When we say theAppearance deceives… At first glance, the pastry (with salted incursions) by Marcello Rapisardi has the reassuring aspect of tradition: on the counter, a parade of cakes, quiche, pralines, meringues with the cream, Fruit jellies, Geneva.

But just approach and read the name of some ingredient (tonka bean, yuzu) to understand that Marcello starts with the classics, but looks far away.

With grace and determination, thanks to an impeccable technique acquired through years of work with great chefs and pastry chefs, like Ernst Knam, Luigi Taglienti and other.
"I called her"modern tradition" tell us. "How they have me my teachers taughtI work a lot on the product, on the excellence of the raw material, on rare or unusual ingredients.

For chocolate for example, since it is the month of Valentine's day, I often use that to double fermentation, one natural and the second in fruit, of which it acquires the aroma. And the chocolates there flavored with Carmagnola pepper, to the plankton, to chew, the lentisk resin of the Greek island of Chios.

Marcello Rapisardi, pastry chef from Milan and "Emerging pastry chef 2018" for Gambero Rosso

He begins his career as cook. He soon arrives from Luigi Taglienti in Garlenda (SV) and then from Ernst Knam in Milan, where he specializes in pastry.

After various experiences as a pastry chef in starred restaurants (Claudio Sadler, Moreno Cedroni, Ezio Santin), is responsible for Knam's chocolate shop for over a year. In 2015 he opened his bakery in Milan.

2 hearts and chocolate for Pastry & Desserts

Inaugurated in 2015 by Marcello Rapisardi with his partner, Pastry & Desserts (Piazzale Bacone 12) has taken the place of a historian neighborhood pastry in Milan.

And it is primarily to the inhabitants of the area that addresses, with a wide selection of classic sweets, presented in a way elegant and often "rejuvenated"With unusual and rare ingredients.

Cakes and mignon, biscuits, gelées and chocolates are presented with traditional fillings (berries, creams, chocolate), but also exotic like Japanese citrus yuzu, the tropical flower ylang-ylang, the plankton, the açai Amazon. Quiche and savory tartellette complete the offer.

Texts by Marina Cella
Video Diego Stadiotti

Gianduia chocolates with raspberries and chilli pepper

for 35 chocolates

100 g of 60% dark chocolate in flasks – 100 g of gianduia chocolate – 1 basket of raspberries – 1 teaspoon of chilli pepper (if possible, Espelette French, slightly spicy)

– With a sharp knife chop the chocolate gianduja. Put it in a pan with flasks of fondant.

– Place the pan in a larger saucepan with a little water, transfer it to the heat and make melt the chocolate in a bain-marie, mixing with a spatula.

– Remove the mixture from the heat, add the chili, jumbled up and you do cool down.

– When the preparation it goes down to 33 ° (measure the temperature with a kitchen thermometer), transfer it to a sac à poche with the cut open.

– Spread half chocolate in a mold of 35 chocolates, reaching up to half height. Arrange in the center of each chocolate a piece of raspberry (better to break them by hand because they do not lose water) and cover with the remaining mixture, leveling with a knife. Allow to cool in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.

– Remove the chocolates from the fridge, print them on a serving plate and serve them at 8-10 degrees (they should not be too cold), accompanied with some raspberries. The chocolates yes keep for 1 week in the refrigerator.

Dark chocolate mousse with mango and tonka bean and hot blackberry sauce

for 6 people

for the sponge cake: 150 g of eggs (about 3) – 60 g of granulated sugar – 75 g of white flour type 00 – butter for the mousse: 200 g of dark chocolate with 60% in flours – 400 g of fresh cream
for the mango and tonka bean salad: 1 ripe sweet and compact mango – 1/2 lime peel – 1 tonka bean – 1 teaspoon of sugar
for blackberry sauce: 1 basket of blackberries -1.5 tablespoon of granulated sugar – the juice of 1 lime

– Prepare the base of sponge cake.
Shell the eggs in a bowl, add the sugar and whisk with electric whips until you get one light and fluffy mixture (for at least 15 minutes to incorporate a lot of air). Add the flour sifted twice, mix with a spatula and transfer to one buttered pan 18 cm in diameter (if the mixture is well assembled, it is laid out by itself without having to hit the mold on the work surface). Bake the sponge cake in 180 ° oven for 20 minutes.

– Prepare the chocolate mousse.
Semi mounted the cream e transfer it to the fridge. Collect the chocolate in a pan and do it dissolve in a bain-marie as in the previous recipe. Add the whipped cream (keeping aside 100 g to decorate) and with a spatula mix the 2 compounds quickly until a mousse is obtained. Transfer it to a sac à poche and keep aside.

– Prepare the mango salad.
Cut 2-3 cloves from the mango, peel them and cut them into chunks irregular (flute-like). Put the cubes together in a bowl, insaporiteli with a grated of tonka bean and lime zest, add the sugar and put in refrigerator for about 3 hours.

– Meanwhile prepare the blackberry sauce.
Put the blackberries together in a vase immersion blender, add sugar and lime juice and blend. Pass the sauce through a fine mesh strainer and put it in the fridge. Compose the single portions.

Turn out the sponge cake.
– cut it before in slices in the sense of width and then a cubes is subdivide them on the bottom of 6 glasses. Cover them with the mousse chocolate. Heat the blackberry sauce a little, pour it on the mousse and completed with the cream kept aside and the cold mango.