When you are in Barcelona, among many other things, drop by the Passage de Pere Calders, in the Sant Antoni neighborhood. There, an ordinary night becomes a very special one when, suddenly, you run into benzine , a restaurant in modern italian kitchen and ever changing.
Its terrace already invites you to stop looking for another place to settle throughout the evening and its interior, warmly lit by dim, low lights , as well as with candles on the tables, remind us of an eclectic and industrial New York; even to a casual and enamored Paris. Actually we are in any gastronomic corner of Italy, but with Barcelona as hostess. We are in the house (and the kitchen) of the Chef Nicola Valle.
native of Brescia , Valle turns traditional Italian dish recipes around to let his creativity flow from dish to dish. His vitello tonnato, for example, becomes bright tone: with bonito, spinach, veal mayonnaise and fried capers. A personal vision that seeks to have fun and never stay still in the same place.
“We change the menu every two or two and a half months to follow the season” , Valle tells of a new menu that will arrive at Benzina from mid-October and that currently has dishes such as ox tail with smoked potato, lemon, parsley and celery root salad, reminiscent of the flavor of ossobuco alla milanese.
The restaurant.
“Right now we also have our cappelletti, a typical stuffed pasta Emilia-Romagna , stuffed with a beef stew, to which we add prosciutto and mortadella, a very typical sausage from central Italy. We serve it with a reduced meat broth, a parmesan foam and bacon cracker ”, says the chef.
His carbonara is another of the hits on the menu , one that is due not only for being the dish that no one can resist, but also because it plays outside of tradition… but without offending it.
“The preparation is the classic but the difference is in the cheeses . He carries two different guanciale cheeses to balance the spice game. We put the pecorino in the egg mass and we add the 36-month-old Parmigiano Reggiano as a final step.”
His carbonara is another of the hits on the menu.
Being the memories and flavors of his native country what most influence the inspiration of the chef, do you usually pay more attention to those of Brescia, where he was born?
“We have had dishes inspired by my grandmother's kitchen or the tradition of the town , but it is not very easy to make them. It is not a very big city and it is based more on cheeses and sausages, without many star dishes”, confesses the chef. "But that doesn't stop us from playing with everything around him." That is why the trip can also be glimpsed in the menu, thanks to his experiences in places like London or Ecuador , place where he lived.
“I met my wife in Ecuador and we went back to Italy to get married. Then we decided to move to Spain and the options were Barcelona or Madrid. Barcelona won for the beach”, jokes the cook. “Also, it is a big city, but not too big, and it gave us security. It's multicultural, which I love."
Benzina's desserts are, in principle, classic: paradise cake, pannacotta, semifreddo, tiramisu, mille-feuille... but it is in his presentation that they show his most modern face. The spheremisu , the favorite, is actually a sphere of chocolate, mascarpone, coffee savoiardi and tiramisu vanilla ice cream, which melts instantly with hot chocolate falling on top.
Tribute to the Rolling Stones.
The music is another of the bases of Benzina, not only to create an environment, but also liquid flavors. She is the one who absorbs herself in the environment and manifests herself in the cocktail menu , titled in honor of a song that represents them.
"We play a lot with cocktails, yes there are Italian ingredients in some but here we do prefer to give ourselves more freedom," shares Valle. Your favorite cocktail of his? The cocaine, inspired by the Eric Clapton song. “It is served bold and presumptuous, with a glass covered in icing sugar and a mixture of gin, limoncello and Campari macerated with raspberry”.