13-12-2013

A winning pasta

This recipe granted Luca Caviola the mention for best savoury dish

Spaghettoni with Grano Matt, oxtail, wild hop and barley, the dish thanks to which Luca Caviola, sous-chef at restaurant L’Chimpl da Tamion in Vigo di Fassa (Trentino) was awarded with a mention for best savoury dish for the Premio Birra Moretti Grand Cru. The jury appreciated «the courage of someone who chose to present a dish with a strong Italian character in which it would have been easier to fail than to succeed. He did well, with a fantastic use of unusual ingredients»

I chose spaghettoni because they are an effective symbol of Italy across the world. I wanted to play with flavours: the bitter and acid notes of the pasta are paired with the vanilla and the toasted aroma of the hop. All this is mixed with the oxtail sauce – the extravagant component in this dish. The crispiness is given by the fried bread with lichen and the toasted barley sauce contributes to define the dish. I chose Birra Moretti because it has an easy taste and therefore it doesn’t stand over any other ingredient.

Spaghettoni with Grano Matt by Felicetti, oxtail, wild hop and barley

Recipe for 5 people

INGREDIENTS
For the cooking base of the spaghettone:
250g Birra Moretti “La Rossa”
500g Birra moretti “Grand Cru”
1000g chicken stock
70g extra virgin olive oil
30g trentin grana cheese
5g salt
1g Sarawak pepper
10/15 wild hop tops
½ vanilla pod
400 g Spaghettone al Grano Matt

As ingredients, Caviola chose Birra Moretti La Rossa, Birra Moretti Grand Cru e Birra Moretti Baffo D'Oro. As a drinking match Birra Moretti

For the oxtail sauce:
1 oxtail
1 golden onion
2 carrots
1 celery
½ leek
1 garlic clove
2 beefsteak tomatoes
500 g Birra Moretti “Baffo d’oro”
2 l beef stock
Rosemary, sage, anise, salt and pepper

For the toasted barley sauce:
70 g pearl barley
700 g water
60 g almonds
8 g brown sugar
3 g salt
1 g pepper

For the fried bread:
1000 g “00” flour
35 g sugar
20 g salt
30 g brewer’s yeast
50 g soft butter
500 g water
1 egg
20 g malt
140 g milk
20 g Icelandic lichen

METHOD:
For the Spaghettone
In a rice casserole, on a low flame, reduce the two beers to a half, then add the stock and reduce to a half, once again. Season and chill.
Cook the spaghettoni for three minutes, then drain them and continue to sauté with the base, adding the olive oil and the grana cheese in the last two minutes. Add the raw hop tips and the vanilla and finish the cooking.

Luca Caviola (photo Francesca Moscheni)

For the oxtail sauce
Cut the tail into rings, following the line of the vertebrae. On a side, boil the beer with the vegetables and herbs and pour it, when cold, onto the oxtail. Leave to marinate for 24 hours.
Drain the oxtail, brown it (adding salt and pepper) and place it on a baking tin; sauté the vegetables and add them to the meat. Add the beer and continue to cook with the beef stock.
Once the cooking is completed, after about 4 hours, leave to cool and strip the meat off, adding it to the filtered stock and the vegetable brunoise (the same used during the cooking). Thicken and season to taste.

For the toasted barley sauce:
Toast the barley with the salt until it turns to a dark colour, add water and bring to the boil. Leave in infusion for an hour and then filter. Reduce it until you obtain around 45 grams, season with sugar and pepper, freeze in a pacojet glass together with the toasted almonds.
Process it in the pacojet until you obtain a buttery yet smooth mixture, then fix the density by adding some warm water and mixing with a blender.

For the fried bread:
Knead as with a classic bread, leave it to grow and divide the dough into 3 plum-cake aluminium moulds. Leave it to raise for 90 minutes at 23°C and bake for 30 minutes at 190°C. Chill it, blend it coarsely and brown it in a saucepan with the butter and brown sugar.

Finishing the dish
Place the meat sauce in the centre of the plate using a round, 5 cm, pastry cutter. Place the pasta on top, in a nest shape. Draw two lines of barley sauce onto the dish and sprinkle the fried bread on the spaghettoni.