La cucina sperimentale che ci fa chiedere: è più buono il bianco o il nero?

Per la seconda tappa dell’iniziativa MONO AHG, giovedì 25 febbraio abbiamo messo le mani in pasta in galleria sotto l’attenta guida dello chef Goran Zgrablić, che con la cucina sperimentale ci ha fatto risolvere il quesito: bianco e nero possono essere saporiti?

Lo abbiamo scoperto nel laboratorio di cucina monocromatica (giocata sulla realizzazione di piatti bianchi e neri) che ci ha portato a realizzare i “crafi” di Albona. I crafi di Albona sono forse la pasta più nobile e sconosciuta dell’Istria. Il loro ripieno fragrante ai formaggi tipici (con note dolci, salate e speziate), che richiama la cucina medievale, fa sì che questi ravioli istriani possano essere proposti sia come ottimo primo piatto tradizionale oppure come un moderno dessert.

Nel corso del laboratorio culinario, che è stato anche ovolactovegetariano, abbiamo cercato di andare oltre alla tradizione con lo scopo di scoprire come la composizione di elementi bianchi e neri sul piatto, influiscano sulla nostra percezione gusto-olfattiva del piatto stesso.

Per fare ciò abbiamo usato un semplice trucco: con il carbone vegetale (una sostanza naturale ottenuta da legno pregiato) abbiamo trasformato il colore dell’impasto o quello dei sughi in un nero profondo. E qui è entrata in gioco la vostra vena artistica perchè il vostro piatto lo dovevate dipingere. A fine serata abbiamo assaggiato tutti i piatti insieme, in un’atmosfera ludica e conviviale accompagnata dai vini istriani di Leonardo Palcic, e abbiamo scelto quello più buono…ma il più buono è stato anche quello più bello? 

L’allestimento artistico con le opere del Maestro veneziano Roberto del Frate e il dj-set dal mood culinario (a volte dolce, a volte salato, ma sicuramente fragrante e forse anche monocromatico) di Jazza (Electrosacher) hanno contribuito alla creatività del nostro laboratorio di cucina.

Goran Zgrablić

Apart from having a PhD in laser physics, Goran Zgrablić is also a gourmet vagabond and passionate wine lover with a degree from Italian Sommelier Association. He’s obsessed with homemade local produces and rustic cooking style inherited from his Istrian family. Taking care of his olive grove and participating in sensorial judging of Istrian extra virgin olive oil are his two favorite kinds of relaxation. He’s previously lived in Switzerland for five years and currently splits his life between Trieste, Italy and his hometown Pula in Istria, Croatia. Goran is author of the Istrian food and wine blog Manjada and a founder of Taste of Croatia – the independent gourmet guide to Croatia – where he mostly writes about Croatian wines and wine regions. He writes restaurant reviews for a major Croatian newspaper and has been compiling the Vinologue Istria enotourism guidebook.

Leonardo Palcić

It is very probable to find Leonardo Palčić’s wines in many wine bars and taverns of Trieste where they embarked already in 1999 and now enjoy respectable popularity. On the other hand, in Croatia these hidden gems are almost unknown and appear only on wine lists of Sherry’s wine bar in Zagreb and in restaurant Marina in Novigrad, famous for its creative seafood cuisine. Nevertheless, his wines already achieved cult status in Croatian vinosphere. Leonardo with a smile remembers of the childhood days when his grandfather Giovanni was waking him up at 4 AM. It was time to go to the old family vineyard in nearby village of Fiorini and help him with pruning and leaf stripping. In 1996 the winemaking goes serious when father Sergio leases 15 hectares of vineyards in Dajla, on the red soil that often gets sprinkled by sea waves. In the last 15 years, the quantity and especially quality of Palčić wines is rising steadily year-by-year. Today he releases about 45,000 bottles per year. Every spring he replants vines in the leased vineyards where many plants are older than 65 years. He replaces only the very exhausted ones as old vines in general give grapes of excellent quality. Leonardo considers Malvazija as red variety dressed in white and thus it likes aging. He frankly says he doesn’t like continental winemaking approach, used in over 80% of all Malvazijas in Istria, that yields fresh and fruity summer quaffable wines. Nor he likes the extreme orange wine approach with long skin macerations. Leonardo’s ideal is a Mediterranean style Malvazija that has stronger body, lower acidity while the balance is achieved through ample minerality. As homage to Giovanni, an indigenous Istrian man, his name was given to a frizzante wine made of indigenous Istrian grapes Malvazija and Teran. In the near future Leonardo plans to move the cellar to grandfather’s house in Fiorini, right at the place where the winemaking story of Palčić family has begun.

Although wine is made from grapes it rarely smells of grapes. Leonardo’s Malvazija is one of these rare cases where the intense aroma is dominated by ripe Malvazija followed by apricot jam, honey, camphor, marzipan and all that is enveloped in earthy tones. This wine boasts a remarkable harmony as all this complexity and intensity is carried in into the body, bone dry and with an oily texture. Here the key player that is contrasting such intense flavors is not acidity, like in most mainstream Istrian Malvazijas, but strong minerality and gentle bitterness that appear in the finish. This beautiful white is a rare example of non-skin-contact Istrian Malvazija that has a southern, Mediterranean appeal.

Photogallery and Press