New menu item: Vegan Bean Ragout

We’re bringing you another Tuscan classic made our way at Due’. Look out this week as we add Vegan Bean Ragout to our menu.

With our new Vegan Bean Ragout, we've created our own, modern version of the authentic Italian dish Pasta & Fagioli. In the United States, you know this dish as “Pasta Fasul” as well, derived from the traditional name. Though you’re likely familiar with this pasta and bean dish, it has a long standing history in Italy. It’s arguably the “national” dish of Italy in the sense that every region honors and has its own rendition of this favorite. This dish is said to be originally from the Campania part of Italy and, as many Italian classics, began as a ‘Cucina Povera’ or food of the poor. It’s simple ingredients reflect this but it’s rich flavors ensured this dish one served across Italy and the world for generations. It’s one of the best expressions of this Italian culinary heritage.

Our modern take:

For the base of our ragout, we use a rich blend of Heirloom black valentines beans, Navy beans, and Garbanzo beans. At Due’, we’ve modernized the dish with the use of sourdough breadcrumbs and crispy aromatic herbs. We also pay even further homage to Tuscany by adding black cabbage, as a nod to Tuscanian cabbage soup "Ribollita". This adds a hearty, veggie-base that is perfect for a warm winter meal.

This dish is by nature vegetarian but you can request we make it vegan for you! If none of that appeal to you and you’re a meat eater, we can also add in homemade pork sausage for a rich, hearty meal. Pair this dish with a glass of Chianti and you have the ultimate Tuscanian experience.

Come in and try our version of this all-Italian classic this week!

Pasta is so much more diverse than most people know and we want to bring you a real, authentic variety. Starting this week, Due’ will be offering you four types of pasta to choose from: classic pasta, our own “healthy pasta”, gluten-free pasta and now egg-dough pasta.

Let us tell you a bit more about pasta and the various types you can choose from at Due’ only:

1. Classic Pasta:

Classic pasta is the pasta you are likely used to (though making it fresh everyday like us makes a big difference). It is made with traditional durum wheat flour, also known as semolina. It’s the classic pasta taste you’re likely used to but made fresh everyday, the authentic way, with high-quality, sustainable grains.  We offer classic pasta in paccheri, spaghetti, fusilli and bucatini right now.

2. Healthy Pasta:

You may be thinking this is a miracle, and you’re (almost) right! Healthy pasta is made from own our proprietary formula that combines eight different types of grains and bean flours. The result is less carbs, more proteins, and more vitamins and fibers, while still maintaining an Italian texture and the "al dente" bite we love of traditional pasta. This is something you can only enjoy at Due’! We currently offer healthy pasta in campanelle and spaghetti.

3. Gluten-free Pasta:

Here’s another exclusive creation of ours to give a wide variety of choices so everyone can enjoy quality, authentic pasta. Our Italian pasta texture and taste comes also in a gluten free form that anyone conscious of that can enjoy. Right now, Rigatoni comes gluten free!

4. Brand New: Egg- dough Pasta:

We’re now adding a fourth pasta option: egg-dough pasta. In Italian, it’s known as “pasta fresca all'uovo”. This type of pasta contains egg and low-gluten flour which is much different from the semolina used in classic pasta. It is never dried and is made fresh. Thanks to the egg addition, it cooks in half the time and the texture is much softer. This type of pasta has a different history than classic durum wheat pasta. It originates from the northern regions of Italy, in particular, the Emilia Romagna region. Other classics that come from the region are bolognese, lasagne, tagliatelle, and tortellini, which are often made of or paired with egg-dough pasta. Egg-dough pasta can come in many shapes but the most common are tagliatelle, fettuccine, ravioli, and lasagne. Right now at Due’ we are offering egg-dough Tonnarelli, or Spaghetti alla chitarra. This shape is commonly used in central Italy, the Lazio and Abruzzo region. It is the perfect pairing for our new Cacio & Pepe sauce. In a few weeks, we'll offer a new shape to keep things fun!

Egg-dough’s unique taste, texture, and freshness is something that will reinvent pasta for you and add a new exciting option to create an amazing dish each time you come in. We’re excited to be continually offering new options and a taste of real Italian culture!

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After having finish my PhD in January I took more flights than ever before in my life. Literally it was a flight a week: Seattle, Seoul, Seattle, Beijing, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur... recording a TV cooking show, setting up dueminuti, brushing up the remaining PhD work, visiting my Malaysian family… it was thrilling and exhausting.  I needed some time to stop and reflect. I had a chance to do that in March, when I spent 3 weeks in the comfort of my parent's house in Tuscany, with my wife Janet and my family all reunited again. I had to go undergo a small surgery and I took the chance of the forced relax (aka convalescence) to rediscover my culture: I talked about food with whoever I met. The older, the better.

I took cooking classes from my grandmother as a way to understand classic Italian food... and of course to get some quality time with nonna :). She is certainly not an ordinary teacher and often doesn't know why things are done in a certain way, but I could see in her methods the wisdom of centuries of knowledge. Dinners with my uncles family and my mom's untie where others priceless moment of culinary wisdom exchange.

My wife and I went to discover the Umbria region. Our plan: to taste as many traditional food of the region as we could. Coratina (innards of the lamb slow cooked on a wood fire), Castellucio Lentils, Prosciutto DOP of Norcia, Black Truffle of Norcia, Pork Liver Sausage, Roveja, grilled lamb and the finest ricotta I have ever tasted in my life. We talked with the chef of each restaurant we had the pleasure to dine at, it was definitively a fantastic experience. A truly unforgettable memory was a meal in a restaurant in the small town of Castelluccio, an old borgo at 1400 m above sea level that surmounted a plain famous in the word for lentils. Everything we tasted was speaking of that country side. Dishes were so simple and at the same time so tasteful that you could almost feel the farmers' energy behind each produce. Ricotta was of such a lightness that it was a blessing. The chef was definitively one of the best chef I ever met. There was no trace of her in her dishes: her best skill, a rare one among chefs, was to respect each ingredient, and let it shine for itself. I talked to her for quite a bit and I will never forget that the most common sentence she used was "I did not do anything special to that". She told me where each ingredient was coming from, the story of each farmer behind a particular item and how every product would fit in her cuisine.

Taking only the best ingredient was her secret, respecting them was her skill. "The greatest dishes are very simple" used to say legendary chef Auguste Escoffier about 100 years ago. We couldn't agree more.

Filippo

The desk I set up as working space in my parent's garden: the perfect place where to think.

Sunset from my hometown Castle.

An early breakfast in my parent's house porch. A view that gave me new energy everyday.

Making bread has always been my way to recharge the batteries but making bread for my family in the wood fire oven brought everything to a new level.

Visiting the local butcher shop to order unusual meat part like sweetbread and spinal bone marrow.

Nonna's wisdom..her way to make Tuscanian meat ragu'.

A simple dish that left me speechless, The cheeses arranged in a dubious presentation were simply stunning, the pairing with the red wine from the Sportoletti winery in Spello was sublime.

A view of the Castelluccio's plain where the most amazing lentils are grown.

The town of Castelluccio view from the fields below.