Menu Brianza POP
Re-Awareness
(On Brianza paths with Casiraghy’s aphorisms
Rediscovering the gastronomic peasant Brianza according to the contemporary vision of Chefs Salvatore and Vincenzo Butticè
Smoked trout, shortcrust pastry and sour cream 1-4-7
Goat’s cheese soup, charcoal and Montevecchia parsley oil 1-3-7
Risotto like a flash (Monza-style) 1-7-9
Braised pork cheek, apple and vegetables 1-3-7-9-10
Reserved for the entire table 62.00 p.p.
The Philosophical Bee 1-3-7-8
70,00 p.p.
November 2025
Brianza, an intense and rich land
Re-Awareness
The Moor of Monza along Brianza paths
Chefs Salvatore and Vincenzo Butticè think that you eat what you have and what you are, in this month the dedication is inspired by local biodiversity.
The cuisine of Brianza deserves a special note before delving into this fantastic world. The recipes, the most famous dishes are the prerogative of peasant cuisine, of the exact correspondence of the maxim ” you eat what you have and what you are”, this aspect known to most is not the only one existing but simply the most widespread, known. In reality, there are two other significant references to Brianza gastronomy that are less known and probably less widespread.
Aristocratic and ecclesiastical gastronomy.
Brianza cuisine and popular cuisine, do not correspond but are two sides of the same coin and give life to a continuous chase and contrast between those who are hungry and have no food and between those who have food and are not hungry.
What do you eat in Brianza?
Local cuisine
In Brianza, the cuisine rests on the territory like a light morning mist: it envelops, caresses, reveals. It is an ancient story, made up of patient gestures and scents that rise from the courtyards, but also a modern, living language, which continues to reinvent itself without ever betraying its roots. Here, where work is dedication and hospitality is measure, food is not simple nourishment: it is identity. It is what we are, and what we have.
If the cassoeula remains the roughest and deepest voice of the tradition, the risotto alla monza, prepared with luganega, is perhaps its most intimate and poetic expression. It is a dish that does not shout: it whispers. It does not bear the yellow of saffron – which belongs to other lands and other stories – but it preserves a warm, natural color, marked only by butter, broth and the meat that animates it. It is the color of the kitchens on Sundays, when time slows down and the family gathers. In this industrious Brianza, risotto has never been just a recipe: it is a gesture of care, a domestic rhythm that marks seasons and memories.
The luganega, soft and fragrant, melts in the rice in a slow and patient embrace, built spoon by spoon, as stories are born. It is an ingredient that has its roots in the peasant tradition, when every product was precious and simplicity represented an absolute virtue. “Risotto doesn’t want to rush,” grandmothers remembered, “it wants company.” An aphorism that encapsulates the most authentic spirit of the region: good comes from dedicated time, not from abundance.
Today this dish, more than many others, embodies contemporary Brianza: elegant without ostentation, rich without excess. Chefs who interpret the territory with modern sensibility – including the creative minds of Il Moro – consider it a symbol: a canvas on which to paint the present without erasing the past. Every risotto alla monza told today speaks the language of memory, but walks with a light step. “You eat what you are and what you have”, chefs like to repeat: and in that creamed rice lives exactly this principle. The intertwining of the inner world and the real world, between identity and land, between history and the desire to renew it.
An old Brianza anecdote tells of an innkeeper from Monza who, tasting a contemporary version of the famous risotto, smiled saying: “L’è semper lü… but he is dressed in celebration.” It was his way of recognizing that tradition, when respected, can shine with a new light without losing its voice. Thus, today, the Monza risotto is a bridge between eras: it preserves the humility of the courtyards and wears the grace of contemporary restaurants.
Alongside him, Brianza continues to offer its specialties: the essential rustisciada, the village cake that tastes like home, mushrooms from the woods, cheeses from the hills. But it is the risotto with luganega that embodies his soul with sweeter firmness. A dish that does not belong only to tradition: it belongs to the heart. Because here, where food is walking memory, every grain of rice tells a story worth listening to.
