Tag: spaghetti

Massimo Troisi: spaghetti with artichokes from “Il Postino” – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

The postmanof and with Massimo Troisi, is one of the most appreciated films in the history of Italian cinema and among the most loved in Massimo Troisi’s filmography. Also because, a few days after the end of filming, in 1994, Troisi died of a heart attack. 71 years after his birth (19 February 1953), we want to celebrate him with the dish he prepared on the set of the film The postman: they are the spaghetti with artichokes by Mario Ruoppoloname of the character he played in the film.

Neruda’s postman

The film, directed by Michael Radford and by Troisi himself, is taken from the novel Neruda’s postmanwritten by the Chilean author Antonio Skarmeta. The film adaptation of the novel was strongly supported by the Neapolitan artist (indeed, born in San Giorgio a Cremano, on the outskirts of the city), who soon purchased the rights and asked Michael Radford to direct it. For this film he also renounced heart surgery, so as not to lose the presence of Philippe Noiret, the protagonist of the film with him.

From Pollara beach…

Among the many evocative and indelible places in the memory of those who have seen it The postmanthere is definitely there golden beach of Pollara in Salina, nestled between a high rock face and a fairytale sea, where Troisi and the poet Neruda, played by Philippe Noiret, throw pebbles towards the sea. Right in the municipality of Malfa, overlooking Pollara, stands the Locanda del Postino, a small accommodation facility with 10 rooms furnished in Aeolian style, inside the former home of the town’s parish priest. Here Mauro and Amelia, together with their children Francesco and Mariachiara, also run a small restaurant. «It was 1985 when my wife and I fell in love and, after studying in Messina, in February 1994 we decided to move to Salina, says Mauro. At that time Troisi was filming The postman, hence the name of the structure. In business since 2000, the dishes offered by Mrs. Amelia are based on local ingredients. «Capers are famous in Pollara, but also the siccagno tomato, which dries on the plant, and then fish at will, only the catch of the day. Like the albacore tartare with crunchy celery and capers or the pasta with siccagni tomatoes and caper pesto, up to the traditional desserts entrusted to the expert hands of daughter Mariachiara.

… to the island of Procida

There is also another place that bears the same name, but which is located on another island, where most of the scenes of Troisi’s film were filmed. Too bad, however, that the Postman’s inn in Procida it closed its doors last November. Right here, on the port, in front of the piled up nets of the fishermen, the love between was born Mario Ruopolo (Massimo Troisi) e Beatriceplayed by a very young girl Maria Grazia Cucinotta. At the Locanda del Postino it was possible to have dinner or stop for a coffee amidst the creaking of the fishermen’s boats and the atmosphere of the village. Inside the tavern, an entire wall was dedicated to celebrating the film with images, quotes and even the brown bag, the same one used in the filming. Here then is the recipe that Mario Ruoppolo prepared for Beatrice. A simple dish, made with love, in memory of the great figure of Massimo Troisi.

Spaghetti with artichokes Mario Ruoppolo style

Ingredients

500 g of spaghetti
6 artichokes
400 g of ripe or peeled tomatoes
1 clove of garlic
4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
fresh basil
fresh parsley
Salt to taste
pepper as needed

Method

Clean the artichokes by removing the hardest outer leaves, cut them into slices and place them in a pan with the oil and garlic. Let them simmer for a few minutes and add the diced tomatoes.
Cook for half an hour, season with salt and pepper, flavor with a few basil leaves and parsley (or even without anything).
When the artichokes are cooked, season the spaghetti cooked al dente in plenty of salted water.

Recipe Wholemeal spelled spaghetti with chickpeas and artichokes, the recipe – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

The Wholemeal spelled spaghetti with chickpeas and artichokes they are not just a tasty recipe: they are a single dish full of vegetables which give volumetric satiety in the stomach, allow a certain cleansing of the intestine and a restoration, through their prebiotic function, of the good intestinal bacterial flora, relieving the liver and pancreas of their functions and freeing the former from accumulated fat.

The vegetables, in this case i artichokesare synergistically combined with raw complex carbohydrates slow absorption (the wholemeal spelled) to avoid glycemic spikes; then there are vegetable proteinslike those of the gods chickpeasmore easily digestible than most animal ones.

The dish was created with the advice of Marco De Angelis, specialist in Sports Medicine and associate professor at the University of L’Aquila (Department of Applied Clinical Sciences and Biotechnology). Discover the recipe!

Grilled cheese and pepper: chef Errico Recanati’s recipe – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

Never tried it grilled cheese and pepper? Cacio e pepe is a classic of Italian cuisine, and its difficulty lies in perfectly mixing the cheese with the pasta at the end of cooking. Not in the kitchen Andreinathe 1 Michelin star restaurant of Errico Recanatito Loretto. In MarcheIn fact, in the shadow of the dome of the famous sanctuary, the cacio e pepe is (literally) cooked on live embers. And the result is like a haute cuisine manual.

The ingredients are the usual ones, pasta, cheese, pepper, plus the chef’s favorite: smoke. The Cacio e 7 pepi of the Andreina restaurant – as it is called on the menu – is in fact the perfect synthesis between great Italian tradition, archaic techniques, gastronomic research and exotic ingredients. If the cheese is Fossa cheese or Parmigiano Reggiano, the pasta is a very local Benedetto Cavalieri made from Senatore Cappelli wheat, the peppers are only the result of a meticulous selection between China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Nepal and Vietnam. It would be a great cacio e pepe, with the grill it becomes unique.

If the smoky taste and the tendency to “return to the fire” crosses international cuisine far and wide, here it has been in the DNA for more than 60 years, since Andreina roasted piglet in the same fireplace that her nephew now uses. The smoking does not come from the sauce, from the use of bacon or bacon, from spectacular smoking under a cloche at the time of service or from some creative trick. Here they cook everything on the grill. Pasta too.

Grilled cheese and pepper: cooking in 4 phases

Cooking takes place in four phases: classic, in salted water, on the grill and in a pan. «The pasta is a Benedetto Cavalieri spaghettone that cooks for 18 minutes, the only pasta that cooks this well, he tells me. «It boils for 4 minutes in water, then is immersed for 6 minutes in water at 60°: if we used cold water it would lose all the starch. Afterwards we chill it again to definitively stop the cooking. Then we dry it on tea towels. You need 200 or 210 grams per portion to serve 150 or 120 at the end of the process.” When triple-cooked, many spaghetti break or are over-grilled and are therefore set aside.

«If you are wondering how it is possible to create a grilled pastaknow that Errico Recanati uses small grills of various thicknesses to be placed over the classic grill, on which it is also possible to cook wild herbs: given the dense mesh of the grid everything cooks evenly without ever falling, which would impossible by cooking directly on the classic grill”, writes Allan Bay in the preface of the book Cook on the grill by Errico Recanati (Italian Gourmet editions).

The hat that conveys the fumes

The pasta is cooked for 9 minutes on live coals, under a hat: a special tool invented by Errico Recanati and self-built with cooking trays and lid handles. The hat retains the sweet smoke of its special charcoal composed of seven aromatic but non-invasive woods from the Apennines. At that moment, stirred on the stove with cooking water, cheese, butter and seven peppers. «A single pepper would block the flavor of the embers, but these peppers are aromatic, they extend the flavor of the embers without covering it. And the result is exactly that. A pasta that is still perfectly calloused, al dente, crunchy in some places, which smells of smoke and has the flavor of smoke, not burnt, which lasts in the mouth thanks to the aromatic and non-spicy action of the pepper. «We ate overcooked pasta for months, he tells me, and since 2017 it has never left the menu.