Tag: Restaurants

The ladies of noodles: the restaurants to eat them at home – Italian Cuisine

In the Marche, a perfectly made tagliatella can be a good reason to deviate from the highway and look for the perfect trattoria. Here are five restaurants (and five women) that have made history.

The great Marche tradition of the made pasta at home he lives in many restaurants, but woe to underestimate the patriarchs, indeed, the "matriarchs". that is to say those trattorias and historical places, mostly from the rustic atmosphere, which they have taught, and where women have always been the real protagonists.

How to make tagliatelle

In Marche it is the ancestral dish. The simplest and most substantial food at the same time. One pound of flour for each egg. On the wide wooden "pastry board" a mound of flour is created and a hole is opened in the center with the hands. Whole eggs are poured and a pinch of salt. Then with the tips of the fingers you start to knead starting from the inside of the "fontanella". If you are energetic enough, a few minutes will be enough to create the dough, which will be divided into small loaves and left to rest indoors for at least a quarter of an hour. Now comes the most delicate part, that is, the art of puff pastry, in dialect the "sperna". It consists of creating thin discs of dough, spreading it patiently with a well-floured rolling pin to prevent it from sticking. Wrapping it around the rolling pin is an art. At the end the thickness should be homogeneous, about a couple of millimeters. The tagliatelle are then cut by hand with a long knife and left to dry for a few minutes on a cloth. To cook them you need plenty of water and depending on the thickness it takes from two to five minutes.

Where to eat them

Closed by Carola. Agugliano (AN)

Censored by the Marche Region as a historical place, it has been open since 1880. Also known as Carola, the lady who first brought the custom of handmade pasta, today, Fiorella Vico represents the fifth generation of restaurateurs and her noodles they are also famous outside the region. La Chiusa is located in the municipality of Agugliano (AN). A place in the countryside along the river, crossed by irrigation canals a few years ago. The classic ragù includes a mixture of veal, pork and chicken giblets, or there is that of wild boar, of “papera”, or the white version with ham and peas. Pappardelle, ravioli and tortellini are also handmade. Alternatively there are white and purple potato dumplings. In summer you can eat outside under the pergola and behind the restaurant, the small farm provides organic vegetables to the kitchen.

Ezio, the "King" of Macerata

In terms of Macerata noodles it has its myth. It's called trattoria Da Ezio. Ms. Mirella began working for Ezio in the 1960s, and that's how the era of handmade pasta began, vincisgrassi, ravioli, cappelletti and the inevitable tagliatelle, in fact. Opened in 1957 at the beginning of the central Via Crescimbeni, the trattoria is the point of reference for that "kitchen of the past" that attracts celebrities and tourists in search of rustic atmospheres. Here the noodles are eaten with the traditional Macerata sauce (made with veal from the Marche region) or with duck sauce. If you want to appreciate the taste of pasta the advice is to taste them seasoned only with the extra virgin olive oil that the company produces. Every week at least six hundred eggs are processed in the trattoria. The secret of the success of the Ezio tagliatelle is that each step is done exclusively by hand and the guarantee is the dexterity of the stainless lady Mirella.

The Knight and the secret of the "languid sauce". Camerino (MC)

In Polverina, a hamlet of Camerino, there is the trattoria Il Cavaliere. The restaurant has been open since 1963 and the custodian of the tradition of handmade pasta is Mrs. Gabriela Lamponi. The restaurant is a reference point for the territory and the Moreni family represents the fourth generation of restaurateurs. The pasta, pulled exclusively by hand, is very thin, and by absorbing the sauce it needs a fairly liquid dressing. The secret is in the "double sauce". On the one hand, a traditional ragù is prepared: fine minced beef browned in chopped carrot, celery and onion and cooked in tomato sauce, while in another pot a sauce is cooked with minced bacon, smells, pork bones, of lamb and beef, and always boiled with tomato sauce. This ancient flavor sauce is then combined with the more traditional sauce and left enough liquid. Hence the name "sugo languido". The meat and extra virgin olive oil are of own production. A must also taste of tagliatelle with fresh truffle from the Sibillini mountains.

Maria and tagliatelle with beans. Novilara (PU)

A family recipe that becomes a cult. The trattoria has been open since 1972, when Mrs. Maria Mencarelli decided to leave her business in the grocery store to return to Novilara, her hometown, on the hills between Pesaro and Fano. In the family, tagliatelle were made with bean sauce and today it has become a typical local recipe. The dressing is particularly creamy. The beans are placed in the pot and covered with about four fingers of water. Carrot, celery, onion, tomato paste and pork rind are added and everything is left to simmer for three to four hours. The pasta of tagliatelle is pulled by hand and left deliberately porous to better gather the seasoning. Ms. Maria cooks the sauce personally, as did her mother and her fame has attracted many celebrities, who have gone to the trattoria for noodles with beans.

Tagliatelle and Ginestre in the hills. Belvedere Ostrense (AN)

Open since 1985, it is a hillside restaurant with sea view in Belvedere Ostrense (AN). The noodles are handmade by Chef Roberta Ausili. A traditional dough where the proportions of the ingredients vary according to the season to obtain the right degree of humidity. Durum wheat flours are exclusively local and the ragù is made with mixed meats that also include duck. Stefano Seta runs the restaurant and his passion for hunting means that the ragù is enriched with the aroma of game every now and then. Truffle tagliatelle should also be tasted. The proximity to the sea also makes fish a must, and the perfect sauce is with torches (razor clams). Composed with the same fresh pasta there are also the "agnolotti mushrooms and walnuts", a recipe on the menu from the first day of opening.

THE MOST ROMANTIC RESTAURANTS OF THE MARCHE

EATING OUTDOORS IN THE MARCHE, WITHOUT BEING FRIED

the best restaurants in Prato – Italian Cuisine

World famous pastry shops, a new finedining scene, cocktail bars and new gastronomy entrepreneurs are renewing the city. Once again and thanks also to its Chinese half

Italy is the country of a thousand bell towers, Prato was the city of a thousand chimneys, today it is one of a thousand food and wine specialties. Prato has been called "the Manchester of Tuscany" for the incredible industrialization that had transformed it in the nineteenth century, but it is also the city of the Chinese, the home of Prato biscuits, Prato peaches and an unexpected series of typical products , new or secular.

The city of a thousand chimneys. Photo Daniele Mari

Prato has always been a rich and cultured city, boasting a cathedral frescoed by Filippino Lippi, the world-famous Contempoeanea Luigi Pecci art center, examples of industrial archeology such as the Fabbricone, now home to a theater and destination for architects on a pilgrimage. Prato has been able to reinvent itself throughout history and today has decided not to leave its destiny to chance. Not even culinary.
At 20 km from Florence, it has about 1/10 of the population and, as tradition has it, there is no good blood between the two. But so much for a level playing field we do not agree historically with Pistoia and this has translated into a programmatic will to create, conserve and protect a unique food and wine heritage.

Eat Prato, the event that twice a year talks about local typicality. Photo Daniele Mari

Local excellence

The concentration of Slow Food Presidia is impressive: there are the Biscuits of Prato (which for heaven's sake even if they look like nooks, they are not at all!), The Bozza Prato, silly bread, typical of the rural tradition, the Mortadella of Prato PGI so special and aromatic due to the addition of Alchermes, the dried Figs of Carmignano. They even invented a supply chain flour, the GranPrato, and a real pride of the local food and wine called Eat Prato, very popular and which takes place twice a year. Obviously there are also the Prato Peaches – which alone are worth the trip.

The Lazzerini Library. Photo Daniele Mari

The pastry shops

The star of the pastry shop hovers over the city, and the pastry shops are the real local flagship. The reason? Professor Daniela Toccafondi, Councilor for Productive Activities, Trade and Tourism with University and Europe of the City, explains this to us: “Prato has always been a rich city, a crossroads of businesses, travelers and astute entrepreneurs. It was a city in which it has always eaten well and that together with the fabrics has exported other excellences bringing them far away and making them famous ". The Biscottificio Mattei has been making Biscotti di Prato since 1858 and boasts in a single city two pastry masters such as Luca Mannori, chocolate guru, World Pastry Champion and holder of the original Setteveli cake recipe. A few hundred meters away, the Pasticceria Nuovo Mondo by Paolo Sacchetti, wife and heir Andrea "Sacchettino" Sacchetti from which come out mythical and unmatched Pesche di Prato and leavened like the Giulebbe. Sacred monsters aside, other young people are also making their way as Luca Borgioli, pastry chef at I Frari delle Logge, won third place in the FIPGC contest at the national level for the Best Modern Single Section.

New Wave from Prato

Other than the province, in Prato there are places like Schiaccino, a place that if you landed in Milan would make a fortune: young boys, enthusiasts, selection of natural wines, large sourdough focaccia with sourdough and special grain flour filled with excellence, of the territory . Beautiful the place, the environment, good food and were even able to organize an event like Winezilla – the first Prato fair of natural wines. You will hear about them. Even the cocktail bar scene wants to emerge, thanks to the Nunquam factory which produces white Prato Vermouth, bitters, bitters, alchermes and even Ju, a Tuscan London Dry Gin, and places like Apotheke Prato, De'Sto or the Cul de Sac – so much so that the Florence Cocktail Week in May has evolved to become the Tuscany Cocktail Week.

The historic center seen from the Emperor's Castle. Photo Daniele Mari

Emerging chefs

There is also an embryonic scene of fine dining in the city, led by the restaurant Pepe Nero (which everyone in the city swears is now in the odor of a star). But not only the suns. They returned to the city to stay, the young people of Paca, a new gastronomic restaurant that alternates insights such as the Sushi of Chianti with more classic Pappardelle with wild boar, shallot and pine nuts – made with a professional hand and with an excellent quality / price ratio. Try the Steak, which here finds its gourmet dimension, becoming a main course for two, with a haute cuisine service. The young chef Francesco Preite has been serving omakase and sake menus to his fellow citizens for eight years (but it is necessary to present them for 9 pm, one time shift), the Dek Bistrot in piazza delle Carceri which serves seafood, raw fish and Mediterranean dishes. At the Pecci Center, Angiolo Barni (patron and chef) has found a home that unites Tuscan tradition and contemporary cuisine, as well as the gastronomic restaurant in the expansion designed by Maurice Nio, and in the new opening of the bistro, with outdoor tables and a suggestive view of the original amphitheater designed by Italo Gamberini.

Chinatown today

Prato, however, is also the most famous Chiantown city in Italy, grown in the nineties when local textile industries moved into the industrial area, leaving a whole slice of the city abandoned. Today it teems with life, restaurants and small shops, and given that even "the Chinese" have moved to produce outside the city, now we face the emergence of industrial spaces abandoned for the first time to themselves. Thus cultural associations such as Chì-Na were born, right in the infamous Via Pistioiese, and initiatives such as the WOM, Wonderful Market of vintage clothing, streetware and handicrafts in Corte Genova, in the spaces of the former Lanificio Umberto Bini and now a space shared among young creatives . To them it seems normal, but for those who come from outside to discover spaces like these or like the Lazzerini Library in the former Cimatoria Campolmi, another restored textile factory where students study under a vault of windows and steel.

Table integration

The integration in Prato was a will as well as a duty, thanks to a far-sighted municipal administration that can now reap the benefits of its work. With the 2019 elections, the first two councilors of the Chinese community joined in and there are already so many four-handed businesses that are giving new economic and cultural strength to the city. Trade flows in the blood of new and old Prato, and this may have been the land on which the future of this city will be built. The history of the MySea restaurant is precisely this: two Chinese-born partners who grew up in Milan, two from Tuscany, a restaurant that combines the Italian tradition of raw fish and the all-oriental passion for crabs and lobsters freshly caught from the aquarium. The clientele is as mixed as the property and in the kitchen there is the chef Davide Chen, an almond-shaped eye, a Florentine dialect, a Tuscan DOC (despite appearances). Raw crudités, Mussels au gratin with parsley and roasted lemon panura, Taglierini pasta with fresh lobster with rigorous homemade pasta and the inevitable Catalan lobster. Why inevitable? Because this is the most loved, ordered and consumed dish by the people of Prato. Why Prato is really a surprise.

Browse the gallery to find out all the addresses

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The best restaurants in Como – Italian Cuisine

On the shores of the lake it has always been good, but only now in Como are there large and small clubs, with attention to food and wine. Here is our selection for a good dinner in the city

Like Varese and Lecco, Como has never enjoyed a good reputation among gourmets: even the local ones have always looked to Milan – which remains an important destination, of course – and al Canton Ticino which is a stone's throw away (real) with its high-level restaurants, although dear to an Italian. Then it is clear that the best places – or at least the most evocative ones – were (and in part are still found) in the places overlooking the two shores of the lake. Just think of Blevio, which boasts the star Berton al Lago (within Il Sereno Hotel); in Torno, which a few months ago hosts the Mandarin Oriental which has taken the space of the Casta Diva and has a splendid restaurant, The Air, entrusted to Vincenzo Guarino or, again, the Villa Lario Restaurant to Pognana Lario, with Michele Tamburrino in the kitchen. As, on the opposite bank, there are Matter in Cernobbio – starred for a year and that has a certain value in the talented Davide Caranchini – and the emerging Wire of the Filario Hotel in Lezzeno, by the young Alessandro Parisi. Up to go to Bellagio, where the brilliant Ettore Bocchia officiates at the starry Mistral of Villa Serbelloni.

Freshwater fish and mountain

But let's go back to the city where, fortunately, for a couple of years the music has changed: chefs and young patrons have taken over the situation, creating new premises or putting the historical ones back in order, sometimes revisiting the tradition that has a double soul: the freshwater fish, lavarello, fried perch or with risotto, agoni in special preparations such as carpione and missoltini (dried and preserved agonis, then brought back to life on the grill); and the mountain with its cheeses and small game. Today in Como there are prominent places with interesting ideas or the recovery of history, unknown even to many inhabitants. Our selection follows this thread, more and more lively, which aims to make you spend a nice evening in Como.

Roots

Back home after long and important experiences abroad, Mirko Gatti has created a Nordic and minimal space, perfect for his vision of natural cuisine and the land based on bio, fermentation and, in part, on foraging. Interesting and fun experience, with lots of vegetable dishes.

Tira, mola and meseda

The name is illuminating. In dialect it means: pull, spring, mix. This place is worked with passion, serving almost all typical Lombard dishes and in large portions. Great cordiality and the pleasure for the novice to discover the cuisine of the territory.

Whisper

One of the first rooftop restaurants in the city: international style, intimate atmosphere, spectacular view. Chef Stefano Mattara is not afraid to dare between organic dishes, the revisiting of local tradition – see the perch that becomes filled with a bomb resting on Chinese mandarins and raw tomatoes – and a dessert made entirely of vegetables from the garden.

Kitchen

Certainly it is no longer the times when Paolo Lopriore painted his visions, but the restaurant in the large grounds of the Sheraton Hotel is a safe haven for a smooth dinner. Directed in a young Andrea Casali that juggles well on the two tastings, of sea and land.

The Tigli in Theoria

The location, rightly Michelin-starred, is splendid, with rooms and courtyard housed in a fifteenth-century building. The ideal to enjoy a great fish cuisine (but not only) of Mediterranean inspiration, which finds the maximum expression in the sea tasting. The chef is the expert Franco Caffara. Important wine cellar, perfect service.

Il Comacino

Pleasant surprise a few steps from the Duomo, with a few weeks of activity. And the magister bistrot and cocktail bar animated by chef Carmelo Sciarrabba and bartender Alessandro Lucchini. Dishes direct – Lombard and Mediterranean – and good mixology animate a pleasant and young environment.

The Market Place

It has changed location but does not teach it: at The Market Place – nomen omen – international cuisine is made, in a Nordic-style environment. Davide Maci, a globetrotter from Como, has technique and talent. There is no trivial dish and does not fear contamination: Scallops, daikon, lime and shallot chutney, spring onion, white butter sauce, caviar. An appetizer that explains everything.

Feel

The restaurant creates the right feeling, but it is Federico Beretta's kitchen and the wines (excellent) of his companion Elisa Forlanelli that strike at the heart: it always starts from tradition and from the territory to arrive at dishes like lavarello almost in carpione with its bottarga. Three tasting sessions.