Dear {NOMEUTENTE}It was a matter of chance that Davide Scabin, the chef opening the twelfth edition of the congress on Sunday morning in the Auditorium, was also the one to close the works on Tuesday evening, 8th March, as Identità di pasta this year had nine lessons, one more than usual. So the chef from Torino started in Sala Blu while in the other rooms everything was about to end.
I had the opportunity to listen to him carefully and when Davide confessed that «I can’t do more than this with pasta» I shivered. On the one hand I admire a sincere person who announces he’s completed a long creative process that has revolutionised the world of pasta, on the other I hope it’s just a pause, so as to understand the present and trace new roads towards the future.
When a champion or a team, in sport as well as at work or in life, have won everything, greyish moments like this can happen, a thin fog hiding the horizon and leading to think there are no more goals left, no more motivations so as to remain concentrated cialis drug and insist. Then comes a ray of light, a new scent, nothing, and it’s enough to be born again.
Paolo Marchi
Content by Sonia Gioia and Carlo Passera, photo Brambilla/Serrani |
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What I learnt from the day dedicated to pasta I’m very happy after the seventh edition of Identità di Pasta at the congress in Milan. Without any rhetoric, I truly appreciated the lessons of each one of the nine speakers because they proved, as if it were necessary, that pasta is a limitless and boundless universe, whether you deal with the innovative or traditional side of the matter.
Two moments impressed me the most. But first of all let me thank the numerous people participating, the guys in the backstage – an extraordinary organization – and most of all Eleonora Cozzella, who’s always been the presenter: without her, the whole day would have less importance. And by now she’s so resistant she could even be ready for the New York marathon.
Two moments, I was saying. I particularly appreciated the Pacchero stracotto [overcooked pacchero] with stew by Alessandro Negrini. He turned overcooked pasta into something noble: the texture was incredibly good, very pleasant, similar to mashed potatoes. And indeed the stew was a blissful match.
The second moment has to do with Matias Perdomo’s lesson: “In Italy”, the Uruguayan chef rightly pointed out, “when they ask for pasta, you need to serve a good quantity, or else they’ll glare at you”. And then he appeared with a huge soup tureen, the famous “cofana”. In fact, there was just a forkful inside but it made me think about this indisputable truth. And the fact that those observing us from a distant culture are better than us at seeing things that we Italians don’t notice, even though they’re always in front of our nose.
Riccardo Felicetti, in the photo, with Eleonora Cozzella and Carlo Cracco |
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Carlo Cracco: what with maccheroni and ravioli This year, it was Carlo Cracco who started the show. In Sala Blu, the chef from Vicenza confessed that he didn’t immediately fall in love with pasta, but it grew on him, thanks also to the internship in Gualtiero Marchesi’s kitchen. For a man from Veneto in love with rice and rice fields, that is, this dish of Maccheroni, turnip tops and mastic (photo) is a conquest, a discovery. At the end of the lesson he declared: turnip tops are to pasta what Marilyn is to beauty and Audrey Hepburn is to grace. They were born to be next to each other, in the same dish.
The previous day, he had brought on the stage of the Auditorium an old raviolo of his (see photo below), «which I’ve been preparing for 25 years, a button». He filled it with a purée of quince candied without sugar (three hours in the oven). Then cane apple to add acidity, two types of chestnuts (normal and water, sautéed), powdered bay leaves, scorzonera truffle and thin slices of venison by Zivieri. The ravioli are cooked with some water aromatised with juniper branches, and served on a jus made with venison bones, plus a little chocolate. Final smoky note, with the juniper wood. |
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Negrini and Pisani: overcooked paccheri Perhaps it will not end up in the archives of famous quotations, ex aequo with Oscar Wilde’s aphorisms, but for sure it became popular online and in some way it also unveiled a truth that was hidden at the bottom of the heart, of Italian hearts for sure: «If they serve you 18 dishes in a restaurant, and among them there’s no pasta, all the rest is a starter». This is more or less what Alessandro Negrini said, the heretic who speaking of freedom, took the liberty of serving not just a slightly overcooked pasta, but a very overcooked one, opening the doors of an accidental mistake wide and driving it to extreme consequences, as a chronic curious person would do.
The provocations of the chef from Il Luogo di Aimo e Nadia, who shares the kitchen with Fabio Pisani, in some way are the same as those founding Identità di Pasta – turning 7 this year – that is to say acknowledging how pasta has a sacred role not just in the Mediterranean diet but also in the genetic heritage of Italians, in their super-ego.
Alessandro Negrini was on the stage without his other half, Pisani (an occasional separation of course). The star performers from Il Luogo di Aimo e Nadia presented their Paccheri in stracottura to the crowded Sala blu. Sixty minutes exactly, filled with oxtail from Carrù and sauce, which conquered Felicetti, something worth a blessing. The premise so that the experiment is successful is that the pasta must be of extraordinary quality. The over cooking then enhances the “wheat flavour”. |
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Between Abruzzo and the East: Nicola Fossaceca The spaghetti made by Nicola Fossaceca, chef at work at recently renovated Al Metrò in San Salvo (Chieti), bring us back to more traditional cooking timings. What to choose between “freedom and transgression?” this was the question from which the lesson by the young chef began. The answer is a point balanced half way, which translates into Spaghetti cooked in sea water, sautéed clams with a sauce of red garlic from Sulmona, green seaweeds and prawn.
This dish tastes like «spring, summer, but also those days in October when the crowds of tourists have left Chieti», leaving the chef in a Zen scenery, forced to rest (as often the case in the South). |
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Camanini: Cacio e pepe cooked in a bladder The holy writ of French gastronomy speaks of Volaille de Bresse en vessie, but no one had ever heard before of a Cacio e pepe pasta cooked in a bladder – like the one with which Riccardo Camanini left the audience at Identità di pasta with a bated breath.
"The idea came from the desire to create an organic container in which to cook something, there’s no invention - the chef from Lido 84 in Gardone defends himself – it’s all written in history, in the pages telling of rabbits cooked inside whole pigs, as well as in the guts of lambs and cows". The numbers in this dish, from the idea to the dishing out, say a lot about the detailed precision with which the dish is perfectly made: three months of study, over sixty tests, 80 grams of salted water at 3 per one thousand every one hundred grams of pasta. The real difficulty? Inserting the right amount of water the pasta will absorb, not one drop more.
"All the ingredients are put raw into the bladder – says the chef from Gardone Riviera -, then I put salted water, black crust pecorino, extra virgin olive oil and pepper". The “stuffed” bladder is then closed with a twine and immersed in a pot with boiling water, during the cooking it floats like a balloon, which needs to be shaken from time to time so that the ingredients won’t stick.
The result? While a Rigatone Felicetti requires eleven minutes of cooking, with a cooking induced in a bladder you need thirty: "What’s extraordinary is that the pasta is all equally al dente because there’s no direct contact with water. And the starch is not scattered but stays inside", ends Camanini with a touch of pride for this dish that concentrates taste, tradition, history and distant future.
Second dish presented in Milan: Tagliatelle alla mimosa, a sweet (and irreverent) homage to women, on the International Women’s day. |
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Putting every dogma aside with Matias Perdomo In the afternoon, we needed a foreigner to make us go beyond our usual concept of pasta, seasoned with habits and biases. In fact, we needed a hombre of two worlds, Matias Perdomo of Contraste in Milan.
Perdomo has been working for 7 years at his interpretation of the most traditional Italian dish, the one without which nothing makes sense (certainly not a meal). Going deeper and deeper and further away from the dogmas of first courses and despite being always inspired by the great classics (pasta and clams, pasta and mussels, pasta and peas, of which he preserves the taste) the South American chef explored lightness, textures and alternative uses: Past food, Donut alla bolognese, Pastigiana, pasta re-kneaded and used as the filling or even grated on top.
All this led to the latest ideas: pasta with ragù which becomes a hologram after being chilled, filtered and made liquid. And a Cacio&pepe (no ordinary thing) lyophilised and served in a broth with leaves and peppercorns and pecorino crust.
Finally, the last taboo to be broken, that of quantity, with an Ajo&ojo pasta served in a nest of pasta almost transformed into a wafer, simulating a large dish that keeps up appearances but doesn’t make you feel heavy. It would be too easy, too easy indeed to speak only of provocation. |
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Cristina Bowerman: raw pasta (so to speak) The last concept with which we close the report on Perdomo’s lesson fits Cristina Bowerman perfectly too. We saw overcooked pasta, why not a raw one? «For the time being, it’s a provocation…» the Apulian chef justifies. Indeed, for now: because developments are unpredictable.
She says: «I was thinking about how I could give aroma to pasta before or while cooking it, so I put it into an infusion with a bisque for 48 hours, in the fridge. Then I tossed it in the pan, but for a few seconds, and always at less than 60°C», it acquires colour, remains a raw diet food, but the news is this: it’s already a dish. It works!
«Can you have a uncooked pasta?» Bowerman asked herself: «I asked scientists to enlighten me, I studied the theme of starch rehydration in depth». For sure, it is good and it doesn’t do you any harm. What advantages can it have? The glycaemic index is lower, to begin with. So is this pasta easier to digest?» There are no studies on this matter, but there will soon be, stay tuned. |
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Peppe Guida: the new Spaghetti with lemon The speech given by Peppe Guida of Antica Osteria Nonna Rosa in Vico Equense (Naples) was more traditional. He’s a man who however deserves to be introduced by Eleonora Cozzella, masterfully directing the schedule that day with these words: «You cannot say you know pasta until you’ve had it at his restaurant».
The chef reinvents a now traditional recipe for all the tourists in the Sorrento Peninsula, Spaghetti with lemon and cream. He takes the zest of the citrus fruit and puts them all night in infusion in hot water, then brings it back to the boil and cooks the spaghettini, which he then seasons with a little Provolone del Monaco, thyme and finally some grated green lemon. The audience was in ecstasy after the tasting. |
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Ciccio Sultano: sanapo and seaside surroundings  The second last speech was with Ciccio Sultano who spoke about pasta but also wider matters (and not unrelated to the theme covered on the day) such as identity, responsibility, belonging. That is to say the responsibility of a chef to safeguard his identity and what surrounds him, starting from pasta.
According to Sultano there must be rigour even in freedom (of interpretation of a product, in this case): «Seeing an Italian chef cooking pasta with lichens is in my opinion disarming». Hence the Spaghetti with sanapo juice (it’s a wild herb that grows in Sicily, from the same family as mustard) with homemade tuma, tuna bottarga and his famous Moresca Taratatà sauce.
And taking the liberty of making an "Amatriciana” at Duomo in Ragusa, he puts the seaside inside, with a squid and all its scraps, adding a playful component to the craveable one. |
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Davide Scabin: pasta seasoned with pasta Grand finale for the seventh edition of Identità di pasta with Davide Scabin. He’s the inescapable point of reference for all that has to do with “new pasta”, that is to say unusual techniques to be used with the most traditional food. From Spaghetti pizza Margherita to the pasta soufflé, from pressure-cooking in the latest edition of Identità Milano to Pasta sushi in London.
This time, however, he’s a little polemical: "I’m fed up with seeing that even many chefs don’t know how to cook pasta. If there’s a fine white line inside, it is not “al dente”, it is raw". Then comes one of his ideas, "I’ll present an idea, not a recipe ": pasta seasoned with pasta, "reinforcing its aromas and scents".
It’s basically a question of overcooking a pasta – let’s say a simple pasta with butter and sage – and then homogenising it and use the resulting cream to season another pasta, «which will have a stronger taste of wheat». A good wheat, like that under the Felicetti brand.
«I can’t do more than this with pasta», admits Scabin, declaring his creative vein in the topic is exhausted. Riccardo Felicetti in the audience giggles: «He always says that. And then…». |
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Carlo Cracco’s Ravioli with quince apples Smoked ravioli with quince and cane apples, raw venison and chestnuts, the dish presented by Carlo Cracco in the Auditorium, during the lesson opening the works on Monday. |
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Lionello Cera’s Capelli d'angelo Capelli d'angelo with squilla mantis and carrot juice, cappa tonda, Atlantic stargazer and sorrel by Lionello Cera of Antica Osteria Cera in Campagna Lupia, between Venice and Chioggia. An entrée (not a first course) that charmed the audience at Identità di Mare. |
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