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The starred recipe of Artichoke, truffle, citrus fruits, olives and cucunci by chef Marco Ambrosino brings the countryside to the table in the refined restaurant of the Galleria Principe di Napoli

The Michelin star chef of the new Sustanza restaurant offers cuisine that is also "a social gesture and a political act". His dishes are stories of reality like the artichoke exalted as a Neapolitan identity value

The starred recipe of Artichoke, truffle, citrus fruits, olives and cucunci by chef Marco Ambrosino brings the countryside to the table in the refined restaurant of the Galleria Principe di Napoli

There are places that are difficult to catalog in a few words, where once you enter, you are projected into a time that is not yours, which you enter and which you would like to know more and more about. The Principe Gallery of Naples is one of these. Built between 1873 and 1883 in the heart of the city, on the golden mile of culture that ideally unites Palazzo Reale and Capodimonte, in front of the MANN (National Archaeological Museum of Naples) and the Academy of Fine Arts, a short distance away from the Conservatory of San Pietro a Majella, this imposing building in full Art Nouveau style, smaller and more modest than the pompous Galleria Umberto I, with an iron and glass roof and a floor with yellow and black geometric shapes. finally freed from a history of degradation and abandonment that has made it a no-man's land after having been a grain warehouse, prison, goods depot, military barracks, shopping arcade, home to public and private administrative offices after having survived collapses, demolitions, reconstructions, is starting to find a new life with a project that makes the Galleria Principe a beating heart of Neapolitan cultural and entrepreneurial life.

The Neapolitan entrepreneur Luca Iannuzzi was awarded the premises of the former Municipal Treasury of the Banco di Napoli, thanks to the Common Gallery program created by the Department of Youth and Youth Policies. The project includes a widespread library activity open free to the public on the ground floor, developed in collaboration with the Guida alla Cultura Foundation and Guida Editori, with a program focused on book crossing and suspended books. The structure is divided into three floors, and where at the end of the nineteenth century there was a café chantant, Via ScottoJonno will take over, a project with several complementary souls: literary café, with 110 square meters for the display of books and objects, 60 square meters for thematic administration areas, and almost 200 square meters used for public services, including info points, playrooms, common reading areas, cafeteria and catering.

The Sustanza restaurant inaugurated in March 2023 inside the Galleria Principe di Napoli - which, with no small audacity, opened the first front of the recovery - has become the ambitious kingdom of chef Marco Ambrosino, from Procida DOC, who moved to Milan for ten years with the 28Posti project, a trendy and successful restaurant and then returning to Naples to throw himself into this undertaking charged with obtaining a Michelin star with a program that intends to animate an idea of ​​cuisine open to cultural interactions.

And his CV demonstrates that Ambrosino never backed down from life's choices. Thirty-seven years old, with a background of economics studies before moving years and baggage into the kitchen to realize his desire to write something new about his gastronomic traditions. His adventure began at the age of 14 starting from the bottom: he worked as a dishwasher in some restaurants to scrape together some money for his basic needs. But then there is a change like this, a bit due to that randomness that is recurrent in many adventures: an uncle takes over a winery-restaurant and calls him to work with him until one day Ambrosino finds himself having to cook on the basis of the experiences gained in home seeing the wonders of his mother, his aunts and above all his grandmother in the kitchen, who knew how to produce great flavors and great aromas. Ambrosino abandons his economics studies and understands that this will be his job and then also his profession and diligently goes to learn serious cooking, the committed one, in a famous starred restaurant in Ischia, that of Libera Iovine who introduces him to great cuisine and knowledge of raw materials. At this point, another great pike leap, and with great courage, the young man goes to René Redzepi at the Noma restaurant in Copenhagen, awarded with 3 Michelin stars and elected the best restaurant in the world four times according to The World's annual ranking 50 Best Restaurants

At the Sustànza restaurant, the project that the chef proposes is a cuisine that is also "a social gesture and a political act". His dishes, prepared with anthropological attention, are stories of reality. An example? Grilled artichoke, black truffle and citrus fruits, olives, cucunci and marjoram. “Not very filling and difficult to clean, in the rural civilizations of the past, the artichoke almost never reached the table” comments Ambrosino. “In Naples, however, it is an identifying product and it is for this reason that I decided to make it the protagonist of an appetizer”. In the dish, the artichoke cooked in water and wine is grilled and stuffed with a filling based on its stem ragù and olives. To complete, a acidic broth flavored with citrus fruits and embellished with black truffle juice.

The recipe for grilled artichoke, black truffle and citrus fruits, olives, cucunci and marjoram

Ingredients for people 4

• 4 prickly artichokes

• 1 clove of garlic

• 30 g Taggiasca olives

• To taste water, dry white wine, salt, oil

Method

Clean the artichokes by removing the external leaves and stems and set them aside. Cook the artichokes with a little salted water and white wine for 5 minutes. Then, let them cool and keep them aside. Peel the artichoke stems, dice them and brown them in a pan with a drizzle of oil and a clove of garlic. Add the pitted olives and cook until the stems are tender. In the meantime, take the whole artichokes, season them with salt and oil and grill them on the barbecue for a few minutes.

For the broth

Leaves of 4 artichokes

• 8 g rice vinegar

• 5 g ponzu sauce

• 1 lemon

• 1 lime

• 1 orange

• 10 g truffle juice

• To taste water, salt

Place the artichoke leaves in a pan, cover with cold water and simmer for an hour. Filter, add the rice vinegar, ponzu sauce, citrus peels to the liquid and leave to rest for half an hour. Filter again, add the truffle juice and season with salt.

Finishing

• 4 kitchens

• Marjoram to taste

Place the ragù prepared with the artichoke stems in the center of a flat plate, place a grilled artichoke and complete with the broth, a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, a few slices of cucunci and marjoram leaves.

Substance

Galleria Principe di Napoli, 13, 80135 Naples NA

+39 081 379 5766 -

sustanzanapoli.com. www.scottojonno.com

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