Dear {NOMEUTENTE}The long wave of Expo 2015: in this issue of Identità di Pasta, over two weeks after the end of the World Fair, we finish illustrating the recipes presented during the events we developed together with Pastificio Felicetti from Predazzo in Trentino. All this starting with the paccheri with parsley, tongue and snails prepared by Carlo Cracco.
It’s been a tour marked by 33 events, from Andrea Ribaldone’s Spaghetti Milano early in May till the mezzemaniche Ligurian Serenella Medone seasoned with tripe and mussels [in Liguria in fact the word used for mussels is muscoli, similar to the English, instead of the more common Italian cozze]. It’s been an extraordinary and surprising journey taken by 27 chefs across Italian regions, memories interpreted in light of a present looking ahead, plus the ideas of six exceptional chefs who where free to think of pasta without any restrictions in terms of territory or tradition.
All this will result in a book, an experience we’ll long remember. And as for Identità Golose 2016, the next date will be with Identità di Pasta on Tuesday 8th March.
Paolo Marchi |
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This is what happened at the World’s Pasta Day  «When you start speaking about pasta, there’s no end to it ». This is they criticism I most often get. During the World's Pasta Day & Congress, which took place in Milan from 25th till 27th October, instead, I listened to this topic covered by fellow pasta producers, journalists, nutritionists and chefs. They told us their pasta stories.
I listened to precise, finally interesting and not self-centred speeches; in fact, there was sometimes some criticism. A proof of this was given on Tuesday when there was an extraordinary debate on one of the hot issues regarding pasta: “Carbo-phobia, gluten free products: qualities and defects”.
I was touched by two speeches above all: the project told by chef Bruno Serato: his restaurant in Anaheim, California, Caterina’s Club every day feeds 1.500 Motel Kids in California with a dish of pasta. And chef Massimo Bottura’s speech, who, among other things, pointed out how recuperating the direct relationship with farmers and artisans is the only possible way towards real, healthy and good food: biodiversity and quality should not be just ingredients but ideas too.
For once, as pasta-producers used to speak about pasta (and who can stop us?), we listened and learnt a lot.
Riccardo Felicetti |
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Aimo e Nadia: «Let’s codify pasta cooking length» Spaghetti with shallot and chilli pepper: in Italy there’s no other establishment who’s had a dry-pasta dish for such a long time, almost 50 years. In fact, «We no longer have it in the menu», reveals Alessandro Negrini, co-chef at Il Luogo di Aimo e Nadia in Milan, «but people know if they ask us, we will make it all the same». Who can be better than them to speak about pasta cooking in fine dining?
«Things are better than 15 years ago because having dry pasta in the menu of a restaurant with 2 Michelin stars is no longer cause of scandal. But there’s still much to do, first of all because here in the North risotto is still dominating. And it is always hard to make foreign clients understand this product: I remember a couple of years ago, at an event in Portugal, there were people scandalised because I chose to bring pasta, considered too cheap. Another example, our Asian clients have no conception of pasta al dente: they always want it fresh. The few times they ask for dry pasta, they want it well cooked. Now, seeing that, as Ducasse says, as Italians we cannot even agree on how long pasta should be cooked, a solution could be that of codifying the length of cooking, like they do in the Anglo Saxon world, with meat– rare, medium rare, well cooked – resulting in, I don’t know, 'very al dente', 'al dente' and 'well cooked’».
Or even overcooked: «With Felicetti we’re working on a dish in which paccheri are overcooked and seasoned with stripes of raw squid on top, to multiply the textures. A provocation because it is always important to leave large space for the experimentations in the field».
How about the dish in the photo? «These are Spaghettoni Benedetto Cavalieri with colatura of anchovies from Cetara, turnip tops, Tonda Gentile delle Langhe hazelnuts with white truffle aroma, we currently have them in the menu. It’s a trip from North to South that is a new take on a historic Southern pair, namely anchovies and black truffle. And it removes the prejudgement against black truffle on dry pasta – people commonly think it can only be paired with fresh pasta, as with mushrooms. The hazelnut cream gives fatness taking the place of butter». A dish that strongly relies on the chef’s precision: «An extra teaspoon of colatura or exceeding hazelnut is enough to make it disgusting. This is the strength and limit of Italian cuisine: it’s hard to codify because it strongly relies on the gestures of the chef, who is luckily and alas impossible to substitute».
Gabriele Zanatta |
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Lopriore and Pierangelini: the gesture behind spaghetti Right as we speak on the phone with Alessandro Negrini (see the post above), we receive at home issue number 13 of Cook_Inc., officina internazionale di cucina published by Vandeberg edizioni (you can order it online here). Curiously, the magazine opens with some interesting and not different thoughts on the gestures of Italian chefs, as exposed by Paolo Lopriore, chef at restaurant Tre Cristi in Milan, starting from the tasting of a pasta dish.
The chef from Como wonders about the definition of Italian taste, «whether it makes sense, in times as these in which contamination has invaded our kitchens too». «I had almost given up […] until I found myself in front of a wonderful dish of Spaghetti with clams, surprised to find myself lost in thought, as my guests, sucking from a shell. […] We were the actors of an anthropological gesture, capable of removing culinary conventions. Fulvio Pierangelini had made that pasta. […] With him I tried to give substance to that immediate shell enlightenment».
This is how an intense dialogue between Lopriore and his Tuscan colleague began, starting from Spaghetti with garlic, oil, chilli pepper and clams and reaching the same conclusions as Negrini: «The Mediterranean diet in fine dining is not so much about products as about the chef’s gesture». This, as Lopriore explained, is because «putting ingredients aside, in these spaghetti there was also the wrist-work of the chef who tossed the pasta, a unifying trait, perhaps the only possibility of understanding between those who eat and those who cook, as long as the dish is real».
And while according to Pierangelini «There’s no such thing as a unique Italian taste» because, for instance, «In Sicily they all have a stronger tone, when it comes to voice, salt, sugar, because they were dominated by Spaniards and Arabs», it is also true that «Italian taste is part of our DNA. It’s just a question of how you touch a tomato. This is how you make a difference».
GZ |
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Enrico Bartolini: a tribute to Valentino Rossi  A few days ago, Enrico Bartolini, chef at restaurant Devero in Cavenago Brianza, just voted Chef of the year according to the Guida ai Ristoranti di Identità Golose, published this nice photo on Facebook: Spaghetti prawns, vegetables and finger lime, a take on the dish he presented at Identità Expo a few weeks ago. Next to it was this comment: «To Valentino, Marc Marquez would like to lend you a hand. As for me, I’d cook you these spaghetti!». When asked about the meaning of this sentence, the chef from Pistoia, 2 Michelin stars, explained: «When I looked at them, they reminded me of the bends in the circuit in Valencia [the one that marked the end of the World MotoGp, won by Spanish Jorge Lorenzo because of the hardly decent conduct of his colleague Marquez, who wanted to obstruct or penalise Valentino Rossi]. It’s my tribute to Rossi». Would you make them for Marquez too? «After what he did, never». |
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Parsley, tongue and snails: Carlo Cracco The dish Carlo Cracco presented last October at Expo is called Pàche al pre. It enclosed the essence of the World Fair: poor ingredients, onions and parsley, alternative sustainable proteins, snail caviar, and the use of leftovers, the veal tongue. All this without extra fat, promoting a healthy diet.
The most popular Italian chef is used to unusual ingredients, see the Rigatoni with resin, a typical ingredient on the Greek island of Chios: so here are the snail eggs. Very delicate, with an almost earthy taste, they’re a difficult product to work with (and therefore expensive) but sustainable; an uncommon source of proteins, yet very close to the Mediterranean tradition. More famous in the French version, also paired with parsley, escargots (Helix pomatia) farmed in Italy have a stronger taste thanks to the variety and quality of the food they eat.
The other ingredients are more common, worked in a superb way, though easy to understand and replicate at home too. The onions are baked for a long time and then left to drip for hours until you obtain a very concentrated and sugary juice, while the petals are delicately pressed and then go back into the oven to be dried. The parsley is over-boiled and blended and welcomes, in the pan, with no fat whatsoever, the pàche, which are then put on the plate with the sliced veal tongue, the snail caviar and the onion “molasses”.
A recipe with a rich and mineral taste, with very harmonious ingredients, as explained by Cracco himself «I didn’t want a dish with contrasting flavours, the tongue is well matched with the aroma of the snails, it seems like the one of entrails».
Valeria Senigaglia |
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Serenella Medone: mezzemaniche and De Andrè The last of the 32 events over 6 months for Identità di Pasta at Expo had Serenella Medone, chef at Al Solito Posto, "an unusual cooking" in Bogliasco (Genoa) as its protagonist. The dish was a preview, a traditional recipe that took you to Genoa as told by Fabrizio De Andrè.
Serenella cooks tripe with mussels. The tripe is cooked at 90°C («but not too long») and then seasoned with salicornia, ginger, lemon. The mussels come out from the shell when in contact with the steam, and are then seasoned with a little oil, ginger, white wine and garlic. «What pasta format did you choose?», asked journalist Eleonora Cozzella, in the last presentation of the intense semester. «Monograno Felicetti mezzemaniche, with selected wheat from Apulia though they are then processed in Trentino: excellent, they’re the answer to the trenette we have eaten beyond our limits in Liguria. I chose them because they can be cooked perfectly». And besides she loves short pasta in general: «I especially adore paccheri».
The tripe is then rolled into durum wheat semolina, then fried and mixed with mussels, lemon juice – added at the end so as to caramelise – the cooking water from the mussels and the water from the mussels themselves, the previously pan-fried tripe and the salicornia for the garnishing («but you can also use asparagus or puntarelle»). Remember: «No cheese: you might cover the flavours. It’s a very generous dish that can be paired with an oaked Pigato wine.
Sara Salmaso |
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Stefania Di Pasquo: forgotten linguine On the second last event at Identità di Pasta, Stefania Di Pasquo, young chef at Locanda Mammì in Agnone (Isernia, Molise) a small village 800 metres above the sea level and vice president of the Associazione Identità AltoMolise (Iam) went on stage.
The subject of the lecture was Forgotten Linguine, that is to say Monograno Felicetti Kamut Linguine with roveglia, white truffle and caciocavallo cheese. Roveglia? «Indeed», she explained, «it’s the forgotten ingredient I mentioned. It’s a legume, a wild pea that looks very much like a lentil. It was cultivated until 50 years ago then it was no longer harvested because the plant is very small and it is very hard to mechanise the harvest. You can only pick them by hand». It comes from Le Miccole, a small farm in Capracotta.
The method: «You cook the roveglia, after soaking it for at least 12 hours. You then cook a classic bunch of aromatic herbs in water and salt: sage, rosemary, bay leaves and salt. You then blend it, drain it and make a purée. Part of the roveglia is dried for the garnishing, and looks like peppercorns. It is cooked as with risotto for around 6 minutes. You then add some drops of oil aromatised with white truffle», which is of course made by the chef herself, keeping the oil and the truffle together for 6 days.
Why Kamut Linguine? Because of their tenacious texture, very good with roveglia. «It’s diameter is 30% larger than normal», explains Riccardo Felicetti, patron of the pasta factory in Predazzo in Trentino, «and it’s subject to seasonal variables. The difficulty of the pasta producer is keeping a constant quality standard, despite the fact that harvesting conditions change every year. Keeping quality constant is hard: the grains change from one season to the other. Yet a change in quality when the standard is so high, is a proof of quality».
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Nicola Laera’s Apulian Dolomites At Identità Expo, Nicola Laera, chef at Stua de Michil inside hotel Perla, dished out a walk in the woods. With Ladin and Apulian origins on his father’s side, also a chef, he now is a true Tyrolean, in love with the mountains, of which he enhances products and flavours. The pairing of beef, mushrooms and Bagòss already appears on a delicious toast, one of the entrées in the restaurant menu while among the first courses there has long been spaghetti seasoned with tuna tartare and gazpacho. In medio stat virtus so Laera makes the two recipes meet halfway so as to create a third one.
This ode to the Dolomites starts with the notes of the Felicetti Kamut spaghetti, with kamut which the chef is fascinated by given the strong relation with spelt and its continuous appearing and disappearing in history, until a famous American pilot brought it back to fame after donating a few seeds to his dad, a farmer. The pasta meets porcini sliced thinly and tossed in a hot pan but away from the fire, with a drop of oil and an unpeeled garlic clove. After it is cooked as with risotto, there’s the tossing with the mountain butter and the grated Bagòss, which adds an extra elegant touch to the dish.
The spaghetti nest is dominated by his majesty the fillet of grigia alpina beef, chopped rigorously with a knife and seasoned with oil, salt and pepper, the minimum so as to make sure that the seasoning doesn’t cover the taste of the meat. Finally, Laera adds crispiness with puccia, crumbs of crispy fried rye bread, aromatised with wild fennel, star anise and cumin. Fresh aromatic herbs are sprinkled abundantly on the dish.
Apulian cuisine appears in the minimalist style of the chef who transforms products as little as possible. «In my opinion Apulian cuisine is the best cooking in Italy thanks to its ingredients and the way they are used; a slice of bread from Altamura with a good tomato or a simple rice with potatoes and mussels is enough to make a great dish» explains Nicola Laera, who knows how to apply this philosophy to mountain ingredients too, creating flavoursome and straightforward dishes.
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Federico Zanasi: 4.478 above the sea level  4.478 s.l.m. is the mountain spaghettone prepared by Federico Zanasi (a tribute to the 150th anniversary since Mount Cervino was first climed). 4.478 are the metres British Edward Wimper climbed 150 years ago to get to the top of Cervino from the Swiss side.
As a tribute to 14th July 1865, Zanasi, chef at restaurant Snowflakes in Cervinia, presented a spaghetti dish with a few ingredients interpreted in 101 ways. «It’s easier to work with less ingredients and find each facet they have», explained the chef. An alpine pasta, that is, a tribute to Switzerland and Valle d’Aosta in a recipe that includes many others. Sweet gold onions are cooked in butter and mountain gruyere with the butter obtained by steaming lard from Arnad (so as to remove the fat) and with sage and rosemary.
But the onion in this dish has a thousand appearances: lyophilised, caramelised, fried in seed oil and as a soup, following the typical Swiss recipe, blended, concentrated and finally dried at 65°C in the oven to create a roll of “pastry” to make the tagliatelle.
The other pasta, Spaghettoni Felicetti, are first cooked in water and tossed as with risotto together with the stewed onion, adding cheese and katsuobushi. The dish is further aromatised with the various versions of onion and the powdered kombu adding a mineral and sapid touch.
Even the bread acts as if it were salt and instead of the latter, Zanasi brushed some rye bread with the oil he used to fry the onions, then toasted it for a long time and crumbled it on the pasta for an even stronger taste. The chef’s touch is a teaspoon of trout roe on the peak.
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