In order not to forget, we must innovate: drawing on memories of his childhood, Gualtiero Marchesi revolutionized the most popular first course there is. The meaning of the recipe? Beyond the boundary between pasta and soup lies an escalation of contemporary textures.
The meaning of the dish
“If I can impress, I do so with simplicity. I don't look for strange flavors; what interests me is modernizing and updating dishes.”
This is how Gualtiero Marchesi curbed the creative flow that sometimes overwhelms chefs at work. His motto was designed to avoid any excess of exhibitionism, but also to teach his students the profound value of the “minus sign.” Yes, because often adding is much easier than subtracting. However, only those who work with synthesis can achieve that taste that smacks of contemporaneity. And so, to frame the memory of the pasta and beans of yesteryear, the Maestro chose to recompose the picture vertically: not a deep plate filled with “soup,” but a layered first course capable of combining different textures.
It starts with a purée of legumes that brings out the maximum comfort from the fleshiness of the beans; it continues with a slight hint of bite, thanks to the strictly mixed pasta “as it used to be”; it ends by giving a boost to chewing thanks to the addition of pancetta on top and the gradual release of the fragrance of the aromas. The hidden secret? It lies in the name, almost a “message in a bottle” for those who know how to grasp it: Crema di faglioli e pasta mista (bean cream and mixed pasta), deliberately reversing the order of the ingredients to enhance the gifts of the earth. Spoon in hand, the simplicity of the initial quote resonates in your head with a new tone: memory becomes elegance, heritage becomes conscious cooking. Because, after all, it is our idea of the future that keeps a recipe alive.
Curiosity: a reference to art
To give shape to the composition, Marchesi drew inspiration from a work by his friend, the artist Piero Manzoni, a pioneer of modern sculpture in the second half of the 20th century. The image of a parallelepiped erected on a pedestal led the chef to apply the same geometry to food, reinventing the typical pasta and beans dish in terms of aesthetics as well: this homage gave rise to the Cubo di Pasta, a further evolution of the dish you see below.
The recipe for bean cream and mixed pasta
INGREDIENTS
Serves 4
- 200 g mixed pasta
- 300 g fresh beans
- 8 celery heart leaves
- 20 g pancetta
- 1 celery stalk
- ½ carrot
- ½ onion
- ½ bay leaf
- 3 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
- salt and black pepper
PROCEDURE
Cook the beans with the pancetta, bay leaf, celery, carrot, and chopped onion, taking care to keep them fairly “brothy.” When cooked, set aside all the aromatics and blend the cooking water and beans in a blender to obtain a fairly liquid cream. Add salt.
Boil the pasta in plenty of salted water, cool it and add more salt if necessary. Dress with a drizzle of oil.
Pour the bean cream into bowls and arrange the pasta on top. Finish with freshly ground black pepper, the remaining crispy pancetta and a few celery leaves, then drizzle with extra virgin olive oil.
