Tag: great

NAPA is born: make Naviglio Pavese great again – Italian Cuisine

After Nolo in Milan, NAPA arrives. Naviglio Pavese chefs and restaurateurs focus on the self-determination of the neighborhood

The Naviglio Pavese is the “return” canal, it flows towards Ticino, while the Naviglio Grande is the one that feeds the dock. The sense of the waters, however, also tells about the attraction of the two most well-known canals in Milan and their adverse destinies.

The Naviglio Grande is today the most crowded with clubs, restaurants and shops. The other ship, the one in via Ascanio Sforza which today appears sadder, with abandoned boats and deserted premises, if compared with those of the twin, was, however, until the 1990s IL Naviglio, that of the night, of live music, of the creation of the myth of this area of Milan. Here there was Le Scimmie and the movida the real one, from the nineties, but now the glories of the past seem distant. But only if you look at the city center, because beyond, beyond the ring road, where the sixties barracks begin and the bohemian charm is breathed very little, is it quite another thing: new clubs, restaurants and a group of restaurateurs and traders who have decided that it's time for Make Naviglio Pavese great again.

freight it was an invention of three architects looking for a neighborhood brand, on the false line of SoHo or Tribeca (hence the English definition "NOrth of Loreto") that could re-evaluate the area, until 2016 rather popular and peripheral. It worked and so also on the other side of Milan those who work here decided to believe in the right to self-determination of peoples and create a new neighborhood. Na.Pa.
Na.Pa is a committee of merchants, associations and citizens born with the aim of enhancing the neighborhood that, beyond the ring road, runs alongside the Naviglio Pavese. A territory that deserves to be known and experienced for its history, for its identity and for all the opportunities it can offer.

Claudio Sadler, chef and Milanese doc, he arrived on the Naviglio Pavese in 1996. "These were the years of the antiques, students and painters' naviglio. It was the most bohemian Naviglio and I wanted to tie myself to this story. Then this canal to the ring road of viale Tibaldi became commercial, the nightlife area. The Milanese nightlife was born there. " In 2007, looking for more space brings starred restaurant and modern trattoria into today's spaces. "Here there was practically nothing", but today the position can be defined as in front of Distreat and between the Osteria GrandHotel and Cantina Urbana. Fifty meters and two banks in which to count five addresses that are worth a visit. "Together with Distreat and the Altavia agency, we decided to team up and give voice to our neighborhood, an association", he told me in March 2020, as soon as the lockdown began. In July Na.Pa., the urban redevelopment project wanted to give life to an area that for years has been revived only by the few daredevils.

«It is useless to act alone, we must give voice to a neighborhood that otherwise lives only thanks to the single light of a restaurant. We have a mind in mind calendar of initiatives which will tell the centuries-old history of the canal, the link with the Oltrepò Pavese, the Leonardo locks. Not to do business, but to make culture. There will be a road redevelopment, a road modernization project with a cycle path that will arrive from Milan to the Ticino Park ", he told me well before the boom of bikes and scooters," and initiatives that will feature wine, rice and countryside products Milanese". The plan was to start with the Salone del Mobile, postponed to 2021, but Na.Pa. he does not want to wait and in October we will start with an initiative together with the Historic Buttafuoco Consortium. Because the Naviglio to be rediscovered is also the Oltrepò wines and the excellence of the surroundings of Milan.

the podcast on the great traditional cuisine – Italian Cuisine

The new Donpasta project arrives on Audible.it, which has retraced Italy from north to south in search of products, stories and recipes that make our traditional cuisine great

In 1957 a visionary Mario Soldati for the newborn Italian television he began to tell the wonders of traditional local cuisine, retracing the recipes and the most characteristic products of the different realities of Northern Italy in that absolute masterpiece that is his episode documentary Travel in the Po valley. Subtitle: In search of genuine food. And so today, more than six decades after that glorious debut on the small screen, there are those who try to recover that same spirit of investigation, declining it according to the new instances of the podcast. Thus it was born The Republic of sautéed, the new signed project Donpasta – aka Daniele De Michele.

An excursus of 22 episodes for about 45 minutes, conducted by the director, DJ, economist and obviously passionate about gastronomy Donpasta, who will aim to rediscover, enhance and pass on the most precious secrets of Italian popular cuisine. Those guarded by grandmothers, aunts and mothers, and which today more than ever constitute a real treasure made of "add a pinch of flour" and "put the lard in place of the oil".

"I have been traveling around Italy for ten years," explains Donpasta. «I recounted my encounters with grandmothers, peasants, fishermen with images and writing, but I was missing something. I had an immense archive of interviews to reveal, a treasure trove of meetings, an encyclopedia of recipes, from fish to ragù. In this long period of lockdown, so fragile for everyone, I told myself how much what I had learned on that trip was current, illuminating, ethical, urgent in that cooking in a truly sustainable way, for the health of the earth, body and spirit .

A journey from north to south, in an Italy dotted with many, precious culinary differences, united however by the unconditional love for genuine food. And for the sauté, of course. So, for example, Mrs. Ornella – from Irpinia with fury – reveals the secrets for the perfect dumplings with ragout of chops. While Giuliana, from Florence, explains to us how to prepare the best tomato sauce of our life, and grandmother Marinetta, 92 years old from Reggio Emilia, is divided between the inevitable fried dumpling Emilian and a ragù made strictly with minced veal, shaded with white wine and left to cook for three hours in the preserve. Homemade, of course.

Republic-fried-marinetta — Grandmother Marinetta.

All in a story that wants to go well beyond the simple recipe, as the author of the project explains. "The podcast allows you to tell everything, to show the alchemy of the encounters, the magic of silences, allows you to think about it a bit, thanks to the extended times that seem to be those of cooking well. In making myself a narrative voice I tried to bring back my emotion in listening to those interviews, while the memories of this long journey resurfaced, the emotion of these surprising encounters, the goodness of dishes that are always so good ". The episodes of The Republic of sautéed will be available from July 6 on Audible.it, the Amazon portal entirely dedicated to audiobooks, podcasts and related.

The child who lives in every great chef – Italian Cuisine

What is that thing that brings everyone back in time in an instant and as if by magic? We asked some great Italian chefs and each one told us what the special ingredient is that still makes them feel like they were wearing short trousers

Who hasn't happened to breathe a perfume and suddenly find yourself reliving a moment of the past? The emotional power of food is so strong that it takes little, an image, a gesture, a flavor, to awaken in the memory those sweet moments that each of us has always carried with us and that perhaps, as in the case of cooks and cooks that we interviewed, they left a mark for the future.

So ad Antonia Klugmann it is enough to smell the scent of tomatoes, the one that is perceived stronger if the leaves of the plant or the stalk are rubbed, to remember when her grandfather Antonio took her to the market to do the shopping. He loves them above all else and therefore he kept adding: "If you asked me what I would take to a deserted island, I would have no doubts: spaghetti with tomato".

Valentino Cassanelli is Ugo Alciati they are united more than by a perfume by a gesture. The one from Emilia and the other from Piedmont, remember when they stole the stuffed tortellini (the first) or agnolotti (the second) from the kitchen table, the kingdom of grandmothers and mothers. Neighbors Mazzucchelli they heard Mama Maria alternately saying "just eat" to the eldest son Massimo (a great gourmet since he was a child) and "eat" to Aurora, who preferred rice in white with a drizzle of oil and a generous grated parmesan cheese, more than tortellini (which today are one of his masterpieces on paper).

For many chefs, the link with the dishes they ate as children is so strong that they have brought them back to their menus. Discover these and other stories of chefs, children, food and love in the June issue of the report and then try to close your eyes and search your memory. What is your special ingredient or dish, what will remain in your heart forever?