After following a Showcooking at Agli Amici in Godia (Ud), I’m ready to put my pots and pans to use and see what I learnt! But first I’ll write everything down for you so I don’t forget any of the steps…
This way I can also tell you all about what Emanuele Scarello (I’ve told you about him in a previous article) and his Sous chef Raffaello Mazzoli showed us and what they prepared for us.
The event was held in the “Gnocchi Kitchen Bar” that opened last December, where they try to keep the feeling of dining together, as a reminder of the old inn of the village: we are all gathered round the table set around the open kitchen, with paper and pen, concentrated to try and understand all the secrets of this special cuisine.
They make 22 dishes, all accompanies by delicious cocktails, lovingly prepared by the versatile “innkeeper 2.0” as Andrea Sbrizzo likes to call himself.
Here are some recipes for you, starting with the appetizers:
Savoury waffle:
200gr of flour
60 gr butter
380 ml of milk
2 eggs
150 gr of grated grana Padano cheese (they use the one matured for 27 months)
salt
pepper
1 teaspoon of baking powder
First of all you whisk the eggs, then add melted butter and all the dry ingredients.
You let it rest and voilà! It’s done!
This recipe instead is for making a perfect piadina (a round thin bread) that must always be made with lard:
1 Kg of flour 00
180 gr of lard
350 ml of water
35 gr of baking powder
20 gr of salt
The trick is to add the flour a bit at a time, mix and knead for 15 minutes (it’s easier if you have kneading machine, because Raffaello says that you’d feel the pain in your arms the day after.
Cover the dough with clink film and let it rest.
For cooking it you need a non stick pan on high heat, where you rest the piadina without adding oil or anything else (the lard will make sure it doesn’t stick).
Once it’s done you can then fill it as you please, we had it with ham and cheese!
As we take photos, notes, laugh and ask questions, time goes by very quickly so I hope I didn’t forget any step in the preparation… but I’m sure you’re all better than me in the kitchen so you’ll be able to put these recipes to good use if you love cooking.
Raffaelo, as well as being Sous chef is also an excellent showman, he keeps us focused as if we were school kids reminding us to write it all down. Among his favourite lessons there’s the MadeHome: you need an S for sensibility and an LL for lots of love!”
It’s now time for the tuna tataki, with vinegar and seaweed, that reminds me slightly of our saor (a Venetian way of cooking with onion in sweet and sour sauce that is used for some dishes).
For the sweet and sour:
500 ml of water
500 ml of sugar
50 ml of vinegar (any kind except balsamic)
50 gr of salt
First you need to lightly boil your vegetables and while they’re still hot transfer them to the sauce so that you get the sweet and sour (or Saor) to put on top of the tuna tataki, that will be kept at room temperature before cooking it lightly in the pan (for just a couple of minutes)
Now we see how to prepare the fish, whiting (or merling) fried in batter
For the batter:
600 ml of beer
440 gr of “00” flour
30 gr of brewer’s yeast
20 gr of salt
Fried in peanut oil
The secret for the batter is to not mix it too much: it needs to be stirred for about 3 seconds, and even if it hasn’t mixed well “don’t worry”, says Raffaello, “just cover it with cling-film and let it rest over night, or for at least 10 hours”. After it will have blended on its own.
This was the last recipe I have for you, but if you’re interested in more, you can write to me and I’ll tell you about the rest! 🙂
Among the different cocktails I tried, my favourite was definitely the gin tonic flavoured white port with myrtle. Even the Aperol sour with lemon, sugar and cranberry juice! And if we want to stay on local flavours, even the Puccini with tangerine juice and Princic’s ribolla gialla, a real triumph in perfumes!
One last note: “Gnocchi Kitchen Bar” has Kitchen Aid furniture, a hybrid between domestic and professional, that allows them to create a large number of servings, also thanks to larger ovens that also reach very high temperatures, special fridges and also, a very special “appearance” of a blast chiller! This is a “must have” for any respectable kitchen, and if only I had one my career as a chef would be much easier: no more pasta “aglio, olio e peperoncino” (pasta with garlic, oil and chilli pepper – a very tasty quick-fix), but my menu could turn into a chef’s menu!
From now on my concept of status symbol has changed: bye bye Birkin and jewellery, I want a blast chiller for my kitchen!
