In chef Bruno Barbieri's latest book, Domani sarà più buono, we discover that every dish can give rise to new recipes. Even better ones.
In the air, the scent of freshly made tagliatelle. The table is still dusted with flour. Time seems to have stood still in Medicina, in the heart of the most traditional Emilia-Romagna. Only the azdore (the "housewives" in the Emilian dialect), the pillars of their families, are always bustling.
It is here that Bruno Barbieri spent his childhood. "As a child I never saw a shop. Everything was produced and cooked at home," says Italy's most Michelin-starred chef. "I learned from my grandmother that in the kitchen nothing is thrown away. Her tagliatelle dressed with Sunday ragù bordered on perfection. And yet, when they arrived on the plate a second time, after being pan-fried, with that crispiness the pasta takes on and the slight char that brings out the flavour of the ragù, they were extraordinary — even better than the day before, if that were possible." Or they would become frittatas, little tarts, meatballs, soufflés.
It is precisely this memory — the image of his grandmother Mina, known as Mimì — that prompted Barbieri to write his latest book: Domani sarà più buono. "Tomorrow everything will taste better," explains the chef, who after many travels returned to Bologna to open Fourghetti. "When people discover that after cooking a wonderful dish you can perhaps give it new life the following day, you can change its story… well, I can assure you that will truly be a new way of cooking."
In the book, the recipes are accompanied by suggestions for creating new dishes from any leftovers. A few examples? If after cooking a yellow pumpkin stew we have some cooked pumpkin flesh left over, we can make a pudding: simply add eggs, cream and parmesan and it's done. Or, if we've tried our hand at making pestata pasta with saffron sea juice and chervil oil and end up with some sea juice left over, all it takes is reducing it and drizzling it over potatoes baked in their skins. A real treat — you have to try it to believe it!
Barbieri has also been a judge on MasterChef Italia since its first series, a programme that seeks to reduce food waste as well as plastic consumption. Despite all this, the chef dislikes talking about sustainability in the kitchen: he prefers the word "respect. For food, for those who produced it. For ourselves and for the Planet." He smiles. He is a sunny person, someone who loves life. "I would like to live to 130, and I would like to do so in a healthy, clean and beautiful world: that is why I think it must be respected through the small actions we take every day. We simply need to think about wanting to be well tomorrow. That tomorrow will taste better."