Fattoria Le Pupille presents Caino

Wineries embrace restaurants. For the column “Ristorante Amico” (Friend-restaurant), a wine producer presents one of his favorite restaurants, which in return offers a recipe paired with one of his wines.

Only by taking a long, winding road, sometimes narrow and steep, can you reach Montemerano, a medieval village where time seems to have stopped. Between romantic corners, ancient stone houses leaning against each other and the cobbled and sloping alleys of the historic center, you can see the sign of Cain placed above a small entrance made by a wooden door and three descending steps that lead into the kingdom of the Menichetti family.

It is difficult to imagine Caino in a place other than Montemerano, a splendid medieval village, on top of a hill in the municipality of Manciano. The furniture is elegant, sober, with great attention to detail. The fireplace, the linen curtains and soft lighting create a comfortable environment. Few tables, only nine, where just over 20 people can sit at the most, set with precious tablecloths, strictly white plates, crystal glasses and silver cutlery.

It is in this setting that Valeria Piccini expresses herself through her unmistakable recipes. Starting from tradition, it surpasses it without ever forgetting it. Hers are dishes that reflect it: succulent, with clear and precise flavors, played on contrasts of aromas, textures and temperatures. The result must be a real joy for all the senses, where taste is essential and only later does the aesthetic aspect arrive, and she always takes care of it. However, Valeria does not jealously keep her secrets in the kitchen, but dispenses advice; she is demanding with her staff, but also maternal and understanding.

The menu usually changes once a month, depending on the season.

The proposed recipe:

Pigeon and red tones 2.0

Ingredients for 4 people:

For the pigeon: 2 pigeons, 4 cubes of foie gras, 8 fermented cherries

For the sauce: 300 g of blackberries cooked in salt

For the salt crust: 100 g of coarse salt, 100 g of fine salt, 1 egg white, rosemary

For the raspberry gel and powder: 300 g of raspberries

For the fermented cherry glaze: 90 g of fermented cherries, 100 g of fermented cherry juice, 20 g of isomalt, 20 g of honey, 0.8 g of pectin.

For the garnish of the dish: 8 fresh blackberries, 12 parallelepipeds of beetroot, about 1.5 cm each, 12 bunches of elderflower in syrup, 12 fermented cherries, 12 cubes of foie gras, passed in fermented raspberry powder.

Directions:
Clean the pigeon, separate the legs from the rest of the pigeon and stuff them with a cherry cut in half and the cube of foie gras. Seal them with the help of a toothpick. Brush both the breasts that have remained attached to the carcass and the thighs with a 3 to 2 solution of vinegar and honey. Brown the legs and breasts in a pan over high heat. Finish in the oven for 5 minutes. Rest 2-3 minutes under the hot pass.

Put the washed blackberries in a steel pan and cover with the salt mixture. Cook at 180 degrees for 12 minutes. Allow to cool, gently remove the salt crust with your hand and rinse gently by pouring water with your hand and not under the tap. Pass them through a vegetable mill, then through a sieve. For every 120 grams of blackberry juice, add 0.8 grams of agar and 2 grams of isinglass while hot. Leave to cool and whip.

Wash 300 grams of raspberries and pass them through the extractor. Dry the waste in the dryer at 58-60°. Blend and sift to get the raspberry powder.
For every 100g of raspberry extract juice, add 20g of water, 20g of sugar and 2.2g of agar. Bring to a boil to melt the agar, let it cool and whip to obtain the raspberry gel.
Mix all the ingredients for the fermented cherry glaze and bring to a boil.

Debone the pigeon breasts from the sternum and brush them with the fermented cherry glaze from the inside. Place the breast on the plate, leaving the glazed side facing up. To the right of our breast a blackberry sauce with salt will be distributed with a spatula. On the sauce, place the fresh blackberries, the red turnips, the fermented cherries with the elderflower flowers and 3 cubes of foie gras sprinkled with the raspberry powder on top. Above and below the blackberry sauce of the points of raspberry gel. The leg is leveled at the bottom and placed next to the blackberry sauce.

Paired wine:

Saffredi Toscana Rosso Igt 2017 Fattoria Le Pupille

Very intense and deep ruby red color. Nose of currant, pencil shaving, blackberry, with delicate smoky hint. Full-bodied palate showing youthful tannin leading to a flavorsome and charming depth. Wonderful finish: long and elegant.

Production area: the Saffredi vineyard (Pereta, in the Tuscan Maremma), located at an altitude of 250 meters with the old vineyard facing South-West (plantation 1985), to the South-East the new vineyard (planting 2006). The type of soil is mainly sandstone, little organic substance and little clay, the surface of the vineyard is 14 ha.

Grape variety: 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, 5% Petit Verdot. The training system is spurred cordon for the old vine and Guyot for the new vine. The planting density is 4000 plants/ha and the grape yield is 5 t /ha.

Harvest: Merlot from 1st September, Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot in mid-September.

Vinification: Fermentation in stainless steel at 26 ° C. Maceration time 25 days. Aging 18 months in new barriques for 80% of the total.

Alcohol content: 14.5% vol.

Production: 35,000 bottles

Serving temperature: 16-17 ° C.

Recommended food pairings: excellent as a meditation wine or paired with braised quail with cranberries or beef fillet with cocoa and orange.

Saffredi is the icon of Fattoria Le Pupille and with the 2017 vintage celebrates not only its 30th anniversary but also the now mature and consolidated history of Fattoria Le Pupille in the field of quality Italian wines. This wine was born from the desire and intuition of Elisabetta, who with the precious help of Giacomo Tachis, wanted to produce a great wine in Maremma and is a special dedication to Fredi, the one who inspired her passion for wine.

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