Italy has conquered Calpe once again. The gastronomic soul of the sister country, through its recipes and pantries, combined with ingredients, flavors and techniques from this side of the Mediterranean, is expressed in each elaboration of “Orobianco” (One Sun Repsol Guide 2024). Under the guidance of the trisoleado Paolo Casagrande and with the kitchen direction of Andrea Drago, the spectacular views of the Peñón de Ifach compete with the aesthetic beauty of each dish to amaze the diner.
The light streams through the large windows of the dining room as another diner who sits at our table and is pairing us the pass of dishes. The same reflected light that enlarges the majesty of the Mediterranean, a permanent witness on the horizon, where the giant rock mass of the Ifach Rock has crowned. At night, the darkness is punctuated by the lights that outline the skyline of the tourist town of Calpe, in the heart of Alicante’s Marina Alta.
The restaurant “Orobianco” (One Sun Repsol Guide 2024), located in the upper part of the urbanization Colina del Sol, is living a new stage since a year ago, when the trisoleado chef Paolo Casagrande (Lasarte, Barcelona) took over its gastronomic consultancy. The Italianized gastronomic proposal, present since its opening in 2015, has been transformed into a Mediterranean inspiration, where recipes, techniques and pantries from both sides of the Mare Nostrum are twinned. The person in charge at the helm of the ovens on a daily basis is the young Lombard Andrea Drago. “Under the premise that the times are set by the seasons, our restaurant exudes the soul of Italy – in fact, almost all of us who work in the kitchen are from there – but we have clear influences in products, flavors and techniques from the Levant, where we are.
Pecorino cheese is paired with citrus fruits from Elche, Vialone Nano rice with tomatoes and mangoes from Callosa d’en Sarrià, or Nocellara olive oil from Sicily with fish and seafood from the local fish markets. Casagrande and Drago offer three menus: one with four courses at noon, another called Orobianco and the Degustación, where they show not only their extraordinary mastery of technique and taste, but also their beautiful plating and careful aesthetics, as the photographer Sofía Moro confirms with the arrival of each new course.
Inspirations from traditional recipes
The menu begins with starters that quickly transport us to both chefs’ countries of origin. The bite of a steamed mini pizza with mortadella, ricotta and pistachios is accompanied by a recreation of the American cocktail, with vermouth infused with black olives, citrus, capers and a tomato water foam. Or a pecorino romano tartlet filled with zucchini cream and white shrimp, or a creamy carrot, smoked onion and fermented fennel taco, discovered like a pirate’s treasure in a chest.
One of the dishes that has accompanied him since the beginning of this new phase, “and that we have refined over time”, is cuttlefish tartar, egg yolk pickled in Marsala (a fortified Sicilian wine similar to port), almond cream and a bergamot citrus. Drago, a native of Villa Guardia (northern Lombardy), admits that his cuisine is strongly influenced by Paolo, whom he met in 2010 and with whom he worked for years at Lasarte – “from him I learned his elegance and serenity in cooking” – and Martín Berasategui, their teacher.
After the tartare comes the breads and oils. Among the former, there is a rich selection of artisan creations: sourdough with half-wheat flour, focaccia with potato and fennel, and two types of grissini, one with onion and the other with ‘nduja, a spicy salami typical of Calabrian cuisine. In the extra virgin olive oil section, in this enriching battle between the two countries, we were not faced with the difficult dilemma of choosing, since we tasted both the ‘Incuso’ nocellara, from an oil mill in the Belice Valley (in the extreme west of Sicily), and the coupage of nine varieties, mild and slightly spicy, produced by ‘Origival’ (Tarragona).
With the end of spring and the first warm days, we release a dish in which green asparagus in different textures are the protagonists, along with candied chinotto (citrus) and crunchy amaranth, presented on an inspiration of the classic Japanese chawanmushi (curd), in this case of sea ox.
The recreations of traditional recipes updated or with Levantine inspiration follow one another in the various seasonal menus. From a rabbit carpaccio on a base of gelatin, reminiscent of the Tuscan stew beyond cacciatora, accompanied by vegetables, Mediterranean herbs, wine, almonds and tiger nut air; to the version of the Catalan cap i pota, but vegetable, because the tripe is actually mushrooms of the Judas ear variety, “whose texture is very similar to that of tripe, and that we serve with parmesan and chickpea broth, among other ingredients, and that we will surely recover in the fall because they triumphed,” explains the chef.
The irreplaceable pasta
Among the fetish products of the Italian pantry, Drago highlights the flours used to make fresh pasta: “100% Italian”. The ravioli filled with tuna parpatana, cubes of ventresca, mushrooms and a consommé of bacon, leek and tail, find no better ally than the citrus caviar or finger lime grown by Santiago Orts in his “Huerto Gourmet” in Elche. The al dente spaghettoni, with marrow pil pil and clams, are prepared in the typical Lazio cacio e pepe style, in this case with Roman pecorino cheese and Nepalese pepper, “more balsamic and floral”, as the maitre d’ Inés Correia describes as she finishes the dish at the table. There is also a risotto with the Vialone Nano variety, with crustacean cream, red prawns from Denia, the bitter notes of a Campani bitter with eucalyptus leaves, fermented lemon and a traditional suquet with a slightly spicy touch; or a fusillone with pink grapefruit, smoked galley and caviar. Orobianco can boast of being the only restaurant in Spain to appear in the ranking of the best Italian restaurants outside Italy.
We completed the savory passages of the menu with a market fish from the nearby fish markets -on this occasion red mullet, frégola cooked with suquet and a touch of buttermilk. There is also the proposal of San Pedro rooster with beets of different textures on a base of monkfish liver (“our sea foie”) and with marked iodized nuances. On the meat side, a grilled roe deer glazed with its own juice, black cardamom and juniper, watercress cream and white corn foam, also with an interesting marine aftertaste left by the agretti.
For desserts, the choice of Muscatel to accompany Michele Crotta’s pastry preparations is a success.
Sunset overlooking the Ifach
To prolong the dinner or to start the summer evenings, ‘Orobianco’ has the rooftop ‘O.B. Rooftop’, which undoubtedly offers the best views of Calpe. On the horizon, the silhouette of the coastal town with its skyscrapers, salt flats, the gentle Mediterranean and the imposing rock of Ifach. As the sun sets and the scenery is tinged with trees, we can enjoy an informal tapas with Gillardeau oysters, sea bass and tomato ceviche, eggplant croquettes with parmigiana or a table of Italian cheeses. But the big bet is on the signature cocktails: from the Espresso Martini, a great ally for after dinner drinks, to the Italian Lemon Pie, the New York Sour, the Amaretto Tangerine with citrus and egg white, or the Eau de Les Marines, based on gin, mandarin juice, cava and “our secret mix”.
Best allies for live music sessions, four hands of cocktail makers, painting exhibitions or simply the incomparable arrival of a summer night.
