14-03-2018

Energetic Sarah Grueneberg

Cacio e pepe, Chicago-style, and fresh pasta. Notes from the lesson given by the American chef in love with first courses

To the right, Sarah Grueneberg, chef at Montever

To the right, Sarah Grueneberg, chef at Monteverde, the successful restaurant & pastificio in Chicago. Beside her, Eleonora Cozzella, who presented the ninth edition of Identità di pasta (photo Brambilla/Serrani)

Sarah Grueneberg is the chef at Monteverderestaurant & 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.


IG2018: il fattore umano

Tutto sull’edizione 2018 di Identità Golose, a Milano da sabato 3 a lunedì 5 marzo. Il tema della quattordicesima edizione sarà “Il fattore umano”

by

Giorgia Cannarella

Living in Bologna by birth and by choice, she writes about food and all it implies for Munchies ItaliaVice's website dedicated to food, and offline for Gazza Golosa  and Dispensa. Her passions include Cynar, biscuits and woods, not necessarily in this order 

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