Category: Uncategorized

The real Neapolitan pizza

20140716-232117-84077729.jpgPizza is taken very seriously in Campania and especially in Naples and its surrounding areas. The reasons are rather obvious. The area is known for its San Marzano tomatoes which are renowned for their exceptional quality particularly for making tomato sauce and for the Mozzarella di Bufala made from milk from water buffalo raised in the marshlands of Campania.

No one really knows where pizza originated from  but the ‘Napolitani’ claim to be those that have invented the pizza we are so accustomed to eating nowadays in many pizzerias worldwide.

20140716-232118-84078259.jpgMaarten Van Steen of Villa Bardon in Gent which serves Mediterranean cuisine has just come back from a two week course organised by the Associazione Vera Pizza Napolitana to learn the secrets to making a good pizza. This afternoon we tasted the results of this two week course and the result was extremely successful.

Here he shares the secrets of what he has learned in the two weeks he stayed in the world’s pizza capital.

It might sound obvious but there are a few secrets to making good pizza. The first is the dough. This is made with water, flour (in Italy the use the 00 type) salt and yeast. You need to let it rest for around two hours, following which you shape it into balls which are left to ferment even overnight in a cool environment. This adds to the complexity of flavour.

The other secret is the ingredients on top of the pizza. In Campania they use crushed San Marzano tomatoes to make tomato sauce as the base for the pizza. The mozzarella is the other key ingredient. Here, unfortunately, it is not easy to replicate given that it is extremely difficult if not impossible to find a good mozzarella that has been produced on that same day. In the South of Italy, mozzarella is taken very seriously and many will make sure that they use one which had been just prepared on the day. Maarten says the best mozzarella he has ever tasted came from a visit to the farm where it had just been produced. I can vouch for such mozzarella from our visit to Campania a few years ago.

The real pizza Napolitana uses just tomatoes, mozzarella, basil and a drizzle of good extra virgin olive oil. When the ingredients are good, simplicity is key.

Maarten says another key element of making good pizza is to have the right oven. A stone oven is obviously essential but he was also in pizzerias which made use of gas ovens (albeit with a flame). He says the results are not the same but come close.

You obviously need to open the dough well. Here the secret is not to throw the dough into the air. This is a gimmick and not the way the Associazione teaches upcoming pizzaiolos.

He had his fair share of pizzas but he says one of the things which surprised him most was a ‘fried’ pizza calzone stuffed with ricotta and pancetta among others which was sensational. He tried this at Pizzeria Di Matteo, which is a very famous pizzeria in one of the narrow streets of Naples.

Many associate the Pizza Marinara with seafood. However, in Campania, the Pizza Marinara is the simplest pizza you can have. It is just a pizza with tomatoes and garlic and has no mozzarella.

For the time being, Maarten will perfect the art of making pizza on his days off from the restaurant. As he says, the two week course in Naples adds to his cooking experiences. Who knows, we might be able to try his pizzas in Gent sometime in future.

 

 

The wines of Sicily – a wine region like no other

The fishing village of Scoglitti which believe it or not triggered my passion for Sicilian wines

Maybe it is because of Malta’s close affinity to Sicily, or because of the fact that I have been there so many times, but I find Sicilian wines to be extremely interesting. True, they might not compare with the finesse of Barolo’s from Piemonte or Brunello di Montalcino from Tuscany but still they are extremely fascinating.

Sicilian cuisine to me epitomises what is best about Mediterranean food. Take simple, sometimes humble ingredients and within minutes you have the makings of a great meal. Like my home country, Sicily is a hotpot of different influences from the Mediterranean. Some of the most memorable meals I have experienced were in Sicily whether it was a menu free restaurant in Scoglitti serving just one fish dish after another of what their fishermen had caught earlier in the day, to some of the best pasta creations. Nothing beats their spaghetti with sea urchins or pasta with prawns and pine nuts or pistachios which are so common in Sicilian cuisine.

But this post is not about Sicilian food but rather about its wines. Sicily came rather late to the wine connoisseurs attention and for various reasons. For many years, Sicilian wine producers made wine which were transported to the North of Italy to be blended with other more well known wines. There were also a few large producers who mainly focused on quantity rather than quality.

But a handful of winemakers, also spotting the potential of this island, decided to take matters into their hands starting from the 1990s and began to make their own wines under their own labels. This has led to a major reversal of fortunes and many now consider Sicily to be one of the most interesting wine regions in Italy.

Some winemakers like Cusumano call Sicily a continent because of so many terroirs that this island has to offer. The variety of wine styles that have emerged in recent years ensures that this may indeed be the case.

There are parts of Sicily which are further South from Tunisia and therefore extremely hot for wine making. Nevertheless, the wines produced, despite their intensity also have the right amount of acidity which makes for balanced wines when aged well. I can assure you that a 10 year old Nero d’Avola can give you as much pleasure as more renowned wines.

The Nero d’ Avola is the most well-known grape from Sicily and it originally comes from South-East Sicily (Avola) close to Pachino which is world famous for the cherry tomato variety of that name. Nowadays, Nero D’Avola is grown pretty much across the whole island.

Then there are wines from higher altitudes or those from the volcanic region of Etna which offer great examples of the potential that wines from volcanic regions have. Here, the most interesting grape is the Nerello Mascalese which is traditionally grown on the slopes of Mount Etna. The wines from the Etna have an exceptional minerality mainly because of the volcanic soil.  One of my long time favourites from this area are the wines from the long established Benanti. Many Sicilian wine makers have now invested in this area including Tasca d’Almerita, Cusumano and Firriato. One of the most innovative in the Etna region is Belgian winemaker Frank Cornelissen who has established himself with his natural wines which use no sulphur whatsoever. His are considered to be cult wines.

The main white grape variety of Sicily is the Insolia which is a very fruity wine but when well made has great balance in terms of fruit and acidity. It also blends well with international varieties such as Chardonnay.

The first time I discovered Sicilian wines was thanks to a passionate wine lover who had a great Enoteca in the small fishing village of Scoglitti. He had a small but very interesting selection of wines in his enoteca. He guided me years ago to some of the best winemakers the island had. My fascination with Sicilian wines grew from there.

Among my favourite winemakers are Benanti, Cusumano, Morgante, Firriato, Tasca d’Almerita, Ceuso and Planeta. I will write about these and many more wine producers in future blogposts. There are many other winemakers worthy of a mention. So watch this space for more blogposts in future.

But if you find any one of the Sicilian wines from the above producers try them out. You will not be disappointed. One tip: Sicilian wines in comparison to wines of similar quality are cheaper so I would recommend that you try to acquire the higher end wines. You can find exceptional quality for wines between 10 Euros and 30 Euros.

Among my long time favourites are Cusumano’s Noa, a blend of Nero d’Avola, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, Cusumano’s Sagana, 100 per cent Nero d’Avola, Rosso del Conte from Tasca d’Almerita, the Nero d’Avola from Morgante, Harmonium from Firriato and the Pietramarina from Benanti.

Siciliy is also home to one of my favourite ever wine shops, the Enoteca Picone. It has an amazing selection of wines from Sicily as well as many of the best Italian wines you can find elsewhere. If you are ever in Palermo, then this is a must visit.

 

 

What I enjoyed reading this week (2)

This has been a pretty hectic week. Nevertheless, I still had some time to read some interesting links which I share with you here. In this case, I also must thank some friends who send in interesting links. So if you find anything interesting don’t hesitate to share.

The first one comes from Franklin and relates to a ‘giant’ in French cooking, the great Paul Bocuse.

Have you ever wondered why the lights are switched off on landing in aeroplanes. You have your answer here.

Lists are always subjective and sometimes provocative. Here is one on the top 50 cities to see. How many have you seen> I’ve counted 18.

A recipe in Italian on making a typical dish from Campania. Not the healthiest option but interesting nevertheless.

Some tips on some food related books to read this summer. What is on your reading list this summer?

And finally, a very inspiring video on Elon Musk, one of the most talked about entrepreneurs in recent years.

 

 

The mother of all defeats

A few minutes before the start of the semi-final between Germany and Brazil yesterday I tweeted that all statistics were pointing to a Brazil win. But these statistics are normally there to be broken. With the benefit of hindsight it seemed so obvious.

Nate Silver, an American statistician who mines data was stating without any shadow of doubt that even without Neymar and their star defender Thiago Silva, the Brazilians still had all that it takes to make it through to the final. The expectations were huge. Most of their supporters were expecting Brazil to reach the final and win the World Cup. After all they were playing at home.

But these statistics ignored the most basic premise. This Brazilian team was lucky to be in the semi-finals. They could barely scrape through the last 16 against Chile and only made it by a whisker and the match against Colombia was also a close encounter. With Neymar out because of injury, it was no wonder that they were panicking. But football is a team sport and although stars have a way of hiding mediocrity, they can do little against a well-oiled machine, which the Germans proved to be.

This has been an incredible World Cup. A number of teams considered as minnows or unlikely to qualify from the group phase made it to the last 16 and one would dare say even to the quarter-finals though by this stage of the competition they could no longer be billed as surprises.

A lot has been written about the Brazilian defeat. Clearly it is not everyday that a footballing giant, and Brazil, in this sense is the equivalent of a giant with its 5 World Cup wins, succumbs to such an annihilation which is normally reserved to the minnows of football. Many are still in shock and awe at the extent of a result that is likely to haunt Brazil for generations.

As a former sports journalist covering the Maltese national team, I have experienced quite a few debacles of the national team including a home 8-0 defeat against the Netherlands. When you are used to seeing such matches, yesterday’s humiliating defeat does not come as such a big surprise. There are days in sport when everything goes right for a team and wrong for the other. Yesterday was one such day. Sometimes the difference between a great win and a drub 0-0 are episodes.

Brazil had not lost a home game in 12 years. Never has a European team won a World Cup on American soil but Germany entered the match as favourites, at least to my view because there was one thing which could not be hidden from sight. This was clearly, even before yesterday, one of the most mediocre Brazilian sides that I have seen since I started following football pretty much in the 1980s.

When Germany scored the first goal, it looked like a lapse in the Brazilian defence. At that stage of the game, It was no longer about the missing Neymar but rather about shoddy defending. As Germany piled the pressure and scored four goals in the space of seven minutes it was evident that this was no longer just about football but rather a huge mental collapse of a once mighty footballing nation. The Brazilians showed that two goals down, they could not handle the pressure and went completely into disarray.

The Brazilian defence did not know what had hit them. As for the Germans, many were wondering why Germany did not stop the humiliation. It is easier to look back with the benefit of hindsight. But in sport, the minute you lose concentration is the minute you are no longer in control of what can happen. So for that you need to admire the German machine for a perfect performance.

The Germans had rebuilt their football after a footballing debacle more a decade ago. it is now time for Brazil to go back to the drawing boards and rediscover why it has come to this. This defeat which shocked a nation may end up being a God send if they rebuild their football from scratch. It will clearly be a costly defeat.

 

 

What I enjoyed reading this week

Every week I will try to post a few links of what I enjoyed reading the week. Here is a short mix on travel, food, a controversial application which makes a reservation in popular restaurants and then sells them for a small fee and what looks like a fantastic ice-cream recipe.

Some tips on the Costa Amalfitana

A great article on work life balance

A fantastic article on the Sicilian island of Pantelleria

A great ice-cream recipe

A controversial application

 

 

Does anyone really care about tourist traps?

IMG_6042One of the most famous streets in Brussels among tourists or people on business trips is the Rue de Bouchers. It can be found just a few metres away from the Grand Place.

Walking from the street at the Grand Place area last week on the evening when Belgium was playing against South Korea and locals were obviously nowhere near any restaurant without a television set, I could not help but wonder what makes people visit such restaurants around the world.

What are they looking for? Why would locals consider such places a tourist trap but so many have no qualms in sitting down and eating there. What is so attractive about waiters greeting you in all languages as they try to guess your nationality to try and get you in?

In the case of Brussels, are the mussels and fries served in such places so different in quality to restaurants which cater mainly for locals? Do the tourists who sit down to eat in such places care about the difference? Are they more interested in the experience of eating al fresco as the day gets longer as long as they sit and enjoy a glass of beer or wine? Is the location more important than quality?

What triggers such behaviour? Is it the wisdom of the crowds?

This is a common phenomenon not only in the city I know best. Tourist traps can be found pretty much in every city. The more tourists a city attracts the more you are likely to find such places. Take cities like Paris and London. They are among the top most culinary destinations but get it wrong and you are likely to end up being extremely disappointed.

Have you ever noticed how many times bars, restaurants and cafes in the best locations or with great views have the lousiest service? Is there a correlation between location and quality? Do places which cannot attract customers on the basis of location go the extra mile to please their customers for this reason? Are they more passionate about the food they serve, the provenance of their produce?

But for the many who frequent such places, does it really matter?