Live social with our director Maddalena Fossati, the Sicilian "innkeeper and cook" reveals his delicious recipe (and also gives us an idea for a quick spaghetti and a pizza)
After two years with the tables always full, now – who like everyone is closed in the house and cannot work – he inevitably feels a strong nostalgia for his restaurant. The place, in Milan, is called Filippo La Mantia Host and Cook, or his name followed by the two things he does best (in addition to playing and riding a motorcycle). "For me, the reception is sacred, the restaurant is made for the customer, I change it daily for his needs: it is not a show room but a place that must be lived". And then, modestly, he explains: compared to the great chefs who have studied, made an academic path, I am a host, like those of the Palermo taverns I frequented when I was a photojournalist, I am a "cook" who does not write recipe books because , more than in doses, I am feeling! ".
Quarantine consoling yourself with Filippo La Mantia pistachio cream
Live Instagram at#Dinner time on page of @LaCucinaItaliana with our director Maddalena Fossati, Filippo La Mantia tells us how the quarantine is going on: "At the beginning I started cooking, but after a few days I was dodged by Chiara (Maci, his partner and food blogger, ed) who cooks all day. I wash dishes. And without a dishwasher! ". We can't help but ask him for some recipes. For example, that of his pistachio cream: "I prepare one white custard with 1 liter of milk, 90 g of starch and 200 g of sugar, let it cool and add one 100% pure pistachio paste that the Consortium of Bronte produces (but you can use whatever you want): I put 300 g for a liter of custard ". A preparation he learned from his mom, who taught him about love and sharing through food: "In the morning when I woke up I always felt a scent coming from the kitchen and she singing".
Spaghetti, pizza and Harley
We also ask him for an idea for a quick spaghetti: "The pasta I love the most and which I make every time I am hungry is the spaghetti with Cetara anchovies, lemon juice, fresh chilli pepper, breadcrumbs and raw oil. To make it, I pesto the anchovies with the oil, the lemon and the chilli pepper, cook the spaghetti al dente, pour them over the pesto, mix with a little more oil and a little cooking water and finally finish with the breadcrumbs coarsely and toasted ".
For pizza, instead, he proposes one that he always prepared when he worked in Pantelleria in the 1980s: "Cutting the eggplant sliced, I roast them on the plate, and I make them macerate with sliced tomato, capers, anchovies, oregano, oil and lemon. When they are ready I season with everything one White pizza". What can we say, we can't wait to see him go back to the restaurant, but Filippo it also has another urgency, when it will be possible to return to life as usual: "I take my Harley, helmet and nail and I do 500 kilometers! "
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