15-05-2017
Antonia Klugmann in the morning while she’s picking herbs and sprouts in front of L'Argine together with intern Emanuele Del Do, from San Daniele in Friuli
Our splendid dinner at Antonia Klugmann’s in the photos by Tanio Liotta. We start with Fagottino with blanched chards, candied carrot, turmeric, chilli pepper, lemon juice and clover
Mussel from Sistiana, bottarga (in gel and grated), candied ginger, parsley, coriander and nigella: delicious
Whipped salted codfish and beetroot: codfish whipped with extra virgin olive oil, three expressions of beetroot (centrifuge juice, raw, thinly sliced, and smoked)
Raw pink prawn and torched friggitello, prawn bisque, tarragon
Beef bone marrow and broccoli tips, the stalk served in brine, its centrifuge juice, the sautéed leaves, campion, oil, bergamot powder and purée: an unforgettable dish
Salad: blanched green asparagus later pan fried, lettuce from the vegetable garden, dried borage, its stalk cooked in water and butter, stellina odorosa, sorrel centrifuge juice. Another award winning dish, the composition changes every day, depending on what is available
Lamb liver and heart with grilled pork mantles, crisp beans and peas, pea shoots, sweet garlic cream
Tripe, beans, burnt powder and ivy: tripe is the so called cuffia, it is boiled as per tradition in vegetal broth, then cut into strips and browned, then boiled again with a smoked pork bones broth. Then there’s ashes of black celery, field ivy picked the same morning, borlotti beans «from our garden». Another great dish showing how make tripe elegant and complex
Spaghetti with squid and squid ink, «this is comfort food» says Romano De Feo. But excellent: the spaghetti from Gragnano are mixed with a sauce of squid liver, then pepper from Nepal to add a citrus note, squid ink and raw squid
A new risotto: Motta rice, parmigiano, wild baby spinach, cooked and raw, juniper oil, saba with parmigiano and grappa. «This is a dish I thought of during a tasting at Premiata Distilleria Pagura 1879 in Castions di Zoppola», the eldest in Friuli. Very interesting. We can even smell the aroma of panettone
White asparagus, almond water and rosemary flowers: they put asparagus in tinfoil and bake it with some butter, so as to keep it humid giving it a grilled note. Then there’s a little elderberry
Open lasagne with wild garlic and sclopit (the Friulian word for campion): the aromas are already in the dough, they add nettle cream, chopped bruscandoli, bible leaf, wild garlic seeds to add a crispy note. Pure, elegant vegetal notes
Cheek boiled in beer, wild asparagus
Carob mousse, honey and sesame, flax, sunflower and pumpkin seeds
Idea, ravioli as a cake: the pasta is made with only water and flour, Korean style. It’s filled with toasted walnuts, apples, toasted breadcrumbs, dried herbs (sage, thyme, campion)... Then mixed with a sweet barley cream. «In the Natisone valleys there’s a sort of boiled ravioli, called gubana». These ravioli are garnished with fresh herbs (ivy, yarrow, meadowsweet, wild red thyme, camomile), «here there’s also a relation between fresh and dry herbs, like in France»
Egg-free custard, coffee gel, compote of pears in syrup
Orange gelo, candied orange
Question: are there perhaps two Antonia Klugmann? On the one hand, the one you see in the morning, kneeling to pick fresh sprouts and herbs, in the countryside around her restaurant... And then another, getting ready to become a famous Masterchef judge? The chef with the soft touch, the gentle attitude we had already met at Venissa... And the future TV star, sincerely getting ready to inherit the “bad” role of Carlo Cracco, «I’m very strict in the kitchen», get ready to see her slaughter the participants?
We were wondering this, when approaching Vencò, a hamlet of Dolegna del Collio, in the province of Gorizia: a place outside and inside history which she chose as her culinary retreat («I wanted something like this: small, surrounded by nature. I travelled a lot around Friuli, to find it: everywhere I went, I saw landscapes wounded by industrial warehouses, bucolic scenes compromised by abandoned industrial areas. Then I got here…»).
L'Argine
It will be on the opposite side to the entrance, facing nearby Slovenia. As for us, we slept in one of the four, lovely and small rooms created on the left side of the restaurant, «looking onto nothing», that is to say something that for a long time we’ve learnt not to know: the countryside. «I was inspired by Kobe Desraumaults’s In de Wulf».
Klugmann, to the left, with her brigade: Kengo Okada, born in 1981 in Kobe, Japan, and Ligurian-Sicilian Sonia Sabello, 1994
«A farmer used to live in this building. He didn’t have a bathroom. The washing machine was in the courtyard… With Romano we wanted a modern building next to the original one», with which it communicates in perfect symbiosis, in a constant reference to past, present and future, «we called an architect, his quote was too expensive», so De Feo dusted off his surveyor diploma and made Antonia’s dreams come true.
She tells us about the past winter, «for two weeks we reached -17°C. All the sprouts were lost». And she asks: «How can Michel Bras handle the vegetable garden in the winter? I must pay him a visit». After all, last summer, +45°C became customary in the kitchen: but Klugmann stands this happily, «Romano would like to add air-conditioning, but it’s very expensive. It’s best to resist».
Klugmann with Paolo Marchi at Identità Milano 2015
All around, on the hills, says Romano, there’s one winery after the other, «La Viarte is there, then I Clivi, and Felluga». But the diamond that can make this territory shine is L’Argine and it needs fuel, «I need to become more famous».
Really? The evening arrives, it’s time to sit for dinner [of the highest standards. As portrayed in Tanio Liotta’s photo gallery]. «Antonia is about to arrive, she’s still at home», which is close to Cividale, she must feed five cats and a dog. She’s late because the service ended well into the afternoon, «guests didn’t want to leave». Because you feel great here at L’Argine: it is already, surely one of the best restaurants in Italian fine dining. Even without television. Translated into English by Slawka G. Scarso
An outdoor trip or a journey to the other side of the planet? One thing is for sure: the destination is delicious, by Carlo Passera
by
journalist born in 1974, for many years he has covered politics, mostly, and food in his free time. Today he does exactly the opposite and this makes him very happy. As soon as he can, he dives into travels and good food. Identità Golose's editor in chief
