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Maura Ardu – Casa Italia in New York
Among the skyscrapers of the Big Apple there is a place where Italy is right at home.
Maura Ardu, from Piedmont, of Sardinian mother, works and collaborates in New York in the world of Made in Italy fashion design. From her Wall Street apartment, renamed “Casa Italia”, she has been spreading the Italian culinary culture for years, starting with simple and genuine ingredients linked to the excellence of our territory.
Colors, scents and flavors able to take the mind on a journey to the other part of the world in an instant, to our “boot”.
If we ask which are the best-known Italian recipes, we are sure that among them “Cacio e pepe”, Gricia, Amatriciana and Carbonara could not be missing.
Each of these first courses retains its history but are united by the condiment cream, the so-called “cremina”.
These recipes have a strong personality that Eleit.it explored together with Mamma Maura to create a perfectly balanced taste experience. Let’s see where we started: the story of the “CACIO E PEPE”.
Cacio e Pepe, synonymous with an easy, fast and tasty dish, has become one of the most sought-after pastas abroad, and can be found in almost all the menus of Italian restaurants around the world. All the Chefs are keen in the preparation of this dish, trying to approach the traditional Roman “cacio e pepe”. It seems a simple dish but in reality, it hides many pitfalls: to obtain the amalgamation of the refined peppery pecorino cream, they rely on creams, cream, butter, oil and starch.
We rely on the chef’s advice:
“In my opinion, a perfect “cacio e pepe” must find the right balance between pasta and sauce. This sauce is a cream made of pecorino romano, toasted black pepper and pasta cooking water, nothing else. The secrets for perfect creaming? Pecorino romano of medium / soft maturation, grated and kept at room temperature, toasted peppercorns, pasta cooking water, emulsified at a temperature of 75 degrees, not more, a good thecnique to sautè the pasta and patience in mixing the ingredients.”
It must be eaten with the eyes first, it must be placed on the plate showing its softness and creaminess, the creamier it is, the more tempting it is.
And if you encounter any pitfalls, don’t worry!
This cream, so good and precious, is often kept in the pan, it can happen that the pasta absorbs the cream quickly and at the moment of tasting it could even seem a little dry.
The idea of creating a well-deserved place for the delicious ‘cremina’ was born from this criticality: thanks to Eleit.it, Maura’s deep knowledge of Italian food meets the Lombard designer Emanuela Sala, who has been involved for years in a project of reinterpretation of handcrafted ceramics with the aim of enhancing the knowledge and heritage of historical Italian manufactures.
Emanuela accepts the challenge and proposes a design object with an innovative shape, the result of careful research conducted over the years and the desire to translate aspects of our contemporaneity into lasting forms.
Emanuela Sala, Piatto Unico, and Maura Ardu at EDIT Napoli 2021
Furthermore, thanks to the international popularity of the dish, a second weakness has been detected: abroad it is not so unlikely that you will have to eat standing up and not be able to roll the pasta if you don’t have a spoon. Midnight is the immediate solution for eating long pasta without a spoon!
Maura Ardu – Casa Italia in New York
Inside the crescent moon we will wrap the perfect bite, transforming it into a gesture within everyone’s reach.
