Tag: Greek

The new Greek cuisine in Milan: Vasiliki Kouzina – Italian Cuisine

There is a place to (re) discover the flavors of Greece beyond the clichés. Here is the polytheistic cuisine of Vasiliki, the new Greek cuisine in the heart of Milan

We already know we are in the right place. With his words, Vasiliki Pierrakea manages to immediately transmit the great passion for his homeland. The Greek cuisine you bring to the table is not what you expect: just like Italian cuisine cannot be summed up with "pasta and pizza", even Greek cuisine conceals unpublished surprises beyond the pitagyros.

Originally from Kalamata, Vasiliki arrives in Italy to study at Bocconi, but shortly thereafter she decides that her greatest desire is to discover Greek cuisine in Milan in a completely new way. Following an experience of home cooking, in 2016 she becomes the warm hostess of her restaurant in Via Clusone 6, where she welcomes guests, tells her story and that of the new Greek cuisine. It is made of contamination, is classical in the ingredients, but modern in the desire to experiment, to go beyond the concept of trattoria and street food (and you can already notice it by the well-thought out design that perfectly meets the Milanese mood).

The new Greek cuisine in Milan: chef Elena Barbone and Vasiliki Pierrakea

Vasiliki talks about his cooking as polytheist, a kitchen where you can find the flavors of the world Balkan is Ottoman, through traditions and ingredients that characterize the multiple influences of Greek culture. Everything starts right from raw material: spices, like the cinnamon, the boukovo (spicy spice based on red peppers, typical of northern Greece and the northern Aegean islands), the vine leaf, the Kalamata olives, the Santorini beanthe bottarga and the Sardinians Trikalinos.

It's just the job of the spices to make a difference: these are used in different ways, whole or blended, as in the crumble with star anise and cloves present in one of the desserts, or through the marinating, used mainly for i dishes based on fish. The product-centered kitchen also has a rich selection of wines, coming exclusively from Greek vines, to discover a new world beyond the best known wines.

The custodian chef of Vasiliki's philosophy is from Bologna Eleonora Barbone, who enthusiastically accepted the challenge of trying new ingredients. It starts from the "Culinary Reveries", a cutting board with several seriously fantastic tastes: from the classic tzatziki a taramosalata (salted fish egg sauce, beetroot, basil), accompanied by Kalamata black olives with fresh oregano and pita, which comes directly from Greece. An appetizer that perfectly embodies the spirit of sharing which is in the DNA of Greece.

Santorinis bean, Kalamata Evo oil, Corinth raisins and ginger

There is no lack of iconic dishes, such as the moussaka with aubergines and light meat sauce, the savoury cake with cabbage, leek, trahanas and Sparta feta and the kolokithokeftedes, mint zucchini balls. Among the meat and fish dishes (which mainly comes from Sicily, a land that is closest to Hellenic flavors), the honey octopus cooked slowly in red wine, accompanied by caramelized onions and caper leaves from the island of Tinos, and i fried squid mint flavored. Do not miss the cheese selection, while among the desserts it conquers with its simplicity the dessert based on yogurt, honey and sandblasted walnuts.

The best Greek restaurant in Milan – Italian Cuisine

Forget the usual blue and white restaurants to eat feta salad. Contemporary Greek cuisine is another and you eat it from Vasiliki Kouzina: a beautiful, elegant restaurant, where appetizers never seem to end

Souvlaki and tzatziki. There Greek cuisine it is too often reduced to fast food stereotypes and to some faded memories of beach holidays. It is true however that Greek restaurants in Milan have never been a gastronomic revelation and that very often they have been reduced to serving salad with feta, kebab and little else. Not from Vasiliki Kouzina.

No cliché of Greece

Vasiliki Pierrakea is Greek, from Kalamata, the city of black olives and arrives in Italy by chance. She has a past as a cook at home and in 2016 she opened the doors of her restaurant in Via Clusone 6, in Milan. Vasiliki Kouzina has nothing of the cliché of Greek restaurants, all white and blue, in fact it is red, red, like Vasiliki's red kitchen from which it all began. It is so beautiful theinterior design that the place is finished in all the furniture magazines, praised for the style and passed a little on the sly for the gastronomic aspect. But it is not true that in the too beautiful places you eat badly: sitting in what looks like a very Milanese living room, all velvet, gold and mirrors, you taste a Hellenic cuisine made of classic old recipes, together with intimate and familiar dishes, contemporary and Mediterranean. The cuisine is refined, the search for exceptional raw materials, the wine list dedicated only to Greek wines worthy of an amateur.

For appetizer lovers to share

There are the simple dishes and flavors of Greek cuisine that we think we know, but there is also research and innovation, contamination and inspiration, to give life to completely authentic dishes. The memory is combined with current events and the flavors from the Balkan and Ottoman world are presented in a way that does not pay homage to the tradition in a didactic way. One begins dutifully with a Plistia, a cutting board with tastings that tell the Hellenic culinary tradition: melitzanosalata (eggplant cream, light and smoked), tzatziki with Karagiannis yogurt, Taramas (salted fish egg sauce), mavres elies Kalamon (black olives from Kalamata), steaming pita (€ 18 for two people). Then continue with the appetizers, omezedes, which are the beauty of the menu: chickpeas and bottarga, cauliflower with lemon, zucchini balls with mint, saganaki mussels with ouzo and feta from Sparta …

Lightness and substance

The kitchen has a vegetable prevalence that appeals to women, and in fact they crowd the room alone or in pairs. Because the vegetables here have character, the salads have nothing private and you get up happy. For men who think there is no satisfaction for them, there is also one on the menu delicious moussaka, made with baked aubergines, light meat sauce and yogurt béchamel, one hortopita (savory pie wild herbs, leeks and basil), a gyros of lamb served with mint, tzatziki, baked tomatoes and crispy pita and an excellent honey octopus. For eating lunch with two menus, at € 25 or € 35, and at dinner ordering à la carte, you are around € 40 excluding wines; that for Milan is the price of any restaurant. Without doubt the best restaurant of Greek cuisine in Milan. Perhaps, in his being creative and nonconformist, even the most genuine.

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Greek Bruschette Recipe – Italian Cuisine – Italian Cuisine

Ingredients

300 g cucumbers
170 g Greek yogurt
2 baguettes
fresh coriander
lemon
mint
burnet
lime
garlic
chili pepper
White wine vinegar
salt
extra virgin olive oil

Duration: 1 h 25 min

Level: Easy

Dose: 4 people

For the Greek bruschetta recipe, prepare the tzatziki: grate the cucumbers without peeling them and leave them in a colander to drain for at least 1 hour.
Then crush the pulp to eliminate the vegetation water; mix it with the yogurt, the grated rind of 1/2 lime, a few chopped coriander leaves, 1 teaspoon of vinegar, 1/2 clove of finely chopped garlic and salt.
Cut the baguettes in half, rub them with garlic, season with a
oil drizzle and toast on a plate Cut into slices. Spread the tzatziki on the bread and complete the bruschetta with mint and pimpinella, chilli and grated lemon rind.