Recipes from great chefs. Four dishes by Fabrizio Borraccino

He has worked with great French chefs and alongside Antonio Guida and Gordon Ramsey, but his true love remain the Chianti zone. Fabrizio Borracino is an abruzzese chef who loves Tuscany and finds in this region the inspiration for his cucina. Wineis everywhere - in sauces, in marinades, and, of course, in glasses.

An abruzzese who loves Tuscany

Fabrizio Borraccino, from Teramo, is 38 years old. He worked in Val d’Aosta, for 7 years at the Pellicanoin Porto Ercole alongside the talented Antonio Guida, and outside Italy with Pierre Gagnaire and with Gordon Ramsay in London. Before becoming executive chef at Borgo San Felice, he spent three years at Il Pievano, under the vaulted ceilings of Castello di Spaltenna. Tuscany has been a constant in Fabrizio’s life: he describes himself as an Abruzzese who loves Tuscany and Chianti, especially Chianti Classico. And who doesn’t fall in love with Castelnuovo Berardenga?

Borgo San Felice is a postcard-like dream: 400 meters above sea level, it is in the heart of 140 hectares of vineyard, 16,000 olive and oak trees. A five-star relais & chateaux, the hotel is an elegant and restrained setting for Fabrizio’s two restaurants. One is the Osteriadel Grigio. Recently renovated, it is a typical Tuscan inn with a regional repertoire that pays careful attention to meat, but also has an oven for pizza. The other, Poggio Rosso, is the gourmet restaurant. “Everything rotates around the vegetable garden, the Orto Sociale. It was planted five years ago and has been constantly enlarged. Thanks to the Foundation Umana Mente (Human Mind, but also a pun on ‘humanely’), work is coordinated by young people with special needs, helped by the town elders. Everything is grown organically and ripens more slowly. But what a satisfaction, and what flavors!” Fabrizio said.

Herbs, wild greens, roots – all have a place in his kitchen. His dishes insist on earthy sensations, often with bitter notes and an astute use of spices. “Tuscany has always been a crossroads for spices. Think of pepper and the continuous voyages of Tuscan navigators. I like to enrich this theme with external elements, the memory of travels and migrations, the fragrances of markets in Morocco, of those spices and freshness, joining them to the incredible land I have around me,” he added. Wine plays a major role in the kitchen. “I use it in braised meats, in marinades, in reductions.” The clientele, both Italian and international, is demanding more seasonal vegetables, delicate and fresh dishes. His menu will continue to move in that direction. “I just got back from Montalcino. Along the way, there’s an incredible odor of acacia flowers, as if honey had been spread on the road. It’s sweet and head-spinning. Have you ever tried it fried?”

Recipes

Early seasonal vegetables, raw and cooked, with roots and flowers

4 servings:

2 carrots with their tops

300 g celery root

300 g beets

200 g parsnips

200 g parsley root

200 g chervil root

100 g rapini

200 g zucchini

200 g asparagus

20 g poppy leaves

20 g sorrel leaves

20 g nasturtium flowers

Extra-virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper

Wash and trim the vegetables. Cook the discards of the parsnip and the beets for a long time and then strain and purée. This will form the base of dishes and enhance flavor. Clean and wash the wild leaves. Sauté them with olive oil, a tablespoon of butter, salt, pepper and the peeled roots. Simmer them with the vegetable broth until they are soft and well coated. Cook the rest of the vegetables in salted water. Finish them with butter and the vegetable broth, along with the roots. Finally, dress the wild leaves with extra-virgin olive oil and aged red vinegar.

Pici with lampredotto tripe, fava beans, aged pecorino di Pienza and crisp Tuscan pancetta

4 servings

For the pasta:

300 g 00 flour

50 g twice-ground semolina

80 g water

For the lampredotto/tripe sauce:

500 g lampredotto tripe

2 celery stalks

2 carrots

1 yellow onion

2 garlic cloves, pressed

100 g extra-virgin olive oil

300 g canned peeled tomatoes without seeds

1 bunch herbs: thyme, marjoram, sage and savory

pepper

chicken broth

white wine

salt and pepper

Prepare the pici. Blend the two flours and add water. Knead into a smooth dough, cover with plastic wrap and leave in refrigerator for two hours. Roll out the pasta with a rolling pin and cut into strips. Roll the strips of pasta by hand to form a single long strand of spaghetti. Cut the lampredotto (cow stomach) into large pieces. Dice the vegetables into small cubes. Sauté lampredotto and vegetables in a large pot with olive oil and pressed garlic. Salt and douse with white wine. When wine is reduced, add chicken broth and tomatoes, sliced open. Add the herbs and simmer for two hours. When the lampredotto is tender and the sauce is ready, strain. Puree part of the lampredotto in a food grinder and add to sauce, then reduce sauce by half. Meanwhile, dry thin slices of Tuscan pancetta in the oven. Prepare shavings of pecorino di Pienza. Peel fava beans. Cook the pici in salt water, drain and add to the pan with the sauce and strips of lampredotto, peeled fava beans, extra-virgin olive oil and marjoram leaves. Complete the dish with pecorino shavings and crisp pancetta.

Crisp suckling pig with sour beets, endive, potatoes dusted with prosciutto and coffee, tapioca sauce and chili pepper

4 servings:

700 g suckling pig neck with skin

40 g butter

20 g butter

Salt and pepper

For the vegetables:

150 g beets

30 g shallots

2 garlic cloves

30 g lemongrass

10 g ginger root

30 g olive oil

Salt and pepper

4 small Belgian endive

300 g new potatoes

200 g sliced white bread

50 g oven-dried prosciutto powder

10 g coffee powder

For the sauce:

20 g tapioca

20 g sugar

100 g red bell pepper

1 garlic clove, chopped

a pinch powdered chili pepper

100 g rice vinegar

200 g reduced chicken broth

Season pork neck and cook in vacuum pack for 12 hours at 72°C/162°F. Prepare beet puree by cutting them into cubes and sautéing in olive oil with shallots, ginger, garlic and lemongrass. Then add rice vinegar and simmer until tender. Cook Belgian endive in a vacuum pack until very soft. Open pack, slice endive in half and sweat in a pan with olive oil. Peel potatoes and cut into strips. Sauté in pan with butter, garlic, thyme and pepper. When tender, dust with bread crumbs to which prosciutto and coffee powder have been added. For the sauce, cook tapioca pearls in 100 g of water. Dissolve sugar and salt in a pan with 50 g of water, add red bell peppers cut into small cubes and chopped garlic. Combine the two liquids and add chili pepper, vinegar and the chicken reduction. Brown the pork in olive oil until skin is crisp and brown. Compose the dish and spoon on sauce.

Cheesecake with rhubarb gelatin, raspberry sherbet and cereal sauce

4 servings

Cream cheese cake:

80 g Italian meringue

130 g heavy cream

1 gelatin leaf

80 g mascarpone

80 g cream cheese

Prepare an Italian meringue with egg whites, sugar and water.

Add cream cheese and mascarpone. Soak, squeeze out and dissolve the gelatin leaf in a little water and blend into mixture. Add half-whipped cream at the end. Form into cubes and chill until firm

Shortbread biscuit:

40 g butter

70g sugar

30g egg yolk

1/5 teaspoon salt

150 g flour

5 g baking powder

Blend ingredients. Chill, spread into thin quadrangles the size of the cheesecake surface, and bake in 170°C/340°F oven for 7 minutes.

Rhubarb Gelatin:

150 g rhubarb syrup

0.4 g agar agar

Dissolve agar agar in boiling syrup. Spread into thin sheet and cool. Cut into squares the same size as shortbread and cheesecake cubes.

Raspberry sherbet:

200 g raspberry puree

130 g water

40 g sugar

15 g glucose

1 g sherbet stabilizer

Prepare a sherbet in an ice cream maker.

Cereal sauce:

150 milk

25 g cereal

Blend in food processor and cool. Assemble the dish

Prepare the dessert as in the photograph: a layer of cereal sauce, a square of shortbread biscuit, then cheesecake cube and gelatin. Top with sherbet quenelle.

Poggio Rosso del Relais Borgo San Felice | Castelnuovo Berardenga (SI) | loc. San Felice | tel. 0577 3964 | www.borgosanfelice.it