This small dish is offered by the “Zass” restaurant of the Hotel “Il San Pietro di Positano Relais & Chateaux Amalfi Coast”, a 5-star luxury hotel, a unique location in the world.
Zass is the new starred restaurant that took the place of the “il San Pietro” restaurant, after a technical design phase that lasted two years. The restaurant seats 120 people. A 70 meter room joins the restaurant hall offering a wonderful view of the medieval village of Vettica Maggiore a Praiano.
The main room is approximately 300m2 and the flooring is made up of 51,300 pieces of Neapolitan terracotta from Ogliara. The Hotel logo is the representation of two dolphins and the key of San Pietro. All the rich and varied furnishings have their own interesting history. It is a magical and unique place. Carlino Cinque is the founder of the hotel which has been revised over the years by his nephew Vito Cinque.
The chef of the restaurant is Alois Vanlangenaeker, whose objective in carrying out his work is to enhance the product at its origin while respecting the ingredients. Most of the products used by the 32-strong kitchen team come from the hotel’s organic gardens or from local farmers and suppliers.
The talented sommelier Salvatore Marrone has created a cellar of over 600 national and international wine labels.
We now come to the dish “mullet with spinach sautéed with king crab and sweet and sour apricots, aubergine tartare” paired with Trebbiano Montepulciano d’Abruzzo wine, 2016 vintage, from the Valentini company.
Mullet fillet
sautéed spinach with a clove of garlic removed
pureed sweet and sour apricots
450 g of apricots
15 g of vinegar
6 g of ginger
60 g of cane sugar
3 g of salt
reduce weight to 350 g and store
Sauce:
base:
140 g of fresh fish soup
20 g of oil
20 g of white wine
100 g of clam juice
lime juice
20 g almond cream
Final soup:
250 g of base
40 g of clam juice
10 g of almond cream
20 g of oil
Orange juice
saffron
lime juice
reduce and cream with butter
king crab with salad…
aubergine tartare:
shallot: 1 (cut into pieces, wash once in cold water and keep)
aubergines: n. 4 (aubergines, bread, violets) (melanzane, pane, viole
garlic: n. 1 (to lard aubergines first and cook in the pizza oven)
basil: 4 leaves
confit tomatoes: 4 petals
capers: n 5 small tears
2 anchovy fillets
olive oil: 1dl – 1-1/2 dl vit. C
aubergines in aluminum foil with oil and 1 blanched clove of garlic, bake the pizza in the oven for +- 1 hour (leave the aubergines whole)
cut the aubergine pulp from the skin and mince with a knife (do not add the garlic)… also keep the skin of an aubergine and cut into brunoise.. mix with the first
dissolve the 2 anchovy fillets in a little oil, then add the aubergines, oil and the rest of the ingredients off the heat.. add, if necessary, a little red vinegar, salt and pepper.
Cut the shallot into pieces and reserve, adding at the last moment to the aubergine tartare.
Cut the confit tomatoes into chunks and the basil leaves into julienne strips.
The Zass restaurant is located in Via Laurito n. 2 – 84017 Positano (SA/+ 39 /812080), email: agostino@ilsanpietro.it
I now come to talk about the Azienda Agricola Valentini, a niche company that only produces wines when Francesco Paolo, Edoardo’s son, decides that a wine is worthy of being put on the market. The company is located in Loreto Aprutino in the province of Pescara.
The Valentinis are a noble family, originally from Spain, who have lived on site since 1600. The production of wine, oil and wheat dates back to that period. The descendants have taken care of the management of the estate to this day. At the beginning of the 1900s it was Edoardo who took care of the company and in particular of making high quality wines. Edoardo rightly argued that natural work must be carried out in the cellar without chemical interventions, selected yeasts and excessive controls. Follower of the Greek philosopher Socrates who claimed: “I watch and let mother nature take its course, everything already exists, we just need to let it emerge”.
The main vine grown on the company is Trebbiano, a vine present in these lands for more than 1000 years.
The wines produced are Trebbiano d’Abruzzo, Montepulciano d’Abruzzo and Cerasuolo.
The company cultivates 70 hectares of vineyards but markets a total of only 50,000 bottles per year to obtain and offer only the best quality wines.
The company releases the wines when the desired quality is present, otherwise the vintage is skipped.
It also happens as happened with the Trebbiano 2010, which was not ready at the time of sale and therefore was released a year after the release of the Trebbiano 2011.
Being able to own these delicious wines is quite difficult, as they are in demand all over the world.
Let’s now talk about the wine I chose for this dish.
AZIENDA AGRICOLA VALENTINI
Trebbiano d’Abruzzo vintage 2016
(Grapes: 100% Trebbiano)
Straw yellow color with golden hues.
From the glass (Pinot Noir glass) intense spicy aromas of white pepper, nutmeg and cloves rise. The long olfactory journey continues with notes of mint, eucalyptus, white peach pulp, flint minerals, graphite, blond Virginia tobacco and “clan” pipe tobacco, hard almond shell, wild strawberry, ripe calla florals, broom and chamomile. The olfactory examination ends with memories of vanilla, white melon and starch of the cotton fabric.
On the palate it is savory and mineral and has a medium body. Citrus flavors of lemon and lemon zest. Well balanced wine with freshness, minerality and flavor that dominate the alcoholic mass. Its flavor persistence is long with a lemon and yellow grapefruit finish. (93/100)
The Azienda Agricola Valentini, is located in Via Baio n. 2, Loreto Aprutino (Pe), tel. 085/ 8291138.
I chose this wine because, in my opinion, it goes perfectly with this tasty dish. The citrus and mineral note of the wine creates a unison with the dish, both penetrate each other, the wine enhancing the dish and its flavors and the dish enhancing the wine.
