Spaghetto Milano

Six months dedicated to eating healthy food, respecting the seasonality of the very fresh ingredients chosen by Andrea Ribaldone who will sign the menu of the so called "fuori orario" [off time] in the programme of Identità Expo S.Pellegrino and on Monday and Tuesday nights.

The idea of the dishes in these menus is explicitly inspired by the word “goloso” [craveable], while also keeping in mind the words “healthy” and “tasty”. These are dishes that stand out for being seemingly simple, less intellectual and created for a heterogonous, international public, desiring to taste Italian specialties and more.

The leitmotiv that inspired Ribaldone for these menus is indeed craveable food, but paying the right attention to the needs and sensitivity of the visitors. So there will be no rabbit, to avoid shock in the Anglo-Saxon visitors, who venerate the funny animal as a pet, and there will also be no pork, concretely respecting religious cultures.

Every 15 days some dishes in the menu will change so that the ideal potential client, faithful to routine, may have a varied offer during the six months. Andrea is used to manage large numbers and remembers a detail connected with a consultancy for an important hotel in Rome where the number of breakfasts served is around 24,000 per year.

The chef says that «big numbers are necessary to understand how to manage a simple restaurant offer, based on high quality raw materials, strict attention to seasonality and enjoyable by all». There is one dish, however, that will remain in the menu for six months, namely Spaghetto Milano.

The genesis of this recipe starts with a request Paolo Marchi made to Andrea when he said he wanted to present a dish that could be a tribute to Milan. The dish is made with Monograno Felicetti spaghettoni cooked in water, with little salt, and creamed with a previously cooked risotto alla milanese. Or better still, in the words of the chef himself, «it was intentionally overcooked, creamed with Grana Padano and butter and then blended so as to make a rice cream with saffron that has a very unique softness».

In other words, risotto becomes part of the spaghetti or vice versa, and is then fried in a pan, creaming the creaming. A marrow is slowly cooked on the side, with some wine and a few sprigs of rosemary until it becomes a ragù cut with a knife.

On the side he also prepares a gremolada made with orange and lemon zest, parsley, extra virgin olive oil and a small garlic clove: all this is then blended and placed on the creamed spaghetti. And let’s not forget the final touch: the marrow, slightly grilled, adds the right craveable note to this dish, a perfect synthesis of Milan and Italy. If after reading these lines, as we hope, you’re now hungry... you just need to wait for the opening of the Identità Expo S.Pellegrino restaurant.