Tag: Veneto

MasterChef: who is Chiara Pavan and what is environmental cuisine? – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

Let’s find out together who the guest chef on MasterChef is, the cook Chiara Pavanwhich you will often have found in our online articles and in the pages of our magazine’s recipe book.

The future is green, even in the kitchen, and MasterChef, in this evening’s episode, will explore the new frontiers of sustainability. In the last skill test of the season, dedicated to one cuisine that takes care of the territory through the valorization of its ingredients, the judges Bruno Barbieri, Antonino Cannavacciuolo and Giorgio Locatelli will welcome a special guest, Chiara Pavan from the Venissa restaurant (a green Michelin star), located on the island of Mazzorbo in Venice. The chef will tell the contestants about her environmental cuisine, which describes the surrounding area and, at the same time, reflects on the imprint she leaves on it.

Veronese, 39 years old, Chiara Pavan she graduated in Philosophy with a thesis in Philosophy of Science in Pisa. She has always been passionate about cooking, after obtaining the diploma in Almathe haute cuisine school in the province of Parma, gained experience at Caino in Montemerano, alongside chef Valeria Piccini, and landed at Venissa with Francesco Brutto (who is now also her life partner).

Only the products of your own microcosm

Together they take care of the restaurant menus, and their dishes are mainly based on the fruits of their garden, to convey the strong bond with the territory. «The garden of Venissa allows us to work with always fresh products, not treated in any way, unique because they grow in salt-rich soil, and above all that they have a decidedly lower carbon footprint, as they do not need transport to get to the restaurant”, explains the chef on Instagram. Of course, the project is very ambitious, and often complex: «Sometimes it’s really difficult to cook with products coming only from their own microcosm, following seasons that are increasingly uncertain. Yet the idea of environmental cuisine is mainly based on this. In the last year, seeing the lagoon in so much pain, we have given ourselves a lot of limits: vegetables from our garden on the island or from nearby gardens; only four-five invasive species; very local flours that are more complicated to work with. But how difficult is it?! How much easier it would be to use more common fish (now less and less present in our seas), meat, chocolate, exquisite exotic products (and to think that we don’t even use lemon… giving acidity with the unripe grapes recovered from the thinning of the vineyard) .

Less animal protein

Many of the proposals of Venissa are plant-based: Chiara Pavan will explain to the MasterChef contestants that «one of the main tasks of us chefs today is demonstrate that plant-based dishes are just as satisfying as those based on animal protein. Since food systems and the way we eat are responsible for a high percentage of gaseous emissions and pollution, in recent years I have thought a lot about what it really means to apply sustainability principles in the kitchen. It seems obvious but it isn’t: the most important thing is promote a diet low in animal protein and rich in vegetables, legumes and cereals. It is also essential to source supplies from growers and producers who share the same values of caring for the environment and the ecosystem with us.”

Among the vegetables that, as a good Venetian, she prefers, there is radicchio. «In Veneto the bitter taste is part of the culinary culture and is particularly appreciated. Bitterness is a habittakes us back to the flavors of the field, of winter with radicchio, but also of spring (with dandelion, wild herbs and, in particular, chicory).

Transforming problems into opportunities

But Chiara Pavan goes further: she tries to exploit invasive flora and fauna to transform problems into opportunities. Take, for example, the glasswort. «In the last two years the presence of halophyte plants in the lagoon has greatly increased. The cause is directly linked to climate change: the rise of the salt wedge, exacerbated by the droughts of recent years, which has led to an increase in the percentage of salt in the soil. The situation in north-eastern Italy is quite serious and we still don’t talk about it enough. Last year at Venissa we lost various fruit trees and a part of the vineyard. The victims of this increase in soil salinity are agricultural production and biodiversity. Only plants that tolerate a high percentage of salt manage to survive and spread, giving shape to real expanses of glasswort and “its sisters”. In my opinion, as with the situation of blue crabs, the climate emergency must be addressed before it is too late but also with a creative look: halophytic plants can be used in the kitchenthey are delicious and have interesting nutritional properties.”

Protein alternatives to meat

Among the alternative proteins to meat consumption, the chef has also introduced it to the menu a couple of years ago there venous turnip, a gastropod native to the Sea of Japan, which has already arrived in the upper Adriatic a few decades ago, probably – like the blue crab – through the ballast of ships. It is suitable for both long and very fast cooking. Another alien species served on the menu is theanadara inaequivalvis, also called Venus’ casket: it is an extremely invasive bivalve mollusc which, like the rapana, feeds on local molluscs, contributing to the loss of biodiversity and the transformation of marine ecosystems. Externally it is similar to the clam, but it has a singular taste and as much hemoglobin as (in percentage) beef. Chiara Pavan and Francesco Brutto have made a sort of “panna cotta” from it and also serve it raw, seasoned with garlic oil, ginger, lacto-fermented turnip, sea fennel, potentilla and oyster grass. «New invasive species, drought-tolerant cereals, insects and cultivated meat, promises the chef, «will be ingredients that we will welcome with curiosity.

Venice Carnival: 7 cheerful and delicious recipes – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

Fried creams – I Rombi del Doge

The rumble, or lozenge, is a widely used heraldic figure and ended up giving its name to the fried cream cooked by the Venetians and cut into this geometric shape, so exquisite that it became a delicacy worthy of a prince, or indeed a doge, the most prominent figure of the Very serene. All the Venetian bàcari, the typical taverns, served these exquisite and fragrant “rombi del doge”, crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside, from the day of Saint Anthony until Shrove Tuesday, according to tradition, possibly accompanied by a nice glass of passito wine.

The fritola – An affair of state

Born in the fourteenth century and proclaimed in the eighteenth century «national dessert of the Serenissima, the fritole were prepared exclusively by members of the renowned fritoleri guild who handed down the recipe from father to son, and also sold on street corners, stuck while still boiling in a wooden skewer to avoid greasing your fingers and sweeten generously with a special container with holes in it. L’art of local fryers was so appreciated that Goldoniin his famous comedy The little squareplaces among the protagonists the fritolera Orsola, a figure that painters like Pietro Longhi have immortalized on their canvases, indispensable protagonists of the Carnival.

Masks – Black and White

Wearing the Bautathe most famous Venetian disguise, the face remained hidden under a white mask, the Larvawhich covered three quarters of the face and also altered the voice, making the wearer unrecognizable, so much so that the Inquisition objected to the indiscriminate use that many aristocrats made of it even outside the carnival period to combine cooked and raw . La Moretta, also called “mute servant”, was instead dark and oval in shape; reserved for women, to wear it one had to “bite” a button placed inside at mouth level, so that the wearer could not speak. They preferred it to be popular and bourgeois.

Neapolitan pasticcio – A seducer’s dish

Giacomo Casanova was a protagonist of the Venetian Carnival. A refined gourmet, in his memoirs he mentions among his favorite dishes the macaroni pie «prepared by a good Neapolitan chef, perfect for days of celebration and joy. At that time the tomato had not yet entered the kitchens as a common ingredient the pasta (“maccherone” was the common name for various shapes, short and long) was also seasoned with sugar and honey. Our recipe is taken from a Neapolitan repertoire from the second half of the eighteenth century, Il cuoco galante by Vincenzo Corrado.

The historical text was written by the expert Marina Migliavacca.

Great-grandmother Fanny’s jugged hare: family recipe – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

Jugged hare, but not only. There is a nice atmosphere when you arrive at the lady’s house Annapaola Zandomeneghi, near Verona. “I’ve learned lots of recipes from you.” As a great reader of our magazine, this is how she welcomes us and then shows us the collection with pride (hers and, I assure you, ours too). A well-kept garden, an immaculate living room, a beautiful tablecloth with many signatures: they are those of the people who ate at this table, which are then embroidered, and soon mine will be there too. And then there’s the jugged hare on the fire on one side and the other polenta on the other. Mrs. Annapaola is not upset, also because with a past as a neurologist in hospital, much more is needed. The kitchen is crowded, there are the children Federico, who uncorks a bottle of wine, and Emanuela, who dedicates herself to supervising the food, while her daughter Adele, a medical student, arranges the cakes just taken out of the oven. They are inspired by Alto Adige because their father Bruno is from Bolzano and passed on to her the art of Linzer. Even if today the hare is the great protagonist. «It is a recurring recipe in this house, which we prepare when we are together, not on days like Christmas, for example, because it is not a dish that can be eaten by many people, explains Emanuela, professor of psychology at a Milanese university . «My father Albino she continues, «he had one grandmother called Fanny who cooked hare; she passed the recipe on to my grandmother Adele and then to my mother, who will one day give it to us. Let’s say that she is going down the genealogy of the women of the family.” The scent is everywhere in this kitchen. And the hare requires a lot of work, but no one here is scared. We are about to sit at the table, all together, as we do in our beautiful country, young and old, with the ritual that characterizes the Italian meal. The hare is delicious, with the right hint of acidity, the polenta soft as required for a traditional dish that will never change. Mrs. Annapaola is happy to have everyone gathered around her. Thank you, ma’am, for making me feel part of the family.

Great-grandmother Fanny’s hare, how to prepare it

«I cut a perfectly clean hare into pieces of half a gram each. I collect them in a large bowl, cover them thinly with water and a glass of vinegar and add a handful of salt, a few sprigs of rosemary and sage, peppercorns and a little cinnamon stick. I leave it to marinate in a cool place for twelve hours; at the end I rinse the hare very well. I chop a pound of coarse-grained artisanal salami and a pound of lard and brown them in a large earthenware pan with a drizzle of oil; when the sauce is ready, I add the pieces of hare, let them flavor and, as soon as they begin to dry, I add peppercorns, pieces of cinnamon, a few cloves, nutmeg, a handful of chopped almonds and a handful of raisins . I add a couple of glasses of broth, cover with the lid and let it cook gently for a couple of hours, gradually adding a little broth if necessary. At the end of cooking, when the meat comes away easily from the bones, I remove the hare very carefully, shred the meat and put it back in the earthenware pan, making sure that there are no small pieces of bones in the remaining sauce; I blend with a glass of white wine; when the wine has evaporated I mix everything with a sprinkling of grated parmesan. The hare is ready and I bring it to the table with the yellow polenta.”