Piombino, six miles e. ............ a rock. Story "ate" an evening dedicated to the Island of Elba, from Piombino
The idea of \u200b\u200bthese theme nights in the restaurant my brother in Piombino, was born from the desire to stay together and try new dishes exchanging recipes . . Unfortunately, during the summer we are too busy with our work so we took advantage of the autumn in order to plan your time for something exciting and that involved both at the same time guests. There are now so many years I've lived "the rock" and a little 'I feel isolated too. I learned to know it, live it, respect it and why not to love ... The Elbe. A Piombino I left my family and friends with their teens and also a lot of memories. On the "rock" rather than as a man and I grew up professionally . The theme of the first dinner is natural because the idea of \u200b\u200blinking the island to the mainland, particularly in Piombino, spin around in my head for some time. for Piombino Elba has always been an inseparable companion from the geographical point of view: is there .... before the eyes of everyone and this is given a little for granted. There seems to notice her only during summer months, when the longing for summer and attracts the beautiful sea cliffs. Unfortunately, most live across the island is careful not to live in winter, almost "snubbing" by its nature "isolated", which penalizes the mainland. For me, a Piombino, the island lives throughout the year, this gap is very minimal and is certainly plenty of plywood and filled by different aspects of the Elba-binding nature, territory and traditions. Hence the idea of \u200b\u200bthis dinner that was intended to make you appreciate the whole of this island to my countrymen Piombino.
Here is the path ...
Often the air is so clear that it seems you could touch it with a finger. Other times the mist envelops and becomes distant, almost invisible. Yet it is still there, six miles from the coast. For us it means Piombino Elba summer, tourism, beautiful sea and little else. In fact the island is much more. It has always been a land of conquest, thanks to its strategic location on the Tyrrhenian Sea and the presence of iron deposits. Etruscans, Greeks, Romans, Spaniards, Arabic, French and British took turns on that little piece of land and handing crossing cultures and traditions that have left a tangible mark on the habits and lifestyle of the islanders. This, consequently had a great influence on the culinary tradition that has grown and changed over time.
'm not here to talk about the history of the Elbe but to tell it the way I can better support in a small journey of tastes, smells and colors ... ... ....
SPEZZADIGIUNO octopus with fork
- Until a few years ago you could find this tasty cephalopod along streets and villages of the fleets. By going to the stalls of the " polpai " was served the claws piercing with a fork. Cooked al dente with just water, salt and pepper was and is considered a real delicacy.
PalaMare OIL transparency in
- With the century-old tradition of fishing and skipjack tuna (in a bathroom area and Enfola you can still find traps and palamitare) you can enjoy this type of fish preserved in olive oil and serve with greens, tomatoes soaked in balsamic vinegar to give a touch of freshness .
stockfish RIESE on creamed potatoes and black olive emulsion
dish in which we find very similar versions throughout the peninsula. The particularities of Elba is due to the fact that it is consumed in convivial watering them frequently with a good glass of wine during the "snacks" with friends.
sburrita MINERS but also pascatori
The cod imported on the island at the time of English rule has made this dish on the east coast Elbe a major source of livelihood of the miners with the addition of a few "poor" ingredients (water, bread, garlic and catmint) could get the support necessary to accomplish the heavy work day.
Totano rosemary
This is just the right time for fishing for squid and we could not offer what is one of the tastiest traditional dishes Elba version (in white) that are in the side the island.
RISOTTO with cuttlefish and with herbs wild
In the western tradition is good to beets associate the cuttlefish. This has given the housewives of Elba, in times of poverty, large families sit at table, resulting in "volume", adding to the few cuttle fish, tomatoes and beets (in the periods in which the garden permit) or other weeds that were and who are still on the island with ease. In those cases, very rare, in which he advanced a little came up again the next day as a condiment to rice.
RIBOLLITA INLAND IRON in the basin of bread
In reality this is not a traditional dish but since it reflects my philosophy of cooking which favors the zero kilometer, ; the rightful place among the dishes that speak more fully because of Elba consists of indigenous raw materials. After a walk with friends made along the paths along the mountain areas of mining Capoliveri we collected wild herbs (borage, strigoli, sedanini ditch, wild garlic, leek, fennel and calamint) before reaching the sea where the tide had sconcigli surfacing, lighting and tomatoes sea. Well ... back home I started to cook a soup with the ingredients available and the result was amazing ... but I'll leave to you the proceedings.
BLUE FISH THAT SPEAKS Elbani gurguglione with vegetable
E 'a stew of vegetables handed down by English conquerors. Simple but tasty, the "gurguglione" otherwise known as "puttanaio" (in its poorer with less variety of vegetables) has always been the quintessential side dish for Elba. For this dish I enjoyed imagining the boatswain aboard a galleon, busy cooking the stew for the crew using the vegetables that had been stowed at the last berth in Portoferraio just as the bow of the ship cruised schools of bluefish ... ..
GASTRONOMY 'TYPICAL Elbani aleatico with raisin - Schiacciunta, crushes are more nooks and briaca consumed traditional sweets. The crushing of Arab origin briaca (so called because flour mixed with sweet wine and enriched with nuts) accompanied Elba sailors during long sea voyages because the long shelf life due to the absence of eggs and animal fats, ensured a good livelihood. The schiacciunta hand, is a typical dessert of the western part of the island. Here, where they lived mainly by agriculture, the use of lard has been developed to create a tasty dessert. Both of these cakes lend themselves to wine tasting with accompanying dell'aleatico that is the pride of the dessert wines Elba.
Well, what about .... The restaurant was full and no one is left without going first to say hello and goodbye to the island. Maybe it's just a grain of sand, but I hope that the rock is coated onto a little closer to the usual six miles .......................... ..
"I will die with the nostalgia of these places , and if my soul is, I pray that she will wrap with the wind that goes along by the boulders Amiata Fiora melancholy down to the sea "
Cipriano Algor ... did not stay more than three minutes, was smart enough not to need to tell him that it was important not to sit still, with or without prayers, looking at a tomb, the important thing was coming, what matters is the journey that was done, a journey that is the path if you acknowledge that you are extending your contemplation is noted for yourself or, even worse, because you expect that you observe.
cold and the moon in the clear sky lights meadows asleep: sunflowers fall asleep on the shoulders of daisies. The night I wander lonely in the forest ; in my nebulous silence a sound comes from the past me all the time: the echo of love
bells ringing in the narcissus
lonely next to the river, reflecting in ' rippling water.
Seizing the salt crystallizes from the seabed questions continuously; my life flows fuoritempo: is brain exercise for uncertain to lick the sky with the head
view of inspiration and float in the air in which we are immersed nel'ambiente .... cogliamole! The kitchen
Beneee ............! last summer after a hard fall to me enjoying the island of Elba. Now I can get closer to its natural rhythms and more tourists to its non-authentic made of silence broken by the wind, drenched beaches of saline and marked only by the trampling of the gulls, and a clear sky filled with clouds that touch the horizon just as the sea gray, but sometimes blue and clear as the summer is never seen. Oh yes, the sea ..... I am sick of the sea and in the sea I am meeting every time I try calling me just like today. After the hail of recent days has finally arrvata the "expired". I'd seen him last night that the wind was fading and then wake up this morning at a quarter to six and, after wearing the suit, I loaded the rest of the equipment in the car and fled to seek the best place to dive. After a sirocco need to go in the south where the sea is "long" and slams the coast again wearily. There are areas where the visibility, while still low, allows the possibility to fish and usually this is the ideal situation because the octopus taken from the sea by building new nests and the fish starts to turn in search of food. The still rich in water features, the suspension and the foam produced by the lapping waves offer an ideal hiding place .....
here it is the catch of the day
I was right! eight bream, a couple of Trigliona and ten octopuses. Not bad, indeed I would say excellent fishing and taser you eat ELBA !!!!!
clean the fish while I think about how to prepare and let myself from the influence
"What can I prepare?" I was wondering, while the hunchback pile in the garden, cleaned the fish. A wood fire, in the near field, brought fresh air an 'inviting aroma of barbecued. I adore to prepare something exclusively to satisfy myself and my tastes now that are released from routine work, while seeing in the conception of self in the creation of menus and dishes, requires me to pay attention to the needs guests who have eating habits and taste very different from each other. What binds me to cook balancing and mediating the flavors. While I cleaned the fish's eye fell on the lilac flowers of a plant catmint beyond the moat. The choice of tonight's dinner is coming inevitably spontaneous and natural: sburrita of octopus and red mullet beautiful Calabrian soft piquant Sauce accompanied by slices of toasted bread and garlic well and good to complete ... Grilled sea bream (obviously not true of burning coal). I just have to find some friends to invite leading a good wine but I do not think this is difficult. We'll see what comes out, I'm curious to taste the soup !!!!!!
I stick him with amazement remembering. I try and try again, iron and wilderness, I do lost, but I live a foothold. The Moon ranicchia clothes on his back: I can not grasp the meaning
flows so the answer in the morning light, like the stars
If I think about my future and my eyes are closed Heavy not know my next steps, ne 'What will I learn to rejoice; perhaps my only child will live in my verses, perhaps will touch the shores of rivers and remote thoughts of strangers; that will end?
I do not know the answer but I know that it comes slowly
we wanted! It was time: I write are months of emotions "reflected" available from the kitchen that I have the pleasure to taste and continue to amaze and delight me with memories, stories, suggestions related to this beautiful island .... but I always missed the other element, as exciting, which is more creative and decisive: that of the DO. For obvious reasons, do not prepare food in the summer, but now that the quiet of autumn and the closure of the hotel brought me back to the warmth of my home and to regain possession of my intimate, resurface the "old pleasures."
One of my great pleasure this season (besides cooking) are the evenings at sea: the water temperature is wonderful and fantastic. Yesterday in Chiessi bathed ... I have only took the sun with bare feet. E 'this is the best season to visit the island Elba, I have no doubt
The water is absolutely crystal clear ...
crowded beaches are a distant memory and I enjoy the scent of the island in complete solitude
I find great satisfaction in being able to entertain friends (who season are often brought to overlook), share food and time with the patients, recovering areas of the self that inevitably season are compressed. Relaxes me and I enjoy preparing food, I find that it is a silent yet full of meaning and "unspoken words" to express gratitude, joy and festive feelings. In doing so often I smile because I discover a wide range of pleasurable sensations in words (although I have always held a big talker) and that instead I can hardly express the act of kneading, mixing or simply designing a plate, come out in a natural way. This reasoning is this joyful riot of intent, you'll see, are the ABC's "emotional cuisine" here at CERN, but the thing that really excites me more .... is that it is a way of interpreting and propose that the kitchen does not have fathers or mothers, "but belongs to everyone. In Michele Nardi I found the ability to clearly express this in a context that is related to catering logic often far from everything, combining technical knowledge and a passion and ability to play the game ... but the kitchen and emotional 'within us. It 'a language that we learn as children, when we make our very first experience of love (the mother who takes care of us, for example) and continues to develop his alphabet at every opportunity to share. Here today, thanks to the wonderful day and my desire to find good friends after the long summer break, I started the kitchen to prepare their dinner. I had a pumpkin (very beautiful), which was given to me and I noticed that the fields are found in abundance in this season of my beloved herbs and thought I'd give to them the scent of autumn "wrinkled". So I wanted to prepare the pumpkin gnocchi that condirò with the scents and colors of my favorite season ......
The various phases of the potatoes and squash, before being "reduced" in gnocchi
At this point I just to grasp the trash and go for herbs. I will try to implement some of the lessons received in recent years and will serve my dinner with great affection.
I know, the comparison with Michael Nardi is impossible but the rest is not even sought: joy in the encounter, good intentions and desire to share a handful of stories (to recover the months of separation) will be the ingredients for my dinner with friends tonight .... for this reason, I can say now the kitchen's emotional Maciarello Grouper is moving in! GNAM:)
wonderful memories I missed my grandmother and her genuine teachings
windy morning. An almost uniform gray milk covers the sky this morning and the south wind gusts to ripple the sea and the trees are dancing. I am also grayed today: a little sleep, the autumn which can be heard with his desire to "nest" of some ailment end of the season. In short, it is entirely legitimate desire to have the house, a nice comfortable chair in which to sink, a fragrant tea to sip and a good book to munch on while outside "screaming and whitens the sea." We find nothing wrong and even some great recipes and I think some genuine the flavor of canned and preserved vegetables, just to emphasize this pleasant languor home. I close my eyes and think of my grandmother who did the tomato paste, San Marzano to hire me and my cousins \u200b\u200bspent diligently in his backyard that smelled oregano grandfather that hung for drying. I remember the "handfuls of tomatoes" that elegantly we clung to each other on (when my grandmother was not present) and that wooden spoon, half gnawed by time and a lot of cooking that had cared for, we contended that we children of tweaks to the sound, symbol unquestioned authority of a housewife proudly attended those afternoons in midsummer. Today this memory alive and it seems to me a nostalgia devastating genuine acts of love with which the women of the house took care of our families (strictly all wrinkled, it goes without saying) brought me into the kitchen. I stole a recipe to Michael, one of many that will take me home, tucked among the yellowed pages that tell the alchemy of time and the dose of a few tricks of his grandmother and mother (always too busy in his difficult role as a teacher, the truth, so he could enjoy the art of cooking). In an early morning that I will have free, pending Irenina returns from school, then prepare the peppers (the ones that look like round tomatoes, so to speak) fillings. The recipe is
Simple (just enough to entice you) but the result is delicious and amazing .... basic ingredients to make me cook.
Boil in a pot 1 / 3 water, 1 / 3 of white wine and 1 / 3 vinegar, adding a pinch of salt. Meanwhile, clean the peppers removing their stalks and then completely emptied. The seeds, however, do not throw (anything that smells of healthy recovery moves me and excites me, so there about this "straight" by Michael) potetet use them dried them to make an excellent hot oil. soon as the water boils with wine and vinegar, dip the chillies you have emptied and wait long enough for the water resumes boiling, then take them out between two cloths and dry upside down (so that no water remains in them). Once you have them well dried, you can fill them at your leisure with a couple of anchovies and capers. Then arrange them in a beautiful glass jar and cover them with good olive oil.
Taste them with family or close friends because of the kitchen, you know, it is valuable material that is fed affectionate gestures of sharing and loving.
It never fails, it is true ... but today I especially deal with my emotion. Yes, because this is the first truly shared experience of "emotional cuisine" not simple! It is not easy because it is a story that began long ago and that involves all the senses, confusing them. It 's the story search of a slow, patient, unaware that I conducted in part over the years, going up to this strange and fascinating world of hospitality. Year after year, season after season, it was stated in me the desire to share with the host without this meant "force him to my presence" (no, no, no). I just realized how hectic and "poor suffering" were the lives of the most afflicted by duties, trapped between deadlines and responsibilities ... and spontaneously felt the need to create a space, here at CERN, where did you experience something totally different. Over time I started thinking about this hotel as a house of with the space in which time you empty the contents of his frantic grief and marks the changing of the times of the day in which to learn to "recover" self-care.
In this shared vision, it is evident, a role played by the election languages. Art, music, poetry, ceramics, ancient crafts .... Everything is done in the wide emotional cauldron that never ceases to simmer gently. But it was not enough ... it was not enough. I was looking for something "intimate, personal, absolutely subjective and yet joyfully shared with many people simultaneously. What could it be? Over time I realized: a cream and rosemary.
smile: Can you make it clear what I mean, let me explain better. I have always had a passion for cooking, in tracking it, the language par excellence. For me it is the shared set of codes at the same time intimate and personal, which we have had the experience now, just born. There is no oldest language, then, and more intrinsically linked to an act of love (that of a mother who feeds her child). He could not escape me, then. I had to find a worthy interpreter of such alchemy of gestures of affection and concern for the next Michael ... I found it in a case that is not the case.
Years ago I attended (Hear the Nardi with little profit), a cooking class led by him, move out of my proverbial curiosity and probably also by my love for this set of affectionate gestures and tasty at the same time. I was not satisfied until the end. The cuts of meat, the brown, mayonnaise and other key (the great classics in the kitchen) is not enough for me. I tried another ... I was looking for excitement. So for fun I started collecting my beloved herbs. The island is incredibly rich in endangered and gives us a way to perpetuate the emotion felt on the trails in the kitchen through the use of ingredients "stray". So, always game for a day at the course Michael told me he had tried to make a custard with rosemary, I collected and was lighting. At that moment, I realized that not only would be suitable for testing the cook at the hotel I wanted to do, but I realized what I wanted to do when you grow. I finally understood the type of cuisine that blends in with everything that happened and would happen at Cern in the following years.
KITCHEN EMOTIONAL, this is the name we have given so intimately connected with our world of emotions. A kitchen that is trying to mix with memories of old recipes related to our experiences, childhood, the affections, with the creativity that allows us, starting from the ingredients found in our paths, play unexpected finding new harmonies of flavor from simple but often surprising combinations. An emotion, a set of emotions, a concatenation of impressions never the same, small madeleine, suggestions that will bring the same aromas and vibrant colors which you experience during a walk along the coast or in our beautiful trails.
An ode to the joy of living in this place, a tribute to the exuberant beauty of a generous nature, a thought of gratitude because we are here, now, to share this meal. This to me, it means cooking emotional and with a little emotion, in fact, you take your hand quietly and we will walk along the paths.
No, not the peppermint ... of the ditch, with the leaves slightly rounded, purple flower spike is also round instead of as the most common instruments used in the kitchen. Yes, in short, the mint that grows along ditches, have you ever smelled? It has a delicate aroma and mouth manages to be fresh and somewhat persistent. Together with the catmint, peppermint is my favorite. grows (as the name itself) on the edge of streams and in any case in shady, damp areas. Here island, especially on this side, which is the most water-rich, lush and grows spontaneously and fills with the scent of the grass paths who this season finally come back to be viable, thanks to the mild climate less humid and certainly more enjoyable. day before yesterday I decided to take a walk, and among a handful of ripe blackberries and a few figs that have constituted the genuine my afternoon snack, I came across a small forest of mint ditch. are sincere, I went looking for her and I knew that the house along the path leading to St. Andrew, there are two places where it grows lush but certainly did not expect such generosity. In the spring, is smaller and has flourished ... but now appeared to me in all its glory and I just filled a basket that I delivered to Michael in the kitchen. I'm so born to ditch a mint syrup, ice cream (a cream from the mint of the ditch where he joined the cream before putting everything in the batch freezer) and the other night, "gnammi", a cream corollino mint sauce and a ditch all'aleatico
We want to try? In the case here is the recipe:
slam 5 egg yolks with 300 grams of sugar, then add 200 grams of butter, 400 grams of flour, half cup milk, 1 packet of yeast and 5 egg whites. Bake everything at 160 degrees for half an hour and serve with a scoop of mint ice cream on the side of the ditch.
are no recipes or preparation and of itself that moves (although the taste and variety of surprising combinations always manage to snatch tasting smiles). You see, what really surprises me and excites me, are the variety and richness of herbs, scents, flavors that this island offers us and from which not only are we able to offer a cuisine km below zero "( come visit us and we will show that in 500 meters is all that we need to eat more than in dignity and enjoy fully an area).
never ceases to move me in practice the idea that we can offer guests a sensory experience of great value from a small walk regenerative (for the spirit, even before the body). I wonder how many that is, those places where you can do all sorts of experiences during the day can be summed up (through the scents, colors and flavors) in a dish in the evening.
This is not perhaps that we have a great advantage compared to many destinations? Use would then promote it, know it, explore it a duty, to devote time and energy?
I think that in times of "unbridled globalization" have the opportunity to express a territory rich, varied and generous, can only represent a tremendous opportunity for growth that would enable the "target islands" to get noticed (and appreciated) than the other.
not know about you but I just do not believe it but I continue to feed (the spirit and the body) to "km below zero" and to offer it to anyone who passes this way: you must come to it experience?
A tribute to the season: figs strudel with jam, plum blossom and mint ditch
