Energetic Sarah Grueneberg

Sarah Grueneberg is the chef at Monteverde, restaurant & pastificio, established in 2016 in the West Loop, in Chicago. Originally from Texas, Grueneberg worked for many years with Tony Mantuano, a pioneer of Italian cuisine in the United States, and in Italy, at Dal Pescatore with Nadia Santini. Here she learnt to love, and most of all to cook, dry pasta, the classic staff meal. So she decided to open a restaurant seating 300 people in Chicago that is entirely dedicated to pasta. They serve traditional Italian classics, from gnocchetti to tortelloni, and new and creative takes such as Arrabbiata with prawns or Cacio Whey Pepe.

She prepared the latter on the stage of Identità explaining how it was born: «I was making some ricotta at home when my boyfriend Jamie said he fancied pasta cacio e pepe. So instead of cooking water, I used the whey resulting from making ricotta, and then mixed the bucatini with Grana Padano, Pecorino Romano and Pecorino Sardo».

For the second recipe she mixed the dough for some fresh pasta a few minutes before getting on stage (at the restaurant, she has two authentic rezdore who roll out the pasta every day). She rolls out the dough while Jamie – whom she met in the kitchen at Mantuano’s Spiaggia – prepares the filling, with very fresh vegetables. They later fill the tortelli and fry them in a sauce of miso and mirin. The dish is finished with honey, hazelnuts and green shallot.