QUALITALY 140

June/July 2024 XII MAGAZINE __________________________________ BOX Dinner We agree on a nine-course menu with a couple of glasses of Etna wines to go with it, a tasting itinerary that safely flies between meat and fish dishes, fresh and non-cooked pastas, capers, citrus fruits, aromatic herbs, and vegetables from the kitchen garden, embracing Salina and indulging in a few Sicilian excursions when the excellence of Trinacria becomes indispensable. A 24-hour russello bread leavened with sourdough yeast is served with Mandravecchia oil. The welcome aperitif includes canasta lettuce with vin cotto, ravioli with pea water and tuna roe, cod cannoli, squid ink scarpetta accompanied by an infusion of lesser calamint. The welcome dish is bagnacauda with creamed milk potatoes, anchovies, garlic and a topping of raw urchins. It is Martina’s signature dish among the best-known texts in Caruso’s culinary writing. It well represents the contextualisation of a Piedmontese dish using island ingredients that make for a sweet and salty sip of the sea. It fills the senses with generous abundance. It envelops without suffocating. It rises inside like a tide that rises decisively and soars almost to the point of overflowing while maintaining a gentle strength in its momentum. Smooth as silk’. The lemon granita with spicy chilli pepper and parsley dressing is a refreshing change of pace in preparation for the meat and fish dishes. Here the sea is everywhere and the land is always present. Caruso’s cuisine is methodical, transversal to the elements, devoted to listening to an island terrain that is indeed made up of the sea but which lives and feeds off the land, a land that is still an identity, never a burden. The philosophical framework is solid but the thought is never dogmatic. Sourcing is local, Salina has an obvious sovereignty, sustainability counts. But the genetic purity of the ingredients Martina calls upon to be identifiable is never intolerant, Caruso is an intelligent person who makes us rediscover roots and an aromatic endemicity respectful of the island in a cuisine that is a faithful portrait of an Aeolian journey capable of occasionally opening up to some spices or fish more Mediterranean than Southern Tyrrhenian. Working in absolute purity of origin is all too ascetical an exercise. Like all islanders, Caruso is hospitable without exaggeration; the islands are basic and do not tolerate excesses on pain of survival. And if they know how to accept change, they are more inclined to change the visitor by insulating them during the integration process. As Sicilian cuisine has taught us; as Caruso’s cooking clearly highlights. There are four fish dishes with a final surprise. Carpaccio of amberjack with anchovy garum, herb oil and cabbage leaves. Seared albacore served with its ventresca, aubergine brusin and basil cream. The red prawn lacquered in Bloody Mary with peach in acetic preserve, salted lemon, dehydrated apricot powder, shallot cooked in raspberry vinegar and soya. But it is with the slow-cooked smoked mackerel served with pomegranate reduction, fresh pomegranate and caper leaf salad that the wave of a force 7 sea arrives, bringing strong flavours, raging like a storm. They persist because they are not passing phenomena but conditions of state that find roundness after having exhausted their force. The calm after the storm. In the linguine with almond milk with clams and parsley, the taste is powerful and unwavering. The almond milk gives the clam a solo voice capable of concerting with the orchestra, emerging, without jarring, from the chorus. The octopus fagottini mantecati in a creamy potato and nduja sauce served with black olive crumble, lemon leaf powder and plated octopus are the fresh pasta of the kitchen. This is followed by a roll of plated rabbit served with herbs, sea fennel, preserved mushrooms and mushroom dashi. The last savoury dish features cheek and shoulder of Nebrodi piglet served with hummus, pepper jam and a small mixed salad. The caper ice cream with caper powder, candied caper and two slices of sweet bread that I eat as if it were a small sandwich is the all-island pre-dessert that anticipates a lemon tart with sablé shortcrust, burnt meringue, liquorice jelly and lemon leaf powder. The final pastry is small: a cannolo with Vulcano ricotta cheese and Bronte pistachio, white chocolate and coffee, red fruit jelly. __________________________________ AT PAGE 46 ON THE ROAD Molise, a (great) little Italian treasure SIMPLE AND GENUINE, IT IS A REGION WAITING TO BE DISCOVERED THANKS TO A SERIES OF UNIQUE AND PRIZED PRODUCTS THAT CAN PROVIDE ADDED VALUE ON THE TABLES OF ALL THE NATION’S RESTAURANTS by Alessandro Vergallo It is the second smallest region in Italy and is home to some of the most beautiful villages in the country. Credits: Giò Martorana Credits: Giò Martorana Lo chef Angelo Pagano Credits: Giò Martorana