At the Identità Golose conference in Milan, his Spaghettoni with three tomatoes met with unanimous approval in a kermesse of haute cuisine dishes prepared by the greatest Italian chefs. The reason for the success? A cuisine that speaks directly to the heart, without filters of daring conceptual elaborations or extravagant forcing, in this way responding to a need increasingly felt by the public after the hard experience of the pandemic for a cuisine that rediscovers the healthy eating of our ancestors, which knows how to enhance the flavors through a raw material chosen and treated in a way that safeguards its identity and makes it possible to perceive the value of its territoriality.
Borrowing the sign of the latest restaurant opened by Alessandro Borghese in Venice, we can say that today true luxury is simplicity. And chef Massimo Piccolo, true Neapolitan, 51 years of age carried forward with a reassuring smile that is reflected in his way of working, has always adhered to this philosophy in his career by making simplicity – which, mind you, has nothing easy but requires study, attention and passion – the common thread of his cuisine. And today he, a Neapolitan, carries on this simplicity in the most exclusive and Roman street of the capital, in the restaurant of one of the most iconic hotels of the dolce vita, the Marriott Grand Hotel Flora in via Veneto, loved by Federico Fellini, who spent whole afternoons in his bar, by Alberto Moravia who loved to give interviews in his living rooms, by Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg, by Liz Taylor and Richard Burton, and particularly appreciated by the young Luchino Visconti who, arrested by the Germans, managed to save his life thanks to Maria Denis, beautiful diva of the white telephones, who in this hotel met with a high exponent of the SS, the torturer Pietro Koch, pleading for the salvation of the young nobleman destined to become a milestone of Italian cinema.
The Flora restaurant entrusted today to the alchemy of the Neapolitan chef therefore aims to combine luxury and simplicity as explained by Achille Di Carlo, General Manager of the hotel: «The concept we pursue is that of an "accessible luxury", for this reason we have created a fully comfortable in which to enjoy, for example, an aperitif accompanied by the notes of the piano, a quick but tasty lunch or a more relaxed dinner, while appreciating the excellence of the territory in a proposal with a marked Italian and Mediterranean imprint" concept that summarizes the philosophy that he led the recent major restyling of the building, to make the guest perceive the historic charm and power of the place, in a pleasant synaesthesia between contemporaneity and tradition. Recognizable and comfortable flavours, selected and strictly Italian ingredients and strong references to the regional tradition: these are the keywords chosen by chef Piccolo for the new course of the Flora Restaurant
The Spaghettoni with three tomatoes, which we offer to Mondo Food readers, are the protagonists of an apparently simple dish but which hides all the pitfalls of a dish made with just a few ingredients. It is precisely the raw materials that make the difference, from the tomatoes, which must be carefully selected to make the most of and enhance the balance between sweetness and acidity, and the single-grain Mancini pasta, rigorously produced in bronze die, by a family that 1938 produces high quality pasta with durum wheat grown on its 200 hectares in the Marche region. Simplicity, therefore, in a scope that embodies a small but great revolution: to bring back - after the enthusiasm for the gastronomic audacities that have characterized Italian cuisine in past years, to the truthfulness of genuine things, of raw materials and of the scents of authentic Mediterranean gastronomic tradition.
“The quality of the pasta is fundamental in this dish. – explains the chef – The extraordinary cooking resistance of Mancini monograno and its consistency make these spaghettoni the ideal pasta shape for a simple but high-impact condiment that contains all the flavors of our land, the scent of the sea and the heat of the sun". And this philosophy can also be found in the egg poché on velvety carrot soup with robiola, in the Fassona tartare with cardoncelli and mustard, in the Tonnarello Pastificio Secondi with lemon gurnard ragout and Neapolitan tarallo, in the organic ox fillet from the farm Gnessi with its fondue and sautéed cardoncelli or in the soup with Castelluccio di Norcia IGP lentils and seared squid where the chef's gaze extends from his natural predisposition for Neapolitan Mediterranean cuisine to that of the countryside and the Umbrian hinterland or Piedmontese, a journey of knowledge among local aromas and flavors of the great Italian gastronomic territories.
The recipe for spaghetti with three tomatoes
Ingredients for people 4
180 g of Mancini spaghettoni
10 g of garlic
120 g of Piennolo cherry tomatoes
g 120 yellow cherry tomatoes from the Telesina valley
120 g of pachino cherry tomatoes
8 basil leaves
Salt up to QB
90 ml of extra virgin olive oil
Method
Plunge the Pachino tomatoes in boiling water for eight minutes, cut them in half and peel them. To put aside. In a large pan put the oil and the garlic. When it is golden, remove the garlic from the pan and add two basil leaves.
Add the Piennolo tomato, after a minute add the yellow tomato and after another minute the Pachino tomatoes. Leave the tomatoes to cook together for about eight minutes, adding the remaining basil and salt. Drain the spaghetti while still al dente and finish cooking for two minutes in the sauce so that everything mixes well. Add a drizzle of oil and serve immediately.
