Pizza: a Mixed Blessing for Italian Cuisine by Paolo Petroni President of the Accademia

FEBRUARY 2020 l Civiltà DELLATavola ACCADEMIA ITALIANA DELLA CUCINA

N. 323 INTERNATIONAL

EDITION

ACCADEMIA ITALIANA DELLA CUCINA ISTITUZIONE CULTURALE DELLA REPUBBLICA ITALIANA FONDATA NEL 1953 DA ORIO VERGANI

www.accademia1953.it CIVILTÀ DELLA TAVOLA CIVILTÀ 2020 N. 323, FEBRUARY Table of contents Civiltà DELLATavola ACCADEMIA ITALIANA DELLA CUCINA

INTERNATIONAL EDITION

Febuary 2020 / n. 323 Focus of the President Editor in chief Paolo Petroni 2 Pizza: a mixed blessing Copy Editor for Italian cuisine Silvia De Lorenzo (Paolo Petroni)

Layout Simona Mongiu L’ACCADEMIA ITALIANA DELLA CUCINA Translator è stata fondata nel 1953 da Orio Vergani Antonia Fraser Fujinaga e da Luigi Bertett, Dino Buzzati Traverso, Cesare Chiodi, Giannino Citterio, Ernesto Donà This issue includes articles by dalle Rose, Michele Guido Franci, Gianni Mazzocchi Gigi Padovani, Bastoni, Arnoldo Mondadori, Attilio Nava, Morello Pecchioli, Arturo Orvieto, Severino Pagani, Aldo Passante, Paolo Petroni, Gian Luigi Ponti, Giò Ponti, Dino Villani, Giancarlo Saran. Edoardo Visconti di Modrone, con Massimo Alberini e Vincenzo Buonassisi. Current Events l Lifestyle l Photo credits Adobe Stock. Society vvv 3 Foreign chefs in Italy Publisher cooking Italian food Accademia Italiana della Cucina (Gigi Padovani) Via Napo Torriani 31 - 20124 Milano Tel. 02 66987018 - Fax 02 66987008 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] www.accademia1953.it

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Monthly Magazine Reg. n. 4049 - 29-5-1956 Tribunale di Milano

Territories l Tourism l Folklore

Amarone: protagonist 6 in the pot, star of the goblet (Morello Pecchioli)

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Rivista associata all’Unione Stampa Periodica Italiana Focus of the President Pizza: a mixed blessing for Italian cuisine by Paolo Petroni President of the Accademia

Italian cuisine abroad These different categories attract different clienteles: families, is often represented by pizza, children, birthdays, or a younger crowd. and in Italy too it is offered Restaurants without pizza, and eminent chefs, by many restaurants observe this phenomenon with interest and even a few prize-winning chefs. Restaurants without pizza, and eminent chefs, observe this phenomenon with both apprehension and interest. Pizza has evolved significantly in recent years, through the (re)discovery of ancient and whole-grain flours, sourdough, long leavening times, water buffalo mozzarella and other special cheeses, he Italian Academy of Cuisine frequently receives PDO extra-virgin olive oil, top ingredients with short supply requests to found Legations in cities and states which chains, and imaginative, often expensive toppings. Beyond the T are off the beaten path and far from the main tourist soft, airy, wide-crusted ‘Neapolitan’ pizza, now increasingly and commercial routes. The first question we pose these confined to no-frills Neapolitan pizza restaurants, and the applicants is whether their area has Italian restaurants. The thin, crispy ‘Roman’ pizza as well as the many child-friendly answer is always yes, but qualified: these are pizza restaurants. variants including pizza with chips or ‘ethnic’ pizzas such as In remoter areas, there can be no Italian restaurant without ‘kebab pizza’, we now have ‘gourmet’ pizza. Everything pizza. An example: in the pleasant city of Lille in France, of nowadays is ‘gourmet’, from hamburgers to motorway café the 5 Italian restaurants represented in our Guide, all 5 serve sandwiches. A ‘gourmet’ pioneer is Carlo Cracco, whose new pizza. There’s no business without pizza, is the refrain we hear. restaurant in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan has A Syrian friend interested in opening a Legation in Damascus launched its own ‘personal’ pizza margherita, not without confirms that there are only pizza restaurants in that city. For attracting criticism. By now, many great chefs have joined the us, pizza means Italy: alongside spaghetti, it is our cuisine’s pizza party. Gourmet pizza is generally served already cut representative dish; but in many foreign countries, it is not into slices, each of which must contain a selection of all the associated with Italy, so that sometimes in America one hears toppings, allowing each diner to enjoy the pizza’s entire flavour the question: “What’s the Italian for pizza?” However, pizza palette in every bite. Not only acclaimed restaurants but simple has also invaded many restaurants in Italy. Beyond the pizza restaurants too have embraced this new trend, offering ‘pure’ pizzerie which only serve pizza and calzone in all their pizzas with unusual flavours and improbable ingredients: manifold variations, there are hybrid pizza restaurants which lemon, honey, figs, caviar and so on. This phenomenon confirms also offer a few pasta dishes and not much besides, and pizza’s world-conquering magnetism, and the need to make finally, traditional restaurants which also have a pizza menu. it profitable even for large-scale restaurant businesses.

Page 2 Current Events l Lifestyle l Society Foreign chefs in Italy cooking Italian food

by Gigi Padovani Honorary Academician for Torino Lingotto

Rather than offering he first haute-cuisine vegetarian palates? Those of the Colombian chef restaurant? Joia, in Milan, led by Roy Caceres at the Metamorfosi (1 ‘ethnic’ dishes T Pietro Leeman from Ticino (Swit- Michelin star). Bottura’s sous chef, who zerland). The ideal carbonara? Many find now runs two award-winning Italian from their homelands, it in the centre of Rome, in the Roscioli restaurants, one in Milan and one in To- they have fallen in love delicatessen and restaurant run by Na- kyo? The Japanese Yoji Tokuyoshi. The bil Hadj Nassen, from Tunisia. The most list could continue with other less fa- with Italian cuisine, famous risottos in Lombardy? They can mous cooks, but the result is the same: be enjoyed in Miramonti l’Altro in Con- Italian cuisine has, by now, won over which they prepare cesio (Brescia), two Michelin stars, with many foreign chefs, who, rather than in their restaurants, the Frenchman Philippe Lévéille at the offering the fare of their own homelands, helm. The two most famous ‘two-mac- have chosen to tackle the recipes of including ‘starred’ ones. aron’ restaurants in Florence and Rome? ours, often learning from their spouses, The Enoteca Pinchiorri (led by Annie as described by Heinz Beck, who married Féolde, from France) and La Pergola the Sicilian Teresa Maltese, or as in the (cuisine by Heinz Beck, from Frie- case of Caceres’ Sardinian wife, who drichshafen, Germany). The dishes which taught him to prepare delicious hand- have won over the most refined Roman rolled fregula.

Fig-leaf squab, foie gras, apple and ginger by Roy Caceres

Page 3 Heinz Beck 65° egg carbonara by Roy Caceres

instance, a tamarind purée with lamb sirloin. Hence the “homage to Italian cuisine” is ex- pressed more through “ingredients, technique and taste” - quoting the menu - than by adher- ence to Tuscan tradition. Others have chosen dif- ferent paths, for example Pietro Leeman, who studied the culinary arts first in Switzerland with Fredy Girardet at Crossi- er and then with Gualt- The well-earned success of Italian cuisine iero Marchesi in Milan, abroad is often discussed, but what may before feeling the need be overlooked is the considerable mag- to broaden his horizons netism exerted by our country over those with a journey to East who travel here to learn the basics of Asia, where he discov- Mediterranean cuisine - as Tokuyoshi did ered the Confucian rig- - or to eke out a living in Sicily, which our of Yuan Mei’s medi- happened almost forty years ago to Na- tations contained in his bil Hadj Hassen, the chef at the restaurant treatise Suiyuan Shidan (Recipes from the neighbourhood, explains: “Perhaps we, in Via De’ Giubbonari where actors, jour- Garden of Contentment). This Chinese who have grown up with different fla- nalists and politicians love to gather. “I gastronomist and contemporary of Bril- vours in other countries, are precisely the was impressed”, says Nabil, “by the fla- lat Savarin is a “point of reference”, writes ones who, arriving in Italy, can analyse vours I found in Italy, and when I arrived Leeman, “for the definition of ‘right’ and dishes of your tradition somewhat more here at Roscioli in Rome sixteen years ago, ‘good’ in China”. This is because, the Swiss freely than Italian cooks, ‘imprinted’ with I fell in love with all the bounty offered chef confides, cultural exchange is stim- their mothers’ and grandmothers’ cook- on their counters, products which allow ulating and inevitable, so that an ‘ad- ing. I don’t have memories of my mother’s a high standard of cooking. I also learned vantageous ingredient’, even if it comes tortellini or lasagna. However, I’m not Roman cuisine, and to lend creaminess from East Asia or South America, can aiming to upend tradition in my res- to carbonara I came up with the idea of immediately be included in a local dish. taurant: mine is not ‘fusion’ but ‘contam- keeping the egg in a bain marie to avoid As Carlo Petrini frequently recalls, cuisine inated’ cuisine, because I don’t forget that ruining it on the stove. I also love Sicilian is a ‘melting pot’: this is famously exem- food, which I encountered on Pantelleria plified by the multi-ethnic roots of toma- Roy Caceres and in Palermo: especially cannoli and to spaghetti, but is also true of such ‘un- caponata”. suspected’ recipes as babà, which is not Neapolitan, or the Austrian pork wiener schnitzel, a close relative of the Milanese Sometimes, the homage cutlet (cotoletta or costoletta). Admix- to Italian cuisine is chiefly tures cause cuisine to grow, even in expressed through ingredients, Rome: an example is Heinz Beck, whose technique and taste cacio e pepe (traditional Roman sheep’s cheese and pepper pasta) contains deep-water rose shrimp marinated in These cooks do not always tread the nar- lime. Must we accuse the German cook row path of Italian tradition. The Enoteca of lèse-majesté against one of the best- Pinchiorri has two menus: a classic one loved Roman dishes? offering such dishes as grilled mora ro- Roy Caceres, who is celebrating the tenth magnola pork or crispy hazelnut pastry, birthday of his elegant restaurant Meta- and a ‘contemporary’ one featuring, for morfosi in Rome’s upper-class Parioli

Page 4 Lidded risotto by Roy Caceres

So Roy learned certain recipes from his Sardinian mother-in-law, while also feel- ing free to draw inspiration from his grandfather Salomon, who arrived in Colombia from Syria, with playful con- taminations whereby bulgur (cracked parboiled wheat) is combined with raw meat or squab is encased in a purple maize crust. Caceres is convinced that the team of haute cuisine chefs which by now represents Italy internationally has been enriched by the addition of these ‘expats’ who adore our food. “In this season I love broccoli and apples, and I use these simple ingredients to pro- duce creative dishes - explains the South American chef - but I’m not aiming to a traditional dish is always the result of nology), adopted as a textbook by the shock with technique or daring com- successful evolution rooted within a giv- illustrious hotel academy in Lucerne binations. For me what counts is har- en territory”. where Gualtiero Marchesi studied, pro- mony. I wish to offer my customers a gressing to food history books by Mas- unique experience. After all, nowadays simo Montanari, and then to classic rec- everyone can plate well and use refined Caceres’ career is marked ipe books, from Apicius to Bartolomeo techniques; what counts today is mere- by innovative dishes which Scappi and Platina, from Nino Bergese ly the taste of a well-executed dish”. Was respect Italian ingredients to Paracucchi. “And, naturally, Artusi: it’s this not expressed by Pellegrino Artusi, here in my cooking library”, he says with whose two-hundredth birthday will oc- a smile. “When I arrived in Italy, I was cur this year? He did not like pampered, Caceres has had an exemplary career, impressed by the wide variety of in- affected, smug chefs; what matters is marked by innovative dishes which re- gredients, and by a food culture deep- passion, meticulous care and expert pre- spect Italian ingredients. In 2010 he ly rooted in past centuries, with great cision - whether we are born in Colombia, created the “65° egg carbonara”, cel- biodiversity in products and recipes: in Tunisia, in Germany, in Switzerland or ebrating the creaminess of the most from one village to the next, one finds in France. popular dish in Rome; having studied different interpretations of each food”. Gigi Padovani futurist cuisine including Marinetti’s fa- mous manifesto against the ‘cult of pas- ta’, in 2016 Roy created ‘Anti-Pasta’, trans- forming a fish soup into carbohydrate-free tagliatelle. Far more traditional is the ‘lidded risotto’, with king oyster mush- rooms and hazelnuts, created after the Colombian cook’s Damascene conver- sion to Italian risotto. Chatting with Roy Caceres, born in 1977, who reached Ita- ly in 1993 and initially pursued his voca- tion as a basketball player, we discover a rather surprising cultural trajectory. After learning the ropes in restaurants in Cortina d’Ampezzo and then in the Locanda Solarola in Castelguelfo, he de- veloped a passion for our cuisine and began learning about it without any formal training. He began by perusing basic texts including Eugen Pauli’s man- ual Tecnologia Culinaria (Culinary Tech-

Page 5 Territories l Tourism l Folklore Amarone: protagonist in the pot, star of the goblet

by Morello Pecchioli Honorary Academician for Verona

Vigorous but velvety, etween the 28th and the 30th of the Scala family fell to slicing, tearing and September in the year of our Lord hacking with scythes, knives, machetes it adapts wonderfully B489, the Ostrogoths under Theo- and any other blades they could find, doric and the Heruli under Odoacer sharp or otherwise. They claimed the to modern gastrosophy. fought mercilessly on the banks of the prime cuts of the animals without over- river Adige, just outside the walls of Ve- looking their humbler parts. This horse rona, littering the battlefield with dead flesh, marinated for a long time in spic- men and horses. Those were dark times. es, onions and the wine of nearby Val- The barbarians were savagely scrambling policella to hide the stench of putrefac- over the remnants of the recently fallen tion, turned out to be delicious. The Western Roman Empire. After the car- “strong and robust” wine was Acinatico, nage, the people of Verona, exhausted ancestor of modern Amarone. And so by hunger and barbarian incursions, im- the pastissada de caval was born. plored the victorious Goths for permis- sion to butcher the fallen horses. Theo- doric allowed this, and the forebears of “Pastissada” was conceived and perfected in the 19th century

So goes the legend, which, as fables often will, flatters the humble masses: in what world would serfs have noble wine and spices at their disposal? According to the historian Andrea Brugnoli, author of the invaluable Verona illustrata a tavola (Illus- trated Veronese Cooking), pastissada as we know it now was conceived and per- fected in the 19th century, when the city, a stronghold of the Austrians and then of the Savoy dynasty, had a particularly high equine population - horses and mules - used for military purposes. Low prices and cooking methods which con- cealed the origin of the meat promoted its diffusion on the tables of the poor, who overcame their prejudices against horse flesh by softening it through slow cook- ing and flavouring it with spices, herbs and wine. Nowadays the legendary pa- stissada de caval is distilled into poetry: “Se te vol farte un regal/ un regal a la Cangrande,/ compra carne de caval/ e

Page 6 po’ dopo pensa in grande” (‘To give your- sider pumpkin risotto. A threadlike driz- River Cafè, a small gourmet venue over- self a gift worthy of Cangrande [della zle of Amarone is like Ariadne’s thread: a looking the Thames. Scala], buy horse flesh and think large’). life-saver. Amarone is an ally of cooks, an But Amarone, proud rooster in the coop These alternating rhymes were com- extraordinary wine which has conquered of Italian good eats, also gladly weds posed by the humanist cook Giorgio the world. No tamer’s whip and stool are pasta, as restaurant menus all over Ita- Gioco. This Veronese chef recommend- necessary to bring it to heel: it is already ly will attest: lasagna with hare sauce ed lengthy cooking over a low flame domesticated. Vigorous but velvety. Ma- and Amarone; spaghetti alla chitarra (“par ’na pastissàda fina/ cinque ore de jestic but approachable”. (square-section ‘guitar-sliced’ spaghetti) cusina” - ‘for a finepastissada , five hours with Valpolicella red wine; pappardelle of cooking’) and to serve the result on with Amarone and duck salmis; drunken freshly cooked polenta. “Pair it with the From risotto to tortelloni, maccheroni... same wine used in its preparation: pro- this wine’s aroma perfectly In Valeggio, the capital of stuffed agnolin tagonist in the pot, star of the goblet. It complements other ingredients pasta in the province of Verona, the pa- will be a dinner worthy of applause”. And sta workshop of the Remelli brothers if any is left over, it makes a sublime offers customers not only various filled sauce for gnocchi. Pastissada ticks all the If pastissada de caval boasts roots reach- tortellini and tortelli, but also deep boxes: flavour, history, colour, vitality, ing back over a millennium, risotto with wine-coloured tortelloni with Amarone culture. But how to reconcile it with our Amarone is the modern recipe which and braised meat. The wine’s aroma is palates which has become fussier over best represents the culinary versatility of in perfect harmony with the other ingre- the centuries, no longer satisfied by de- the ancient Acinatico wine. In Valpolicel- dients. On the border between Valpoli- licious but heavy flavours?How can la no restaurant fails to offer it to wine cella and Lessinia, in the town of Croce Amarone, which derives its vigour and tourists. Created three decades ago, it allo Schioppo near the splendid Ponte di majesty from grapes that wake full of has transcended the borders of Valpo- Veia, a massive natural arch sculpted by energy after their slumbers on the licella, Verona and Italy itself. In New York, a stream over millions of years, Amarone drying mats, fit into modern gastros- the version prepared by the Melotti ri- weds mountain cheeses. For a dozen ophy? How can we tame red-blooded, sotto restaurant in the East Side is a must. years, Corrado Benedetti, a creative cheese Herculean Amarone in the cooking pot? Even mayor Bill De Blasio has tasted it. In artist and last scion of a long cheese-mak- “Dosage is the answer”, taught Gioco, who Tokyo, lovers of Italian food have encoun- ing lineage, descendant of a Napoleonic always kept an open bottle of Amarone tered it at the Tre Corone restaurant, pre- soldier who survived the massacre at the in his kitchen: “It can liven up the flavour pared by Guido Orben from Villafranca. Battle of Berezina, has been curing Cim- of any dish, even a delicate one. Con- In London it graces the menu at the bro cheese from the Lessinia mountain

Page 7 pastures, made of cow’s milk and goat with 50% Amarone and 50% Recioto, its reeking of camphor and a dainty nun rennet, in the grape skins from Amarone sweeter sibling. Less than two years exuding the fragrance of incense and production. “In February to March, after after its creation, Vinappeso has prayer are off the mark. Amarone opens the skins are strained out of the wine”, he reached the highest peaks of Italian its heart and becomes a gentleman poet: explains, “I cover the Cimbro cheeses restaurant cuisine. Ceradini’s business its aroma does not overpower the del- with the skins from the Amarone partner Eddy Marchi explains: “A giant of icate robiola nor drown out the truffle. grapes: Corvina, Corvinone, Rondinel- Italian cured meats, when fully aged, is More than a pizza, we find ourselves eat- la. I let them soak for a month and then married to Valpolicella wines: Amarone ing a poem. Amarone can guide us leave them in an ageing room for an- and Recioto, at 50% each, if seasoned for through an entire meal, from starters to other six. This idea was born from a 16-18 months; at 80% Recioto and 20% cheese. And dessert? That too. Indeed desire to combine two of our area’s Amarone if seasoned for 12-13 months. there are many, including ice creams. A finest distinctive products”. The great Valpolicella wines generous- student at the Orio Vergani Hotel Institute ly give their fragrance and flavour”. in Ferrara, Dario Zerbinati, won first prize Amarone is a thoroughbred whose reins at the cooking competition “Il piatto Vinappeso is a cured meat can be loosened in the kitchen. This is estense” (‘Este on a plate’ - Este being the treated with Amarone clear to Stefano Miozzo, a pizza master dynasty that once ruled the area) a few and Recioto wines in Cerea (Al Borgo 1964) who has created years ago with Amarone caramelised a gourmet pizza with Amarone dough. pears and cinnamon ice cream. Its ingredients include Baldo black truffle, Morello Pecchioli The intuition of Walter Ceradini, a butch- Lessini robiola cheese, and culatello ham er from Arbizzano di Negrar in the area treated with Valpolicella wine and its producing classic Valpolicella wines, gave grape skins. Those expecting a marriage rise to Vinappeso, a culatello ham treated between an oiled, muscle-bound wrestler

AMARONE RISOTTO Ingredients: 300 g of Vialone nano rice, 320 ml of Amarone wine from Valpoli- cella, 50 g of Monte Veronese grating cheese (or Grana), 1 shallot, 50 g of butter, 50 g of beef marrow (or substitute butter), meat broth, salt. Preparation: melt half the butter with the marrow in a pan; add the finely chop- ped shallot and soften it with some of the broth. Add the rice until toasted; then gradually add the Amarone, mixing it in with a wooden spoon until it is absor- bed. Continue cooking the rice by adding a ladleful of broth whenever it dries out. Turn off the heat when the rice is al dente; stir in the remaining butter and grated cheese until creamy.

Page 8 Cuisine l Products l Food Technology Snail eggs

by Giancarlo Saran Treviso Academician

An intriguing came with the Renaissance, thanks to Palermo, they are known as babbaluci pope Pius V, a closet gourmet who re- di Santa Rosalia (St Rosalia’s snails), and alternative to the more classified them as permitted foods during the devotees of the secular ceremony of meatless Lenten and fasting days, though the sucata (‘sucking’) pull these innocent feted sturgeon eggs. they were by no means fish, declaring: molluscs, now smothered in garlic and “estote pisces in aeternum” (‘be ye for- parsley, out of their little mobile homes. ever fish’). The definitive big break arrived In Rome there are the lumache di San in 1814, thanks to Prince Charles de Giovanni (Snails of St John) on the Talleyrand who presented them as a evening of 23 June, while the ancient fabulous delicacy to Tsar Alexander I on fiera dei Bogoni (Snail Festival), rooted his transalpine travels. Yet, notwithstand- in the 13th century, takes place in Badia ince time immemorial they have ing these illustrious precedents, they are Calavena in the hills near Verona. Times silently lived alongside humans. also well established in popular medi- and technologies change, but snails are STheir shells in Neolithic caves testi- cine, for example in Sicily, where they always pressed into service by humans. fy to this. Apicius dedicated several pas- were mashed and mixed with yeast as a Someone even casually noticed that the sages to them in his De Re Coquinaria, poultice for conjunctivitis, or their cook- hands of snail farmers were unusually extolling them among other luxurious ing water was used against ailments of soft and free of the roughness otherwise delicacies of the time. Then came the dark throats or stomachs. associated with working the land from ages, the Middle Ages, and they were They have witnessed centuries of tradi- dawn to dusk. Hence the discovery of a slow-moving prey; partial rehabilitation tion throughout the Italian peninsula. In secret - namely, snail slime - which could

Page 9 be helpful in modern cosmesis. It hy- drates, reconstitutes and lends elasticity. This is one reason for the recent boom in the snail market, also reflected in the culinary world and the discovery of new horizons.

The snail market is booming, and this is also felt in the gourmet world

The first inkling came twenty years ago, when two farmers in northern nacreous appearance, have colloquially Coldiretti ‘Green Oscar’ for technolog- France realised that snail eggs could assumed the name ‘caviar’. ical innovation in 2013. 90% of produc- be an intriguing alternative to the tion is destined for international markets, more feted sturgeon eggs, more com- especially in France and Spain. monly and colloquially known as caviar. These eggs, hand-washed and This innovation, which has opened new One thing led to another and in 2006, salted, can last approximately paths of snail exploration, could not fail three enterprising youths from Palermo, 6 months in glass jars to have culinary corollaries. Snail eggs Davide Merino and Giuseppe and Mi- are visually striking, and are also intrigu- chelangelo Sansone, began suspecting ing to taste: popping in our mouths, they that this innovation could open new The protocol is exacting. The best spec- release a blend of herbaceous and frontiers. After various peregrinations imens are selected - and they have their mineral aromas, accompanied by a to understand the rules of the game, needs. Indeed, snails are incomplete her- velvety, creamy texture. Serving tem- they launched the new adventure which maphrodites: they each have both sets perature is important: it should not is today an example of enlightened en- of reproductive organs, but must mate exceed 2°. They should be served with trepreneurship: Madonie snails, with in order to breed, in a ritual which lasts porcelain cutlery, in a glass dish placed headquarters in Campofelice di Rocel- for several hours. Thereafter, both part- on a small tray of crushed ice. Their first la. A brief introduction is in order. Though ners produce eggs. This is a laborious ambassador has been Carlo Cracco, snails were once a rural subsistence food, process also spanning several hours of ‘à who offers pàche (a variety of paccheri it is also true that they naturally resist la carte production’, since the shell cannot - large tube pasta - from the Trento external toxins and pathogens - and not contain all the eggs. These eggs are then area) with veal tongue and snail cav- just parasites and bacteria: in Chernobyl, painstakingly washed and salted to iar. But, though the simplest serving for example, only snails were unharmed interrupt incubation and sterilise them. method is on a crouton drizzled with oil, by the radioactivity. With modern agri- This is all strictly done by hand. Subse- with optional raw fish, several chefs have cultural techniques, they could therefore quently the eggs are packed into glass tackled this innovative delicacy, an alter- become ‘time bombs’ by absorbing dan- jars averaging 50 grammes each, and can native to the classic and better-known gerous substances and becoming toxic keep for approximately 6 months. This is caviar. For instance, the Sicilian Giovan- to humans. Therefore the new Madonie the birth of Madonie pearls, a.k.a. snail ni Guarnieri offers a cream of aubergine snail breeders have created a protected eggs. Madonie Snails, by now, has be- with Pachino cherry tomato. Pietro snail farm in a natural environment which come a guaranteed brand, and the three d’Agostino, in the shadow of Etna, offers is ideal to them (sun and clay-poor earth) business owners are ready to train and several variants: with raw fish, with Sali- rich in the most suitable plants (clover, then oversee those who would follow na capers, citrus marmalade and Mothia green chard, rapeseed), unlike intensive them in this unusual adventure. Around salt, but also with black rice and squid. breeding operations abroad which use 1,500 small businesses have undertaken Since these delicious ‘pearls’ are associ- processed feeds. After overcoming indu- this activity in recent years, mostly abroad. ated with Aphrodite, inevitably some bitable early difficulties, they succeeded In Italy, in addition to the Madonie would offer them for Valentine’s Day, such in creating a product with superb organo- snails, there are also good sources in as Giuseppe Calvaruso, who prepared leptic properties which, most important- the Torino and Crema areas, as well as them with cardoon bourguignonne and ly, has allowed increasing progress in a ‘pearls’ of Etruria (Tuscany) and Sar- smoked mackerel. Does it work? We can previously unexplored niche, namely dinia. This is an example of highly spe- only taste and find out! snail eggs, which, partially thanks to their cialised agriculture, which received the Giancarlo Saran

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