Tag: culture

Ciauscolo: a symbol of the Marche culture – Italian Cuisine

TO Castelsantangelo sul Nera, lowercase village of Macerata, something resisted the fury of the earthquake in Central Italy: the monument to the ciauscolo, salami symbol of the Marches which in the village is celebrated every summer with a special day.

The story of the ciauscolo
Present for centuries in the Marche region, it is a native of the Macerata Sibillini Mountains where, since Roman times "… the` cult 'of pig farming was rooted, with a black coat and very thin, and therefore not very suitable for making hams "says Ugo Bellesi, historian of gastronomy. "For this the peasants preferred grind the meat of the thighs and created a fatty and spicy sausage, fermented with the heat of the fireplace and left to mature in caves ".

The spreadability
The main feature of the ciauscolo is the spreadability: the slice is soft and yielding and spreads easily on bread, turning into a greedy and nutritious snack. Its creaminess comes from the dough, from fat parts of the pig (bacon, shoulder, ham and loin trimmings), and dal grinding in 3 steps, through smaller and smaller holes (up to 2-3 mm). The ciauscolo has delicate scent or decisive and spicy, depending on the aromas used (salt, ground black pepper, wine, crushed garlic); the taste is savory, never rancid. In 2009 the salami obtained the Igp certification but not all producers agree on the specification and some have not joined the consortium.

Ciascolo: a PGI
On the market, therefore, there are i ciauscoli Igp, made by larger companies; and those of small artisans, which they must call their sausages with fancy names (morbidello, vissuscolo …), often more faithful to tradition: for example, they use only local pigs and not from other regions and fatty parts in abundance to give more softness. The ciauscolo is irresistible natural, smeared on bread, grows, flat bread or toast, perhaps with pecorino. It also goes well with grilled vegetables and to buffalo mozzarella. It is versatile in the kitchen for flavor the first courses (risotto, pasta with artichokes, peas or asparagus, ravioli, cappellacci, soups and legume creams), in the cupcakes of potatoes and quiche, on the Pizza, in the stuffed.

February 2022
Marina Cella

Procida Capital of Culture 2022: what to taste on the island – Italian Cuisine

Next year we go to the island with many events to participate in, but also with many specialties to discover, from lemons, which grow large and sweet here, to artichokes, up to puff pastry tongues stuffed with cream

With the hope that in a year we will be back to normal leaving the Coronavirus behind us, on 18 January the Ministry for Cultural Heritage proclaimed Procida Capital of Culture for 2022. The smallest pearl of the Gulf of Naples, whose territory entirely covers that of the islands of Procida and Vivara, was chosen by a jury among 10 candidates (Ancona, Bari, Cerveteri, L'Aquila, Pieve di Soligo, Taranto, Trapani, Verbania and Volterra are the other cities on the list).

Procida, culture does not isolate

With the slogan "Culture does not isolate", the city will offer 330 days of events through 44 cultural projects, 240 artists, 40 original works and 8 renovated exhibition spaces. It will be an opportunity to discover this volcanic island at times still wild – often obscured by the more famous and worldly Capri and Ischia – under which, according to Greek mythology, lies the body of the giant Mimante and where the colorful houses, the narrow alleys, the breathtaking views, the sandy beaches and the rocky coves were the backdrop to cinema scenes (you see The postman with Massimo Troisi) and in which they were set short stories and novels (from Boccaccio to Elsa Morante).

The island of lemons

Procida is often called the island of lemons, a fruit that has been cultivated here since ancient times by practically all the families of the island and reaches very large size, with a light yellow coarse-grained skin and withalbedo (the white part between the pulp and the peel) very often. For this last characteristic, Procida lemons are also called "lemons bread ". THE lemons on the island they can be enjoyed simply sliced as a dessert, with or without a spoonful of sugar – they are in fact less acres than the most popular lemons – or in chunks in the salad together with onion, oil, chilli, salt and mint, or they are used to make refreshing drinks and limoncello.

Fresh artichokes or in oil

Typical of Procida is also the artichoke, of the Roman type, which is proposed fresh or handcrafted in oil according to an ancient recipe that provides that the flower heads of the second and subsequent orders are cleaned, blanched in water, white wine vinegar and salt and stored in glass jars with the addition of extra virgin olive oil, garlic, oregano and hot pepper. After letting them mature for 2 months, the artichokes in oil are ready to be eaten and can be kept for over 6 months.

Pasta and sweets

The typical recipe of the island is the spaghetti alla Procidana, whose recipe involves dressing the pasta with octopus, cherry tomatoes, garlic, chilli, parsley and spaghetti with poor seafood with anchovies and fried green chillies. What sweets can you find once you've landed? The languages of Procida, a puff pastry filled with lemon cream (but also pastry or chocolate), also known as Ox Languages.

Niko Romito and the new campus to teach the culture of food – Italian Cuisine

The Abruzzo chef launches a permanent laboratory for chefs in Castel di Sangro, ready in 2022 and based on research, training and industrialization. With a North Star: "Everything must go in the direction of good and healthy food"

Niko Romito has a magnificent obsession with teaching. Perhaps because practically self-taught he has become one of the best Italian chefs (and not only) who in 15 years has gone from first courses in the family restaurant to Three Michelin Stars. Knowing how important the technical and cultural preparation of a future cook is, he opened in 2011 in Casadonna – the renovated ex-convent of Castel di Sangro where he leads the Real – its Academy, considered one of the best schools ever. "My reference was what was created byParisian École by Alain Ducasse: I understood that the method that allowed to conduct gastronomic formats, with great qualitative consistency, all started from the training center. An idea that I tried to apply to the model of Italian tradition and my philosophy, "explains the master from Abruzzo.

Chef and mentor

Sixteen students per course, thirty-two students a year, which generates "human capital" for the group's restaurants and projects, and at the same time spreads an approach to building one's own culinary language. After six months of immersive training – followed by top-level teachers – we start for a six-month internship, in one of the satellites of the Romito network: the three-starred Reale, which is a few meters from the Academy, the various Spaces, the restaurants of the Bulgari Hotels in Milan, Beijing, Shanghai and Dubai, the Alt taste station, the Bomba street food format and the Intelligenza Nutritional project partnership with La Sapienza University and the hospital menu production chain. It is no coincidence that the Michelin Chef Mentor Award 2021 went to him, in the month – November – in which Romito was director of the magazine “La Cucina Italiana”.

2022 target

Now a big leap in quality. A structure of 3700 square meters on Strada Statale 17 – also in Castel di Sangro – which will host the Niko Romito Campus. It will be a research and advanced training center that will weave interdisciplinary dialogues around food and innovation, with the possibility of translating ideas into formats suitable for each segment. A gymnasium of experimentation on the concepts of goodness and healthiness with potential repercussions on every category of catering. The campus will arise from a renovation project of a furniture factory. There will be research laboratories, classrooms, a production center for virtual teaching materials, common areas and an open space dedicated to agronomic experiments. Theory and practice will travel together: the outcome of the progress and activities on campus will also be shared with everyone through a virtual platform which will give an account of the path taken in Castel di Sangro. "The works will begin in a few months, we aim to open enrollments in spring 2022", he explains, "to hold the first courses in the following autumn". Romito elaborated the project during the many weeks of closure of his activities and obtained clear visions from it.

The social value

“One of my missions of the future is to make people understand the importance of food and the consequences it has on healthHe says. «In 2020 we have both aspects better in focus. So it is essential to make it clear that eating well and healthy can improve health. In addition to reducing public expenditure, because malnutrition generates 40% of diseases and therefore the expenditure of enormous resources to treat them. A serious cook cannot avoid being involved in these issues . For Niko, it must be said, these are nothing new: many projects – starting with Nutritional Intelligence conducted with the Cristo Re hospital in Rome – they helped him in the creation of the Campus. «In recent years I have understood the social value of food. And how crucial industrialization must be in food transformation processes to improve the catering of hospitals, canteens, companies and schools. The commitment must be that of convey good and healthy products through simple or more complex catering models, as long as they benefit the largest number of people possible .

Format incubator

Ultimately, what is the purpose of the Campus? "Sharing knowledge and developing culture at various levels, above all a new culture of food, of its transformation based on the values of healthiness, sustainability, circularity, solidarity and democratic access. Always with the same scientific and technical approach: a single standardizable, accessible, open application protocol. Research is certainly the starting point of this path, whose immediate next step is training. But the purpose of this track is to become the incubator of new formats, necessary so that everything is not limited to theory, but you find a concrete outlet in entrepreneurship linked to nutrition and catering. It is a long and ambitious job, I realize that. But it is the only way I know ".