An occasion to meet Pastificio dei Campi too.

We are happy to announce that we are part of this big event starting today at London Olympia: MasterChef Live 2011.

You probably know very well the Tv programme MasterChef, great occasion for lots of people passionate about cooking and food to try the street of the success, challenging them self with recipes and complicate dishes until the selection of the best one. Based on that show, this event will let you take part to the live challenge, at least as the audience if not as a contestant. (Thanks for the picture at the blog Morethancupcakes.com)

From today until Sunday (11-13 November)  in fact in Olympia  there will be plenty of good food, chefs, restaurant experiences, tasting sessions, wine and food shows, challenges between contestants and real chefs and lot more.

Come and see John Torode and Gregg Wallace, get a master class from Michel Roux Jr. Also, watch MasterChef Professionals Champion of 2010, Claire Lara or cook-off against this year’s MasterChef Champion, Tim Anderson. Come to see the Producers' Village, a space just dedicated to local producers who specialise in seasonal and home-grown produce. But especially…come to meet us at the stand F24.

And if you really can’t be there with us, follow me on Twitter (@linguinadc) and check my Facebook page, to have all the latest news and pictures directly from the event.

See you there?

Comment (0)

What is on a daily menu of a Michelin Stars chef

An interesting recipe book is coming out today: it's “Taste of Home: 200 quick and easy recipes” written by the chef Angela Hartnett.

A protégé of  Gordon Ramsay she has won few Michelin stars for London’s Murano restaurant.
 
Famous for her Italian and Mediterranean cuisine coming from her roots (Italian grandparents), in this book she share with us some of her simple and straightforward recipies from her everyday life and her childhood. 

Nothing too long, too complicate, fussy or too expensive but simple dishes cooked by someone that knows a lot about food.
 
So I was curious to see her way to cook pasta, which recipes she could have included, what shape of pasta she could have chosen and if she has combined the original recipes with some special ingredient or flavour.

Here I found this Spaghetti with mussels in tomato sauce...and you can feel the sun from the south of Italy. No bad eh?

Ingredients (Serves 4)

• 2kg mussels
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 thyme sprig
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• bunch of flatleaf parsley, stalks removed and leaves chopped
• 150ml white wine
• 350g dried spaghetti- Pastificio dei Campi to make the dish really south - Italian
• 250g basic tomato sauce for pasta
• pinch of dried chilli
• handful of chopped basil
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method
Clean the mussels under cold running water, scrubbing the shells well and removing the hairy beards. Discard any mussels that are already open. Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a pan, add the thyme and garlic and the stalks of the parsley. Add the mussels, then pour in the white wine. Cover the pan and cook until the mussels have opened. Discard any that don’t open. Remove the mussels from the pan and reserve the liquid. Take half the mussels out of their shells. bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Add the spaghetti and stir. Cook according to the packet instructions, until the pasta is al dente. Heat the rest of the olive oil in a large pan, add the tomato sauce and dried chilli and warmthe sauce through. Check the seasoning. Drain the spaghetti and put it back in the pan. Toss with the tomato sauce, basil, chopped parsley leaves and shelled mussels. Add the remaining mussels in their shells on top and serve immediately.

Comment (0)

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.

Comment (0)

In Gragnano to discover the great “Poor Man’s food”

A new TV show started last week on BBC 2 and his protagonists are two of the most recognized Italian chefs in England: Antonio Carluccio and Gennaro Contaldo.

The program, Two Greedy Italians is about cooking,  some new recipes and tips from them, but there is something more: the mission of the two men in this occasion is also to going back to Italy after they left more than 40 years ago to see what has changed in the Italian culture and how the way Italians eat now.

The first episode took place in Bologna, one of the best places in Italy for the good food, traditional recipes and great ingredients. Here between comic scenes, traditional stories, some old secrets but also some new discovery, the chefs have had a great time.

What’s next?

Tomorrow night  at 8pm on BBC 2 the couple will end up in Amalfi, in the Campania region, looking at “how poverty in the area created Italy's best-loved cuisine and how 'poor-man's food' ended up making the same region rich.”

And Gragnano, near Neaples, the pasta making town,  it’s a place they could not miss. They choose Gragnano and Pastificio dei Campi, to speak and discover more about pasta, its past and especially its present.

And if you still don’t know this city, this pasta (PGI) and the history and tradition behind it, maybe you should watch the Two Greedy Italians with Giuseppe Di Martino who will explain everything about his Pastificio.

If you would like to try this pasta there is a company based in London were you can buy it online with same day delivery for London and next day delivery all over UK: Food in the city. Enjoy!

Comment (0)

Pasta is a must also in the italian weddings

And here we are …finally the 29th of April is behind the corner and everyone is getting ready for the big Royal Day.

Lots are the street party that will take place in the United Kingdom  and lots will be the people who will follow the couple during this event everywhere in the country: from pubs to houses, from screen around the city to the people standing on the main road taken by the couple.

Just few days ago a funny article came out on the Telegraph about the massive numbers involved in this wedding, from the number of horses to the crew of journalists who will take care of the event, and finally the number of … Rich Tea Biscuits requested by prince Williams for the wedding cake! I was without word! Rich tea Biscuits Cake??? When you have all the possible chefs and money to have a stunning amazing cake?

And finally they specified that this cake was ordered for the breakfast the next morning. Ok…but still…

So I was thinking, what about the rest of the menu? Any news about it? The Michelin Starred chef in charge seems to be Anton Mosimannby who created the premise of "cuisine naturelle" in the mid-1980s. I'm very curious to read more dettails about the menu in the next days.

In Italy the wedding menu and reception is something really important and central for a great ceremony, but what about England? It’s true that people here care usually a bit more about the drinks than about the food, but for the royal wedding I suppose there will be a big menu…o no?

Pasta is always in the menu of a great wedding: a first dish made by pasta, rice or also fresh pasta, can’t miss. They are often two even. Normally is something particular and a bit exclusive like a recipe with truffle or expensive fish or just an elaborated recipe not often cooked at home.

Probably for an occasion like a wedding I would suggest short pasta, easy to prepare for so many people and to serve too. Some long pasta I could also see a very nice dish made with Calle Pastificio dei Campi, a fine shape of pasta created by and for the chef Gennaro Esposito and that he like to propose in amazing fish recipes.

What do you think for example of the Calle Pastificio dei Campi with a cuttlefish sauce, like he did a Identita’ Golose 2010?

And if you are not so lucky to be invited to the wedding by the prince, why don’t prepare some pasta to bring in the park or at a street party and to share with other people?

Enjoy the event and this national happy day!

Comment (0)

Between jokes and laughs some really interesting information.

Last week I participated to an event organized by the Italian Chamber of Commerce here in London. The main guest was Antonio Carluccio, so I couldn’t miss the appointment: I was really curious to meet him and listen to his contribution to the event.

Of course everyone has seen him in TV lots of times and has read interviews or his book of recipes, and I can tell you that also in a little event like this one, Antonio Carluccio had exactly the same joyful mood as usual: jokes, funny stories from his personal life and his past, but also lots of interesting news for me.

He opened the event of course speaking about the italian cuisine, that made him famous here in London and of course he couldn’t avoid to speak about pasta, the main ingredient in our cuisine: more than 600 shapes of pasta in Italy, each one for a specific sauce and taste. It's here that he quoted the Pasta from Gragnano, special for the grain, the good water of the region and the ancient and traditional way to be made, a mix of things that give to the pasta is peculiar taste and consistency.

Then he spoke about the beauty and peculiarity of each Italian region, still so strong for example in the local gastronomy, even after 150 year of Unity: the first one to speak about regional cuisine was Pellegrino Artusi, and his name is still very important for this in the gastronomic world.

So despite some little separatist spirits, we are all famous abroad for using our local resources plus some creativity and imagination…also and especially with food. And Carluccio liked the idea to spread all this outside the italian borders. Recently he just finishes to recorder a new TV programme about italian recipes but categorized in four or five main themes… soon it will be released and we will know more.

Speaking instead about the development of the food in UK in the latest years he remember how a much the atmosphere was sad, as for the italian cuisine Like for the English one. But while in Italy, for our working situation and traditions, we always had the possibility to pass our knowledge to the next generation, here the industrial revolution and explosion of work, wasn’t helping out the passing and developing of the culinary tradition in the years. Everyone was just eating sandwiches. That’s something that finally explains lots of things.

Here lots of chef don’t even know the real taste of things and put ingredients together because they looks and seems nice, but in the italian cuisine there is no mess and it’s all just about flavour and semplicity: what can be better and easier than some finely chopped leeks and fennel in a pan with some olive oil and prawns to make some pasta or risotto?

The evolution of the italian and regional way to cook is finally coming here too now (polpo and polpetto can be an example?), the future is specialization even in England and we will see lots of this in the future years. Will be Carluccio even a prophet or no specialization will really take place? We will all be here to see.

Comment (0)

How chef's skills can be useful for the entire society

Let's speak about the last TV program created around a well-known chef. No this time is not another cookery course or recipes program. No it's not even another restaurant running business looking for some great tips from the big chef. And not finally it's not even a program about specific local food or recipes or new way to interpret a different cuisine.
 
This time I'm speaking about something different: the Heston's Mission Impossible! Last night I was at home watching this new program, interesting because of course Heston Blumenthal is an extravagant chef and his recipes are always funny to follow. Anyway this time the chef is called out of his “Fat Duck” base to experiment some new cooking in a totally different environment.
 
It's true that you can go to restaurant and eat very well and enjoying it, but how many people can really afford this? And why in the most of the other occasions of our normal life  we can’t have a decent meal? I’m speaking about the school, the plane, even the cinemas.
The program is just analyzing this, calling an expert to help out. And what else a chef could aim for more than be successful in his restaurant and be useful for the entire society?

And if Jamie Oliver tried to do this, teaching how to cook cheap meals at home and how to improve the schools menu, Heston between the others in this transmission had a very interesting challenge: a children hospital menu.
How to make children eat more and well, giving them fun and healthy products? Simple! Let's just play with food and creativity! Heston is an expert in this.

‘It wasn’t about going into these places and saying ‘The food’s rubbish,’’ explained Heston at Squaremeal. ‘Instead, we were looking at the bigger picture – like why doesn’t the NHS consider food to be a medical aid?’-  ‘We also met children who’d been in hospital most of their lives and they didn’t want to eat the food because they were bored of it. Eating is about approaching food with a bit of excitement – if you bring excitement into mealtimes, you’ll be amazed at what kids will eat. We even served them fried mealworms and they loved it.’ 

Basically this is the same simple principle everyone use at home: to eat healthy you need to use good product but also make the dish interesting. Boiled vegetable and a meat just cooked in a pan won’t always satisfy you. Let’s rediscover the best combination of food, healthy ingredients and let’s try something a bit different. It’s for this reason I love so much the pasta and especially the one from Gragnano: it’s a cheap product, healthy, it’s quickly to prepare and it’s very versatile, allowing you to try always something different also in short time. So any day of your week you can have a special, tasty but healthy meal. And the kids will like it too.

I loved Heston’s creativity and his message: food can be fun and have to be enjoyed because it’s a prize, it’s fundamental for our life and it can be really an amazing experience every day. The Traditional recipes can help you out with the good taste, but a bit of originality it always add some fun.

Comment (0)