italian cuisine

By: Leidy Liz Levitan, Italian Master Chef, Hotel Leela Ambience, Gurugram

The word Gnocchi is derived from the Italian word nocchio, meaning a knot in wood. It has been a traditional type of Italian pasta in which potato and wild mushrooms are the star of this dish. This recipe of Gnochhi takes the Italian delicacy to yet another level.

 Black Truffles – the diamonds of the kitchen-  add a unique flavour to this recipe, making  it excitingly comforting and indulgent.

– Italian Master Chef Leidy Liz Levitan

Ingredients

For the Gnocchi

1 kg potatoes (roasted with skin)
300 gms flour
2  small farm eggs (or 1 big egg)
4 gms salt
60 gms pecorino cheese (grated)
1 Melanosporum truffle

For the Sauce

150 gms Porcini mushrooms
100 gms Chanterelle mushrooms
350 ml full fat cream
80 gms butter (cold and cut in cubes)
35 gms Parmesan cheese
10 gms salt
5 gms black pepper

For Garnish

200 gms Enoki mushrooms
150 gms Shimeji mushrooms
Truffle oil

Preparation

Gnocchi
Roast the potatoes in the oven with skin . Peel and mash.
Add the egg and gradually the flour and the salt.
Knead until a homogeneous dough is obtained . Add the Pecorino and the truffle to taste.
Make cylinders of 1.5 centimetres diameter and 45 in length . Cut into  1.5 cm wide segments.
Cook in boiling water for 1.5 minutes,drain and put in the pan with the sauce to finish.

Sauce
Process and make a paste with the Porcini and Chanterelle.
Put in non-stick pan on slow flame and boil for 5 minutes . Add the salt and  pepper.
Add the cream , Parmesan cheese and cold butter.

Serve the Gnocchi mixed with sauce  in a pasta plate after a drizzle of truffle oil and garnish with mushrooms and truffle shavings.

Wine Pairing

Chef Leidy’s top favourite is a red wine made from the Tannat grape varietal. A major reason for that maybe her residence in Uruguay  where it is considered the national grape of the country (known as Harriague there).

However with  this preparation, the chef recommends a light-medium bodied red wine that has appreciable acidity so as to balance the creaminess of the dish.

She recommends Santa Digna Pinot Noir from Miguel Torres Chile as a good accompaniment to  Gnocchi di Tartufo. According to her, the earthy and fruity wine with an expressive nose ,a medium body, decent structure and medium acidity works well with the creaminess and flavour complexity of the dish.

 

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Leidy Liz Levitan Hernandez, the current Italian Master Chef at hotel Leela Ambience Gurugram is passionate, people oriented and dedicated towards her craft. Having travelled far and wide, she has mastered her culinary skills to be able to serve her guests with the most exquisite preparations.

Leidy started her career in the beautiful Canary Islands, at Cleopatra Palace Mare Nostrum, as the Demi Chef. She worked in different restaurants and hotels in Spain learning and enhancing her skills, before moving on to Kuwait as the Chef de Cuisine at Cucina Restaurant Missoni Hotel. After her stint at Kuwait she moved to Jakarta and worked for a short period at the Negev Restaurants, before joining in her current appointment.

Chef Leidy brings with her a bouquet of cultural learnings and experience. After serving different hosts and delighting them with her culinary skills she now serves our guests with authentic Italian delicacies at The Leela Ambience Gurugram.

My ‘playground’ Burlamacco is a Tuscan influenced Italian restaurant located at Amoy street in Singapore. This family run small restaurant is owned by Gabriele Piegaia who is also the restaurant’s Executive Chef.

Gabriele is a true ambassador of Italian food and wine. This makes Burlamacco an inspiring destination for wine lovers of all hues. Many world class events like Gusto Italiano, World Gourmet Summit, Epicure Wine Market, Savour in Singapore as also wine workshops and private tastings by Singapore Sommelier Association keep the wine buzz in the restaurant high.

Wine orientation at Burlamacco

Given the specialised nature of the restaurant, most of our wines (as high as 90%) are Italian. These wines are from Tuscany, Piedmont, Veneto, Sicily, Alto Adige, Campania, Sardegna , Friuli, Abruzzo, Umbria and Puglia. Currently we have around 110 different labels with some representation from France, Chile, Australia and New Zealand as well.

One noteworthy initiative of Burlamacco is “No Corkage Day” that we follow every Tuesday and Sunday. People can bring their own wines on these days and have it served to them at no service charge. We also host wine dinners very frequently. All these activities offer me ample opportunity to taste hundreds of wines with due deliberation.

In 2016, I tasted many interesting wines including big names. But there were some that you don’t come by so frequently and a number of them stole my heart at the first taste. I am sharing the details of four such wines in the G2G Cartes de Dégustation  below. I hope you will enjoy reading about them the same way that I am enthused to describe them.

And yes, when you are next in Singapore, it will be my pleasure to welcome you @ Burlamacco should you want to share the passion of Italian food and wine with someone well placed to serve you. Please do bring a bottle and let’s share the passion of wine!

By: Nishant Choubey, Corporate Chef, The Roseate, New Delhi

About Porchetta

A traditional Italian preparation of stuffed pork originating from central Italy and prepared in variations all over the country.

Ingredients

3 kg pork belly (skin on)
2 kg pork loin boneless
3 tbsp fennel seeds
2 tbsp red pepper flakes
2 tbsp fresh sage
1 tbsp fresh rosemary
3 garlic cloves minced
Kosher salt
½ orange deseeded and sliced
1 bottle red wine

Preparation

Place pork belly skin side down and marinate with red wine, kosher salt and Black pepper. Keep it overnight and let the meat cure .

Slice the boneless pork loin  into small cubes, add toasted fennel seeds,red pepper flakes ,sage, rosemary, garlic cloves and kosher salt. Let it too rest for the night.

Next day flatten the pork belly and assemble the seasoned pork loin inside. Roll it like a cylinder . Truss it with butcher’s twain.
Let the roll rest for 12 hours.

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees centigrade,roast on rack while  periodically turning it  so that the porchetta attains a brown colour similar to searing meat. It will take approximately 35 minutes.

Lower the oven temperature to 150 degrees and cook further for around 1-1.5 hours to ensure that the meat is cooked evenly. To determine, run a knife inside and make sure no juices are oozing off.

Take the porchetta out on a dry rack and let rest until cool to handle.

Cut open the twain and slice. Serve hot garnished with a slice of orange.

 

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Chef Nishant Choubey

Currently heading culinary operations for The Roseate New Delhi, Chef Nishant Choubey started his career with the Oberoi Rajvilas, Jaipur. Two years later, he moved to Dubai to join the Jumeirah group as a pre-opening team member for Madinat Jumeirah. After three years with Madinat, the chef moved back to Delhi and joined Olive Group where he was  a key member of the pre-opening team for the group’s various properties.

Chef Nishant has won many laurels during his career, major among them being the 1st prize at Bocus d’ Or competition and Chef Of The Year 2015  by Outlook Traveller magazine. The chef also has the distinction of representing India at Madrid Fusion 2015 and several other international culinary fixtures.

An alumnus of Bhopal Catering College in Madhya Pradesh, Chef Nishant Choubey describes his motto as “giving a gourmet experience to my esteemed guests where the food conveys the unique character of my repertoire!”

Significant among Chef Nishant’s current pursuits is a TV programme called “The Great Chefs of India” and a book on Ayurveda linked food gastronomy that he is authoring in association with a prominent publisher.

By: Luigi Ferraro, Italian Chef, Shangri-la’s Eros hotel New Delhi

About

A mushroom risotto typical to the Sibari sub region of Calabria, Italy

Ingredients

To serve 4

320 g Carnaroli rice of Sibari
40 g extra virgin olive oil
20 g chopped onions
50 ml white wine Gavi di Marchesi di Barolo (or use any other dry white wine with moderate acidity)
1 litre vegetable stock
4 g parsley
2 g thyme
2 g garlic
salt and black pepper
50 g king oyster mushroom
50 g button mushroom
50 g porcini mushroom
20 morels
50 g butter
50 g parmigiano reggiano cheese

Preparation

Heat olive oil in a saucepan, sauté chopped onion till golden brown, add the rice and sauté it for a few seconds, deglaze with white wine.Once the wine evaporates, add stock little by little and cook the rice on slow heat, keep on stirring the rice with wooden spoon.

In another pan cook all mushrooms with butter. Once cooked, keep aside some mushrooms for the plating and add rest of the cooked mushrooms in risotto pan. Add thyme and keep cooking the risotto on slow fire, adding the stock little by little .Check the doneness, once 80% cooked, stop adding the stock.

Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper, finish the risotto with butter.

Finally add chopped, parsley and grated parmesan cheese.

Serve in a risotto plate and garnish with sautéed mushrooms, parmesan chips, extra virgin olive oil and micro greens.

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Chef Luigi Ferraro began his culinary journey as a commis chef and continued working his way up, holding many significant positions in more than two decades of hospitality experience across the globe.

Before moving to India, Chef Luigi served as executive chef for a luxury restaurant, Café Calvados in Moscow, He also served as executive chef at La Tenuta Dei Frati, a catering company in Castrovillari, Cavallino, a Mediterranean restaurant in Marina di Sibaro, Italy and Borghetto Hotel and Residence in Italy, where he handled the complete management of the kitchen for over 300 guests.

Chef Luigi also has a book to his name titled “Calabria, in tutti i sensi”. The book was edited on the occasion of a particular journey that led him to discover the treasures of his native land, Calabria.

Throughout his career, Chef Luigi has won many culinary accolades, including the “Section Taste Award” in Rome, the “Column of Capocolonna”, in Crotone, the “Italian Excellence Award” in Reggio Calabria, and a gold medal under the main restaurant hot food category at the International Kremlin Culinary Cup, to name a few.

His extensive culinary experience and wide repertoire in Mediterranean and international cuisine are accentuated by his philosophy of serving dishes orchestrated with passion and crafted to evoke full flavors through the use of the highest- quality seasonal ingredients, creative composition and sound cooking technique.