Hail Columbus! Region of Liguria, Italy


Liguria is the "Italian Riviera," the ancient capital port city of Genoa, Europe's largest Medieval city, the birthplace of Christopher Columbus whose discovery of the Americas we celebrate this weekend, of San Remo, the music capital of Italy and its famous Casino, of noted resorts in Cinque Terre, Portofino and Portovenere and the ancient Roman cities of Imperia, Savona and La Speza, withArt that precedes the Renaissance and its famous cuisine. Savor Pesto, Focaccia, and Farinata, three typical Ligurian dishes and drink its wine, Cinque Terre, Rossese, and Ormeasco.

Our guests include Carlo Romairone, Founder and US Director of the Associazione Liguri nel Mondo, Renato Miracco, Director of the Italian Cultural Center in New York, Paolo Secondo, Proprietor of restaurants in Genoa, Italy and New York including Barolo, and Salvatore Moltisanti, Director of IBLA, the international classical musical "academy."







Guests

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Renato Miracco, Director
Italian Cultural Center in New York


Renato Miracco is the Author of many books and scholarly articles, and has served as a contributing editor in a range of catalogues, magazines and academic publications. He has also served as an advisor of the Italian Ministry of Foreing Affairs, the Art Media Society in Bruxelles and curator of the Estorick Collection in London ("Italian Abstraction 1910-1960"; "Piety and Pragmatism: Spiritualism in Futurist Art"), and the Metropolitan Museum in New York (G.Morandi). He has been guest curator for Italian modern Art at the Tate Modern in London (A. Burri, L. Fontana, P. Manzoni). From August 2006 he serves as an advisor of the Scientific Committee of the Chamber of Deputies in Rome, Italy. And as of November 2007 he is the director of the Italian Cultural Institute in New York. He has been curator of other numerous exhibitions, and of "Quaderni dell'Istituto Italiano di Cultura di New York".









Salvatore Moltisanti, Director
International Classical Musical Academy (IBLA)


Recipient of the Italian "Golden Laooconte Award" for career achievements, Dr. Moltisanti has frequently served as a Jury member of International Piano Competitions and conducted Master Classes throughout Europe, the former Soviet Union, China and the USA. He himself has been a successful competition performer winning First Prize in various International Competitions including the Bela Bartok International Piano Competition (USA), judged by Gyorgy Sandor (Bartòk protegè), Tullio Serafin International Award (Italy), International Etruria Award 1990 (Italy), among other First Prizes. Upon his graduation from Santa Cecilia Conservatory of Music in Rome, where he studied with Carla Giudici, Mr. Moltisanti was the recipient of the prestigious Berti Fellowship for two consecutive years at the North Carolina School of the Arts, University of North Carolina; there he received his Master of Music Degree while studying with Eric Larsen. Among his distinguished teachers are Nikita Magaloff at the Conservatoire de Musique in Geneva and Victor Bunin at the Moscow Conservatory. Dr. Moltisanti was awarded his Doctor of Music Degree from the University of Bologna (Italy).

On the occasion of the Quincentennial of the Discovery of America, Dr. Moltisanti was appointed Artistic Director of the Chistopher Columbus Festival 1492-1992. He serves currently as the Artistic Director of the International Classical Musical Academy Grand Prize International Piano Competition, the Baroque Music International Competition as well as the "Bellini" International Voice Competition and the European International Competition for Composers.

Dr. Moltisanti has recorded for Zuma Records Inc., Athena Records Inc. in New York City and the catalogue includes "Halt" (1994) and "Vox Balaenae" (1995) including music by Cimarosa, Napoli, Scriabine, Messiaen, Crumb. Former faculty member at the Department of Music and Performing Professions of New York University and at the New World School of the Arts, University of Florida, Miami, Dr. Moltisanti is currently playing concerts, presenting master classes, seminars and lectures for prestigious Universities and Conservatories in the USA, Europe, Russia and Japan.







Carlo Romairone, Founder and US Director
Associazione Liguri nel Mondo


Carlo has been in New York for 34 years, arriving in October 1975 to open the representative office of "Cassa di Risparmio di Genova", the largest bank in Liguria today (Banca Carige) and has been its representative until the end of 2005 when he retired and the office closed. He now works as a consultant. Carlo founded an association of Ligurians in 1976 and later on decided to join the Associazione Liguri nel Mondo, becoming its New York Chapter. He was appointed Governor for the East Coast of the United States.







Paolo Secondo, Restaurant Proprietor


Below Paolo shares two Genoese recipes:


Sugo Di Noci

Walnut trees, which originated in Asia, are very common in the Mediterranean region, and for centuries, including for the Greek and the Romans, walnuts constituted an integral part of the rural diet. Today, however, it is difficult to find any recipe- Italian, French or Mediterranean- that uses walnuts as an ingredient, except in pastry, where it derives from the Arab tradition.

The walnut sauce that is widely used in the Italian Riviera as a condiment for ravioli is a notable exception. Genoa traded since the Middle Ages extensively with the Orient, so it is not surprising that the use of walnut survived in the regional cuisine. Tourists that visit the beaches and the towns of the Riviera rave about Pansotti with walnut sauce, a pasta dish that is almost unknown everywhere else. It is a pity, because the walnut sauce can be used on other pastas as well, and is very easy to prepare.

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb. dry walnut halves
4 oz. (optional, but good) dry Mediterranean pine nuts (pinoli), the same used for pesto sauce
4/6 oz. grated parmesan cheese (to your liking)
2 oz. Extra Vergin Olive Oil (possibly from Liguria)
6 Slices of white bread, without crust
2/4 oz. Heavy cream to mollify the bread
1 Garlic clove, Marjoram, salt, grated nutmeg

The fruit of the walnut tree (the two-lobed seed contained in the nut) is the main ingredient of the sauce. Cleaned walnuts can be purchased in many specialty stores. The sauce is prepared in the food processor, chopping the walnuts and pine nuts (if you like it) finely and adding grated parmesan, some extra virgin olive oil from Liguria and a little garlic. Proportions of ingredients come naturally while you do it, because you don’t want the mix to be too cheesy or too oily. If you find it, add marjoram, which really makes a difference. Add salt, pepper and ground nutmeg to your taste. The mixture prepared in this way will be in the form of a paste, more than a sauce.

You can keep this paste refrigerated several days, but not for too long, because the oil contained in the walnuts may become rancid. At the time of cooking the Pansotti ( herb ravioli typical of Liguria), Spinach and Ricotta ravioli or any other pasta that you want to use, soak some white bread in heavy cream and mix it to the walnut paste. The purpose of the bread and heavy cream is to add volume to the sauce and to mollify it. Some restaurants prefer to skip the bread. Instead, they just mix the walnut paste with enough heavy cream to obtain a consistency similar to that of tomato sauce.


Pesto Alla Genovese

Basil has been used in the Genoese cuisine for centuries, but it is only at the end of the nineteenth century that the recipe for a specific cold sauce called “Pesto” is mentioned. At that time, Pesto was made with basil, pecorino sardo cheese (which was more common in Genoa than Parmesan), a lot of garlic, pine nuts, salt and olive oil. The ingredients were pounded in a marble mortar with an olivewood pestle, hence the name, pesto.

Tastes change with the ages: if you use pecorino sardo and the same quantity of garlic and salt that our grandma used, most people will reject the dish as too strong, too garlicky and too salty. And, if you make pesto with a mortar and pestle as grandma did, it will take time that we often don’t have. Nowadays, even in Genoa, people use a food processor, Parmigiano cheese and just a hint of garlic and salt, if any.

Therefore, the essence of a traditional Pesto now resides in the quality of the ingredients: use only tender basil leaves without stems. We recommend using the basil grown in Pra or Pegli, two towns located just west of Genoa, where the basil plants are eradicated when 6 inches tall and very tender. The common basil, instead, will probably be much taller and have larger leaves, which often have a hint of mint taste. If that is what you have to work with, you should use only the smaller leaves from the top of the plant. Another important ingredient is the use of Mediterranean pine nuts, which are thin and elongated in form. If you use the Chinese pine nuts, which are fatter and shorter in shape (but easier to find and cheaper in the US), the Pesto will have a disagreeable rancid taste, because those nuts contain a lot of grease. If you must use the Chinese pine nuts, use only half of the recommended amount.

In conclusion, don’t be fooled by the simplicity of the recipe. In making Pesto, the right ingredients make all the difference.

Pesto is traditionally served with trenette or gnocchi, and the sauce is generally made in small batches, so that it is consumed quickly. In the classic Genoese way, pesto is served with string beans and small dices of boiled potatoes, which absorb a lot of pesto and make the dish fuller. Finally, please remember that adding heavy cream or other ingredients to pesto is, for a Genoese, blasphemy.

Ingredients (for 4 people):

50 leaves of fresh basil
1/3 cup of grated Pecorino Sardo
2/3 cup of grated Parmigiano cheese
2 tablespoon of pine nuts
1 clove of garlic
2-3 tablespoons of virgin olive oil
1.5 pounds dry pasta or 3 pounds fresh (trenette is recommended)

Optional:

4 small or 2 medium-sized new potatoes, sliced thinly
¼ pound of fresh, tender string beans (haricot vert)

Although pesto is traditionally made with a mortar and pestle, we recommend using a food processor. First, wash the basil carefully, remove all stems and allow drying thoroughly. Chop basil, together with the garlic, the pine nuts and 1 tablespoon. Gradually add the grated Parmigiano and/or Pecorino cheese and work into an even paste. If the pesto is not creamy enough, add 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil as needed.

Place the pesto in the serving bowl, and before placing the pasta in the bowl, add a quarter of a stick of butter with a half ladle of the boiling water used to cook the pasta. Mix the pesto, water and butter with a fork to create a liquid sauce

Strain the pasta and add it to the bowl, mix thoroughly and serve.

For a classical springtime recipe add thinly sliced potatoes and string beans when you place the pasta in the boiling water to cook, and strain and serve with the pasta.

Buon Appetito!