Each time he changes the menu, chef Antimo Maria Merone of Estro gives a seasonal spin to the traditional bottoni, a button-shaped pasta, which has since become the one-MICHELIN-starred restaurant’s signature dish.
“We’re now onto version number eight of the bottoni dish,” he says. Merone is the helmsman of Italian restaurant Estro in Hong Kong, which has earned its first MICHELIN Star this year. He describes the summer rendition of the bottoni, which combines a broccoli filling, tomatoes, and vegetable jus with colatura di alici (an Italian fish sauce), lemon, and Japanese sardines.
Named after its resemblance to a button, this round and plump little pasta has become a signature dish at the restaurant. Traditionally, bottoni is filled with buffalo ricotta, herbs, and a touch of meat. It takes a rather different at Estro, where the pasta gets a new filling and is dressed in different sauces for each season.
The way to make bottoni is very similar to that of ravioli, where the filling of the pasta plays a central role in imparting flavour. The circular bottoni pasta is stuffed with a filling that is almost liquid in consistency, so you can feel an explosion of sauces in every bite. This is the beauty of bottoni, but also means that the pasta dough must have a sufficiently springy texture in order to hold the sauce.
Deviating from traditional methods, Merone has chosen to use flour with a higher gluten content. He also added Japanese eggs and olive oil to create a more elastic dough that can contain the liquid filling. “You can compare this to a xiao long bao, or a chocolate shell with a molten centre,” says Merone. Once ready, the dough is rolled out into pasta sheets, and the jelly-like filling is sandwiched between two sheets, pressed, and then cut out into circular shapes.
But it doesn’t just end here. Creating harmonious flavour combinations is indeed a complex process. The chef needs to consider the filling, a crucial element with the most prominent taste, and how the pasta sauce, vegetable purée, and other accompanying ingredients can complement and further elevate the flavours and depth of the dish.
Take this season’s tomato bottoni dish, which is topped with Japanese sardines, bottarga, and lemon. Another memorable combination is the sixth version of the bottoni — a winter special — where the round pasta was dressed in a rich, creamy sauce of Parmigiano Reggiano, milk, and sage. It was topped with five to six grams of shaved Alba white truffle, and tasted like a warm embrace in the winter cold.
Last year’s autumn edition featured bottoni filled with buffalo ricotta and a saffron-infused broth served with risotto, Parmigiano Reggiano, saffron sauce, as well as roasted chicken jus; the dish was also adorned with a touch of edible gold. This rendition of bottoni was an homage to Gualtiero Marchesi, the Father of Modern Italian Cuisine.
In 1983, Marchesi created the Risotto alla Milanese, a risotto dish that got its vibrant yellow colour from saffron. He then placed a few square sheets of 24k gold leaf in the centre of the dish, and his avant-garde approach caused a huge sensation to the Italian culinary scene at the time.
As we journey through the menu, the bottoni serves as a simple yet satisfying transition between the appetiser and the mains. Merone explains: “When I think about the flavour of the bottoni, I need to come up with a way to connect the preceding dishes of seafood and vegetables with the meat dishes that follow, without disrupting the overall structure of the menu.”
Apart from bottoni, the house-made pistachio gelato is also a shared memory between diners and the chef. “The red prawn panna cotta is another popular dish. I tried taking it off the menu, but some customers told me that’s the dish they came for, so it’s hard not to serve it. It’s now back on the menu as an optional dish.”
Even though the menu gets its seasonal facelifts, the bottoni always stays. The flavour, however, does change, and there hasn’t been a repeat yet.
Merone quips that he may run out of ideas by the 10th version and may have to return to one of the previous creations. “Many customers visit four to five times a year, and the bottoni becomes our common topic. ‘What will be the flavour this time? What are the seasonal ingredients? What flavour is the chef making for us?’ This is a known surprise, a connection and shared topic between me and my customers,” shares Merone.
Header image provided by Estro.
The article was written by Gloria Chung and translated by Iris Wong.
