Indeed pasta is "the food" for Italians. I did like it and love to find and taste new kinds (in Italy we have more than 300 types of pasta, did you know it?). But my own "contrappasso", like Dante Alighieri would say, is a sort...of intolerance. Many and many times, eating pasta, pizza or bread I feel an uncomfortable fullness and bloating that prevents me from eating these foods. Anyway, we arrived at l'Umbricello del Coccio counseled by a friend. You simply CAN'T arrive here by chance : Via dei Montemelini, in Montemelino, sounds like a lullaby rhyme or a fairy address... . But the small village is worthwhile: the manor uphill is of Conestabile della Staffa's family, an old Umbria noble family, now good wine producers. In WW1 one of them was shot by a bullet... in the small crucifix on his neck, so saving his life. To thank for the miracle, he built a sanctuary to Lourdes Holy Mary, and in the small houses near the church and the manor a small restaurant opened. Nowadays Marco Pignattini hosts the restaurant proposing a challenge: do everything like it was done in old times, first of all "umbricelli" a local kind of pasta, "similar" to tuscan pici. To testify and control this challenge, the portrait of two old ladies, relatives of Marco, who taught the old recipes - and secrets - to Marco himself. But the MAIN winning secret of Italian food is SIMPLICITY. When you have the right flour - and Marco uses a mix of three different, he will tell you which three, but NEVER the doses -, the right salt, the right water, (or WINE because some recipes use umbricelli made by wine and flour!), the right oil, cheese, tomato, herbs... It's SIMPLE to get unforgettable results. Marco's Umbricelli will hit your taste like the old bullet hit the crucifix! The touch of mixing up hot umbricelli in a form of cheese, melting and adding taste, the small terrace with the marvelous view, the smell of herbs and trees surrounding you... simplicity makes Chef a Master !
(by the way: in two we ate 1000 grams of umbricelli with cheese and pepper... not a minimal sense of bloating, not any difficult in digestion... Marco's miracle umbricelli!)More