Superior Sources: The Art Of Mantecatura

Spaghetti Without Meatballs

Like many before me, I  have long been in love with these deceptively simple Italian pasta dishes –  alla Carbonara,  alle Vongole and Cacio e Pepe. The first may have its roots in both the US and Italy according to Luca Cesari, a very thorough food historian living in Bologna.  But although its ingredients are few  (eggs, cheese, guanciale) it is cussedly difficult to get right.   The same with my son- in law’s spaghetti with clams. I never liked this simple seafood pasta when I had it in the US, because the sauce was so watery. In addition, it’s usually made with our Littleneck clams (which I love in other preparations like Clams Casino). A much better choice would be the Manilla clams that you can get in some seafood stores. But it never came together the way it does in Italy. The third is Cacio e Pepe – it’s just Pecorino Romano and peppercorns, but its success rests on how you put them together.

A Spanish Corruption

What all these pasta dishes have in common is a technique known as Mantecatura – the verb is mantecare. I learned about it when I disappeared into the proverbial rabbit hole of a proper Risotto alla Milanese. It is an Italian adaptation of the Spanish word for butter or lard – mantequilla or manteca. This technique proved essential to upping my risotto game for this KD post. This nifty step is always done at the end of cooking risotto (which should be under 20 minutes). In the last couple of minutes, you remove the risotto from the heat and add cool butter and some freshly grated Parmigiano, stirring constantly, and moving the pan back and forth to obtain a light (some might say soupy) creamy finish to the dish.

If you are really good, you can move the pan with a rhythm that includes a flip.  Remember Julia Child and the famous omelet flip that so unnerved her TV interviewer? – it’s somewhat similar to that, but it is unceasing for a couple of minutes. This continuous movement creates a series of waves, which aerates the risotto and helps to release the starch in the rice in a particular way that gives the dish, with the addition of butter, a remarkable texture and taste. It’s velvety, and the creaminess is, well, ethereal.  This video from Italia Squisita, which has English  subtitles, captures it well. 

It’s All In The Wrist

This technique is used in pasta dishes as well. It takes the Nonna hack of saving some of the pasta water, which is enriched with the pasta’s starch particles, and elevates the sauce-making to the next level. You may use additional cheese or butter or other aromatics, depending on the sauce, but basically it is using the aerating and sliding technique with the aid of a rubber or silicone spatula to create a lush and brightly flavored sauce out of the recipe’s few components. Oh yes, and practice does indeed make perfect. 

A word or two about equipment here.  I have written from my own experience cooking at home and as a culinary shop owner about what works best on a stovetop and why. In the shop, we used to carry both copper and aluminum cookware from Mauviel in France, as they made unparalleled pans of different shapes and sizes in both copper and aluminum, and later in a groundbreaking sandwich plate of stainless steel and aluminum that enveloped the whole pan and not just the base. Most of its  competitors just made an aluminium  sandwich plate  at the bottom of the pan. But proper heat diffusion is important on the side of your pan as well. 

You can’t beat copper for optimum heat diffusion. Aluminum, however, is less expensive, lighter too, and runs a pretty close second. It is somewhat maligned in the US from  widespread misinformation (the US seems to be currently plagued by widespread misinformation) about its connection to Alzheimer’s disease. Most of the time the aluminum is “anodized” or comes with a new generation of nonstick coating added to it.  I was happily surprised to see naked aluminum used repeatedly in Italian and French kitchens.

A Jumping Pan

Aluminum is a softer metal (more widely spaced molecules, for those of you who are scientifically inclined). In fact, its excellent heat conduction combined with its light weight makes it a dream to do this final dance of mantecatura before you plate the pasta with its sauce. But there is one additional advantage of a commercial gauge aluminum in creating a sauce from the starch and the liquid required in the recipe. The porosity (remember the widely spaced molecules?) creates a rough surface as you roll and stir the pasta and its liquid. This increased friction removes more starch from the strands of pasta and creates a more velvety texture in the sauce. It works better than stainless steel (which  by itself is a wretched heat conductor). And I was surprised, when I tried the technique in a new generation nonstick pan, to find how thin the final sauce was in comparison to the results when I made it in my new Italian commercial aluminum pan. In fact, Pentole Agnelli produces a version called a saltapasta  that is used in many restaurants (Baldassare Agnelli of Bergamo, not the automobile empire Agnelli). Its curved side is somewhat like a wok, but with a wider base like a frypan. 

The video below (and it should have English subtitles for you to follow along) breaks down three different ways of creating a sauce following the tenets of mantacatura.  One is done on the hob, the second is off the hob, and the third  makes a quick stop over simmering water. It’s rewarding to try them all at home. I am still practicing….