At Mellino's, culture literally blossoms on the plate: history and recipe for the elegant “Fiore di Loto” a seafood salad where homegrown taste embraces Japanese philosophy and the geometries of nature.
Quattro Passi has been around since 1983, and for more than three decades it has punctually climbed into the ring of the restaurant scene that counts. It is thanks to a cuisine suspended on the edge of the horizon, capable of changing skin without changing passport; a cuisine of “travelers” who always return home in the end, the broader gaze and a baggage of heterogeneous recipes to be amalgamated into a new compound.
So began his rise Antonio Mellino, born in Argentina and raised in Nerano, the gavetta spent on cruise ships and the future as the Mercury of Italian gastronomy near Japan, England and the United States (without prejudice to the evolution of the maison sign in Campania). Thus continues the work his son Fabrizio, class of '91 and Ducasse-Dacosta school, a young star who after picking up his father's baton has earned his third Michelin star on the run. It is he who gives us a mouth-watering anecdote about the Fiore di Loto, a historic "evergreen" on the menu (other examples are the "Spaghetti alla Nerano " and the "Gnocco quasi alla sorrentina").
Quattro Passi's Fiore di Loto in Nerano
We are talking, in this specific case, about a seafood salad “open to the world,” which visually resembles precisely the delicate corolla of the aquatic plant. The reason is quickly stated: “The inspiration comes from the Japanese culture, where the Lotus identifies a path to paradise: in fact, it is born from the mud and in a later stage it crosses the water, to then emerge and blossom in all its beauty (in paradise, precisely). Hence the choice to serve it on a black plate, to which we can give it a further reading, harking back to Beaudelaire's “Les fleurs du mal.” The result is a poem to bite into; a chiasm of countries, aphorisms and volumes to build thought beyond taste. And the recipe? Fabrizio explains that “the squid is cut into thin petals, while in the center we place a langoustine tartare seasoned with extra virgin olive oil and salt and at the top a half-sphere of Osietra caviar; all laid on green apple water. The typical leaves, on the other hand, are composed of a chlorophyll of parsley."
The main idea is to represent a seafood salad with squid, "where the langoustine tartare gives additional sensory persistence and the right fattiness to the shellfish. The caviar, on the other hand, creates a twist of opposing textures and a pleasant savoriness; finally, the apple brings fruity notes tending toward hazelnut and the chlorophyll enriches the dish with iodine."
Mellino's Fiore di Loto recipe
Ingredients for 4 people
For the squid
- 4 fresh squid
Clean the squid, removing their heads and wings; place them in vacuum-packed bags flat without overlapping them. Steam them at 65 degrees for about 16 to 18 minutes: they should be soft to the touch.
For the langoustine tartare
- 300 g scampi
Shell the scampi, retrieve the flesh and chop them with a knife to make a tartare (10 grams per serving)
For the green apple water
- 7-8 apples
- 0.5 g xanthan
Peel the apples and pass them through the centrifuge, clarify the juice by placing it in a tall container and put it in a blast freezer at -40 degrees to freeze the impurities.
Strain later through a fine strainer with paper. Combine for each 100g of apple juice 0.5 of xanthan; blend and strain several times in vacuum.
For the parsley chlorophyll
- A bunch of parsley
Blanch parsley in water and salt, dry and blend with seed oil to cover. Allow to drain, recovering chlorophyll.
For the parsley powder
Paste sheet parsley and place on baking paper at 45 degrees for 24 hours. Blend and sieve.
For the composition
- 10 g Osietra caviar
- 1 lemon
Cut squid lengthwise into 3-cm bands; cut into sashimi at a 45-degree angle, about 50 petals per flower.
Close the bands into a cone shape with the help of kitchen tongs. Plate by arranging the tartare with the help of a pasta cup in the center of the plate seasoned with lemon peel, oil and salt.
Next arrange about 50 petals seasoned with lemon juice, oil and salt; top with half-sphere osietra caviar, apple water and chlorophyll. Finally, with parsley powder, reproduce the tin leaves with the help of the stencil.
Address
Quattro Passi Restaurant
Via Amerigo Vespucci, 13N, 80061 Massa Lubrense NA
Phone: 081 808 1271
