Pistachio in the kitchen: a healthy and greedy resource. The starred chef explains it to us Andrea Berton of the Berton restaurant in Milan, which also reveals the secrets to enhance the taste of this green gold to the maximum.

Healthy, why?
"From a nutritional point of view, I am one valuable source of protein, contain all 9 essential amino acids in adequate quantities and are also rich in carbohydrates and fats for the most part monounsaturated and polyunsaturated (ie healthy fats). This is why they are also excellent snacks for a snack, also because they fill without weighing you down.

Is in the kitchen?
They have many virtues. Starting from an aesthetic value. In fact they give the dishes one nice touch of color with a natural green, without the addition of synthetic dyes. If you are an advocate of beauty, even chromatic, in recipes, surely its use will help you. Chopped add crunchiness to the recipes, giving an extra touch and adding a chewy note that definitely makes the xxxxx dish.

What type of pistachios do you prefer?

American pistachios are versatile and crunchy and have a very elegant and aromatic flavor, which makes them ideal for both sweet and savory recipes.

In what prepractiumcan you use them?

They are very versatile: they can use in both sweet and savory recipes and also, thanks to their savory note, which can be enhanced by using already salted pistachios and creating a pleasant note of contrast in cakes and desserts.

What is the piact that best enhances their taste?

Definitely ice cream, to be enjoyed naturally. Or even a Sicilian granita. Only in these desserts does the marked flavor of pistachio emerge in all its flavor. The important thing is to never go below 40% of pistachio.

Buying advice?
Always choose fresh pistachios, because they keep the authentic flavors better and are much more versatile to use in the kitchen: you can in fact decide the degree of roasting according to your taste, whether to reduce them to powder for a cream or make a grain. The important thing is to toast them in the oven, even briefly because they need to be dried so that they lose internal humidity before use in the kitchen: the heat of the oven makes them crunchy.

"Prawn tails, American pistachio cream and grilled aubergine"

Recipe for 4 people

Ingredients for the eggplant:

2 long eggplants
10 gr. of mint leaves
100 g of extra virgin olive oil
6 gr. of salt
pepper

Method:

Divide the aubergine into 2 cm slices. thick. Marinate the aubergines with mint leaves, salt, pepper and extra virgin olive oil. Vacuum them and cook them in a steam oven at 100 ° for 10 minutes, cool them and cut them into parallelepipeds and roast them in a pan.

Ingredients for the pistachio cream:

200 gr. of peeled and toasted American pistachios
4 gr. of salt
150 gr. of ice

Preparation:

Blend the pistachios with ice and salt until you get a smooth and homogeneous cream, if necessary add water until you get the necessary consistency.

Ingredients for the reduced shellfish sauce:

1 kg of red prawn heads and shells
200 g of San Marzano tomato cut into quarters
1 onion, peeled and julienned
2 sticks of celery cut into julienne strips
1 carrot, peeled and julienne
extra virgin olive oil

Method:

Toast the shellfish heads in a large saucepan with extra virgin olive oil, add the onion, celery, carrot and tomato. Pour plenty of ice until the shells are covered, bring to the boil, skim and let it simmer for 45 minutes. Filter and allow to reduce until a concentration of crustaceans is obtained.

Ingredients for the shellfish sauce:

200 g of reduced shellfish sauce
100 g of water
200 g of pachino cherry tomato compote (obtained from 1 kg of pachino tomatoes)
Blend the Pachino cherry tomato compote with the reduced shellfish sauce e
the water. If necessary, add water until the density is reached
necessary.

Plating:

12 red prawns from Mazzara of first choice
extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper
fine fresh herbs (basil, parsley, dill, tarragon, fennel, mint,
chervil)

Clean the prawns by removing the head, carapace and intestines. Roast the prawns on a plate / grill only on one side already salted and seasoned with extra virgin olive oil, pepper. Place the fresh herbs seasoned with oil, salt and pepper on the roasted aubergine, add the prawns, the aubergine to the plate, finish with the pistachio cream and the shellfish sauce.

December 2021
Camilla Rocca