Guanciale, one of Italy's tastiest secrets.

If you’ve ever read this blog before and/or haven’t been hiding under a rock, you know that I love Italian delicacies. Unfortunately with the exception of prosciutto di Parma and Parmigiano and Pecorino, most Italian meats and cheeses are either hard to come by outside of Italy, or extremely expensive. Sure, knock-offs are widely available since Italian food has become immensely popular around the globe, but the true taste of Italy is hard to come by.

One of these delicacies is guanciale. Guanciale translates to ‘little cheeks’, but there’s nothing little about it – not in size, nor in flavor. Guanciale is a cheek though. It’s a pork cheek, cured and generously seasoned with amongst other spices, lots of black pepper. Guanciale looks a little like bacon, the consistency and taste however is much, much more delicate.

When we visited Milan last month I brought back a guanciale. I also brought two different sausages and a piece of speck, 3 different cheeses (large chunks) and 4 kilos of flour home with me, but today I’m writing about the guanciale.

Guanciale is for sale at every supermarket or butcher.

One side is heavily seasoned, the other side has the chewy (cleaned) skin.

Guanciale is the meat that’s traditionally used for pasta all’amatriciana and pasta alla carbonara. Or that’s what the internet likes me to believe. I absolutely adore guanciale, there is no way to describe it. If you like bacon (and really, who doesn’t) you’ll like guanciale. It’s better than bacon! And no, that’s not heresy, because really it’s just bacon with even more flavor.

The guanciale cut up in strips

The first thing I used my guanciale for (I got a whole piece, so it’s quite large) was for a 1-dish-meal version of Pasta all’Amatriciana. I hadn’t had time to buy groceries and my zucchini plant had shed it’s last fruit, I had guanciale, I had tomatoes, I had pasta and I figured it just had to do.
Do it did! The pasta was delicious, the guanciale gave it just the nice little different kick that you wouldn’t have had with bacon or another meat. It was the perfect way to inaugurate the food I’d smuggled* home!

Adding cheese into the pan before serving

The finished dish, delicious!

*Since I’m within the EU, it obviously wasn’t smuggling, but traveling with 4 kilo’s of white powder and very smelly (garlicy sausages, cheese) in my suitcase, it sortof felt like I did!

Taste of Amsterdam, event site

We spent 5 days in Milan to visit my in-laws. Going to Milan is always a great treat to me. Not only because of the fact that it’s vacation, with nice weather, amazing historic sights and family, but for a large part it’s also due to the amazing food. Going into an ‘express’ supermarket makes me giggle. The loser version of a grocery store is actually better, in quality and choice, than the large Dutch (or American) grocery stores.

Taste of Milano, event site

This trip to Milan was extra foodielicious, because the week before we left, I realized that not only would there be a movie, a music festival and the fashion week, but the first days we were there were the last days of ‘Taste of Milano’.

Saffron everything at Taste of Milano

When I found out I didn’t hesitate one second (or ask Laurens if he was even interested), but immediately contacted them for tickets. And on Sunday, the last day of Taste of Milano, we went to the ippodromo where it was held.

Cute chef's hats and aprons at Taste of Milano

When we came back to Amsterdam, I realized that Taste of Amsterdam had just started. I figured I’d contact them for tickets as well, and so two Sundays in a row were spent at a ‘Taste of…’ event.

Delicious hams at Taste of Milano

Now Taste of Milan and Taste of Amsterdam look somewhat similar. The furniture, tents and logo look exactly alike. The two events couldn’t be more different in atmosphere though. And to be honest, I felt much, much more in place at the Italian event, despite the fact that I’m a Dutchie by birth.

Champagne for VIPs at Taste of Amsterdam

Taste of Milano was -despite the rain and mud- a fun event. People who went there, often with their children who ran around in the mud while eating the finest cuisine – were casual. They were there to have fun. To find the tastiest treats, to learn about some wonderful products, to taste. It was very laid back which made great to just hang out and eat and drink and try things. The dishes that were offered from the top 20 restaurants of Milan all looked amazing and the few dishes I tried tasted as great as they looked. They were extremely refined and special. It reassured us that we really need to have more time in Milan, because there are so many restaurants we just need to try out!

Hand made tortellini and ravioli at Taste of Milano

The dishes offered by these restaurant ranged from 4 to 6 euro’s with a lot of them being 4 or 5 and only a slight few being 6. Besides the restaurants there were a whole lot of booths presenting their products, which offered their products to taste for free or gave some demonstrations. More on the tasting of some amazing wines and the making of some wonderful chocolates will follow in a next blog post.

Traditional (and less traditional) panettone and pandoro at Taste of Milano

Taste of Amsterdam was completely different. The weather was really nice, so it was busy. It didn’t seem like the guests were more food lovers though. It seemed to me that it was a seen-and-be-seen event for the nouveau riche of Amsterdam (or their wannabe counterparts). It was just a very, very different atmosphere. One I personally don’t care for that much.

Visitors of the VIP lounge at Taste of Amsterdam

The restaurants that showed themselves at Taste of Amsterdam were very decent, but didn’t seem to me like the absolute top 20 of Amsterdam. If that’d been the case Ciel Bleu, Yamazota and La Rive (among others) would’ve been at the event.  Some came close or are in the top, but I think we all have to agree that while Fifteen is a great concept, it’s not one of Amsterdam’s very top restaurants. The dishes the restaurants showcased had the same 6, 5 or 4 euro price structure, though more dishes were in the 6 euro range than in the 5 or 4. Also there were very few dishes that gave an instant wow factor. I mean come on, I love pizza, but mini pizza’s aren’t an exceptional dish to show at a food event, just like barbecued pork sausages. Tasty, but nothing close to exceptional.

Mini pizzas at Taste of Amsterdam

The only dish that had a wow factor was The Amsterdam-onion-sherbet, made with liquid nitrogen by restaurant Bolenius.

Stirring the composition of the sherbet after adding liquid nitrogen at Taste of Amsterdam

The many booths around the event also didn’t seem to be interested in educating us about their products as well as sell, sell sell. If you’d be able to get a taste, portions or pieces were almost too small to even taste something, or actually had to be paid for. A nice exception to that was the ‘workshop on how to make a cheeseplate’ (will blog about that later) and South African Vineyards (Idiom), that actually gave me a small glass of a wonderful Viognier to try. A big shout out also goes to Maldon Salt, who understands that the way to getting people to buy your product, is by first giving it. The big box of salt I received has been well used already, and will appear in recipes soon (and will be bought again when I’m out!)

Idiom vineyards letting me taste their Viognier at Taste of Amsterdam

All in all it was fun to be able to go to Taste of Amsterdam and make the comparison with taste of Milan. If I have to choose though (and it was possible), I’d go and visit Taste of Milan every year from now, while I’m not sure if I’d visit Taste of Amsterdam again.

One of the chefs of Teatro alla Scala/il Marchesino looking stern at Taste of Milano

Fresh, hand-rolled rigatoni with a cheese and parsley sauce.

I walked into Duikelman to buy a speculaas plate. The mold to make the Dutch windmill cookies that are known throughout the world. Now it’s always dangerous to walk into Duikelman. If you like cooking, it’s pretty close to what heaven must look like. So far it’s been utterly impossible for me to go in there and just browse around and leave the shop empty handed. I always find something I want.

I walked into Duikelman with a misshion. The mold I promised Giulia. However, I stumbled upon this little plate which lead me to a new adventure in pasta making.

A little stick and a ribbed piece of wood can be exciting to a fresh pasta enthusiast.

The description of the plate said it was for making gnocchi or rigatoni. The plate itself is used to make the little ribs that hold the sauce extra well. For gnocchi a lot of people just use the tines of a fork, but rolling them over this plate is the other option. The plate came with the little stick, a stick you can use to roll a sheet of pasta around to make hollow pasta, or maccheroni, such as penne. Rigatoni is a hollow pasta, not unlike penne, with ribs. And that’s where the full use of this simple little thing comes in. You roll small sheets of pasta around the stick on the plate and when you press it together to close the hollow tube, the outside is ribbed and  the final outcome’s name is rigatoni.

Hand rolled rigatoni, waiting to be cooked.

I saw the plate at Duikelman and the crazy cook inside me decided this was something I needed to try. It would be fun. And fun it was. Albeit a lot of work – taking much, much more time than fresh tagliatelle, spaghetti or capelli d’angelo – it resulted in yet another great tasting home-made pasta dish, that just looked a little different.

Rolling a sheet of fresh pasta.

I decided to pair the fresh rigatoni with a very simple cheese and parsley sauce. A basic white sauce with two kinds of cheese, so fresh cracked pepper and some parsley from the garden. It was delicious.

Cutting sheets of fresh pasta to roll into rigatoni.

I doubt I’ll be making rigatoni very often, or for more than two or three people, as it is a lot of work. But I will make it again and I can see it being a fun activity for a cooking club or with kids. It’s much like playing with play-dough, only tastier!

Rolling rigatoni, fresh pasta is always a treat!

Oh, and as a side note, Laurens shot this picture of me while I was working on the pasta. This is why you need to wear aprons and might avoid wearing black clothes when your hands are filled with flour.