Le Donne : With 12 You Get <i> Tagliolini</i>

Things could be going better this Friday afternoon at Rex il Ristorante for a dozen jet-lagged chefs--all women--who are trying in vain to concentrate on their cooking tasks. All of them are strangers to Southern California; all speak little English. Most of the cooking products are unfamiliar and the chefs are lost in the gigantic downtown Los Angeles kitchen.

Chef Anna Maria Casadei Belletti, for one, is in shock. Rex chef Odette Fada just told her to use 30 egg yolks to make two pounds of tagliolini pasta. California yolks are much lighter in color than those laid by Italian chickens, and they don’t bind the pasta as well, Fada explains. In her restaurant in Cesena, Belletti uses 20 yolks, tops.

Angela Campana, who flew in from Barletta, is preparing an eggplant dish and can’t find the dried chervil.

Now Fada is on the phone yet again, trying to locate potato starch for Marta Pulini, who just arrived from New York on the redeye. She needs the starch for her flourless poundcake, sabbiosa .

Other chefs are discussing last night’s dinner at Lawry’s Prime Rib. (“The meat was excellent!”)

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The chefs jetted from Italy for a whirlwind November cook-a-thon at the ristorante di eleganza where owner Mauro Vincenti is hosting an event he calls Le Donne (that’s Italian for “the Women”). The two-day benefit for Charge Against Hunger, a non-profit hunger relief partnership between American Express and Share Our Strength, includes a 12-course prix fixe Saturday-night dinner and an elaborate Sunday buffet.

That the event has drawn 12 chefs--women who own top restaurants--is something that would be almost unheard of in France, and only a little more likely here. In Italy there is a grand tradition of women chefs and, in fact, it is as common to find a wife cooking and a man running the front of the house as the reverse.

Rex’s diminutive Fada dashes around boxes of broccoli and fennel fetching whatever the visiting women need. Right now, it’s a hand-held electric blender for a frazzled Rossana De Pra of Dolada, a large, elegant restaurant in a town called Plois in Pieve d’Alpago, near the Austrian border. She needs the blender for the pot of creamy pumpkin soup she’s just made--her second of the day. The first batch didn’t work because American pumpkin is not at its best right now and the soup was flavorless. Now she’s using a combination of butternut and acorn squash and sweetening it with a dash of amaretto.

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Rosiaria Martufi wears two-inch heels and thick gold hoop earrings as she stirs a slow-cooking pot of salt cod. She breaks off a piece of the fish and pops it into her mouth.

“The fish is too salty,” says Martufi, chef of Villa Hernicus in Fiuggi near Rome, scrunching her nose.

The other chefs, who got up at 3:30 a.m. to promote the event on KNBC’s News at Sunrise, are too tired to answer. Today is dress rehearsal and there’s still a lot to do. Allesandra Buriani, who owns a restaurant that bears her name near Bologna, patiently bones guinea fowl for the rotoli di faraona, her take on bolito misto, the classic Italian boiled dinner. Eventually the rolled poultry will be sliced and served with julienned vegetables tossed in balsamic vinegar.

Vincenti walks through the kitchen door, shaking his head. He has 175 bookings for the Saturday dinner. That means 2,100 dishes must move out of the kitchen like clockwork. Vegetables cooked to order, pasta cooked to order, risotto cooked to order. The plates must look beautiful. The langoustines have to be the same size, each facing the same direction, carefully perched on a heap of white beans and tomato concasse. Even the three basil leaves and tomato-flower garnish must be placed just so.

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“We have to serve 12 dishes in two and a half hours,” Vincenti tells the chefs for the umpteenth time. “Everything has got to come out on schedule or we’ll lose them. No one is going to sit at a table any longer than that. Remember, it’s your reputation that’s at stake.”

He turns away, backing out the door. “I’m not in control and I don’t like it,” he mutters.

Rex line cook Giordino Cominelli, the only man in the kitchen, suddenly belts out the lyrics from the song “Donne,” made popular by the Italian pop star Zucchero. “Women looking for trouble . . . “ he sings at the top of his lungs.

The chefs crack up. “No,” one of them yells. “Women cooking for trouble.”

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The idea of Le Donne--to raise money for refrigerated vans that would pick up leftover food from restaurants all over the city--was hatched two years ago by Vincente, shortly after the L.A. riots. Vincenti had tried to put together a huge food festival in Central Los Angeles to build a town square where people could meet and talk, something Italians have been doing for 3,000 years. The town square, he says, is a time-proven way to build community. He was close to pulling it off when the major sponsor backed out at the last minute. Then Vincenti came up with a new cause: feeding the homeless. Recruiting the Italian Trade Commission and some of his purveyors as sponsors, he persuaded 12 of his favorite Italian chefs to come and cook.

Vincenti and the chefs--Martoufi; De Pra; Buriani, Compana from Bacco in Barletta; Federica Suban, whose family opened Antica Trattoria Suban in Trieste in 1867 when the area was still under Austrian rule; Irma Pierantozzi and daughter Lisa Boni from Da Piperno in Rome’s Jewish quarter; Franca Franceschini from Romano, a Tuscan restaurant known for seafood; Gabriella Cattaneo (Greta, Bergamo), Anna Maria Casadei Belletti (Il Circolino, Cesena); Agata Parisiella (Agata e Romeo, Rome); Rossana Romagnoli (La Perla, Fiumicino)--have been spending most of their time at Rex since their arrival.

“Mauro is a slave driver,” says Pia Passalacqua from Argenta, who helped coordinate the event. “Yesterday he told everyone they had to go back to the hotel at 2 p.m. and sleep until 8 p.m.”

Plus, the chefs are dying to go to Disneyland but Vincenti feels it will take too much time away from the restaurant.

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“Mauro is a fascist,” says Compana, whose Bacco is one of only two restaurants in southern Italy to get two Michelin stars.

“Yes,” agrees Suban and some of the others. “Work, work, work. That’s all he wants us to do.”

“It’s for their own good,” says Vincenti, when he hears what the chefs are saying. “They have to be able to get the food out quickly. They have to practice more.”

“You scared them too much,” Passalacqua tells Vincenti, “Everyone wants to go back home.”

Perhaps as a peace offering, Vincenti makes a reservation at one of his favorite restaurants, John Sedlar’s Abiquiu in Santa Monica. The chefs are not quite sure what to make of Sedlar’s Southwestern food. After the first course, De Pra leaves and takes a cab back to the hotel. Campana fans her mouth. “Piccante, piccante, piccante, “ she says. Hot, hot, hot. Buriani’s husband, Fabio, the sommelier at their restaurant, wants pasta. Cattaneo admires the colorful Blam Blam plates.

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Before arriving in Los Angeles, most of the chefs had never met each other, much less worked together. Yet they are already performing as a team. “It’s so much more open and casual in America--everybody helps each other,” says Cattaneo. “In Italy, everybody stays to themselves.” Cattaneo, a self-taught pastry chef, was in charge of sales at her father’s steel mill before opening her own restaurant in a small town near Bergamo where, she says, “Everyone there thought I was either mad or just trying to show off.”

Two hours before customers are due to arrive Saturday night, the kitchen is spotless and the dining room gets a last-minute polish. The chefs sit around smoking, exchanging recipes, taking snapshots. De Pra puts on makeup.

Elisabetta Boni and her daughter, Lisa, whose Roman-Jewish restaurant is famous for carciofi alla giudia or fried artichokes, and several others took a taxi the night before to the Hard Rock Cafe in Beverly Hills. “We want to go back,” says Lisa Boni. “It was a lot of fun.”

“The meat might as well have been kangaroo,” adds her mother.

The chefs are so relaxed, it’s hard to imagine 175 hungry people are about to arrive. “It should be this way before serving,” says Rex’s Fada. “It frees the mind before things get crazy.” The 31-year-old chef went to cooking school when she was 13 and worked in top kitchens in England and Italy before coming to Los Angeles and bringing new life to the fancy Downtown restaurant. “When the women first got here they asked me if they should change the menu to suit the American taste,” she says. “I told them, ‘No. They’re coming here to taste your food.’ ”

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As the guests begin to arrive, Pulini is downstairs in the pastry kitchen mixing sabbiosa. She came from Italy in 1989 to cook at Bice in New York and then went on to open the restauranr’s Paris branch before ending up at New York’s Mad.61. When Pulini, who once owned a restaurant in Modena, heard about the benefit, she called Vincenti and asked to be included. It was a good chance to see some old friends.

The potato starch she needed was finally found at Bristol Farms in Manhattan Beach. Pulini has spent the entire day making pasticcio di tortelleni for the dinner. The tortellini pies were to be served family style at each table but now Vincenti tells her to cut and plate them beforehand to save time. “I’m very frustrated,” she says, almost in tears. “I spent all that time decorating them.”

On the next table, Cattaneo is glazing 200 mousse cakes with chocolate. The deep, rich orange-scented disks look just like Ding Dongs.

Upstairs in the main kitchen, all burners, broilers and ovens are turned up high. The kitchen, about half the size of the dining room, is taken up with six stoves, three ovens, three salamanders, a flat-top grill and a pasta cooker. Down the middle is a giant stainless-steel work station where finished plates are placed. On one side, the chefs assemble the food at breakneck speed; on the other, waiters pick up the finished plates.

Fada directs the service. No one else has a specific job yet everybody seems to know what to do. Right now the chefs are assembling the Campana’s eggplant involtini .

“Mauro made a mistake, we need another order for two,” calls Igles Corelli. The two-star Michelin-rated chef, who sold his restaurant in Argenta last year, is acting as expediter. He calls out orders, calms frayed nerves--both in the kitchen and the dining room--and checks the plates before they go out.

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“OK, due, due, “ Fada says.

“This is the last,” says Corelli. “ Finito. “

Vincenti bursts through the door. “We need more,” he shouts, “There’s a large table that hasn’t been served yet.”

Fada worries that there is not enough, and suggests cutting the rest in half.

“Don’t worry, there’s plenty,” says Corelli and stuffs one in his mouth to prove the point.

The electric knife whirs as Pulini cuts her tortellini pies, carefully placing the crumbly slices on white plates. “Garnish them with two sprigs of purple basil, one parsley,” she instructs the other chefs.

De Pra ladles her soup. “My husband said I only came here to have fun,” she moans. “The first day we got up at 5:30 to go to the produce market. We didn’t get home until 1 the next morning. The second day we got up at 3:30 to go on TV. Today we got here at 9 and won’t stop until 10. A lot of fun.”

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Belletti dramatically produces a wooden pasta fork from her pocket. “I’m going to be the last one to toss the pasta,” she says. Belletti uses no butter or cream in her cooking, pretty amazing considering her restaurant is located in Emilia-Romagna, one of Italy’s richest regions, nicknamed “Emilia the Fat” by other Italians. She quickly, gently twists individual portions of the tagliolini made from the bark of the betulla or birch tree, onto hot plates.

Vincenti bursts through the door, beaming. “We are going like a train. Eight dishes in 1 1/2 hours,” he roars. “ Fortissimo! These women are great.”

Suban begins stirring the risotto.

Pulini, who has a cold, has finished plating the tortellini pie and sits on an empty milk carton sipping wine. She came from Italy in 1989 to cook at Bice in New York and then went on to open the restaurant’s Paris branch before ending up at Mad.61. When Pulini, who once owned a restaurant in Modena, heard about the benefit, she called Vincenti and asked to be included. It was a good chance to see some old friends. She pours another glass of wine. “I never drink but this cold is getting to me,” she says. “I can hardly breathe.”

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Agata Parisiella, “Miss Congeniality” of the group, spoons leak sauce on a plate and carefully sets a slice of pork on top. A self-trained chef, Parisiella and her husband Romeo Carraccio, own a seven-table restaurant in the middle of downtown Rome. Every night after closing, the couple sit down to a three-course dinner and drink a great bottle of wine. Carraccio, who runs the front of the house, smokes a cigar, and then they head for home.

In the middle of the meat course, Vincenti announces that there are two vegetarians that need to be fed. “Those stronzas !” yells Fada. Nevertheless, she quickly sautes savoy cabbage, tops it with Pecorino, and then slices a couple pieces of the pumpkin lasagna--the dish Buriani has prepared for tomorrow’s buffet.

Service is winding down. The entrees are all out. Minutes later, the kitchen is clean and desserts begin to appear from downstairs.

“All finished,” Corelli announces. The chefs grab their cigarettes and ashtrays and head for the back door.

Only four plates break all evening.

At 9 the next morning the women are back in the kitchen rinsing peppers, juicing lemons, chopping basil and parsley, looking no worse for the wear after a night out at the Shark Club until 3. Pleased with last night’s results, the chefs are talking about getting together back home. Vincenti, very pleased with himself, is planning next year’s extravaganza.

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The chefs take off for Italy tomorrow night, back to their own familiar kitchens. But first, there’s still almost a full day left to spend in Los Angeles, just about the right amount of time to do Disneyland.

Meanwhile, the Italian press is interviewing the chefs. A photographer snaps pictures. A journalist asks Casadei Belletti how she likes working with all women. “It’s nice,” she tells him, “but I wouldn’t mind having a few men around.”

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Fresh corn is rarely served in Italy, but here chef Rossana De Pra adds a small amount to the soup as a garnish. It’s important enough to her creation that she’s named the soup in honor of the American holiday at which corn is a tradition.

THANKSGIVING SOUP

1/2 pound borlotti or cranberry beans, soaked overnight in pot of water to cover

Salt

1 1/2 stalks celery

2 small carrots, peeled

1/2 small onion

7 whole cloves

7 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 cup diced pancetta

2 1/2 cups cubed stale dense white bread (not sourdough), crusts removed

5 leaves basil, cut into thin strips

1/4 cup cooked black-eyed peas

1/4 cup cooked barley

1 tablespoon fresh or frozen corn

1 tomato, peeled, seeded and diced

Pepper

Drain and rinse beans. In large saucepan, combine beans, 1 tablespoon salt, 1/2 stalk celery, 1 carrot and onion studded with cloves. Cover with water and bring to boil. Simmer 2 hours or until beans are al dente, adding more water if necessary. Remove from heat, drain and discard everything but beans.

Dice remaining celery and carrot and cook over low heat in large saucepan with 1/4 cup olive oil, about 5 minutes. Add cooked beans and 10 cups water. Bring to boil and simmer about 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, in small saute pan, cook pancetta until lightly brown, about 5 minutes. Remove pancetta and set aside on paper towels to drain.

Toast bread cubes in 1 tablespoon olive oil in small saute pan until golden, about 5 minutes, tossing frequently. Set aside.

Finally, warm basil in remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil in small saute pan. Add black-eyed peas, barley, corn and tomato and cook until heated through, about 3 minutes.

Remove bean mixture from heat and puree until smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Pour blended beans into soup bowls. Spoon about 1 tablespoon basil mixture in middle of soup. Scatter few cubes of diced pancetta and 4 to 6 cubes toasted bread around basil mixture. Makes 8 servings.

Each serving contains about:

270 calories; 285 mg sodium; 5 mg cholesterol; 13 grams fat; 29 grams carbohydrates; 10 grams protein; 1.09 grams fiber.

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Chef Alessandra Buriani makes this lasagna with pumpkin when in season. At this time of year, she suggests using butternut squash or a mixture of butternut and acorn for better flavor. As a main course, Buriani often sprinkles a cup of diced prosciutto over the top layer -- after the Salsa Besciamella but before adding the cheese and butter.

SQUASH LASAGNA

Lasagna Dough

1 medium onion, thinly sliced

1/4 cup olive oil

1 (2 pound) butternut squash, peeled, seeded and diced

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Salsa Besciamella

1/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

1 tablespoon butter

Have lasagna dough ready.

In large saute pan, cook onion in 1/4 cup olive oil over low flame until tender. Add diced squash, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Cover and continue cooking until squash is soft.

While squash is cooking, prepare Salsa Besciamella.

When squash mixture is cooked, puree with 1/2 cup Salsa Besciamella. Add 1 tablespoon cheese and stir. Set aside.

In large pot of boiling water, boil lasagna pasta until al dente, about 1 minute. Remove pasta from pot, drain on kitchen dish towel and blot dry.

Coat bottom of 11x7-inch baking pan with 2 to 3 tablespoons Salsa Besciamella. Top with 1 layer pasta. Spread 1/3 of squash mixture over pasta and top with 1 tablespoon cheese. Repeat with layers of pasta and squash, ending with fourth layer of pasta. Spread remaining Salsa Besciamella over top of pasta. Sprinkle remaining 2 tablespoons cheese on top and dot with butter.

Bake at 400 degrees 20 minutes. Makes 6 pasta course or 4 main course servings.

Each of 4 servings contains about:

534 calories; 588 mg sodium; 183 mg cholesterol; 27 grams fat; 65 grams carbohydrates; 12 grams protein; 3.5 grams fiber.

Lasagna Dough

1 1/2 cups flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 eggs

Mound flour on pastry board. Make well in center. Add salt and eggs. Using spatula, slowly incorporate eggs into flour. When most of flour is incorporated, knead until dough forms smooth, firm ball. Divide pasta into 2 parts.

Flatten dough with heel of hand. Set pasta machine rollers to widest setting. Insert dough and turn handle with 1 hand while supporting dough with other. Pass entire piece of dough between rollers.

Dust dough with flour, fold in thirds and pass through machine again. Repeat folding and rolling procedure until dough is smooth and satiny. This may require 4 to 6 passes. Tighten rollers 1 or 2 notches. Lightly flour dough and pass through machine again. Keep passing dough and tightening rollers 1 or 2 notches until dough is thin enough to see hand through.

Lay dough flat on work surface. Cut in pieces to fit 11x7-inch pan. Don’t worry if size is not perfect; layers can always be patched. Repeat with remaining dough. Cover and set aside.

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Be sure to whisk the sauce the full five minutes. The longer the sauce cooks, the more the floury taste disappears.

Salsa Besciamella

2 cups milk

2 tablespoons butter

4 teaspoons flour

1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste

Pepper

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

In saucepan, scald milk, bringing just to boil.

Meanwhile, in another saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add flour and whisk until smooth. Add heated milk, salt, pepper to taste and nutmeg. Whisk mixture until thick, at least 5 minutes.

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No, it’s not a mistake. There really is supposed to be 1 1/2 cups of oil in chef Gabriella Cattaneo’s fabulous bread sticks. It’s the oil and the large quantity of water that makes the dough so easy to work with and ensures a light and crispy end result. The secret to their good taste, though, is to use good - quality extra-virgin olive oil. Sesame seeds or coarse black pepper can be substituted for the peanuts.

BREAD STICKS

1 ounce or about 3 tablespoons dry yeast

1/4 teaspoon sugar

2 pounds or about 6 2/3 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups extra-virgin olive oil

1 cup finely chopped peanuts

In bowl of heavy-duty electric mixer fitted with dough hook, stir yeast, sugar and 1/2 cup warm water. Set mixture aside until yeast starts foaming, about 5 minutes. Stir in flour and salt. Add olive oil and 1 1/2 cups water. Knead on medium speed until dough is smooth and elastic, at least 10 minutes.

Cover bowl loosely with kitchen towel. Let rise in warm place until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

Punch down dough. Roll into 8x30-inch rectangles. Dough will be very soft. With pastry cutter or sharp knife, cut into 8-inch strips about 1 inch wide. Cut each strip in half again. On pastry board, gently roll each 4-inch strip in finely chopped peanuts, stretching, until shaped into 15-inch-long bread sticks. Place on baking sheets. Let rise uncovered, 20 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees about 20 to 30 minutes, or until golden brown. Makes about 5 dozen bread sticks.

Each bread stick contains about:

109 calories; 40 mg sodium; 0 cholesterol; 6 grams fat; 9 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams protein; 0.16 gram fiber.

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This spaghetti recipe from chef Rosaria Martufi was so simple and so good that Mauro Vincenti has put it on the menu at Rex il Ristorante.

SPAGHETTI WITH CHERRY TOMATOES

1 1/4 pounds cherry tomatoes, halved

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup tablespoons basil, chopped

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1/4 pound Pecorino Romano cheese, grated

1/3 cup fresh bread crumbs

Extra-virgin olive oil

1 pound spaghetti

Place tomatoes on baking sheet and sprinkle with salt, 3 tablespoons basil, garlic, 3 tablespoons cheese and bread crumbs. Lightly drizzle with olive oil. Bake at 350 degrees 10 to 15 minutes, until bread starts to toast and tomatoes become soft.

In large pot, bring water to boil. Cook spaghetti until al dente. Drain. In large bowl toss spaghetti with tomatoes. Top with remaining cheese and 1 tablespoon basil. Makes 6 pasta course or 4 main course servings.

Each of 4 servings contains about:

626 calories; 921 mg sodium; 23 mg cholesterol; 15 grams fat; 100 grams carbohydrates; 23 grams protein; 1.3 grams fiber.

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The freshest produce and catch of the day are a must when making Franca Franceschini’s dish of langoustines with beans and tomatoes. A good, fruity olive oil is also essential to this simple bean dish. We’ve substituted shrimp in this adaptation.

SHRIMP WITH BEANS AND TOMATOES

1 cup cannellini or great northern beans, soaked overnight in pot of water to cover

4 sage leaves

2 cloves garlic, cut in half

12 jumbo shrimp

2 tomatoes, peeled, seeded and diced

8 basil leaves, cut into thin strips

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Salt, pepper

Drain and rinse beans. In saucepan, cook beans, sage and garlic in water to cover over low heat until just tender, about 45 minutes. Be careful not to overcook. Drain. Set beans aside.

Meanwhile, bring pot of lightly salted water to boil. Shell and devein shrimp. Drop shrimp into boiling water. Cook about 2 minutes or just until pink and opaque.

When beans are done, lightly toss with tomatoes and basil in large bowl. Add olive oil. Gently toss again. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Arrange 4 shrimp on each plate. Makes 4 servings.

Each serving contains about:

312 calories; 117 mg sodium; 32 mg cholesterol; 15 grams fat; 32 grams carbohydrates; 15 grams protein; 3.54 grams fiber.

* Food styling by Donna Deane and Mayi Brady