The possibilities of pasta

Identità Chicago day one, lesson two. The Scuola at Eataly Chicago plays two aces in the restaurant industry, working at very distant latitudes: Carlo Cracco in Milan and Michael Tusk in San Francisco, California. Yet their sensitivity has closer affinities than their physical distance.

Vince Gerasole brilliantly introduces the chef from Vicenza, going back in his curriculum to the days when he was cooking at Enoteca Pinchiorri. «Today», says Cracco in English, «I’d like to speak of two different recipes. We’ll use pasta and we’ll try to be as simple as only a dish of pasta with tomato and basil can be».

With the first dish, phytoplankton enters the scene, «this microorganism was only used for pharmaceuticals once. It’s a very innovative dish. It tastes like the sea without being fish». It’s a bit like saffron: «It’s very expensive but you just need a gram per portion. We pair it with Spaghetti Monograno Felicetti, made from Matt wheat from Arizona grown in Apulia – l point this out because knowing where the wheat comes from is essential just like with fish or vegetables». He places the plankton at the bottom of the bowl and it turns into a fabulous seasoning enveloping the spaghetti: «Finding strong-flavoured ingredients, with exciting concentrated notes, is always stimulating». Super tasty depths.

[[ima]]The second dish, which everyone later tasted, was based on smoked butter. Why smoking it? «I find butter fascinating because it’s fat and rich, but by smoking it, it acquires a completely different direction». When the butter becomes very creamy, you smoke it with a gun, then place it in the fridge covered in cling film. A few hours later you drain the pasta 2 minutes before the suggested cooking time. You then toss it in the pan so it can fully absorb the sauce. Final touch: «So that people understand it’s smoked, we add some black bread made with vegetal carbon, without yeast». When tasting the pasta, you’ll feel like tasting many ingredients, «in fact it’s only one».

The conclusion is based on two golden rules by Cracco on the theme of pasta: «The first is that it must be tasty, it must be good. The second is that you appreciate it more if it’s al dente: it tastes better and it’s easier to digest». We may take this for granted, but it’s different in Illinois.

Now Michael Tusk. Originally from New Jersey, a graduate in History of Arts and an important experience with Alice Waters, today he has two very popular restaurants which he runs in San Francisco with his wife Lindsay: fine dining restaurant Quince and the more rustic Cotogna.

The big chef got on yet another plane to bring to Chicago some Sedani Monograno Felicetti with a purée of beans with octopus, abalone from the Bay of Monterey («they farm some excellent ones over there») and smoked pepper. The Sedani pasta is cooked straight into the soup, the octopus is vacuum cooked (and all its cooking liquid is then added to the soup) and then lightly smoked on the grill.

The result is a fantastic soup with pasta, very rich, with many elements all of which are perfectly recognisable on the palate.