From risotto to couscous

«Chef and wineries, dishes and wines. This is the double force that moves the Roma Food and Wine». The second edition of the Roman Festival debuted yesterday at lunchtime on the third floor of Eataly Ostiense with a programme in unison launched in the very beginning by Claudio Ceroni of MagentaBureau, Paolo Marchi of Identità Golose and Helmuth Koecher of the Merano Wine Festival.

While the platoon of 200 wines was lined up for the tastings earlier on, around noon the event played the first poker of chefs: host Cristina Bowerman of Glass Hostaria, Milanese “guests” Viviana Varese of Alice Smeraldo and Cesare Battisti of Ratanà and the master of healthy pastry making Luca Montersino. Riferimento a collegamento ipertestuale non valido., at ease in the Eataly stores of the world. «We didn’t choose them by chance», Paolo Marchi revealed, «because it’s a team of friends: they hang out together a lot, even outside of here. This year’s idea is for all of them to interpret an Italian classic but with an extra touch».

Ready, steady go, and there was a long line for the Lamb and artichokes by the Apulian-American chef, already very comfortable with the traditional cuisine of her adoptive town. «I played with the concepts of the very popular Scottadito lamb and artichoke alla romana, a classic of this town’s Judaic tradition». A tribute to the historic alchemies in this town with the lamb being marinated with all the herbs and the spices of the artichoke alla romana, which, in its own turn, is confit cooked. The past dresses up for the evening.

Cesare Battisti, instead, played on the Milan-Rome axis with The vaccinara oxtail that fell into a risotto, a transmutation of our risotto that is suddenly creamed in a sauce that in Trastevere and the surroundings would only be conceived as paired with pasta. A successful transmutation that turns out to be (unexpectedly) light and aromatic. And it is also successful because, as the Milanese chef pointed out, «rice paired with meat cooked at a hot temperature is part of the DNA of northern risotto».

And while Montersino started his healthy and delicious roundabout of cakes (above all, Perla Rubino, a delicious Bavarian mousse with white chocolate), Viviana Varese attracted people to the rhythm of Rosemary’s ceci, that is to say small calamari, extract and chickpea cream with a very intense calamari stock that broke the order of the ingredients, livened up by the delicate exotic hint of curry. Aromas and flavours.

The evening opens with the eulogy of Luciano Monosilio (Pipero al Rex in Rome) for a dish that could not be more classic: Polenta taragna with meatball cooked in sauce, «A dish that is in fact among the most exported ones around the world», the guy from Lanuvio says, «I prepared the meatballs with a mixture of meat, one third mortadella, one third pork and one third beef». The shape, however, is a slap to traditional rules: it’s a sandwich. Fun, ancient deliciousness.

Angelo Sabatelli arrives right after him from Monopoli (Bari) and presents another masterpiece: Rice, potatoes and mussels “according to my point of view”. That is? «It’s a baking tin in which the potatoes never cook», says Marchi, «when they are cooked, everything else (rice and mussels) is overcooked)‘. What is Sabatelli’s point of view? Compared to the classic, there’s more tradition and less mussels: «Indeed, the name of the dish is not Potatoes, rice and mussels as in the traditional one: I put the rice at the top because I wanted to prepare it as a risotto». An idea that brings joy.

The day 1 finale is totally dedicated to Andrea Provenzani, a Milanese struck on the way to couscous, the emblematic dish of the Mediterranean that has given more than one satisfaction to the chef at Liberty. The version presented at Eataly Roma is a rainbow of colours and taste: saffron couscous, amberjack, wild fennel pesto, candied lemon and pistachios, onion with Marsala, almond milk. «My father is Sicilian, to begin with. I wanted to represent a territory, and vintage flavours. Contrary to San Vito’s tradition, you can eat this with a tablespoon». The winning ingredient: almond milk.