Stopping to eat in the La Brinca restaurant, in Ne, a small town of 2.100 souls immersed in the woods of the metropolitan area of Genoa in the hinterland between Chiavari and Lavagna, is like leafing through a book of memories of an Italy that has almost disappeared, from which postcards emerge of a population all about home, family and work, in the wake of a tradition and authenticity that has managed to preserve its values while escaping any homologation of modernity.
La Brinca was founded in 1987 but already in the 30s the Circella family in this small town in the Graveglia Valley ran an inn-shop-mill-oil mill which was somewhat of a meeting place for local farmers, until the 70s. moment when with the depopulation of the country, the business closed. However, the baton was fortunately taken up by his nephews, who restored the ancient Brinca farmhouse with the name of Caneva with fundego da vin, that is, an inn with shop and cellar which would later become La Brinca, nickname of Texinin dei Brinche, who lived and left the name to this farmhouse in the mid-800th century.
Today, La Brinca is managed by the brothers Roberto and Sergio with their wife Pierangela, their two twin sons Matteo and Simone and Stefano, Roberto's son, while the kitchen is entrusted to the young Simone Circella who strictly offers traditional dishes from the Ligurian hinterland of the East, linked to the land and the seasons, with a continuous use of local herbs, vegetables and fruit, and fragrant aromatic herbs. The historical memory is entrusted to Nonna Franca who, after a life in the kitchen, now supervises the vegetable garden. And the herbs both cultivated and collected by family members in the woods represent the constant feature that distinguishes and gives a special flavor to Simone Cercella's cuisine which offers prebugiun, testaieu, bacicca, panella, appetizers of peasant origin and then herb ravioli seasoned with the traditional tuccu of Cabannina or with a drizzle of local oil, the Genoese white Quarantina potato gnocchi or made with chestnut flour, with mortar-made pesto, the chestnut picagge, the herb ravioli and sarazzu with Misto Chiavari hazelnut sauce, Corzetti made of rustic flour with mushrooms and walnuts. Then the small lettuces stuffed in broth, the veal top, the rabbit stuffed with herbs, the tomaxelle, the guinea fowl top, the veal tip baked in a wood oven, the suckling pig with bay leaf and chestnuts. In short, the Brinca menu here acquires the value of a real treatise on poor local cuisine, but also of a precious herbarium that introduces us to the knowledge of the rich plant kingdom of the Ligurian hinterland with all its beneficial properties. In short, an identity cuisine of a territory and a state of mind that has earned La Brinca appreciation and recognition: Best Osteria d'Italia 2020 for Osteria d'Italia Slow Food and Chiocciola since 1998, best Trattoria d'Italia 2020 for L'Espresso, Tre Gamberi from the Gambero Rosso restaurant guide, just to name a few
The recipe for Minestrone alla Genovese with mortar pesto and handmade cutters proposed by chef Simone Circella is the postcard of a family story: it recalls the other grandmother, Maria, who rolls the pastry onto the cupboard, closes it and with the knife he cut coarse strips of “tagen”, which he then put into the steaming minestrone that perfumed the room with pesto made in a mortar. “I still remember – Simone testifies – the warm tureen placed in the center of the table and the ladle that the whole family passed around to fill their plate. The next day, the leftover minestrone was solid in the bowl, and even better eaten cold with a drizzle of oil”. And here is the recipe for a Minestrone that takes you back to the flavors of the past which, thanks to restaurants like La Trinca, are still possible.
Minestrone alla Genovese recipe with mortar pesto and handmade cutters
Ingredients for people 4
200 grams of handmade cutters cut with a knife,
1 carrot,
Patanin beans from Val Graveglia
White Quarantine beans from Aveto (beans of the “Bianco di Spagna” variety)
Beans from Val Borbera,
Gaggetta di Lavagna cabbage,
Pumpkin,
1 stick of celery,
1 Genoese red onion,
1 clove of garlic from Vessalico,
1 leek,
2 white Quarantina Genoese potatoes,
its sale,
extra virgin olive oil Ligurian Riviera.
For the mortar pesto:
DOP Genoese basil,
garlic from Vessalico,
coarse salt,
Mountain Parmigiano Reggiano DOP,
Pecorino Fiore Sardo dei Pastori,
Pine nuts,
Extra virgin olive oil dop Ligurian Riviera.
Preparation
Cut the vegetables into small pieces. Put the pan with the water on the heat, add salt and a drizzle of oil. Immediately put the beans that need more cooking into the water, then the other vegetables, and lastly the cabbage. After about 1 hour and 30 minutes the minestrone is ready.
Add the pasta which will need 4 minutes of cooking.
Crush the garlic with the salt in a mortar, then add the basil leaves, pine nuts and cheese. Continue to pound until the ingredients are mixed. Add the oil to obtain the desired density of the sauce.
Once the minestrone has been cooked with the cutters, add the pesto to the mortar which will definitely flavor everything.
Serve garnishing the dish with a basil leaf.
La Brinca restaurant
Via Campo di Ne, 58
16040 Ne (GE)
Tel. 0185 337480
www.labrinca.it labrinca@labrinca.it
