Today we won't be talking "just" about wine; today we'll tell you a story: the story of a great Italian product, pasta, of a Campanian excellence, and of a family that, as often happens, finds itself in a moment of difficulty!
At the center of our article, alongside wine, will be Pastificio Rummo, struck between Wednesday 14/10/2015 and Thursday 15/10/2015 by a violent storm that damaged its machinery, raw materials and products; despite the tremendous effort of the fifteen employees who were inside the facility and fought for hours against the water.
Rummo is not a company that works heavily on social media: just look at the fact that their Facebook page has not posted content since August 2015; however, the #SaveRummo campaign captured the attention of thousands of people, including Selvaggia Lucarelli and Fiorello.
We at Wine at Wine, who have always admired the pasta maker's products, also want to do something; and beyond having filled our pantries with excellent pasta, we have decided to tell you about them, their history, and to offer all of you a recipe and a pairing, as we often do.
Pasta Rummo was born in 1846 in Benevento, on the historic Ponte di San Cosimo, where the waters made it possible to run the Rummo family's mills, gradually becoming one of the major companies in the area: over 160 years of history, 150 employees, 140 pasta formats (including dry, organic, whole wheat and egg pasta), one million quintals of pasta produced per year and sold in 30 countries.
Rummo is tradition and today we will pair it with a dish "consistent" with the pasta maker's image – a humble, historic, simple to prepare and absolutely exquisite dish: Pasta e patate con provola alla napoletana.
Ingredients for 6 people:
- 500 g potatoes
- 1 onion
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 2-3 cherry tomatoes (or ro' Piennolo)
- Parsley to taste
- Celery to taste
- Extra virgin olive oil to taste (very generous amount)
- Salt to taste
- 1 package of pasta mista Rummo Lenta Lavorazione® (dishes like this were once made with the leftovers from various pasta packages, adding further pleasure to the dish thanks to the varied shapes)
- 60 g pecorino romano
- 60 g parmigiano reggiano
- 350 g provola di Agerola
- freshly ground pepper (to taste)
What a beautiful package of pasta: vintage and premium! But enough talk – let's roll up our sleeves; just looking at it is making me hungry!
Finely chop the garlic, onion, parsley and celery, cut the tomatoes in half, and together with the salt, oil (generous as per tradition), the peeled and roughly diced potatoes and plenty of water, leave to cook for 4-5 hours over the lowest possible heat (na' lamparell); if necessary, add water from time to time and cook until the potatoes have broken down.
Once the potatoes are cooked, add just enough water (be careful not to use too much) and add the Pasta Rummo Lenta Lavorazione®.
Shortly after passing the halfway point of the cooking time, remove the contents from the pot and pour into terracotta containers (individual portions would be ideal); generously distributing the provola cut into small cubes.
Then dust everything with the grated cheeses and bake for 5-6 minutes at 180 degrees. When done, serve with a generous burst of freshly ground pepper.
"Water has never softened us" reads the graphics of their social campaign born in this difficult moment; we add that a good wine can only strengthen and enhance their product.
With a dish like this, one needs to pair a full-bodied red wine, intense on the nose, fairly tannic, but also balanced and acidic (and moderately savory due to the provola and cheeses).
The choice fell, among the many with these characteristics, on an Alto Adige Cabernet Sauvignon from Cantina Tramin, available at the "popular price" of around 10 euros.
This wine is made from grapes grown in the area of Egna and Termeno (Tramin) on calcareous soils famous for the Gewurztraminer! It is aged in used barrique which lend, on the nose, slightly spiced aromas that combine with notes of red fruits (above all ribes) and green pepper; it is recommended to serve at around 19-20 degrees.
We close by sending our best wishes to the great Rummo, because their pasta cannot be missing from our tables: do it for us too!
At the same time, we make them an appeal: not to move their commercial offices to northern Italy, as so many other companies have done, given the great affection that the region is showing toward them.
We leave them with one of their own passages, at the heart of the "Lenta Lavorazione" process, which we share as we have long tried to champion those who, in the world of wine, respect nature and its rhythms:
"Everything on the face of the earth has its time that must be respected. For our pasta we will use machines, but making them work slowly. They will not dominate us. We will dominate them. Nature will guide us, as it does now."
What do you think?
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