FoodBanter.com - View Single Post - Italian birthplace of amatriciana denounces chef's 'secret ingredient'

JRStern

On Thu, 12 Feb 2015 15:41:37 -0800 (PST),
wrote:

>On Thursday, February 12, 2015 at 2:12:46 PM UTC-8, Victor Sack wrote:
>> Italian birthplace of amatriciana denounces chef's 'secret ingredient'
>>
>> Town of Amatrice, where pasta dish originates, accuses Carlo Cracco of
>> lapse in judgment for adding sautéed garlic to recipe
>>
>> Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Rome
>> The Guardian
>>
>> Carlo Cracco has cooked alongside Alain Ducasse and earned two Michelin
>> stars for his restaurant in Milan, where the city's elite feast on
>> dishes such as lemon risotto with anchovies and cocoa, and marinated
>> salmon with foie gras.
>>
>> But the chef's professional pedigree did not stop the local council in
>> Amatrice, a town two hours from Rome, from publicly denouncing and
>> ridiculing him.
>>
>> Cracco's sin? The chef confessed on national television that he used
>> unpeeled, sautéed garlic as the "secret ingredient" in his amatriciana,
>> one of Rome's staple pasta dishes.

Just how unpeeled is that, leave on even the dried skin?

J.

>
>This story made public radio, with an interview with famous Istrian-born
>chef/TV cook Lidia Bastianich. She votes to respect the purity of the
>original recipe, but confesses she adds crunchy onion to the dish when
>she makes it at home.
>
>http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-02-1...triciana-pasta
>
>>
>> The official Facebook account of the town of Amatrice, where the dish
>> originates, accused Cracco of a lapse in judgment. "We are confident
>> that this was a slip of the tongue by the celebrity chef, given his
>> professional history," the council said in a statement.
>>
>> According to officials in Amatrice, there are six ingredients that make
>> up a real amatriciana: guanciale (pork jowl), pecorino cheese, white
>> wine, tomatoes from San Marzano, pepper and chilli.
>>
>> The town's deputy mayor, Piergiuseppe Monteforte, denied that officials
>> were being too strict. "Use one ingredient for another, it changes not
>> only the flavour of a dish but also the history of it," Monteforte told
>> the Guardian. "If you use ingredients like garlic or onion in an
>> amatriciana, it means you are ignoring a pastoral tradition that is
>> almost 1,000 years old, passed down from generation to generation."
>
>Yes, but somehow the Amatriciani adopted the New World's tomatoes and
>chili peppers.
>
>>
>> Amatriciana originated in the green pastures on the hills overlooking
>> Amatrice, when shepherds used to bring cheese and pieces of pork jowl
>> with them during long stays away from home and cook them in an iron pan.
>> They made fresh pasta using flour and water that was then wrapped around
>> a piece of wire, forming a tubular shape that is still used today.
>>
>> This original dish is now known as white amatriciana. It was only at the
>> end of the 1700s that tomato and chilli, two ingredients native to
>> America and brought to Italy, were added to the dish to create the
>> modern version.
>>
>> Grazia Lo Bianco, the owner of Matricianella, a small restaurant in
>> central Rome that specialises in the dish, stood with the council's
>> uncompromising stance. "The flavour of the pork cheek should be
>> dominant," she explained.
>>
>> Some people added onion to their sauce, but that verged on the
>> offensive, she said with a bemused look on her face. "If there are
>> rules, they need to be respected, it's like any job."
>>
>> For Lo Bianco, the rules do not apply only to the sauce, but also to the
>> correct pasta that one ought to use. Always, she said, it should be
>> bucatini, the long tubular pasta that, when cooked properly and slightly
>> al dente, can be unwieldy for a beginner accustomed to spaghetti or
>> short pasta.
>>
>
>Bucatini is a pain to eat. Spaghetti is the thickest that I like.