Massimo’s is one year old: come to enjoy a special dinner

On the 27^th of April a new pasta tasting event will be held at Massimo’s Restaurant and Oyster bar in the Corinthia Hotel.

Have you ever been here before? Are you also a big pasta lover?Then you don’t have excuses: Pastificio dei Campi pasta will be served all the night with lots of recipes to taste from the classic Italian traditions. Massimo’s won’t be there but all his amazing chefs, ingredients and truly Italian recipes will be waiting for you with a glass of prosecco too, all for 25£.

You can read here and here about the previous successful pasta events, but if you have never eaten at this restaurant before, have a look at the amazing dishes you can find on their menu’.

Here is my little way to celebrate the first anniversary of Massimo's...

To start: Crab and ricotta ravioli with arancini or  Seafood salad

Pan fried Prawns with asparagus and bergamot sauce 

For Main: Linguine Pastificio dei Campi with squid and truffle or Amatriciana

To finish: Chocolate pudding with vanilla icecream or Pannacotta with poached rhubarb

Mouthwatering? I’ll see you next Friday at this event. Please leave a comment if you want to participate and i will add you in the list.

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More than 7 different  pasta dishes

Yes, this is the number of recipes he cooked for us all in one night! An explosion of taste, , traditions and high quality ingredients all mixed to create the perfect pasta night.
Between recipes, jokes, some learning from his experience and the italian tradition, Massimo Riccioli cooked some of the most famous Italian pasta dishes with Pastificio dei Campi and his personal touch!
Here a little recap of the night just to let you imagine the amazing time we had.
We started with some surprising pasta chips, fried Spaghetti served as a crunchy snack.

Then he opened the night with Vermicelli alla Sorrentina, with tomato, mozzarella and basil... This was just a little entry to tease the guests. “The red calls the black… like Pastificio dei Campi boxes, so here for you black squid ink pasta” This was one of the best dishes of the night Vermicelli with black squid ink and some grated salty ricotta! Everyone was amazed! 

To come back to the base of our cuisine, Massimo prepared a great Carbonara with Calle Pastificio dei Campi. Look at the pictures and tell me if it’s not tempting!

“ Now some inter regional Orecchiette with onion, like in Genova, broccoli and sardines from Sicily, the pasta from Gragnano and the original inspiration from Puglia.”

My favourite? Linguine with scallops, basil and a fantastic smoked ricotta cheese! Just a feast of taste.

When we were all thinking that the night was ending and with it the pasta dishes… Massimo started to cook again, and this time was… amatriciana of course, another pillar of the roman tradition! He chose Eliche Pastificio dei Campi for this dish and he didn’t put any oil or salt. All is left to the ingredients!

And to close the night, like in the most funny and long parties at home in Italy... Spaghetti aglio, olio e pepperoncino (oil garlic and chili). The  classic dish everyone cook in the long summer night, when all the friends are together in some house and the morning is approaching! Irresistible!

Do you want to come along next time to try Pastificio dei Campi as cooked by Massimo Riccioli? You are guaranteed to have a good time! Keep an eye on this space or write me in the comments space!

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More than 6 dishes made with Pastificio dei Campi pasta.

As you probably know if you read this blog, on the 24^th of January a special event took place in Massimo Restaurant and Oyster bar , in the stunning Corinthia Hotel: a pasta night to die for! 

Massimo Riccioli decided to hold a night just dedicated to this  versatile and simple ingredient and he used of course  our Pastificio dei Campi Pasta from Food in the city, to realize 6 great recipes.

It was a real tour from the easiest Italian pasta dishes to the most elaborated ones, until the last minute sweet creation: Trofie with Mascarpone , ricotta, lemon zest, some orange juice and  a sprinkle of chocolate in powder.

But do you want to know what was served before? Have a look at these pictures (you will find all of them on my Facebook profile):

Calle dei campi with Extra virgin Olive Oil and Parmesan : the simplicity made dream!

Spaghetti with two tomatoes sauce: reach and tasty as only the fresh tomato and a good quality of pasta can do.

Gnocchi sardi with spring onions, prawns, colatura di alici  (anchovy droplets) and bread crumbs…: stunning!

Kingdom of the two Sicilies: Linguine with fish ragu, aubergines and salted ricotta!

And from a roman chef I could not ask more than an original Amatriciana with Mezzi Paccheri (pecorino cheese, chilli, pork cheeks and tomatoes)

And the best element that bring life to all this dishes and to the night, what Massimo’s passion in cooking and make everyone part of his secrets and experience…

Are you sorry you couldn’t make it? Don’t worries there will be soon another event!

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A new socially-oriented platform for creating, sharing and comparing lists of things.

Today are exactly five years since the first tweet was posted on Twitter. How many of us could have think in this massive success? From breaking news to celebrity tweets, to the bloggers, sportive and simple people interested in saying their own thoughts, Twitter grew up so much that, for a good number of people, is now totally part of their day by day life.

What about instead Listgeeks, a funny platform I just discovered today? Basically if you are one of this people that loves to do lists or just someone curious about the fab five of other people, you can’t miss this website www.Listgeeks.com

Listgeeks Introduction from listgeeks on Vimeo.

Still in beta, this platform could be a new interactive tool we won’t be able to avoid in the next years, but for the moment is interesting to see the charts created by other people, comparing those with yours and maybe looking also for some idea or suggestion. You can search by terms, like cities, beers, restaurant, hobbies and discover what the people have in their favorites. You can even find places to go, things to do, restaurants never tried before and … recipes of course.

This morning in fact I had a little tour and what do you think I search there in first instance? "Pasta" of course! The only lists coming up were about people’s favorite food: pizza, pasta, dumplings etc... Then looking for recipes I didn’t see anything , so I decided to create my own list with my favorite five recipes until now! I was thinking it could be good to keep them handy for when needed. So here they are. 

I hope you will enjoy the charts and my chart.

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... tradition doesn't mean immobility!

But they also said: "and yet, to define ‘traditional’ in Italy is not simple. Within Italy too, there are so many regional influences to the cuisine. In southern Italy, for instance, there is an abundance of olive oil near the coast. Naturally, it forms an important ingredient in the cuisine. However, as you travel north and it becomes colder, olive oil is replaced by butter."

What about the recipes instead? To be able to experiment with a recipe, you have to know and understand what the traditional recipe is, he says. “Once you learn what each ingredient brings to a recipe, you can try innovating."

Strangely this discussion is the same going on in the italian blog too this week. "Tradition is not immobility but the contrary: the local traditions comes from the combination and influences and everything in the time is influences by the contest, the people and the historical moment. Everything is in evolution."

So for instance, I was surprised when yesterday, having a dinner at Roscioli, a very nice restaurant in the centre of Rome, I found very innovative dishes, near very traditional recipes, but all with a common point: the best italian ingredients, PGI or PDO, sometimes revisited in new combinations or just proposed following the most classic recipes.

The most classic white pizza or focaccia VS suppli with pork ragu'

Amatriciana or Carbonara VS Paccheri with peppers sauce, ricotta and bits of dried cod

Tiramisu' VS Cold chocolate cream with anise ice cream and croccante biscuits

And even the place is a mix between tradition and innovation: it's a classic old grocery, transformed in an little but very peculiar restaurant, with wine, homemade products and specialities everywhere and a great service.

As chef Macchia says : “I’ve learned that diners don’t always want foie gras or black truffle to get a good dining experience. Even a simple dish prepared differently will give them that feeling.” After my experience in Roscioli I can definitely agree ... the Paccheri were amazing!

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From the center of Italy to your table in only 10 minutes.

Have you ever cooked pasta at home? Maybe yes, but what about pastaamatriciana? It's one of the most traditional dishes in Italy, especially in Rome: Amatrice in fact is a town really close to this amazing city . The recipe is very quick, simple but really tasty...
 
This sauce goes particularly well with a special type of pasta: bucatini. Do you know it? It's a long pasta, similar to spaghetti but it's thicker and  bigger and has an hole in the middle! This makes the pasta not too heavy, but still more consistent than a classic spaghetto. Normally this kind of pasta could be quite hard to find in London, but now with Pastificio dei Campi you can find it at Harvey Nichols or online at Food in the city. 

So if you are tired of  always cooking spaghetti with the same tomato sauce, than this is  certainly  the time for you to try this recipe...especially now with the arrive of the new shallots  in the supermarkets! A few simple products will give you a complete and delicious dish, and because it's so quick and easy, why don't invite some friends for dinner like i did last night?

Ingredients for 4 - 5 people:

 - 500 gr of  Bucatini Pastificio dei Campi

 - 2 small shallots

- 200 gr of guanciale, if you can't find this you can use pancetta
 
- 500 gr of tomato passata

- 80 gr of Pecorino romano

- extra virgin olive oil

- salt, pepper and a bit of chilli peppers

Heat some olive oil in a pan and add the guanciale or pancetta cut in little pieces. Then add the chopped shallots (tastier than a regular onion) and wait for them to cook a bit on a medium fire.

When the shallots become transparent, add the tomato passata, with some salt, pepper and the chilli peppers cut  in thin slices. In the meantime boil water with some salt  and when ready add the pasta and cook for around 6 minutes. While you are waiting for the passata and the rest to cook, grate some roman Pecorino cheese. This looks very similar to Parmesan cheese but it's saltier and has a stronger taste.

Check on the sauce. If it’s getting too dry, turn off the fire until the pasta is ready. Then drain the pasta, but keep some water on a side just in case. Add the pasta to the sauce and toss it whilst the pan is on the fire so the pasta will be able to absorb the great sauce and flavours.

Serve it on a plate with some grated pecorino on top and fresh grated black pepper if you like it. I hope you will enjoy the bucatini and this real roman recipe.

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