Food, Home & Lifestyle
Bonus: Tasting Demonstration
Lesson time 18:24 min
To help you develop your palate, Massimo walks through the tasting of three ingredients that are fundamental to his version of Italian cuisine: tomatoes, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and balsamic vinegar.
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Topics include: Tasting Tomatoes • Tasting Parmigiano-Reggiano • Tasting Balsamic Vinegar
Teaches Modern Italian Cooking
Massimo Bottura teaches you his take on traditional Italian cooking—from risotto to tortellini—and shares techniques for reimagining your own recipes.
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[MUSIC PLAYING] MASSIMO BOTTURA: I'm going to show you how easy it is to develop your perception in the palate. So we're going to taste three ingredients that I pick-- simple tomato, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and balsamic vinegar. Take a look at your cookbook for ideas on how to do this demonstration at home along with me. Everyone talks about tomato. Tomato here. All the recipe, you know? Spaghetti and tomato. Tomato. But what kind of tomato? Tomato for salad, tomato for sauce, and tomato-- you know-- for pizza, tomato to be marinated and fill like this. But here, we have a selection of tomatoes. They all come from south of Italy, between Naples and Sicily. But they all have a different approach to things, you know, to your palate. So we're going to start with a very classic one, San Marzano, but not ripe, the green one. Take it, and you have the first approach. It's absolutely tannic. It's astringent, you know, in your palate. One of the most important things when you taste something is the second bite. First bite, is to connect the palate with your mind, with all the range of flavor that you know. The second one is going to tell you exactly the feeling, you know, because you're already connected. You're ready to receive the second one. To me, this one I'm going to compare immediately with the red one. Oh, my god. These are two San Marzano. We have the green tomato that is, like, so astringent. And you have, like, all the chlorophyll and the feeling from all the green, you know, that is, like, very aggressive in your palate. The other San Marzano is more sweet and more fruity. You know, you have-- you have to use a different approach and mix with different flavors that maybe can be slice and, you know, get into a tomato sauce, you know, to-- to close the balance. Let's move to Sicily. And here you have a Fondanello, you know? And I'm going to taste it. And oh my god. It's a totally different approach. You know. These are all called tomato. But this one, if I close my eyes and I feel it, this is more fruity. It's incredible how sweet and deep it is in the palate. And I tried the Vesuviano, from Vesuvio. It's much more acidic. But with that kind of, you know, long finish of bitterness, I'm going to try the Datterino Giallo. This is a cherry. You know? It's like a cherry-- a cherry. It's like, oh, my god, it's like-- it's so sweet, you don't even feel the acidity. So together, the three of them, it's going to make an amazing sauce. So that's-- when I was talking about the spaghetti and tomato and most of the time, I feel like spaghetti and tomato, but spaghetti and tomato. What are you? Spaghetti and tomato. Spaghetti, what kind of tomato? And this is exactly what I'm talking about. When you want to arrive at the right, right, right flavor, you have to understand every single ingredient you have. You have to get the ingredients, touch them, caress them, feeling them. They are talking to you. So connect your palat...
About the Instructor
Massimo Bottura, chef of the three-Michelin-star Osteria Francescana, treats his world-renowned restaurant as a laboratory of ideas. In his MasterClass, he shares how he transforms classic, regional Italian recipes into exciting modern dishes. You’ll learn how to make rich, flavorful tagliatelle al ragù, pumpkin risotto, and a MasterClass-exclusive Emilia Burger recipe. Develop your palate and embark on a culinary adventure.
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Massimo Bottura
Massimo Bottura teaches you his take on traditional Italian cooking—from risotto to tortellini—and shares techniques for reimagining your own recipes.
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