From Guadalajara To Carbonara
Chef Danielle Duran Zecca creates an Asiago PDO-inspired dish at Amiga Amore.
photo: Catherine Dzilenski
“Mexican-Italian—it's the best way to describe our restaurant,” says Chef Danielle Duran-Zecca of Amiga Amore, her Highland Park neighborhood spot.
Duran-Zecca was practically raised by her grandparents, who were from Guadalajara, and the kitchen was always the busiest room in the house. “[My grandma] would pick me up on Saturdays, take me to the store, and we’d cook for the whole family—menudo for everyone!” Her love of cooking stuck with her, and Duran-Zecca went on to cook in top kitchens across the country—Le Bernardin, The Modern, and Church & State to name a few.
The concept for what would become her brick-and-mortar in part stemmed from Duran-Zecca’s determination to get her Italian husband to eat more Mexican food. “We’d be eating Mexican food, and he’d only order one taco or something. I took basic [Italian] dishes and saw similarities between our two cuisines.” She started with pasta (his favorite) and began incorporating Mexican flavor profiles into the dishes. It was an absolute hit. Now, at Amiga Amore, pasta is a menu staple and a canvas for her Mexican-Italian flavors to shine. “Pasta is my love language. It reminds me of making masa with my grandmothers.”
In her beet raviolo dish, Duran-Zecca leans on a staple of Italian cuisine: Asiago. “I knew Asiago would go with a bunch of dishes—a squash stew or an all-cheese pasta. This dish is actually inspired by carbonara; one of the first things that my husband made for me. I love to spice it up,
and the Asiago was a different cheese that worked really well.” Starting with her classic pasta dough, Duran-Zecca incorporates a beet purée to replace the earthiness and depth of a carbonara’s pancetta (“I always like having a vegetarian option on the menu”). The filling is where the Asiago shines. The salty, nutty cheese coupled with the mellow, slightly tangy requesón (similar to ricotta) provides a strong, but not overwhelming addition to the dish. To incorporate the egg component of a carbonara, Duran-Zecca adds a whole duck egg yolk in the center of the raviolo. The dish is then topped with a hazelnut salsa macha, a drizzle of epazote oil, and freshly grated Asiago. “I love the brightness of it. The dish is very cozy with the egg yolk and the cheese, and then you get the earthy notes of the hazelnuts and the beets.”
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