Italian culinary delights highlighted at ‘Week of Italian Cuisine in the World’

Doha, Qatar: On a gentle breezy Thursday afternoon at The Pearl, the Italian Ambassador to Qatar H E Paolo Toschi hosted a live cooking show on the occasion of “Settimana della Cucina Italiana nel Mondo” (Week of Italian Cuisine in the World) at the residence of Italy in Doha.

The Italian Ambassador took The Peninsula on a tour of his home country’s impressive culinary achievements, beginning the journey from the great Italian plains and passing through Rome, the place many consider to be the cradle of Western civilisation, and then branching out to the rest of Italy.

The Italian palate, as explained Ambassador Toschi, is defined by the pluralistic traditions of the country and some influences from beyond the Italian peninsula itself.

“This of course inspires us as Italians in other walks of life as well, because we come from an extremely diverse country where you have to coexist with different identities, and this helps us understand, in our world today, to be open to what is different,” he said.

The cooking show displayed the expertise of Italian Executive Chef Francesco Apreda, a Naples-born culinary maestro with an affinity for Japanese and Indian flavours.

The dish presented at the cooking show was a new take on two Italian classics.

Apreda, who instinctively recalled his childhood in Naples and his mother’s cooking when he began describing his dish, introduced his culinary invention as “Risotto Cacio Pepi e Sesami.”

Italian culinary delights highlighted at ‘Week of Italian Cuisine in the World’ https://t.co/1wGcM3AIuK@ItalyinQatar #Qatar #Italy #ItalianCooking #Food #Risotto pic.twitter.com/BzaIhUk8iO

— The Peninsula Qatar (@PeninsulaQatar) November 25, 2024

Cacio e Pepe is a very famous Roman pasta dish that, alongside Amatriciana and Carbonara, makes up what is colloquially known as “the Roman pasta trinity.” It is a gastronomic pleasure that, on the surface, may seem very simple to make. All it requires is pasta, pepper (Pepe), and a good portion of this hard, salty Italian goat cheese known as Pecorino Romano (Cacio).

Risotto, on the other hand, is a popular rice dish that originates from the northern parts of Italy, and consists of rice, cream, butter, and Parmigiano Reggiano (parmesan cheese).

Though traditionally a pasta dish –as noted by the Italian Ambassador– the idea of combining both dishes was the brainchild of Apreda, birthed in a moment that the Ambassador described as a “Colombus egg” moment; a moment of discovery where a seemingly implausible task becomes easy to digest once explained.

The journey the rich, creamy risotto takes to eventually settle onto the dining tables of many Italian homes is one dictated by Italy’s important agro industrial component.

Between the regions of Piedmont, the regions of Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna, Italian rice has been grown for centuries in the Pianura Padana plains, Ambassador Toschi explained.

Apreda remarked that, in spite of the advancements in the field of rice cultivation, there is a growing trend back in his home country of reverting to the old ways of harvesting rice, with emphasis on the method of cleaning the rice, the drying process, and controls for desired starchiness.

As butter, acid butter, and generous portions of Parmesan cheese are introduced to the bubbling rice and cream mixture, the Michelin star chef described his affinity for leaving traces of his culinary travels in his dishes, before reminding the attendees to let the rice cook only for 15 minutes.

In addition to having travelled to Japan to study local flavours, Apreda also helped elevate Italian cuisine in India through his high-end restaurants in Delhi and Mumbai.

Italian Ambassador H E Paolo Toschi (C); Italian Trade Commissioner Paola Lisi (L), and Executive Chef Francesco Apreda. 

The warm risotto is then plated with a helping of freshly grated Pecorino and a dash of ground pepper and sesame placed at the bottom of the plate.

The creamy texture of the dish serves as a canvas upon which the sesame, pepper and Pecorino bedding works in providing the dish’s primary colors, while the contrastingly tangy acid butter and unconventional dash of apple vinegar add intriguing highlights to it.