The last elimination phase of “Messin… table”, the “cooking show” created and broadcast by Rtp, ended last night at Villa Ida. The pythons (or pitoni) were the last recipe with the ticket to the final up for grabs. Rita Mancuso, the competitor who returned to the competition thanks to the playoff in September, surprised the expectations of the entire jury by winning the challenge with her “Nonna Rita’s Pythons”.
To close this last phase, therefore, the choice fell on another dish representative of our rustic cuisine. Rita, Maria and Mariacostanza competed for supremacy on this recipe, symbol of Messina conviviality until the end. “U’ pituni”, among other things, it was also the theme of the challenge in the first external event of MasterChef 13, which was held in Messina in 2023 and which presented this dish as a great protagonist of Italian street food.
In this case, Rita’s python, characterized by the co-presence of Nebrodi provola and tuma, focused heavily on the generosity of the filling, given to the dough by the cheese and anchovies. After rolling out the dough, the competitor added these two ingredients and the curly escarole. He then continued by closing the dough in a crescent shape and frying it in plenty of oil.
Drawing mainly from tradition, the three pythons proposed by the competitors differed essentially in very few ingredients. For example, Maria used tomato and ancient grain flour in her preparation. The expert gastronome Saro Gugliotta applauded all three competitors, explaining his final decision: «Mariacostanza’s was the lightest and most balanced; Rita’s generous but not “enough”; while Maria’s is closer to the ancient tradition, due to the use of Mallorca (flour)”.
Gugliotta himself would have made Mara win, who lost by just one vote. His 87 points, a very significant result, were beaten by Rita’s 88 points, who demonstrated unparalleled skill in preparing this dish. Another very interesting data is that reported by Mariacostanza (81 points overall), who with 32 points in the “taste” category obtained the highest score in a single category.
So few difference votes say a lot about the difficulties encountered by the jury in evaluating these three preparations. Rita Mancuso, in any case, won and she will be the third finalist, joining Roberto and Salvatore for this grand finale of the first edition of “Messin…tavola”. The final, let’s remember, will be held next Thursday on Rtp at 9pm. The following day the awards ceremony will take place at Messina Street Food and on Sunday the winner will cook with a chef.
In last night’s episode, in addition to Salvatore De Maria, Renato Salvadore and Alberto Palellathe jury made use of the judgment of Giuseppina Di Bellafull professor of Food Chemistry at the University of Messina and vice coordinator of the degree course in Gastronomic Sciences; Gianfranco Sabbatinoaccountant by profession and winemaker by passion, owner of the Messina winery “Le Casematte”; the already mentioned Saro Gugliottapresident of “AssoCibo”; And Francesco ArenaMessina ambassador of taste.
No one is missing for the grand finale of “Messin…tavola”. Who will join the last race and the pass for the cooking shows of the Messina Street Food Fest between Roberto, Salvatore and Rita? There’s nothing left to do but set the table and wait for next Thursday to find out.