Fifth Annual Pellegrino Cooking Festival:
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Have a strong identity, recognizable and faithful to Italian taste. It has to stand apart from local cuisine, as well as from new cuisine based upon pure research, and foreign and exotic cuisines.
Martino Ragusa - Individualize Italian local traditional cuisine, either poor or rich, royal, home-style, or from the street (neo-traditional cuisine).
- "Use" the Italian countryside widely as the main provider of ingredients (local cuisine). Products and culinary know-how, procedures and cooking methods from all over Italy must be smartly paired and mixed, balanced in single recipe-projects.
- Be inspired by the work of the chef-bricoleur (chef-handyman), as described in the manifesto
- Aim for simplicity, make best use of the ingredients and avoid "hiding" them under too many additions.
- Respect the central position of pasta, extra virgin olive oil, bread and wine.
- Respect the great variety characterizing the Italian styleof eating. Cereals, seafood, vegetable, meat and fruit have to be part of the menu without exclusions of ingredients such as red meat.
- Be a healthful cuisine, follow the developments in food science and dietology, and learn how to apply them in the kitchen.
- Be open to change, but at the same time watch out against hype, because they are ephemeral, confusing and distort the Italian taste.
- Propose recipes that can be reproduced, as kitchen work is basically artisanal work, which at times is so excellent that it may be confused with art. A dish is not a work of art however, and it must always be repeated by other people. The Raviolo Aperto (Open Ravioli Pasta) by Gualtiero Marchesi is a masterly example of this.
- Propose entrees which can become history. Every new recipe must have the opportunity to become tomorrow's traditional dish.
- Propose entrees with names that can become historic as well, thus easy to remember.
- Focus on the meal Italian style and do not substitute it with tasting menus. The Italian style meal must not be replaced by finger food, snacks, tapas, and other solutions which must be considered as snacks in between meals.
- Import exclusively ingredients which harmonize with the national culinary legacy, rather than in contrast with the Italian taste. The same is true for techniques and kitchen tools.
Sicilian journalist, Martino Ragusa, launched his new Italian Cuisine Manifesto on the occasion of the annual Pellegrino Cooking Festival, held the 19th and 20th of September, 2008.
The provocation is served: there is no Italian national cuisine. This provocative idea by Martino Ragusa was the underlying theme of the fifth Pellegrino Cooking Festival, organized by the historic wine estate Carlo Pellegrino S.p.a. in Marsala, Sicily. The event consists of a wine and food extravaganza featuring the best expressions of the Italian cuisine. It is particularly interesting that a manifesto in defense of the national cuisine is promoted by a winery, with a set of guidelines already underwritten by great Italian chef cuisine is affected by three negatives," said Martino Ragusa. "The first is an inferiority complex. Quality Italian products are widely used in recipes of vanguard chefs around the world, and we copy those recipes afterwards. The second negative is the lack of identity abroad. The third is the provincialism from which the Italian cuisine is trying to emancipate itself by imitating other cuisines. My manifesto is a simple attempt to have Italians (from different regions) agree," added Ragusa. "Convince them that everybody has something good, and by adding it to the good found elsewhere we can reach an 'optimum' which will represent all Italians as we deserve."
During the two days of the Pellegrino Cooking Festival, great masters of Italian and international cuisine, playfully assisted by journalists of important Italian and international magazines, proclaimed the culinary tradition which makes Italy unique. They proposed entrees which were not particularly elaborate and simple, easy to find ingredients in this splendid land, such as seafood, obviously super fresh, perfumed seasonal vegetables, tasty cuts of meat, soft polenta and savory cheeses, seasoned with the excellent local olive oil. These were two days in which the word cuoco (Italian for Chef) demanded respect, where usually it is used as secondary to the international (French) word "chef".
From left: Massimo Bellina, Piero Alagna, Caterina Tumbarello,
Emilo Ridolfi, Paola Alagna, Benedetto Renda
It must be noted that a "non-elaborate" recipe does not mean sloppy. On the contrary, it is in these dishes that we found the spirit of the cuoco bricoleur (handyman chef) theorized by Martino Ragusa. "The cuoco bricoleur," said the journalist, "must be able to find the Italian ingredients and combine them harmoniously, preferably according to the Itaian tradition, creating new urban dishes, recognizable as Italian, though not regional." It is from this do-it-yourself attitude that the new, national Italian cuisine can emerge.
Marsala Superiore Riserva Oro Dessert Wine
Separate praise must go to the wines. The Pellegrino winery continues the important journey started in Marsala in 1880, when it first opened. The choice of select wine areas of the eastern part of Sicily, the strict grape selection and the expert winemaking have produced excellent results. The respect and rehabilitation of traditional winemaking allows winemakers to obtain prestigious Marsala dessert wines from Grillo and Catarratto grapes. The Superiore Riserva Oro is a perfect example, with its golden, jewel-like color and intense perfumes. From the smaller volcanic Pantelleria island, off the coast of Sicily, surrounded by cobalt blue sea, arrives the Zibibbo, from which expert winemakers make classic dessert wines such as the Moscato, or refined meditation wines such as the Passito Naturale, which is extremely soft with an extended aromatic range.
Paccheri al Regno DelleDue Sicilie
(Two Sicilies Kingdom-Style Paccheri Pasta)
The modernization of the production equipment, added to the meticulous care with which the wines are aged, adopting barriques for red as well as some Marsala varieties, expanded the market share of the brand Duca di Castelmonte in particular. Inzolia and Grillo, two fresh, fruity white wines, the innovative Gibelč, a dry Zibibbo wine with citrus aroma intense floral notes, plus a Chardonnay aged in barrique, pair perfectly with the seafood provide by this fabulous stretch of Mediterranean. The Nero d'Avola and Syrah are warm, with elegant tannins, and pair excellently with meat-based recipes and the savory aged cheeses which are the pride of the island's cheese industry.
Gibelč – Zibibbo Sicilia IGT
(White dry wine excellent as aperitif or wth seafood-based hors d'oeuvres)
"Friday and Saturday evenings offered the lucky opportunity to enjoy extraordinary entrees, giving us the chance to appreciate brilliant interpretations of our cuisine," said Benedetto, Renda administrator of Carlo Pellegrino Spa estate. "As usual, the festival was a moment of celebration and tasting of the Pellegrino and Duca di Castelmonte lines of wine. Ideally, the Pellegrino Cooking Festival will end at Vinitaly, with the presentation of the recipe book featuring the dishes tasted during these few precious days."
"Since the beginning of our Pellegrino Cooking Festival we, a family who has owned his own winery for over a century seemed destined to become promoters of innovation and development, while paying respects to tradition," commented Pietro Alagna, President of the estate. "After exploring different styles and cuisines, we felt very strongly the desire to gather our country's traditions, which are so rich in history and culture, and express it through its food."
Ricciola su Crudo di Tagliatella di Seppia e Tartare di Gamberi Rossi
(Ricciola [Mediterranean Fish] over Raw Squid Tagliatelle and Red Prawn Tartare)
The cuochi, the Entrees, the Wines
| Friday, November 19, 2008 |
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Vellutata di Patate e Crostacei con Croccante Nero
| Saturday, November 20, 2008 |
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