Insalata di mozzarella
Gambo di agnello
Hello Rooftoppers, we are at an old place, 
but with a new experience.
Good evening, Chef!
- Good evening.
So, let's see what is this whole new experience!
Yummy!
Please have a seat.
Pizza is here.
So you can understand, it's going to be an Italian experience.
Pizza and pasta are known to us as Italian ecstasies.
But, we have no idea about 'insalata caprese' 
or 'gambo di agnello'.
So, our chef Ashutosh Awasthi will clarify those things, 
and also tell us about Antonio Carluccio.
By the way, we are now at The Bridge at The Park, Kolkata.
Why have you curated this Italian menu, 
I would like to ask you.
The entire thing was a tribute to chef Antonio Carluccio.
He came to Kolkata from London. 
He was a chef there.
The Park invited him in 1997.
He curated a menu here.
We picked the best of his menu.
He is no more with us. 
So we wanted to give him a tribute.
So we picked the best of his menu.
Tell us about your experience in Italy, 
when you went there last year.
I found a lot of fresh ingredients in Mercatino, 
the farmer's market in Italy.
Everyday mercatino gets ready by 5-30/6 o'clock in the morning.
All the farmers bring their stuff there.
So you go and buy things.
Then you come back, cook and serve the food to the guests.
The day ends, the things are over.
So basically, you don't preserve things.
You don't save it for the next day.
All are fresh.
It's more about freshness of the ingredients.
They don't emphasise on presentation.
Like we do in India or in modern cuisine.
It's more about the wholesome food.
Like in Lamb Shank, as I was telling you, 
the focus is on the meat.
That's basically the hind-leg of the lamb.
You just have to sear it, and then 
you cook it in a slow flame.
And what's this sauce?
When you cook it, it leaves its own juice.
You haven't added anything yet...
Just a touch of tomato sauce was added
when the lamb was being cooked.
As you know, they add wine to the food.
When you add wine, you can see it being cooked with it.
They have got a lot of good wine.
And we can get the smell also.
What would be the taste of it, sweet?
No, it's not sweet.
It's salty obviously.
Wine is added at the last part 
to enhance the flavour of it.
See, it's already leaving the sides.
- It has taken the colour of the wine also.
That gives a brown colour to it.
The sauce is ready.
Nothing's added.
Once the lamb was cooked I just added some tomato paste, and then red wine and salt-pepper.
It's a simple dish. 
First I take some olive oil.
That's the most important ingredient.
Yes, in Italy they use olive oil only,
rather than any other cooking oil.
Garlic is one of their favourite ingredients.
You get a lot of garlic and chillies.
Actually, Italy has been divided into many regions.
And every region has a different connection and flavour.
Now I add a little bit of cooked rice.
I add some parsley.
So the herbed rice is ready.
During orange harvesting season, 
they also harvest olives.
They transport both in the same van.
And the best part is, when oil is extracted from olives, 
it gets the orange flavour.
As the same truck is carrying both olives and oranges,
the olive oil is getting the flavour of oranges.
Because it's the season of oranges...
They harvest olives too during the same season.
Since I am trying to give my guests 
a complete dish here,
so I am adding some herbed rice 
and vegetables to enhance the plate.
But the focus is on the meat.
It's a lamb shank, so the focus is on the lamb.
The mutton, the quality of the meat, the tenderness of the cooked meat.
I added red wine, because again, 
Italy is known for its wine.
You get extra flavour from that nice wine.
They also eat tomatoes with mozzarella.
That's a very famous dish out there.
That's what I was saying about 'Insalata Caprese'.
It's a tomato-mozzarella salad basically.
Insalata means salad.
That's one of the simplest salads of Italy.
Everyone has it at home.
This pesto sauce is made of fresh basil, pine nuts, garlic, 
parmesan cheese, salt and pepper.
And olive oil to blend it with.
I just brushed it on the plate.
And then fresh tomatoes and basil leaves...
As we can see, here we are having 
a special Italian salad.
Insalata caprese.
'con zest arancione', that's the full name.
I was just trying to read out the menu.
It's really difficult.
After you finish the dressing...
Then I will add some balsamic sauce and orange zest.
Salt, pepper... I leave it for the guests 
to add it on their own.
What chef is doing, he is just adding some peels of orange skin.
It's adding the flavour of fresh orange to the salad.
So this is Insalata caprese.
And lamb shank, the main dish, 
we'll see it later.
One by one.
It came right in time, 
when we were discussing about it.
All I have to do is, the basil pesto for the base.
It has fresh tomatoes as you can see.
It's still fresh.
And fresh mozzarella.
This was our tribute to chef Carluccio.
They call it 'Gambo di agnello con riso'.
Con riso means with buttered rice.
So, now it's time I think, to taste 
two of your delicacies of Italian menu here.
And thank you so much for your time.
Now I have two Italian dishes with me.
'Insalata di mozzarella' and 'Gambo di agnello'.
You can understand from its name.
It has fresh mozzarella cheese, as chef said.
I should not talk much.
I am going taste this salad first, with tomato, mozzarella and orange zest.
The mix of pesto, parmesan cheese, basil and balsamic sauce, and perfume of the fresh orange.
Feeling like 'mambo italiano'.
Some wine would be great with it.
What Chef Awasthi was saying...
Italians, be it in a city or a village, don't like too much accompaniments.
The whole focus is always on the main dish, and here it is the meat, the lamb.
The hind-leg has been cooked with red wine, you have already seen it.
So the texture of the dish is creamy brown, like chocolate.
And there are some cherry tomatoes, asparagus and herbed rice with it.
So, we are going to taste it with some rice.
Salt and pepper you can add if you like.
Very soft, as it has been well-cooked 
in red wine sauce.
Absolutely awesome!
It's very juicy, very yum!
We can find authentic Italian taste here at The Bridge at The Park, in their Italian menu.
You have already seen it.
I have talked to the chef also.
As I said, new experience at an old place.
And Rooftoppers already know,
We share our experience.
We share your experience.
It's all about cuisine and food experiences.
Subscribe, share and be with us to enjoy 
all the culinary experiences.
And I will enjoy my food right now.
Ta ta.
