What Are Italy’s Top Chefs Cooking At Home During Coronavirus Quarantine?

In normal times, Italy’s top chefs dazzle with their culinary prowess at restaurants throughout the country, reviving authentic dishes, devising fresh takes on classic recipes, and inventing new menus to give a 21st-century spin to one of the world’s most popular cuisines. But with most everything shuttered because of the pandemic, what are leading Italian chefs cooking for themselves and their families at home during the quarantine? Below you’ll find a delicious sampling, along with the chefs’ personal recipes. Two of these culinary masters are turning to comfort foods associated with the regions where they grew up; one opts for a dish that gives him hope for better days ahead; another likes to make a pasta his young son will enjoy and can help him prepare. (For the chefs’ recipes, metric measurements and Celsius cooking temperatures are provided.)

RISOTTO WITH BROCCOLI RABE, STRACCHINO CHEESE AND CANDIED LEMON

Chef Marco Acquaroli helms the restaurant Natura in Torbiato di Adro, a small town located in Franciacorta wine country. Natura describes its cuisine as “glocal,” that is, combining cooking methods and ingredients from around the world with Italian dishes and locally sourced, sustainable produce. Acquaroli, who won the competitive and coveted Bocuse d’Or Italia award in 2016, says he chose this recipe to make now because it “represents the transition from winter to spring, when warm weather and sunny, blue-sky days arrive. It’s a sort of rebirth. In this heartbreaking and challenging year for our country and the world, I’m cooking this recipe with the hope that our own spring will arrive, that better things are on their way.”

Risotto with broccoli rabe, stracchino cheese and candied lemon (serves 4)

Ingredients

320 grams Carnaroli rice

100 grams Franciacorta wine

300 grams broccoli rabe

1 liter vegetable broth

150 grams Parmigiano-Reggiano

100 grams butter

100 grams stracchino or burrata cheese

50 grams milk

Store-bought candied lemon peel 

Method

Clean the broccoli rabe and set aside a few small sprigs with which to garnish the risotto. Let the broccoli rabe cook for 8 minutes in boiling salted water. Drain and let cool. Heat the vegetable broth. Blend the broccoli rabe with an immersion blender, adding the hot vegetable broth gradually until you have a smooth purée. Beat together the stracchino cheese with the milk (make sure it’s cold) until it reaches a creamy consistency. In a pan toast the dry rice, about 2 minutes. Add the wine and let it reduce down, adding the hot vegetable broth. Let cook for 14-15 minutes. Remove from heat and let the risotto rest for around 2 minutes. Add the broccoli rabe purée, butter and parmesan. Mix well and add salt to taste. Plate the risotto and top with the stracchino cream, the broccoli rabe set aside for garnish, and the chopped candied lemon peel. 

TORTA RUSTICA WITH BEEF AND EGGPLANT

Domenico Stile is chef at at Enoteca la Torre a Villa Laetitia, an exquisite Art Nouveau hotel and restaurant owned by the Fendi Venturini family. “This is a typical peasant dish,” says Stile, Rome’s youngest Michelin-starred chef. “Traditionally families like mine in Gragnano [a town near the Amalfi Coast] would preserve vegetables by canning or transforming them into sauces. In the winter they’d be used in simple yet rich and satisfying dishes, like this torta rustica, which for me is pure comfort food and reminiscent of my childhood and region.”

Torta Rustica with Beef and Eggplant (serves 4)

Ingredients

150 grams ground beef 

300 grams crusty bread 

150 grams eggplant (cut into cubes)

50 grams peppers 

50 grams mortadella (cut into cubes) 

150 grams smoked provola cheese 

Salt  

Pepper 

Nutmeg 

2 eggs 

Parsley 

50 grams of sliced green olives

Method

Cut the bread into cubes and soak it in cold water. Wring out the water and place the bread in a bowl. Peel the eggplant and cut into cubes. Bring water to a boil and add salt, thyme, and garlic. Add eggplant and cook until very soft, about 10 minutes. Cook the peppers whole in the oven until well-roasted (20 minutes at 200° C). Once cooled, remove the skins and seeds. Cut into small pieces. Add the eggplant and the peppers to the bread. Beat the eggs. Add the ground beef, eggs, sliced olives, provola and mortadella cubes. Season with salt, pepper, nutmeg and chopped parsley. Mix together until smooth. Put the mixture into a non-stick baking dish and cook at 160° C for 20 to 30 minutes. (The cooking time depends on the height of the baking dish. Make sure the mixture doesn’t dry out.) Season with a pinch of salt and serve with fresh tomato sauce if desired.

WHOLE-WHEAT PASTA WITH SPINACH PESTO AND CRISPY PARMESAN

Chef Alberto Basso, owner and head chef of the Trequarti restaurant in Val Liona Vicenza (Veneto), a stylish restaurant known for dishes that inventively update the area’s cuisine, likes to teach parents how to cook for their children, and conducts cooking classes for youngsters as well. While in quarantine he’s been making whole-wheat pasta with spinach pesto for his three-and-a-half-year-old son Riccardo to pass the time and keep him entertained. “As many parents know, it can be notoriously difficult to get children to eat their greens,” says Basso. “But I’ve had success with this recipe. It’s been a lot of fun to introduce Riccardo to my world and also see him pick up lots of new food vocabulary.”

Whole-wheat pasta with spinach pesto and crispy pamersan (4 kid-sized servings; 2-3 adult-sized servings)

Ingredients 

250 grams fresh spinach 

100 grams freshly grated parmesan 

EVOO

Salt

200 grams short-wheat pasta like penne, fusilli or rigatoni

Method

For the pesto

Wash the spinach and cut off the stems. Steam for 2-4 minutes or boil in salted water for 3 minutes. Remove from the steamer or drain, and let the spinach cool in ice water. Put the spinach in a blender, adding 50 grams of parmesan, a pinch of salt and a drizzle of olive oil. Add a few spoonfuls of room-temperature water as you blend ingredients until smooth.

For the pasta

Bring water to a boil. Salt water. Cook the pasta following the directions on the box. Drain and mix together with the spinach pesto and a sprinkling of grated parmesan cheese. Add the crispy parmesan.

For the crispy parmesan

[You can buy parmesan crisps at the store, or bake them in an oven, using the left-over parmesan, or more, depending on how many crisps you want. Here is a link to a recipe for baked parmesan crisps from the Food Network, by Giada di Laurentiis, calling for 1/2 cup grated parmesan. CS]

RAGU’ ALLA BOLOGNESE

“Like most chefs, I’m not used to having much time off, or so much time to experiment in the kitchen. I’m trying to appreciate both at the moment,” says chef Daniele Bendanti of Oltre, one of Bolgona’s top restaurants. “While conceptualizing new dishes is always satisfying, I can’t help but return to a classic recipe right now—ragù alla bolognese.” Bendanti says that this signature dish of his hometown, Bologna, reminds him of his childhood and his family. “We always had a pot of it simmering on the stove. Just the aroma of this ragù makes me happy and gives me a sense of serenity, which I think we all need these days.” Bendanti says that the restaurant’s two best-selling dishes are tagliatelle al ragù and pancotto al ragù. “Our diners love our ragù so much that we’ve started to sell it. (You can find it at bonverre.it if you’re not up for cooking the ragù yourself.)”

Ragù Alla Bolognese (4 servings)

Ingredients

300 grams hanger steak

150 grams pancetta 

30 grams carrots 

30 grams yellow onion 

30 grams celery 

1/2 cup white wine

200 grams crushed tomatoes  

1 tablespoon tomato paste

Olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste 

Method

Mince the hanger steak and pancetta with a knife. Dice the onion, carrots and celery and sauté with olive oil until golden. Add the meats and brown. Add the white wine and let it cook down. Add the tomato purée, tomato paste, and salt to taste. Let it simmer on low heat for four hours. Serve with tagliatelle or paccheri pasta.