COOKING WITH MARCO CAPRA
We had the pleasure of meeting and talking with Marco Capra: a chef in love with his job!
For his first work experience, after graduating from the Salsomaggiore Terme school, he had the opportunity to work at Casa Italia in Sydney in 2000 for the Olympics. It is then, in the kitchens of the Cortina Hotel that, thanks to the passion, skill and love of the chef Michele Nobile, who definitively understands that cooking and becoming a Chef would have been his life. In the following years, together with the Veneto Chef Team, he participated in numerous culinary competitions, cooking Olympics in Erfurt, the world cup in Luxembourg, international championships in Moscow, collecting successes and medals. After seven years and some experiences between Malcesine and Madonna di Campiglio he arrives on the island of Elba at the Hermitage hotel. Here, thanks to chef Paolo Balestrazzi, he begins to manage the gourmet restaurant within the structure and understands what it means to be the head of a brigade and a kitchen.
In the 2017/18 winter season he began his collaboration with Mira Hotels & Resorts working at Alagna Mountain Resort & SPA and at its Corno Bianco restaurant. Always together with MIRA Hotels & Resorts he had the opportunity to work in Sardinia at Is Arenas Resort for the two summer seasons while for the winter one he and his brigade move to San Domenico di Varzo to make the new opening of the hotel La Vetta. . After a summer and winter break at the Sheraton in Bolzano, the collaboration with MIRA Hotels & Resorts begins again to open the new Riva Toscana Golf Resort & SPA.
Marco Capra has prepared a recipe for us.
COTECHINO, RAW AND COOKED SCAMPO, REDUCTION TO MANDARIN
Ingredients for 4 people.
- cotechino;
- 8 scampi;
- 4 mandarins;
- 1 sprig of thyme;
- Salt, pepper, oil to taste.
PROCEDURE
Using a wooden stick, make holes in the cotechino so that it does not burst while cooking and immerse it in plenty of boiling water. Cook for about 3 hours. Once cooked, remove the skin (better do it while it is hot otherwise you can’t peel it) and let it cool. Cut 8 slices (or cubes) and set them aside.
Clean the prawns by depriving them of the carapace and the internal gut and set the 4 most beautiful ones aside. Cut the remaining 4 scampi into a tartare, season with a little oil, salt, pepper and a few thyme leaves and leave to flavor.
Squeeze the tangerines.
Heat a non-stick pan with the cotechino until crispy on all sides. Once blanched, set aside and keep warm. Remove excess fat from the pan and quickly cook the prawns, they must remain soft and juicy inside. Set aside and deglaze the pan with the mandarin juice and reduce. The sauce should be like a glaze.
Take the chosen serving dishes and start serving from the cotechino. On each slice of cotechino put the quantity of a teaspoon of prawn tar tare, place a seared prawn on each plate and finally, put the tangerine sauce. Garnish to taste and serve on the table.
