Giorgio Locatelli’s hamburgers
Giorgio Locatelli’s cookbook, Made at home, contains delicious recipes that remind him of home. Try this recipe for hamburgers, for example. At his restaurant Locanda Locatelli, Locatelli makes these hamburgers for his staff every Tuesday.
Locatelli: ”When chefs and waiters who have worked at the Locanda come to visit us, it is always around half past four on Tuesday or on Saturday. Why? Because they know that the staff meal is always pizza on Saturday and that we make burgers on Tuesday. The reputation of hamburgers has suffered from our commercial food culture, in which healthy products so often disappear from our diet and people are led to believe that this is what they want to eat. A well-made hamburger can be really delicious, and I thought I should try to convince Margherita and Jack that they should not eat cheap factory-made burgers. I would show them how to make delicious hamburgers themselves.
What makes the burgers especially delicious is the quality of the buns, which we make ourselves in our kitchen. I am not saying that you should do that too, although I have included the recipe, and it is certainly worth the effort. If you do not have time, buy good-quality buns. When making burgers, or any sandwiches for that matter, remember that it would be a shame to use the best ingredients only to ruin the result with poor-quality buns. When making a meat mixture for hamburgers, involtini or a filling for ravioli, if you have not added an egg, always let the mixture rest for as long as possible before shaping it into the desired form, so that it remains a cohesive mixture that does not fall apart.”
Method
1 For the bun dough, mix the flour with the yeast, sugar, melted butter and salt in a bowl, adding 300 ml room-temperature water, until a dough forms. Divide it into six equal portions and shape each into a ball. Cover them with plastic wrap and leave them to rise for 3 hours, until doubled in volume.
2 For the burgers, heat the olive oil in a pan and add the onion. Sweat gently until soft and translucent, remove the pan from the heat and leave to cool.
3 Preheat the oven to 200°C. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place the dough balls on it. Brush the tops with beaten egg and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake the buns in the hot oven for 20 minutes, until the tops are lightly browned and they sound hollow when tapped on the underside. Remove them from the oven and leave them to cool while you make the burgers. Leave the oven on.
4 In a large bowl, mix the cooled sweated onion with the remaining burger ingredients and add the flavorings last. Leave the mixture to rest in the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes, although a few hours would be even better. The meat will then bind together and will not break apart when you shape it into burgers.
5 Heat a grill until very hot. Heat the vegetable oil in an ovenproof sauté pan. Sear the burgers in the frying pan on both sides until a golden-brown crust has formed, then place them in the oven for another 5 minutes for medium-rare, or slightly longer to taste.
6 Cut the buns in half and toast the cut sides under the hot grill until golden brown. Spoon a little ketchup and mayonnaise onto each bottom half, place a burger on top, followed by a slice of cheese and a slice of tomato. Sprinkle with a little salt and a pinch of oregano, add some red onion and a slice of pickle if you like. Finish with a lettuce leaf and place the top half of the bun on top.
Title: Made at home
Author: Giorgio Locatelli
Publisher: Fontaine Uitgevers
Price: €29,99
