Fantastic First, Terrazza Gallia, Milan (Mi)

Lunchtime in Milan's Terrazza Gallia. Even though I was expecting this dish of spaghetti madness, when it arrived it was still a fantasticaaa surprise when Chef Antonio Lebano brought it to my table.  Miseria e Nobilita' - Poverty and Nobility.  A dish named after the 1954 film starring the late Neapolitan comic actor Toto'.  The film is set in Naples in the late 1890s.  Two  families in poverty  have been asked to pretend that there are aristocrats/nobility.  

Like the ingredients of this dish, Lebano explained to me later.  The dish begins with humble ingredients such as spaghetti, garlic, olive oil  and red chili peppers - the classic spaghetti, aglio, olio e peperoncino. A simple dish.

It becomes nobility with the addition of a rich spicy sauce made with  red shrimp heads  that had been smoked on the barbecue, then ground with a mortar and pestle.  This particular shrimp has the astaxanthin enzyme which becomes bright red under high temperatures.

When Antonio, and his brother Vincenzo tried this sauce for the first time, the flavors reminded them of grilled shrimp - exactly what they were going for!

Toasted tarallo and caviar is added almost like a crown.  Making it royal, so to speak.

Fantastic!