A marathon with Milone

Ciocofoie
A shell of 70% chocolate encloses a filling of mi-cuit foie gras with a few drops of traditional balsamic vinegar. Just to warm up the engine

Sea weeds from our kitchen garden
A borderline dish, playing with the chef’s favourite techniques, namely lyophilisation and rehydration. He spoke about these even at Identità d’Acqua, within the latest edition of Identità Milano. The Roman salad from the Zappatori kitchen garden is first lyophilised and then rehydrated with orange juice, which adds the citrus muscles necessary to bear the impact of the powdered oyster, the red prawn and the scampi. Not a job for everyone

Beetroot cloud and toma Blu Cozie
It would be a mistake to think of Milone playing only uppercut. Instead, he proves to have an elegance that seems to come natural to him (and pervades the entire tasting menu) with this ethereal meringue, light and very crispy, with a truly surprising texture that brakes upon contact with the saliva, revealing its sweet vegetal notes. However, it needs to come to terms not only with the shiso, a pleasant complement, but also with a powerful, delicious blue cheese that goes overboard. Our thought was: one could look for a more suave pairing

80’s.2 Aperitif
Peanuts and crodino. Le latter however is moved to this millennium and introduced to the pacoject. In other words, Milan’s popular drink in the Eighties can now be enjoyed with a spoon. The bitter note dominates, both metaphorically (recalling the good old times) and on the palate

Preserved tomato
Again lyophilisation and re-hydration, with this sherry to which an aromatic injection is added, with the addition, upon serving at the table, of some vegetable stock. We’ve already seen the injection of tomato (the unforgettable one at Josean Alija, for instance, or at Eneko Atxa): in this case the added value is given by the choice of “filling”: namely raspberry. In other words: strong sweet and acid notes, in which the stock acts as a counterpoint

Red prawn and black tea
More classic persuasions can be found in these red prawns chopped with herbs (basil, lemon thyme, lemon verbena…), transformed into bonbons covered in a smoked black tea gel

Mussels with squid ink
A beautiful dish, and delicious too, in fact with very traditional inspirations (the classic mussels soaked in lemon juice). In this case they are stuffed with the water obtained with the same mussels and with noble oysters, then transformed into gelatine. A pleasant citrus addition is brushed on the plate, mixing lime sauce and squid ink

Raw and red-wine-braised vicciola
Pure enjoyment, the merit in this case going both to Milone and to butcher Pino in Torino, where they “invented” vicciola, that is to say a fassona cow bred with hazelnuts (its diet is composed of corn, bran, hay and hazelnuts). There’s only one breeder, Giovanni Rossetti, supplying only this butcher in Via Cibrario, with yields that are much lower in terms of quantity but all to the advantage of a surprising quality. The meat has a sweet and delicate taste, a soft texture thanks to its oily fibre. Milone uses it as if it were raw, in the style of Alba, adding another cult preparation from his Piedmont, namely brasato (braised meat), in fact, in the form of a lyophilised and then powdered meat juice. This brilliant dish is completed by a microwaved scallion later burnt in the pan

Snails, elderberry and beer
Another stunning dish, a sort of evolution of the recipe (Snails and beer) thanks to which Milone won the 2012 edition of Premio Birra Moretti Grand Cru. The snails, caught during a night of searches in the woods of Pinerolo, are rolled in potato starch and then fried. They had been previously cooked in a stock made with leek juice and beer, in equal parts, which was then reduced with tapioca flour so as to make a side sauce. In the dish one can also find a foam made with red wine vinegar with elderberry and, on the other side, elderflowers kept in vinegar, which clean and add acidity. A complex and complete harmony of flavours

Pigeon, vegetables, coffee and hazelnut
The Zappatori family breeds pigeons, which then end up under our teeth, cooked in two ways: the breast is lightly scorched, the fillet is marinated in Pariani’s hazelnut oil. Shallots and carrots fermented with a Redzepi-style technique complete the dish: they are kept in salt and vacuum cooked at 20°C for 48 hours, to adding the right amount of acidity

Pasta with herbs and tomato
A classic fresh egg pasta, half egg yolks and half flour, with the addition of aromatic herbs in the mixture. Cut into the shape of lasagne, the pasta is cooked in tomato vegetal water, a technique (the tomatoes are blended and then their water is collected with percolation) illustrated at Identità Milano and applied to a Risotto with tomato and mozzarella. The pasta is creamed with butter, Piedmont-style, but hidden underneath one can also find the heart of the tomato itself, and some lyophilised pesto

Risotto arancia e vaniglia
Bel piatto di mezzo, tra universo salato e quello dolce: un risotto che guarda al Mediterraneo sia nell’uso degli agrumi, sia nella vocazione a divenire dessert, manco fossimo in Spagna o Turchia. Il cereale viene mantecato con olio di arance rosse, il caviale che vedete nella foto è di sfere di olio al peperoncino, alla base c’è una crema pasticcera alla vaniglia. Fiori a imbellettare il tutto

Parsley celery lovage... and green tea
A semifreddo bar made with white chocolate and parsley is covered with Matcha green tea ice cream, blanched green celery, powdered green tea, powdered lovage seeds, celery and lovage leaves. Clean

Meringata
«It is difficult to forget the meringata: a reassuring nostalgia gripped between the sublime floral notes and the bitter aggression of the ice-cream made with magnolia bark», wrote Alessandra Meldolesi in the latest edition of the Identità Golose guide

Puffed chocolate and Losa di Luserna
The triplet of desserts ends here, in the author’s opinion a little below the rest of the menu, with three puffed chocolates (milk chocolate and hazelnut, white chocolate with mandarin and dark with mint) and a sort of Luserna stone, made with powdered Fisherman’s sweets and clay, protecting the stomach and helping the digestion