Anti-fascist pasta | The Italian kitchen – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

Celebrate the 25 April it’s a must, why not do it with a plate of anti-fascist pasta? With war unfortunately shouting from many countries around the world, it is more than right to be grateful to those who fought, those who suffered, those who fell, for our freedom. We are lucky and we should remember this every day, even better if through gestures of help towards those in need. With a sense of light superficiality, let’s spend Liberation Day in serenity. If the weather permits it in the open air, at any rate conviviality around a set table or with a sandwich in handsavoring not only the flavors, but the freedom.

What did the partisans eat?

Food tells our story and it is natural to wonder what the partisans ate during the times of the Resistance. As it is easy to imagine, there wasn’t much available under the fascist regime, autarky was strict, ingredients such as olive oil or sugar were luxury, even pasta was not accepted. For the partisans, the situation was even worse, having to also fight hunger through a subsistence cuisine, partly contraband thanks to the support of civilians ready to help them at a very high price (there was a real risk of being shot by the black militias if discovered).

A few years ago, a timeless book was released, entitled Partisans at the table. Stories of resistant food and recipes of freedom by Lorena Carrara and Elisabetta Salvini (available on Amazon), which traces the Resistance through food. There are many episodes told that make the heart ache and hope: from the reconstruction lasagna enjoyed by Teresa Noce returning from the death camps to the 35 thousand children fed by Emilian women in the harsh winter of ’45. What has stuck in my memory the most refers to 380 kilos of butter pasta offered by the Cervi family to the entire town of Campegine to celebrate the fall of the regime. A day of extraordinary generosity that gave birth to anti-fascist pasta, a symbolic dish never to be forgotten for its intrinsic value. In fact, the Duce preferred a healthy diet based on cereals, rice had ousted pasta, practically banned – as can also be seen from The Manifesto of Futurist Cuisine by Tommaso Marinetti.

History of anti-fascist pasta?

The anti-fascist pasta was actually born before the Liberation, but it has still remained a symbolic dish today, re-proposed at a national level with various activities spread throughout Italy both on 25 April and on July 25th. Let’s see why.

The July 25, 1943following the meeting of the Grand Council of Fascism, Mussolini was deposed and arrested, thus marking the end of fascism afterwards 21 years. The king designated the marshal of the army Pietro Badoglio as the new head of government, who however did not stop the war, but sided with the Germans. However, it was an event worth celebrating Cervi brothers they procured the flour, took butter and cheese on credit from the dairy and prepared kilos and kilos of pasta. They loaded the wagon and took it to the square in Campegine ready to distribute it to the people of the town. A great day of celebration, a sigh of relief awaiting the long-suffering democracy.
In memory of that event, and to celebrate the liberation of Italy from Nazi-fascism, like every year also for this 25th April Deer House will host the big party which will start at 10 am and last the whole day.

Tagliatelle with tuna ragù and peas – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

After placing the dough on trays lined with baking paper or food mesh frames, turn on the oven in cold air fan mode. The trays should be placed on the shelves, even two at a time, and keeping the door half open. Once this is done, the fresh pasta can be dried for at least 30 minutes.

Flat croissant, the phenomenon of the flat croissant in Italy – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

THE flat croissants they are flat, colourful, very sweet and crunchy croissants, the complete opposite of an airy and soft traditional croissant, empty and even without sugar. I’m the opposite, but it’s the way we could save brioche from being wasted and from being a very poorly paid job. It takes at least 48 hours to make a croissant. In fact, it is necessary to let it rise, to incorporate the butter into the flour, to let it rise again to have a final alveolation and – as the classic recipe dictates – 27 exact layers. Very thin, airy, separated as much as possible as a perfectly made pastry would require. A lot of work and a huge quantity of a precious ingredient like butter which is the true test of a pastry shop, yet it is a product that is often sold almost below cost – we talked about it with Davide Longoni, advocate of a whole new generation of bakers Italians. Because in the perception of us customers, the “brioche at the bar” is a quick breakfast, which we are used to paying just over a euro. It matters little that those are defrosted and based on low quality margarine, they have “imposed” a reference price from which it is difficult to distance oneself, even in an expensive city like Milan. So how to do it? Offer other products, or enhance the croissant in an alternative way, perhaps giving it an original, unique shape (at least for a while), which creates hype.

Cronuts, cruffins, rolls and cubes

In 2013 it was the cronuts, a chimera that merged croissants and donuts, and the cruffins, a portmanteau between croissants and muffins, that were talked about all over the world. Ten years later it was the turn of roll-shaped croissants, which landed in the international news from New York, quickly followed by cube-shaped ones. The Roll Croissants or Suprême were invented by pastry chef Scott Cloe of La Fayette Bakery in New York, the Crubik instead by a Swedish pastry chef, Bedros Kabranian made viral thanks to a first replica in London and in Italy by the Farmacia del Cambio of Turin. Talking about new things makes you smile, now you can find them from Salento to Valle d’Aosta: from then to today social networks have changed, everything flows faster, fashions, pastry chefs who emulate other people’s creations and the industry, which travels very fast. Within a year of their social success, rolls and cubes were already sold in frozen and ready-to-cook versions by various companies at sector fairs such as Sigep in Rimini.

The trends that serve to sell

«The idea of the cubic or spherical croissant was launched mostly by those who produce the baking molds to make them thundered Iginio Massari during an interview with Alfredo, the food branch of Rolling Stones. Absolutely true, just as the pistachio trend was made possible by importers and producers of preparations, square panettone are the invention of the market leader in the field of baking shapes and so on. In the consumer society there is always someone who wants to sell you something. Manufacturers of moulds, ingredients and frozen brioches who teach how to use their frozen croissants to make them into cubes (cutting them in two and inserting them into the mold by reversing the tips and then closing the lid – in case someone wants to make them by hand but with ready-made products…). Now that we all know how to make them, pastry shops have already started working to create the next trend, and it’s called flat croissant, it comes from South Korea, where in 2023 it literally invaded TikTok.

What is the flat croissant

The flat croissant is a flat croissant. You can take a normal, baked, good or poor quality croissant of your choice, flatten it with a rolling pin, brush it with butter and sugar, griddle it or bake it between two baking trays. Or you can make the pastry, take 48 hours, roll up the croissant and then bake it between two baking trays, eliminating the leavening effect. It can be a recycled recipe, invented to resell the unsold croissants the next day, or a useless waste of time, the result is that after having dipped it in chocolate or another covering, you can sell it for three times more than a classic croissant . It could be the usual media meteor, or a good idea to not waste, in a sexy way. In fact, it would not be the first recycled recipe to be tastier than the original raw material.

Creative recycling of croissants around the world

There are different ways to recycle leftover croissants. Casseroles in the oven after having dipped them in milk and eggs, there are those who cook them again in the waffle iron, in Spain they call them Croissants a la Plancha, brioche from the day before opened in two and fried in butter on both sides, served with butter and jam. In France they are a classic Almond Croissant which are opened in two, filled with almond paste, brushed with butter and flaked almonds and baked. In Copenhagen, with the side cuts of the dough for croissants, the very famous pastry chef Richard Hart (who made his name as head baker at the legendary Tartine Bakery in San Francisco) at his Hart Bageri began to propose the Cardamom Croissant, originally made with leftover croissant dough and lots of butter and cardamom sugar. It has become the most requested item and so now it is produced from scratch, although flat croissants would have ended a little anyway.