Besides the best Chefs, Italy’s master confectioners will show us how our favourite ingredient can take innumerable roles in cooking and confectionary art. Eros Picco of the restaurant Innocenti Evasioni and master confectioner Andrea Besuschio will turn espresso, either ground or in beans, into protagonist.
A twine between the use of local products and a good dose of creativeness. It’s the kitchen of Eros Picco, Chef of the restaurant Innocenti Evasioni. Few steps from Viale Certosa in Milan, a Zen-style garden welcomes guests, who can snoop among scents and flavours of a cuisine that dares unusual combinations. The internal dining rooms feature a décor that balances between classic and art nouveau and is able to give feelings of warmth and harmony in a journey honouring the five senses.
Lamb sirloin and aubergine with coffee
ingredients per 4 people: 2 lamb sirloin steaks, 1 violet aubergine, 50g ground coffee, 50g lamb meat sauce, clarified butter as required, garlic, thyme, marjoram, Maldon salt.
Preparation. 
The lamb: prepare the lamb chop removing the excessive fat parts. Add clarified butter, a clove of garlic and a sprig of thyme into a pan. Heat it up. Take out garlic and herbs when the smoke point is reached. Brown the chop on the whole surface. Once browned, bake the chop for about 20 minutes at a temperature of about 100° C. Bring the lamb sauce to the boil and emulsify with some extra virgin olive oil.
The aubergine: peel the aubergine. Cut into 3 cm thick slices. Pour some extra virgin olive oil into a non-stick pot. Brown the aubergine on both sides. Add salt and pepper. Roll one side of the aubergine in coffee powder. Keep warm.
Completion of the dish: cut the lamb chops. Put the salted and peppered lamb chops on a platter. Then put the aubergine slice by keeping the side with coffee upwards. Finish with fresh sprouts and crispy potatoes.
Andrea Besuschio’s great passion is chocolate. Following his father’s footsteps – the namesake pastry shop in Abbiategrasso dates back to 1845 – he has been able to create a real boutique of innovative confectionary products, addressed to modern pastry making. Among his “signature” creations, desserts connected to tradition, such as the Tegola or Crakelè, as well as the chestnuts of Cuneo stand out in the shop window, besides chocolate creations, such as Porfido or Zeropuntouno. We like this philosophy to combine tradition and innovation a lot. Such as the coffee dessert, we asked him to prepare, which is suitable for great occasions.
Isotta
For the Sablè
Ingredients: 360 g butter, 6 g salt, 270 g icing sugar, 90 g hazelnut flour, 3 eggs, 180 g flour 00, 525 g flour 00, 15g Moak coffee powder.
Procedure: Get a cream from the butter, add salt, icing sugar, hazelnut flour, eggs and the smaller amount of flour (180 g). Knead without whipping and add the other flour when the dough is consistent. Roll out the dough and bake at 160°C.
For the almond cream
Ingredients: 760 g butter, 760 g icing sugar, 760 g almond flour, 75 g di potato starch, 8 eggs
Procedure: get a cream from the butter. Add icing sugar, sifted potato starch and almond flour; add the eggs one by one without whipping the dough.
For the beet and raspberry compost
Ingredients: 800 g beet pulp, 200 g raspberry pulp, 100 g sugar and 20 g di pectin Nh, 500 g sugar.
Procedure: cook the pulp at 60°C, add the small amount of sugar mixed with pectin. Bring to the boil, add the rest of sugar and bring again to the boil. Boil for 2/3 minutes
For the whipped Moak coffee ganache
Ingredients: 460 g cream, 90 g Moak coffee beans, 45 g inverted sugar, 45 g glucose, 315 g white glaze, 690 g cold liquid cream
Procedure: warm the coffee beans up for 3 minutes at 160°C. Infuse them for 10 minutes in 460 g lukewarm liquid cream. Filter and weigh the liquid again, in order to still have 460 g of cream. Warm up and add inverted sugar and glucose. Pour slowly into the formerly melt white glaze and form an elastic and bright mixture. Finish the emulsion with the remaining cream. Add cold liquid cream, blend everything, wrap it and leave it for a night in the fridge. Whip the mixture with a kneader the day after.
For the candied beet
Ingredients for syrup: 1 l water, 550 g granulated sugar, 1 kg beet
Procedure: make a syrup out of boiled water and sugar and pour on the 1×1 cm cut beet cubes. Put in a bowl, wrap it and put in in the fridge at 4°C. Drain the day after, regain the syrup, add 110 g sugar and bring to the boil, then pour onto the beet cubes. Wrap them and put them again in the fridge at 4°C. Repeat the same procedure for another 6 times.
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