14-01-2016
What will be the "dish of 2016" of the greatest Italian chefs? Identità Golose asked them directly: the result is a series of articles presenting the best and most recent fine dining creations of the most famous kitchen "signatures". The first episode is dedicated to the Northwest: Piedmont, Aosta Valley and Liguria. Next episode Lombardy
Enrico Crippa, Piazza Duomo, Alba (Cuneo)
Prawn and radicchio from Treviso cocktail – It’s a take on prawn cocktail with radicchio from Treviso first vacuum cooked and then opened as if it were a water lily. The prawn is seasoned with smoked pancetta cooking water. Then prawn bisque and a drop of shiso vinegar. Hence the classic dish acquires a new dimension, seasoned with choron sauce, which is basically a Béarnaise sauce with tomato
Andrea Ribaldone, I Due Buoi, Alessandria
Fassone beef agnolotti – Subtitle: “Memories of a trip to Japan”. Because I unite a true Piedmontese classic with a typical Japanese technique, soba in ice. Hence: cold agnolotti, in ice, with the intensity of the stuffing enhanced by the low temperature. I connect with the territory: not having agnolotti in the menu, in Piedmont, is blasphemy. However, I present them almost crispy. I took the recipe from my aunt, from Lu Monferrato, and remembered when as a child I would eat her agnolotti as soon as she made them, still raw and callous
Riccardo Aiachini, La Fermata, Alessandria
Chicken alla Marengo... – It’s an ancient recipe dedicated to Napoleon after the battle he won against the Austrians in June of 1800. With a contemporary take, of course
Davide Palluda, All’Enoteca, Canale (Cuneo)
Salted codf with milk and onion caramel – A veil of pungent and sweet caramel, with dried onion amplifying its flavour, on top of the salted cod cooked with milk. A sumptuous and intrigating dish, with white and milky tones, connected with my past and the history of many regions that don’t have any sea but have always been dreaming of it when cooking
Marc Lanteri, Al Castello di Grinzane, Grinzane Cavour (Cuneo)
Marco Martini’s Fassone steak tartare, light whole grain mustard mayonnaise and Parmigiano matured 30 months – This dish is a classic from the Langhe, to which I give a touch of France thanks to the light whole grain mustard mayonnaise
Barbara Scabin, Blupum, Ivrea (Torino)
L'isola galleggiante dei cugini d'Oltralpe rivisto al contrario [The floating island of the cousins from the other side of the Alps, seen upside down] – Quoting Wikipedia: it’s a relatively light and moderately sweet dessert, so much so that if prepared with the necessary attention, it can also be eaten by people suffering from diabetes, cardiac and celiac diseases
Marco Rossi, La Mugnaia, Ivrea (Torino)
Testacoda – These are cheeks cooked very slowly, tail wrapped in cabbage and fillet tataki with horseradish. In other ways, it’s Piedmontese fassone from the Langhe to Japan…
Marta Grassi, Tantris, Novara
Prospettiva nord: baccalà e culatello s’incontrano [Looking North, salted cod and culatello meet] – Two elements, two Northern regions, the former sober and simple, the latter opulent, meet and melt
Antonino Cannavacciuolo, Villa Crespi, Orta San Giulio (Novara)
Prawns, egg and tomato – My personal play with marine textures. This fake mini sunny side up egg is my south with earthly aromas such as tomato and inside a tartare of raw prawns. Red prawn from Sicily is still one of my favourite crustaceans, it’s a part of my life (photo credits Viaggiatore Gourmet)
Christian Milone, Trattoria Zappatori, Pinerolo (Torino)
Egg and eggs – Egg yolk with truffle, caviar, celery broth and parsley buttons... with herbs. There’s a world inside, it pulls down prejudgements and popular beliefs having everyone’s taste agree
Christian Meloni Delrio, Casa Baladin, Piozzo (Cuneo)
A cage made with quinoa, scampi and burrata – A simple yet flavourful dish, perfectly matched with our Wayan beer, a saison with scents of pepper
Davide Scabin, Combal.zero, Rivoli (Torino)
Saltimbocca alla Combal.zero – When you see a slice of prosciutto and some sage on top of a slice of meat you know it’s a "saltimbocca alla romana”. As of today, when you see a slice of prosciutto and some sage on a pasta lasagna (the egg-pasta must be at least 4 mm thick), you’ll know it’s a “saltimbocca alla Scabinsky”. The only variation: 3 different prosciuttos are used, one from Piedmont, one from Parma and one from Tuscany (from the great Fracassi)
Igor Macchia, La Credenza, San Mauro Torinese (Torino)
Felicetti Conchiglioni with squid ink, mussels, potatoes, chicory and candied ginger – All the flavour of Italian tradition plus the lightness of the Japanese one
Luca Zecchin, Guido da Costigliole, Santo Stefano Belbo (Cuneo)
Steamed and then roasted duck thigh with Abate pears, honey and pepper from Val di Maggia – A dish that encloses our tradition and connects our borders in Italy
Ugo Alciati, Guido, Serralunga d'Alba
Cardoons pears and anchovies – An unusual and intriguing pairing, the meeting of three Piedmontese ingredients that aren’t normally matched: hunchback cardoons from Nizza Monferrato, Madernassa pear and salted anchovy
Massimiliano Musso, Cà Vittoria, Tigliole d’Asti (Asti)
Rabbit, artichokes, liquorice and vegetal notes – I’m proud of this dish because in Piedmontese tradition roasted rabbit is always present in the Sunday lunch menu. I enriched it with a modern cooking technique (that is to say low temperature), pairing it with artichokes cooked in a vacuum with oil aromatised with toasted and blended peels and a liquorice mayo. Finally herbs, a vegetal touch coming from my kitchen garden
Claudio Vicina, Casa Vicina a Eataly, Torino
Kabuki 2013 – From 2013 onwards, it has undergone many changes. It’s a complete main course in terms of nutrients and calories. It was born as a starter in ancient times (tartrà). It then became more refined, in the shape of a pie, and today it’s a complete vegetarian dish. It’s called Kabuki because of it’s an explosion of colours, vegetables (4 or 5) and flavour. We serve it thus: a pie made with courgettes and Grana Padano matured 24 months in the centre of the dish. Finally, on top of the pie, we carefully put the egg yolk breaded with brioche crumbles fried in extra virgin olive oil
Matteo Baronetto, Del Cambio, Torino
Lasagne with sea lettuce and veal meat sauce (without tomato) – The sea lettuce lasagne is an almost natural and spontaneous version of Gualtiero Marches’s lasagne made with green pasta and pheasant meat sauce which I made again and again. It is natural and spontaneous in that the idea is not of giving a new take on the classic lasagne but a chance to a celiac to taste the primary taste of lasagne. The sea lettuce in fact shows no difference with the classic Italian green coloured pasta
Marcello Trentini, Magorabin, Torino
Puntarelle/Burrata/Anchovies- A delicious and complex snack uniting North and South... Hanging in the balance between bitter, sapid, sweet and umami
Alessandro Mecca, Spazio 7 – Torino
Pork belly, apple, oyster and ear – A journey across strong and delicate flavours, where the tradition of my territory is renewed in the dish by meeting the sea (photo by Edoardo Gatti)
Stefano Borra, Vo, Torino
Jerusalem artichoke cooked in two ways, cardoons au gratin, rabbit meat sauce, white truffle – My bagna caoda, served in a "balon”
Marco Sacco, Piccolo Lago, Verbania
Bottoni di lago – A dish that brings back the memory of the days spent by the lake as a child
Maurizio Macario, Nazionale, Vernante (Cuneo)
Smoked fario trout, its roe, acid curdle and gomasio – A new dish, Occitan-style. The iridea trout from the Maritime Alps is lightly smoked, served in a crispy cannolo (like a savoury version of chiacchiere), slightly sour goat’s and cow’s milk cream, with gomasio adding a sapid note
Christian and Manuel Costardi, Cinzia - Da Christian e Manuel, Vercelli
iNvidia – A sweet by Manuel, who created a new word: "cuocodolce". In his evolution, he’s getting closer and closer to the kitchen and his sweets are becoming real courses. This cake is born from the use of endive as a container for a cream of liquorice, plus almonds and capers
Agostino Buillas, Café Quinson, Morgex (Aosta)
Non di solo fumo... [More than smoke] – The disregarded veal sweetbreads deserve more! Served on a sour cream with chives, herring roe and juniper smoke
Federico Zanasi, Snowflake del Principe delle Nevi, Cervinia (Aosta)
Stewed cabbage, camomile, goat Hollandaise with burnt almonds and white truffle – I’m proud of this dish because I made an undervalued vegetable nobler, and upturned the concept of vegetables as a side dish. In this case the taste of the meat is a side to the vegetable
Serenella Medone, Al Solito Posto, Bogliasco (Genoa)
Black cabbage ravioli with local fish, raw and cooked – When there’s no prebuggiun to make pansoti… These ravioli are made with stewed black cabbage fried with diced local fish and served with raw bonito. The idea is to substitute the mixed wild herbs – which we call prebuggiun – with a seasonal vegetable and transform it into a seafood dish
Marco Visciola, Il Marin di Eataly Genova, Genoa
Cappon Magro 2.0 – A great classic from Liguria re-interpreted thanks to an experience and journey across traditions and ancient fermentation techniques from Korean cuisine (photo by Francesco Zoppi)
Davide Cannavino, La Voglia Matta, Genoa
Testa in cassetta di pesce – It is a current entrée at La Voglia Matta. The idea is that of using all the edible leftovers of the fish (head, throat, belly, liver) and follow the head cheese technique. A current and regional dish, as Liguria also produces cold cuts
Roberto Circella, La Brinca, Ne (Genoa)
Lattata di fagiolane bianche locali e baccalà – It’s a rough purée, based on an ancient recipe. Lattate where all kinds of dried legumes soaked in water overnight, hand processed on a rough cloth so as to remove their “milk”, thus obtaining a rough purée. At the same time we created this dish enhancing two local varieties of white beans, namely Quarantina della Val d’Aveto and Bianca di Figino, matching them with salted cod which is also traditional in Genoa
What will 2016 bring? No, this is not the classic new-year horoscope. It’s not a question of interpreting the stars, though perhaps we need to interpret the starred chefs (and not only them). In other words: Identità Golose took it upon itself to contact all the chefs in Italy included in our online guide, plus a few more who would deserve to be so and will probably be soon. We asked them: what will your most important dish be this year? The one you’re still studying, or have recently introduced in the menu, or you which you count to be your signature dishfor 2016?
We wanted to write an article, but we received such a flood of feedback that we were induced – in fact forced – to change our plans, and divide the country into geographic areas, including a piece on pizza-chefs which, last but not least, will close the series. We asked all the chefs we esteem to tell us the name of the dish and send us a brief description plus a photo (some are professional, some are amateurish, yet the quality is always clear).
The result, in other words, is a sort of gourmet guide for the year that has just begun. As of today, we will present a series of dozens and dozens of signature dishes, some of which we will further investigate to fully understand all their secrets. Today we start with the Northwest, that is to say Piedmont, the Aosta Valley and Liguria. Lombardy will follow, and so on, up till the Islands, and, as we said, pizza. Enjoy this delicious series!
The events you cannot miss and all the news of topical interest from the food planet
by