So simple but so cheffy
I almost gave up on writing a post today. I dabbled with a couple of ideas, but could summon up no enthusiasm. It's the sort of day on which it's difficult to be enthusiastic about anything. Just too much rain to go for a walk and so therefore a mild feeling of disappointment with myself for not being braver. After all, how hard is it to hold an umbrella over your head if the almost mist turns to almost rain?
So I decided to just chill out with a game of sudoku, but before I did I picked up Giorgio Locatelli's book as one last attempt to find something to write about. After all it has lots of yellow stickers poking out. And the third yellow sticker turned up the above recipe - Swiss chard envelopes with Fontina. And now that I have looked into this a little more I have found another couple of mildly interesting things.
First that recipe. It's so ingenious because those breaded bits on top are the stalks of the silver beet, split open, filled with a thin piece of Fontina cheese, floured, egged and breadcrumbed and deep fried. The breadcrumbs by the way are mixed with grated Parmesan, a slice of which decorates the finished dish. As described in The Guardian by Locatelli himself:
"We do a lovely dish at Locanda Locatelli in which the stalks are blanched and then split so they open out lengthways, like a book. They are filled with fontina, folded back shut and the chard parcels are then coated in beaten egg yolk and breadcrumbs, and fried in hot oil. We serve them piping hot on top of some blanched chard leaves dressed with a shallot vinaigrette."
It is indeed very cheffy and probably not really easy to make but I have to say I'm tempted to give it a go one day. And he does provide that series of pictures to help you along. The shallot vinaigrette is just finely chopped and seasoned shallots, left to stand in red wine vinegar for a time. To finish you beat in some olive oil.
I'm guessing all sorts of things could go wrong here. My main thought is that you wouldn't be able to split the stalks. But who would have thought of trying to?
So it's a recipe, that most of us will never try or never eat, because we won't be visiting London and dining at one of Locatelli's Michelin starred restaurants. However, as I continued to search for the actual recipe I found this on the Facebook Page of What's cooking tonight? At first I thought it was somebody's attempt at making Locatelli's recipe, but without the bed of silver beet underneath.
However, I was mistaken. The words attached to the picture were:
"Swiss chard from the garden
Stems breaded and baked
Topped with fresh grated Locatelli"
However, I hadn't read it carefully enough the first time, and just saw the word Locatelli. On looking more carefully I saw that 'grated' was attached to Locatelli - so not Giorgio surely? No, no, no - this is a Pecorino Romano cheese made by the Locatelli company, (shown here) which one importer described as
"the world’s finest grating cheese, hand-crafted from 100% pure sheep’s milk."
Since they are the importers 'world's best' may be an exaggeration. Maybe not. It is however, a dominant Italian imported cheese in America, and our man at What's Cooking Tonight? had made his own less cheffy attempt at doing something with those darned silver beet stalks. I currently have a whole bag of them in my fridge leftover from my gift of silverbeet. Maybe I should give Giorgio's recipe a try.
But Locatelli - is there a connection I wondered - for I know Giorgio talks about a lot of relatives who had various food related careers?
But no - it's just a coincidence. Giorgio Locatelli comes from the mountainous part of Italy and in the Dolomites, there is refuge for hikers, called Locatelli, and, of course, as everywhere lots of surnames are named after places, from which the bearers of the name come. I thought it might be an actual town but there is no village or town with that name. I'm now also not sure whether this refuge is perhaps just named after a different Locatelli. Anyway it's a pretty spectacular sidetrip.
Last sidetrip - and more cheese - this time the Fontina that Locatelli uses to stuff his silver beet stalks. It too is an alpine, cow's milk cheese which the Castello website describes thus:
"the flavours of this cheese are sweet and pungent, unveiling tones of butter and roasted nuts as it lingers on your palate. Traditionally made from unpasteurised milk, the texture is semi hard, smooth and adorned with small eyes in the body."
The picture at the right dates from 1480 and shows the earliest known picture of Fontina cheese - the round orange looking one. I include it because I thought it was lovely - particularly the glumness of the face of the man. Fontina is the cheese that is traditionally used in fondue, and I believe is a good melting cheese. It comes from the Aosta valley region of Northern Italy. Locatelli's country.
So there you go - a mini ramble around a plate of food that caught my eye, but which I shall probably never eat. For a start I would have to go to a more specialist cheese shop than my local supermarkets and delis to find any Fontina cheese. Nevertheless there's lots to learn from a plate of food, more than I have dipped into here.
YEARS GONE BY
October 24
2025 - Nothing
2021 - Missing
2020 - Missing
2019 - Nothing
2018 - Nice cream
2016 - The economics of chicken
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