"Nothing is thrown away in the kitchen" what was once a precious popular saying, with the air of crisis these days hovering over the pockets and budgets of Italian families, between the skyrocketing prices of raw materials, the increases in energy costs, food price increases, has become a real categorical imperative for those who have to make ends meet at home. But even before the current economic contingency since the temple of the pandemic which had forced particular attention to be paid to the state of physical well-being which, by now, we know passes largely through the table, many chefs had begun to abandon experimentalism and gastronomic daring to recover the pleasure of a cuisine that exalts healthy raw materials, genuine flavours, the rediscovery of ancient traditional values. And in this context, what was once called the derogatory term the recovery kitchen has acquired a new dimension: the leftovers, the scraps, the scraps, today offer chefs forgotten flavors that are reinterpreted with imagination in a modern culinary culture with all the tools and cooking techniques that chefs have at their disposal today, they introduce a concept of gastronomic philosophy that is useful both for budgets and for new tastes in the kitchen.
Andrea Pasqualucci, chef with one Michelin star, of the Moma restaurant in Rome is a strong supporter of the cuisine based on the principles of "zero waste", from the reuse of parmesan peels, stale bread or scraps of meat used for more demanding preparations to not throwing away the vegetable stalks: everything that in practice allows housewives to create creative "empty the fridge" recipes without sacrificing taste and, at the same time, ideal for postponing the shopping appointment at least a little.
Andrea Pasqualucci's cuisine is inspired by a cuisine based on the exclusive use of a short, reliable and ethical supply chain with procurement exclusively from small local producers. “Thinking of an ethical, sustainable and no waste cuisine in a restaurant – says the starred chef – means first of all making a very careful choice of suppliers who can guarantee as short a supply chain as possible, as well as careful management of raw material." “Managing the home kitchen pantry is different. Our tradition – suggests Pasqualucci – is full of simple but perfectly balanced dishes from a nutritional point of view. An eye on spending, which manages to contain it but to satisfy both the palate and our daily needs, can be obtained by proposing a combination of pasta and legumes such as beans, chickpeas or lentils, to create steaming soups that warm up the cold evenings winter. All the leftover vegetables found in the fridge can be added to them, as well as leftovers of cured meats, such as gambuccio di ham, while as far as carbohydrates are concerned, you can play with cereals such as spelt, barley or quinoa”. Another suggestion from the chef is to rediscover polenta. A convivial palette to be seasoned as desired with a sauce made up of scraps of meat left over from other meals, scented with vegetables such as celery and onion and flavored with a mix of cheeses. A really nice idea to eliminate the waste of an indispensable product is the Pizza di pane. Indeed, it is easy to have a certain amount of stale bread that the chef suggests using to create a new dough that becomes a tasty pizza base to be garnished as desired, with simple fresh tomato and mozzarella or parmesan and bresaola arugula.
Roman, born in 1989. Andrea Pasqualucci enrolled as a boy at the Tor Carbone IPSSAR and from there he realized his first experience with chef Armando De Giorgi, who transferred his skills and passion for cooking to him. The next level step is Da Aroma, with chef Giuseppe Di Iorio, in the shadow of the Colosseum, in the restaurant frequented by the VIPs of politics, entertainment and art, he explores the basics of French cuisine and how to live in brigade, doing work team. Another fundamental experience is at the Aldrovandi Hotel, where he works with chef Oliver Glowig: here, he understands the centrality of Italian products and the importance of taking care of the ingredients. From Rome he then took off, for love of the sea, for Senigallia from Moreno Cedroni to the Madonnina del Pescatore, where he refined his knowledge of the processing of the fish. The return to Rome takes place in 2017 at the head of the Moma kitchens. Where the much coveted Michelin Star will arrive shortly thereafter, in 2019.
Chef Andrea Pasqualucci's recipe: Parmesan tripe
Ingredients
1,5 kg of peeled tomatoes
300 g of parmesan rind
30 g of celery
30 g of carrot
30 g of onion
20 ml of white wine
a chilli
a clove of garlic
pennyroyal
pecorino romano
Method
Cook the parmesan rinds in plenty of lightly salted water until they are soft. After draining them, cut them into thin strips like tripe. Prepare a brunoise with celery, carrot and onion and fry it with the garlic and chilli pepper in a pan. As soon as the vegetables begin to brown, remove the garlic and chilli pepper and deglaze with the white wine.
When the alcohol has evaporated, add the peeled tomatoes, bring to the boil and leave to simmer for around forty minutes. After this time, turn off the heat and immediately add the previously cooked parmesan rinds, leaving them to warm up. When they are hot, add salt if necessary and serve, completing with plenty of pecorino romano and mint.
