Recipe for Easter at the Serrae Restaurant of Villa Fiesole

To celebrate Easter with a touch of sublime refinement, Executive Chef Antonello Sardi, the creative mind behind the Serrae Villa Fiesole restaurant, awarded the coveted Michelin Star 2025, has come up with a first course that is a true hymn to Tuscan culinary tradition, reinterpreted with a bold and exquisitely contemporary look: Tagliatelle with Beef Ragout, Cocoa Beans and Bay Leaves.

The dish, created by Chef Antonello Sardi, is a gastronomic work rich in memory and innovation, where fresh pasta, strictly handmade, welcomes a rich and deeply aromatic ragout, a true concentrate of flavors, enhanced by unexpected notes of bitter cocoa and the unmistakable, delicate and persistent scent of bay leaves.

This dish is capable of surprising the palate, winning over even the most demanding palates with its refined simplicity that conceals a masterfully orchestrated complexity of flavors.

The richness of the beef ragout, the beating heart of this creation, comes from carefully selected cuts from local farms that follow strict quality protocols.

But it is the encounter with the aromatic depth of the cocoa beans, expertly dosed by Chef Sardi, that gives the dish an additional dimension, a fascinating roasted and bitter aftertaste with an almost ancestral charm, reminiscent of ancient traditions and forgotten flavors.

This symphony of flavors is completed by a very fine powder of laurel, obtained from fresh leaves, slowly dried in the sun to preserve their organoleptic properties, and then reduced to a pure, impalpable essence.

The contrast between the fresh pasta, rough and full-bodied, and the enveloping sauce creates a perfect harmony, enriched by the mantecatura with Parmigiano Reggiano, which gives depth and roundness to the palate. The final touch is the lemon zest, which brings freshness and liveliness, enhancing every single nuance of this dish designed to leave its mark.