Chef Silvia Barban learned to cook from a young age in the kitchen of her Venetian grandmother. Pairing those northern Italian recipes with the spicy Calabrian influences from her mother’s side of the family, she made a name for herself in America on Season 14 of Top Chef.
Today, she’s the Executive Chef and co-owner of Italian restaurant LaRina in Brooklyn. We talk about her lifelong Italian culinary influences, how the seasons inspire her to innovate, and how to make the perfect gnocchi recipe at home.
What we covered in this episode
- Lessons learned from being on Top Chef (4:08)
- The concept behind LaRina (7:09)
- Where Italian tradition meets modern innovation (9:33)
- How she finds inspiration (12:25)
- When she first learned how to cook (13:29)
- The difference between food from the north and south of Italy (15:20)
- Finding inspiration through seasonality (20:11)
- How LaRina pivoted to stay open through the pandemic (25:46)
- Silvia’s recipe for the perfect gnocchi (27:59)
- Five stops you need to make in Brooklyn (33:12)
- Series of rapid-fire questions.
- Link to the podcast episode on Apple Podcast
Links to other episodes in New York City
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- Cappellacci from Chef Silvia Barban
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- agnolotti del plin, black lime, parmigiano
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- Ricotta Gnocchi , basil pesto, pistacchio, zucchini blossom
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- Smoked spaghetti , Calabrian chilies ,garlic, eggs, hazelnuts
Pasta dish recipe
Best gnocchi recipe
- Instead of using regular potatoes, chef Silvia Barban suggest to use sweet potatoes.
She suggests to always bake them in the oven, instead of boiling in water because then you don't have potatoes they're very wet. So, you don't have to put as much flour as if you would have cooked them in water and it doesn’t get sticky.- For 2.5 lbs of potatoes (even better if they're a little old so they're getting starchier).
- Bake them in the oven until they get cooked and soft.
- Peel them off. Always work on potatoes to make sure when they're warm and not cold. It's easier to handle and to absorb the other ingredients.
- Then you rice the potatoes (with a potato ricer)
- Add around 2 cups of regular flour, one egg, and 1 cup of grated parmesan.
- Add salt and black pepper.
- Just mix it all together to create a dough ball.
- Take a bit, just create these long “snakes” of dough, and cut in like little squares
- Put them in a pot of boiling water (add the salt when the water is boiling)
What is the best sauce for gnocchi?
- Lamb ragú would be great with sweet potato gnocchi. The lamb has a little strong flavor and the sweet potatoes go so well with it.
- With a lamb ragú, chef Silvia Barban suggests putting a lot of flavor on it like mint, rosemary, sage, and garlic, add olive oil, and cover with red wine.
- Let it cook in the oven until is tender basically.
- When it is cooked, take it off from the liquid.
- Reduce the liquid and pull the meat apart.
- Then just sautéed the gnocchi with that and finish with some parmesan.
- Do not put butter because the lamb is already rich and you want to taste the lamb you don't want to taste some other flavor.
You don't want to taste cream either, you want to taste the lamb. - Maybe you can add also some oyster mushroom.