Have you booked for the next event?

The fourth pasta tasting event at Massimo's Restaurant and Oyster Bar is already confirmed for the 29th of May, this means that you have 20 days from now to book your place and no excuses to miss this night.

Next event will see again the chef Luca Seminara, busy with the preparation of some great traditional recipes from the italian tradition with Pastificio dei Campi pasta. All the dishes will be explained in their preparation and everyone will have the chance to see the chef at work while eating his creations.

Are you curious to see what happened during the last pasta tasting event for the first anniversary of Massimo's Restaurant? Here some pictures to show you all the nice dishes and the great night we spent together. 

After a light aperitif with Arancini and mackerel Polpette, we ate the amazing Orecchiette with Genoese pesto, made of green beans and caramelized potatoes;

Then we had Calle dei Campi with gurnard and cherry tomatoes and finally Vermicelli with a delicious lamb ragu’.

We have closed the feast with some chocolate tasting and almond and lime & ginger sorbet, really great after the long and hot cooking night.

Here is the next event: http://www.facebook.com/events/421098671236767/

please write directly to tables@massimo-restaurant.co.uk  to book your place and I hope to see you there.

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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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The World Pasta Day conference in Rome and some thoughts

As you probably already know yesterday was the Word Pasta Day and it was celebrated all around the world. This year in particular the World Pasta Day returned to Rome, where IPO (International Pasta Organisation) and AIDEPI (Association of the Italian Pasta and Confectionery Industries) have hosted a special conference: "Pasta, global challenge. New markets and new consumers for food that is conquering the tables of the world" .

Have been invited to the occasion the most important pasta producers, economists, opinion leaders and media around the world and everyone  was there to celebrate this ancient food, rich in history, present on families' tables (and eating habits) in 5 continents and candidate to be the food of the future.

In a time of big pressure and bad news about our future alimentation, pasta seems to be one of the few ingredients that will probably be able to survive on our table. If the fish will disappear and the meat will be maybe not enough for all the planet, if not in danger as we have seen in the past, with viruses or weird genetic mutation, it seems we will be able to count at least on vegetable, fruit, rice and pasta.

Finally in time of poverty and war, this is what kept part of the world alive.

So if yesterday in Rome they tried to "understand how this food will help bring answers to one day dominated by uncertainty and food shortages.", I can also give you a little resume  of what came out from a nice event  organized last week in London by Latitudinal Cuisine “a geo-specific dining group, exploring the world a degree a day, meeting new people and cultures as we eat new cuisine”.

Last thursday in fact I went to their event about “Future of Food: dinner & conversation @ The Hub Westminster”. In this beautiful place in the New Zealand House in London, around 30 food lovers and people worried about environmental and social issues cooked what they think will be the food of the future and came together to enjoy it and exchange their ideas.

There were people that brought traditional food from their country, dishes made with sustainable fish, organic food, cake and tarts made by fruits and vegetable cultivated in their own gardens or even in the guerrilla gardens in London… and there was even someone who brought an amazing salad with fried ... locusts with big surprise of all the group. I brought pasta of course, because I believe in it for our future… and to shake and inspire a bit the audience I tried a sweet pasta recipe, with sugar, maple syrup, grated almonds and organic chocolate.

I used the pasta from Pastificio dei Campi not only because it's PGI and 100% Italian but also because is produced following the oldest artisanal traditions and only  with high quality Italian grain.

I bet pasta will be with us in the future! What do you think?

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From Sicily a great recipe for the summer.

Yesterday I finally cooked the "Pasta con le Sarde" I was telling you last week to give my little contribution to the Project Ocean! This is a typical Sicilian dish that puts together, in a fantastic way, some of the best ingredients from the south!

Because here in London it's not so easy to find the wild fennel, I just went for the normal one, but the taste was great anyway.

 
So for this recipe (3-4 people) you will need:

- 500gr Bucatini Pastificio dei Campi, as the traditional recipe recommends, but also with some Penne a Candela it was great!

- 500gr of fennels

- 50gr of pine nuts

- 50gr of raisins (soaked in water for half hour)

- 500 gr of fresh and sustainable sardines

- saffron

- 3 anchovies

- olive oil, salt, pepper, 2 onions

 
As written on the"Grande enciclopedia Illustrata della gastronomia":

Cut the fennel in sticks and boil them in a big pot with water and salt for like 20 minutes while in a pan with some olive oil you will cook quickly the sardines (after removing the heads, the backbones and entrails). Take them off and cook there the onions, until goldish. Add then the drained fennels (remember to keep the water in a side to cook the pasta), the sardines, pine nuts, the raisins, some salt and peppers. Cook on a low fire to mix everything well.

Then cut the anchovies in little pieces and place them in another pan. Let them melt with some hot oil and add them to the big pan. After the saffron. Melted with the some fennel’s water and while waiting for all this to cook, boil the pasta the water you used before for the fennels.

When is “al dente” drain it and toss it with the sauce, but let it rest few seconds before to serve it. It will take all the flavors of these great ingredients and it will be fabulous.

I’m sure you will enjoy like I did!

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Project Ocean and some important information

This is become a really important subject in the latest year, especially in UK: in the 2009, in fact, with the release of the film/documentary “The end of the line” everyone started to speak about the protection of fish and the overfishing problem.

The scariest quote is: "Scientists predict that if we continue fishing as we are now, we will see the end of most seafood by 2048." Imagine! Our sons will never be able to eat seafood or try some amazing fishes we are eating now... And all it’s caused by us and our bad use of fishing practices.

 
This year lots of campaigns have been carried on by chefs (one for all, Thomasina Mier) association, supermarkets.

Even in Italy there will be soon a fair about the argument: "Slow fish 2011" will take place on the 27^th until the 30^th of May in Genova. The event will offer many participative ways to explore all the Slow Fish activities dedicated to the future of small-scale coastal fishing, looking at the difficult balance between safeguarding the income of fishers and protecting the marine resources on which their livelihood depends.  Pastificio dei Campi will be there supporting the cause.
 
Here in London instead it's the time of Selfridges that has dedicated a full space inside the store and on its always outstanding windows to the theme, trying to make people aware about the problem.

And visiting the website I discovered a lots of interesting facts, all the list of fishes you can and can't eat in UK and lots of interesting fish recipes from a good number of chefs. Unfortunately there are no recipes for pasta with fish, that are very common in Italy especially in the south.
 
So, I just feel in charge to give you one of the most classic fish recipes you can prepare even in uk: pasta with sardines but for this you will need to wait next week! Will be the dish I will cook for my friend on the weekend!

In the meantime have a look at the Project Ocean and how you can help with just a click.

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Aphrodisiac and made with love

I was thinking last day at what could be a perfect recipe for S.Valentine's day. Also considering that I’m not a big fan of this day, because a bit too fake for my taste, it's true that at the end I always try to organize something a bit special.

What are you going to do this year? I have some last minute suggestions for you! In fact S.Valentine doesn't absolutely means expensive restaurants, but what about a nice and quick dish prepared at home with love and care? Just surprise your half and yourself too with a different dinner.

So what can be good for S.Valentine? "Aphrodisiac food "everyone would answer, and what is more aphrodisiac than a bit of chili. Lot's of italian dishes use this ingredients, so you have a big choice. From the easiest recipe of spaghetti with garlic, olive oil and chili (just hot up some oil, add chili and crushed garlic cloves, then toss the spaghetti in there and serve it without parmesan) to some paccheri with seafood or fresh fish for example.

I went to the market last day and I found some great squid, king prawns and scallops and I was already drooling. I personally prefer the pasta with fish in white sauce, just with chili, garlic, olive oil and white wine, but it's also very common to add some fresh cherry tomatoes or a bit of tomato sauce. The result is anyway great!

Here the ingredients for my S. Valentine dish:

- 200gr of Paccheri Pastificio dei Campi (better if you can take the "duetto" box... What can be more romantic than a packet made for just 2 people?)

- 4 big king prawns

- 2 calamari

- some scallops if you find them

- parsley, salt, chili

- a glass of white wine

- extra virgin olive oil

- 2-3 garlic cloves

Put some olive oil in a pan and crush there the garlic cloves and some chili. Put some water to boil and then start to clean and wash the fish. Cut the calamari in slices and the scallops if you want, while put the prawns to boil for one minute.

Add all the fish to the pan and let it cook for a bit. Then pour a bit of white wine and let evaporate. Add some salt, chopped parsley and a slice of butter (this is my secret touch to make everything even more tastier). Finally drain the pasta and finish the cooking in the pan with the rest of the fish and sauce.

When ready just serve it with a sparkle of fresh pepper if you want or parsley but not Parmesan please! 

I wish a great S.Valentine's day to everyone.

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From the Christmas eve dinner party, pasta and traditions

As i told you in the previous post, this year i was ready to prepare the Christmas dinner in a very traditional way, cooking just fish but also trying to present to my guests a dish that could be a bit original. I thought could have been nice to put together products from Italy and UK, so i choose to use the Wild Smoked Scottish Salmon from Forman & Son.

This is in fact a 100 year old family business supplying smoked salmon, caviar and other smoked and fresh fish to the world's leading hotels and finest restaurants in UK and from 2002 is also online on Forman & Field, fine food mail order company specializing in fresh, traditional British produce from small, independent producers. 

This was just a part of my special treat for my guest on Christmas. They still didn't know Pastificio dei Campi, the pasta that was going to be used to create the main protagonist of the Christmas eve dinner: Spaghetti with Wild Smoked Salmon and cream of courgettes.

Here the ingredients for 6 people:

600 gr Spaghetti Pastificio Dei Campi

200 gr of Smoked salmon

4 courgettes of a medium size

1 fennel

4 spoons of  pine nuts

4 spoons of Mascarpone or single cream

some garlic cloves,

salt, pepper, some fennel seeds

a glass of white wine

Cut the courgettes and the fennel in little cubes, then place them in a pan with some olive oil and chopped garlic cloves. Let it cook for around 10 minutes adding some salt and pepper and then pour the glass of white wine. When evaporated, turn a bit down the fire and cover the pan.

Now in a big sauce pan prepare the water for the pasta, add some salt and when it starts to boil, add the spaghetti. Let them cook and in the meantime blend the vegetable with the pine nuts until creamy. Now put everything again in the pan you used before with also the mascarpone or single cream and the smoked salmon in strips.

When the pasta it's "al dente" drain it and toss it in the pan with the salmon and the cream. I added here some whole pine nuts too and I serve it hot with a sprinkle of fennel seeds. If too dry, you can even add a bit of olive oil but not Parmesan. We don't normally use it with the fish and you could risk to cover some flavors.

This dish it's perfect for Christmas, but it's also a quick and easy recipe to cook any day of the week, being a very complete main course. I hope you will try it!

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