Finding out that you are sitting in the dining room like any other customer Alain Ducasse a legend of French and world starred cuisine, collector of 21 Michelin stars, head of a group which, with 1400 employees, controls 20 restaurants in various countries, which organizes cooking courses and publishes gastronomy books all over the world, which collaborates with the European Space Agency for the development of the most suitable foods for astronauts, and who after having eaten quietly gets up, comes to the kitchen, and compliments you, is something to raise the pressure to the stars and make you walk three steps above the sky. Start to wager the quantum leap of a restaurant, Il Pashà of Conversano, making the triple pike jump that transforms you from a housewife into a top chef and making it a real cathedral of excellent cuisine in that blessed land of Puglia that collects international awards is something that makes you proud beyond all limits. Discover one day that in Paris they have decided to let you enter the firmament of the greatest chefs in the world by assigning you one Michelin star it is something that, after the fibrillation from a heart attack, changes your life profoundly.
But, the protagonist of this series of "miracles", Maria Cicorella, who conquers you with a way of doing that expresses a refinement, a grace, and a distinction, out of the ordinary, something rare in the frenetic world of cooking stars, his life has not changed one bit.
A beautiful phrase by Aldo De Martino, the Neapolitan actor and director, is well suited to her: "I have always considered legendary not so much the heroes of out of the ordinary undertakings, but the people who, without fanfare and in silence, have worked, professionally or as amateurs, with genuine love and passion and not out of ambition or selfishness for their own sake".
And yes, because for the legendary Maria Cicorella the cuisine that has given her so many honors is not a profession but an elective choice that has pulsated within her since she was very young. She was only 8 years old, and she happened to have to cook for her father Francesco while mom was in the hospital. She in the fridge she had some pieces of lamb, she got some potatoes and it occurred to her to prepare a "tiella", a typical dish of the Apulian tradition in the version of rice, potatoes and mussels, which he cooked in a wood-burning oven in the village. The news made the rounds of Conversano, even arrived at the hospital to his mother, everyone was amazed by the scents and flavors of that preparation.
It was a logical choice, years later when Antonello Magistà, Francesco and Maria's XNUMX-year-old son and talented sommelier, decided to raise the quality bar of the restaurant that Papa Francesco and Mamma Maria had set up years ago by going up to their necks in debt, transforming it into a welcome and high level, that the mother would go in the kitchen to lend a hand. Then it happened that the cook had to operate on his knee. It was the drama. The threat of installments to be paid threw everyone into despair, there was the risk of having to close shop. It was at that point that Maria proposed herself as a cook to replace the one who had left. “Let me try I said to my family - she declared in an interview - when the last cook had to leave us due to health problems, announcing an absence of two long months. They looked at me like an alien." Antonello with the unconscious courage typical of young people immediately agreed. What happened is history. Maria Cicorella threw herself headlong into the enterprise, she devoured books and kilos of gastronomic magazines guided by her natural passion for food. In addition to books read avidly she also went to gain direct experience in Milan from Claudio Sadler and then from Giancarlo Morelli. In a short time the restaurant, Pashà (that was Antonello's name as a child) leapt to the headlines, attracting the attention of gourmets and food critics from all over Italy. They wrote about her «Bring the best of the region to the table with the right level of experimentation, with clean and decisive flavours, skilful cooking, intense aromas typical of Puglia» and in 2013 was able to boast the star of a hard-earned but well-deserved Michelin star. His audience also became international.
Then comes the moment of tiredness, a health problem, the pressure of a starred restaurant is very high. After leaving the Pashà in good hands, Maria Cicorella takes a break. But the pause is very short. The sacred fire for cooking that has inspired her since she was a child pushes her to throw herself into a new enterprise, less demanding than a starred restaurant, but more in keeping with her passion for the sacred rites of a regional tradition that sinks in over the centuries always remaining adherent to the cult of the products of the territory and its inheritances.
And here it is "Evviva Maria" was born – it is the story of these very last days – a restaurant that has the characteristics of a fast and informal trattoria and which focuses above all on one thing: orecchiette.
For Maria it is like a return to her origins, to her childhood, where she wants to experience her own territorial dimension. “More than a chef – she says – I am Mamma Maria both for my children and for those around me” and "Evviva Maria" expresses well the sense of a refined social and human dimension that takes shape around a table made of simple things and feelings but which at the same time have great depth. And here the much celebrated Apulian orecchiette will turn into many small masterpieces in his new one.
“Today – says Luciano Pignataro – Maria Cicorella is the lady of Puglia, the cook who has distorted the traditional orecchietta, symbol of Apulia in the world, creating one of her own in terms of shape and callosity, and who at the age of sixty is ready to write the third fundamental chapter of her life”.
For the readers of Mondo Food, Maria Cicorella offers the recipe for Linguine with crusco pepper extract, a memory of real life, an emblematic condensation of the way of conceiving the cuisine of the area in an elegant and refined way without distorting its identity.
“It is one of the many dishes from which I drew inspiration from my childhood, from the memory of my father's small habits in the countryside. This, in fact, is inspired by what was my father's favorite snack, who in the summer used to go to the countryside at 4,30 in the morning and therefore a snack at 9,30 was already a must. His favorite was: pasta pancakes accompanied by roasted peppers and capers, a jar of strong ricotta cheese to 'please', is the inevitable bowl of salted olives. It was a sacred moment of the working day, which satiated the stomach and spirit to be able to get to work until 4,30 in the afternoon. With this dish I just had fun playing with his favorite breakfast: I made an extract from the roasted pepper, I worked with fresh sheep's milk ricotta, only the leaves preserved in oil, with capers. and I dehydrated the olives. I just replaced the pancakes with linguina, which I find extremely appropriate for the amalgam of this very poor but fascinating and captivating sauce"

Maria's recipe Cicorella Linguine with bran pepper extract
Ingredients
Red peppers
fermented cottage cheese
powdered olives
caper leaves
sale
Preparation
Roast, peel and blend the peppers with their vegetable water, adding oil slowly. In this way a cream is obtained with which to season the pasta.
Dilute the ricotta with the milk cream to make it fluid.
Prepare the olive powder by marinating them in sea water and then dehydrate them in the oven. On summer days they can be placed in a baking dish in the upper part of the kitchen where it is warmer, leaving them until they have dried.
Blend the olives to obtain a powder
Boil the water, put the salt, never too much, and cook the pasta al dente. It is better to remove it a minute before because it must be creamed in a pan with two ladles of pepper cream.
Plating
The ricotta cream will be the basis of the plating which will see the linguine with pepper cream as protagonists with a sprinkling of olives and a caper leaf in oil to garnish everything