Inspiration

Inspiration of the day: Handmade tagliolini by chef Domenico Consoli, Masseria Montenapoleone

Sawday's Expert

5 min read

Masseria Montenapoleone is a little bit of everything. The main house looks part palace, part church, the interiors are filled with a lifetime’s accumulation of treasures, the pool is a resort paradise and the surrounding land is a fertile farm that provides plenty for the dinner table. We spoke to owner Giuliano about his culinary inspiration and had his chef Domenico pick out one of the recipes that encapsulate everything the place is about.

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From Giulano

My inspiration in the kitchen comes from my heritage and a deeply held respect for nature and provenance, but there’s a huge element of family and a social aspect. I always cook as I’m cooking for a dear friend or family member. I want to give guests an experience not just of the food we eat, but the way we eat, like a traditional southern Italian Sunday lunch for example. This recipe is a part of my family’s peasant tradition, with simple ingredients that come to life when cooked in a certain way. I’ve served it to guests many times and I always see them responding to the history of it and feeling the beauty of nature that comes from eating farm-to-table food.

I usually have traditional Italian music playing in the background, to create a full sensory experience and, hopefully, an emotional one that will form lasting memories, like I have, of the food and music I grew up with. I like the idea of Masseria Montenapoleone being a place where you can have your own timeless, almost cinematic experience and get to the heart of our rural life – following, even briefly, the changing of the seasons on a journey for mind and body.

As I said, the recipe is simple. The quality of the ingredients is the most important thing, as well as the setting and the company!

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Handmade tagliolini with chickpea flour and grossetto

For the taglioni:

400g Chickpea flour

300g Bold flour

350g Water

Method:

Knead together until you obtain a soft and non-sticky dough. Run through a pasta maker to make taglioni (a longer form of spaghetti, which will work as a substitute if you don’t fancy your pasta skills).

For the ragu:

300g Beef cut into coarse pieces

100g Celery

100g Carrot

100g Onion

1kg Tomato puree

2 liters water

Method:

Step 1

Brown the celery, carrots and onion.

Step 2

Add the meat, 600 g of tomato puree and 2 liters of water. This is the important bit. Cook for 24 hours, adding more water if necessary. It should never boil but simmer gently the whole time.

Step 3

At the end of cooking, add the remaining 400 g of tomato puree.

For the turnip cream

400g of boiled turnips and then blended.

It’s not a complex recipe, but one that requires time, patience and careful sourcing!

Where do you draw your biggest food inspirations from?

My inspirations come from my memories and from the respectful relationship I have towards nature.

What is your favorite thing to cook, a shared meal with family and friends?

For me cooking is sharing the concept of the Southern Sunday lunch. A family Sunday lunch is what I want to create for our guests. When I cook, I always do it as if it were for a dear friend or for a family member.

What feelings and memories does this particular recipe evoke for you?

This recipe represents my family’s peasant tradition, basic ingredients that come to life in a new guise.

When you think about the year ahead, what are you most looking forward to sharing with guests?

I always think of our guests’ smiles in the morning, their happiness at being pampered by the beauty of Nature, nourished by the wisdom of the history of a place whose roots go way back in time, the pleasure of enjoying farm to table organic products, lulled by a soundtrack of vintage Italian music that I have personally selected for them. I am thinking of the sensory sphere that we will be able to stimulate, arousing emotions that will turn into memories to add, I hope, to the baggage of the most beautiful experiences.

Masseria Montenapoleone is a place where you can experience your own timeless film, going to the heart of our rural life that follows the changing of the seasons, a journey for mind and body that leads from the outer world to the inner world, towards the balance of being.

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Christopher Wilson-Elmes

Sawday's Expert

Chris is our in-house copywriter, with a flair for turning rough notes and travel tales into enticing articles. Raised in a tiny Wiltshire village, he was desperate to travel and has backpacked all over the world. Closer to home, he finds himself happiest in the most remote and rural places he can find, preferably with a host of animals to speak to, some waves to be smashed about in and the promise of a good pint somewhere in his future.

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