FELLINI 100 is a feast of Fellini Films playing at the Berkeley Art Museum/ Pacific Film Archive through May 14, 2022.
We present recipes from Bay Area chefs that honor Federico Fellini along with music and Fellini’s own thoughts on food. The restaurants are C’era Una Volta and Poesia.
These recipes were originally created for a Fellini Celebration at the Castro presented by the Italian Cultural Institute (IIC) of San Francisco. This is a much larger series also is association with IIC.
Childhood, dreaming and food are at the root of Fellini’s work. The drawings of the “Food in Federico Fellini’s Drawings,” exhibition returned food to the same extraordinary world. A memorable story by Tonino Guerra, published as the preface in A tavola con Fellini – Ricette da Oscar della sorella Maddalena (At the Table with Fellini – Oscar-worthy Recipes by his sister Maddalena- unfortunately not available in English) is further proof of this:
“I’ve no idea how it happened, but wherever Federico put its fork down by the side of his bowl of spaghetti, a drop of sauce would always splash onto his tie. Eyes popping out of her head, Giulietta would start shouting at him. But something worse happened as well.
One morning we were about to leave Bar Canova in Piazza del Popolo when a waiter placed a basket of bread rolls filled with mozzarella on the counter. ‘You can’t not eat mortadella,’ Federico told me. ‘I’m full’.
‘Me too…but mortadella is the taste of our childhood.’ ‘Buy one for us to share then,’
And that’s just what he did. When I tried to break the roll in two, a piece of fat flew into the air and fell onto Fellini’s back.
We went straight to his house to give the maid the jacket, but Giulietta was there. She threw herself on the couch shouting: ‘You’ve got to be the very first man in the world who’s managed to get grease on his back!’
Federico sat down ruefully next to her and said in a low voice ‘But there’s always a feeling of satisfaction to be the first do something’.”
Listen to Nino Rota music for Fellini films while you cook
“Even if I set out to make a film about a fillet of sole, it would be about me.”
FELLINI Cocktail
A refreshing new drink created especially to celebrate the director’s centenary with Fabbri Marendry e Lemoncocco.
-Gently shake 3 oz of chilled Lemoncocco.
-Add 1 oz of Fabbri Marendry.
-Garnish with an amarena cherry from Fabbri!
Lasagna Bianca con Funghi Giulietta degli Spiriti
from Poesia – (recipe for 4 people)
House made spinach pasta
300 g flour
2 eggs
100 g of spinach
-Boil spinach then blend together with the eggs and make the dough
-Let it rest for 20 minute then prepare sheets; before mixing the lasagna boil the sheets for a minute
Bechamel
1 l milk
70 g butter
70 g flour
-Prepare roux with butter and flour mixed together
-Let it cook slowly for about 10 minutes
-Heat up the milk with salt pepper and nutmeg until it boils
-Put the roux mix together and let it boil again for a minute
Sautéed mushrooms
650 g of different mushrooms ( hen of the woods, champignons, dried porcini )
100 g white wine
2 tbs of evo oil
1 clove of garlic
1 branch of rosemary
4 branch of thyme
-Let the dried porcini rest for an hour in water
-Put garlic, rosemary, thyme, and oil in a pan to let the oil absorb the flavor
-Throw the garlic and herbs and sautéed mushrooms together with a high fire for a minute adding salt, pepper and wine
-Cook slowly for about 10 minutes
The Finale
-Now after having everything ready you can spread some butter on the bottom of the baking tin and start to lay down first the pasta sheet, then béchamel, mushrooms and dust with grated Parmigiano Reggiano, making 5 layers.
-Bake the lasagna covered at 350 F for 30 minute; then uncover it and let it gratinate on top at 375 for 10 minutes.
I suggest you let it rest 15 minutes before eating.
Check the regular dinner menu
Martin Scorsese and Francesco at Poesia
Owner Francesco D´lppolito writes:
“Poesia is a dream come true that its founder achieved with love and passion. The dream to bring the smell and the taste of his own roots to the “land of opportunities”, where it’s easier to turn a dream into reality.
Poesia is my dream, that welcomes you when you go up the stairs and enter the restaurant. That inexplicable feeling that penetrates you immediately as you understand what it means to be a welcome guest. Poesia is crafty eyes full of the passion of the person who knows that in order to be successful you have to love deeply your job. Poesia is this image left unchanged throughout the years. Poesia is to feel home because the smell of the cooking is unmistakable, so rich, colorful, abundant. Poesia is this sense of wellbeing that you feel once you pass that door, knowing that magically everything will be harmonic. Poesia is the rhythm of your feelings that passes through the good food and synchronize with the fantastic people that every night meet in the restaurant. Poesia is to feel with family even though you are surrounded by people from all over the world. Poesia is the recipes taken directly from Francesco’s mother’s book. Poesia is the friendly staff, always ready to share their Italian way of being with you. Poesia is to have always something more than you expect.”
4072 18th St. ,San Francisco, CA 94114
415-2529325
Ravioli ai Carciofi Amarcord
By Chef Rudy Duran of C’era Una Volta Ristorante in Alameda
Homemade Artichokes Ravioli from Chef Rudy Duran being prepared by his team
Ragù Bolognese
– Wonderful on your favorite ravioli or other pastas.
(serves 8 people)
Ingredients:
1 Medium Onion
2 medium carrots
3 length of celery
1/2 Cup of EVOO
4 Garlic cloves
1 can of tomato paste 1 pound
1 liter of water (4.2 US cups)
12 oz of ground beef
6 oz of ground pork
1 glass of red wine
salt and pepper Q.B. (quantobasta which literally translated means how much is enough– what you think is the right quantity)
How to prepare:
-Dice the carrots, celery and onion in the food processor or by hand to make a mirepoix which goes in a pot with the half cup of EVOO garlic and a little salt.
-Let it steam for 5 minutes.
-Remove the garlic and add the meats, stir and add salt and black pepper for the meats -After 5 min, add the glass of red wine.
-Let the wine evaporate and add the tomato paste and the liter of water, stir and let it cook for 3 hours at low heat with the lid 3/4 closed.
Enjoy and buon appetite.
Read about Rudy’s participation on the book, L’Art in Cucina.
Rutilio “Rudy” Fanetti-Duran was born in Livorno, Italy in the region of Tuscany and became an “American” in 2000. He arrived having completed chef’s training in Italy and had worked many years on Cruise ships and as private chef on private yachts.
Rudy explains that his philosophy is shaped by war-torn post World War II Italy as much as these work experiences. “Though our town had been destroyed, we were determined to laugh, love and live well with what little we had. I learned to take pleasure in the sensation of being alive, and my appreciation for taste rose above all else.”
Rudy’s personality as a chef may be simply summed up on this premise he lives by: “Food is more than just fuel that feeds our bodies – it is the universal and indispensable means of conveying our traditions and shared community. Food with tradition and with ‘soul’ is the central expression of special occasions in cultures around the world. In my philosophy, food maintains our bodies – ‘taste sustains life’.“
Family dinner in Amarcord
C’era Una Volta Ristorante and Wine Bar
1332 Park St, Alameda, CA. (510) 769-4828
Don’t miss the restaurant’s menus.
From the Vogue archive, Federico Fellini and Giulietta Masina’s recipes for sangria, salsa verde, and spaghetti all’ Amatriciana.
“I love to eat, but even more I love to sit and talk with friends around a table and watch other people eat,” said Federico Fellini, Italy’s most celebrated film director, over a recent lunch in Rome. “You can tell much about personality when someone is eating. How they hold the fork and knife, how they chew, how much food they put into their mouths. I especially like to watch a woman eat, because I can find out about her appetite for sensuality. When I see a woman nibbling on two lettuce leaves I become diffidente—suspicious. Now I am going to watch you eat,” he said to me, and I suddenly became conscious of trying to twirl sauce-dripping long spaghetti around a fork while also manipulating a pen and notebook.” Read Mimi Sheraton’s article in Vanity Fair, May, 1984
“The film closest to his real experiences – in terms of eating, as Fellini was big on family meals and often waxed lyrical about his mother’s home cooking – was his next one: Amarcord. Again, there was no such thing as prop food – the family in the kitchen really ate the minestra they were served – but what they consumed is far less memorable than the drama around the table. The pretty maid’s backside takes centre stage; the teenage son leaps out the window into the garden; the mother shouts: “I’m going mad! I’ll murder you all!” before the father grabs the tablecloth and brings the entire meal crashing to the floor.” Excerpted from “The Incredible Edible World of Federico Fellini” on Itineraries of Taste.
For more listening pleasure, the sound track for Nino Rota’s La Dolce Vita.
Our hosts Giulietta and Federico say “Ciao for now.”
eatdrinkfilms.com 