cooking it for 20 minutes and creaming it with parmesan and butter. Then blend the rice so as to obtain a smooth and homogenous cream. If necessary, add some stock then put it to a side as you will need it to cream the spaghetti.
For the gremolada
Grate the lemon and orange zest and chop the parsley, then put everything into a container and cover with extra virgin olive oil.
Finishing the dish
Cook the spaghetti in lots of salted water, drain them and mix them with the rice cream. Dish out and place the ossobuco ragout on top, then season with the gremolada.
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RECIPE/Monosilio’s midnight linguine  It’s midnight, you’re starving and have little time. What pasta can you make? Here’s what Luciano Monosilio, chef at Pipero al Rex, a Roman restaurant nicely boasting a star, says: «The idea for these Seaside Linguine comes from Japan. In a banal way, it comes from sushi. Except instead of rice I use pasta. The seasoning is a sauce made with fin de claire oysters. Then there’s tobiko, flying fish eggs, often the most important ingredient in maki and sushi». The nice thing is there’s no salt: «Its sapidity is completely natural». It is excellent at midnight, but also for breakfast, lunch and supper. These days, those who don’t want to prepare it, can find it in the menu at Pipero al Rex.
Seaside creamed linguine
Recipe for 4 people
INGREDIENTS
320 g linguine
100 g flying fish egg
paprika
10 g soy
garlic
for the parsley cream
150 g parsley leaves
290 g pine nuts
100 g sparkling water
200 g seed oil
salt and pepper
for the oyster icicles
4 oysters
30 g seed oil
METHOD
for the parsley cream
Blanch the parsley leaves, drain them and blend them with sparkling water, pine nuts, salt and pepper. Whisk with seed oil.
for the icicles
Blend the oysters with seed oil and freeze them. Cook the linguine in boiling water. Once they are cooked, put them in a pan with oil, paprika and garlic. Cream them with soy. Finally add the oyster icicles. Finish the dish with the parsley cream and the flying fish eggs.
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At Expo and Identità di Pasta in May  The programme of “Identità di Pasta”, the special section that for years has been part of Identità Milano and today is at Expo too, with Identità Golose and always in collaboration with Pastificio Felicetti, started with a special lesson held by Andrea Ribaldone, chef at I Due Buoi in Alessandria and executive chef inside the Identità Expo temporary restaurant.
We’ve just written about this acclaimed delicacy, just like we’ve summed up today’s lesson held by Christian Milone in another section in this newsletter. In 6 days’ time, instead, there will be Andrea Aprea (photo) of Vun in the Park Hyatt hotel in Milan; while on 22nd the turn will be that of Alessandro Gilmozzi of El Molin in Cavalese (Trento). And on Friday 29th May the month will end with Marco Martini from Stazione di Posta in Rome. |
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Pasta “in bianco”, a dish from the past  |
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