The Cooking and Cuisine of Abruzzo and Molise

[Kevin72]

Man, I remember you lamenting that you were almost out of it two years ago! You hung onto it that long?

I dunno where to find it. I've been on a tear looking for it but no luck. In fact I've only seen it once in Italy. I'd imagine though that if it's anywhere in the US, your neck of the woods would be most likely to have it.

[mrbigjas]

i guess i did! i thought i was out, to tell the truth, but i found the bottle tonight in the back of the liquor cabinet with just one tiny little shot in it. which, you know, at 140 proof is about all that's needed. but it's still a sad day.

[FoodMan]

Who says you can't have Sunday dinner on a Wednesday? This might be a bit too elaborate for a quick Wednasday dinner, but 95% of the work was done the night before...

Stuffed Chicken Abruzzese from a Molto Mario episode. I went the extra step and deboned most of the chicken to make it easier to carve and eat. The chicken is browned and simmered in water until it's cooked (I used a thermometer to make sure it does not overcook). The delicious braising liquid is served with the chicken. The stuffing is pretty standard breadcrums/cheese/parsley....

This was a very good dish, much better than I expected actually.

Served it with some sauteed onion 'linguine', but really with the stock and stuffing the chicken does not need much.

Dessert: Parozzo (chocolate cake from Abruzzo) from the same episode, but I used the recipe in the Molto Italiano book. It has a high proportion of ground almonds in it and is -like many other Italian cakes- on the dry side. It is ideal with a cup of coffee.

[hathor]

Elie, you never cease to amaze me!! Just gorgeous. Glove boning is so cool!

Mr.BigJas: there are recipes around on the internet for making centerba type liqours. Or you can buy some amaros that might come close. Averna is one that you might be able to find.

I'm only guessing here, and going by the name because I've never tasted that "Centerba", but I've tasted other "100 Herb" liquors, so I think they must be similar. Here's a rundown of one herbal recipe from Wikipedia.

[hathor]

We had dinner at a fun restaurant (Cacio e Vino) with Weinoo the other night, and yes, we drank some wine from Abruzzo ( ), but we talked about how it was sort of difficult to find recipes from Abruzzo. So, I dug thru some of my files, and below is a list of recipes that I have. If any of them sound intriguing to you..PM me and I'll send you the recipe.

My favorite pasta to make is 'alla chittara', or guitar string pasta. It's just the most handy-dandy pasta cutter, simple and effective. If you find one, buy it. I mad because mine is in Italy, and I'm *not.

*Herbed Lamb

*Lamb soup with saffron

*“Tacconi” pasta with chick-peas and baccalà

*“Guitar-string” pasta with ventricina sauce (The ventricina is a soft salame typical of this area, flavoured with hot red pepper and fennel seeds and takes its name from the fact that the casing is usually taken from the stomach, or ventre.)

*Rack of Lamb with fresh herbs from the Maiella National Park (No, you don't have to go to Maiella National Park, the herbs are rosemary, sage and thyme.)

*Guitar-string pasta with lamb ragù

*Lamb’s Liver (Don't ask me...I HATE liver. Except for chicken, duck or goose liver!)

*Sautéed fillets of rabbit with finferli mushrooms

*Cheese and egg quenelles in sauce (This is a very tasty recipe!)

*Guitar-String Pasta with Fresh Tomata

and Aromatic Herbs from the Maiella Park

*Herbed, Rolled Lamb

*Guitar-String Pasta with Poor Man’s Ragù (This is a very wacky recipe. Calls for hard boiled eggs that you cut apart, tie up, which is not so easy..then take them apart and mush them up into the sauce. If somebody wants this recipe, I'd suggest keeping the eggs whole so that you can show off your handiwork.)

Lamb and Artichokes

*Crushed Spelt with Asparagus and Shaved Pecorino (this is a gorgeous to look at and delicious recipe. The asparagus is made into a puree.)

ciao!

[FoodMan]

Thanks Judith, but this chicken was not glove boned. The back sking is split instead.

[mrbigjas]

Elie, you never cease to amaze me!! Just gorgeous. Glove boning is so cool!

Mr.BigJas: there are recipes around on the internet for making centerba type liqours. Or you can buy some amaros that might come close. Averna is one that you might be able to find.

I'm only guessing here, and going by the name because I've never tasted that "Centerba", but I've tasted other "100 Herb" liquors, so I think they must be similar. Here's a rundown of one herbal recipe from Wikipedia.

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thanks! i'll check it out. that one tastes kinda like listerine, but if listerine were 70% alcohol.

[Adam Balic]

If any of them sound intriguing to you..PM me and I'll send you the recipe.

My favorite pasta to make is 'alla chittara', or guitar string pasta. It's just the most handy-dandy pasta cutter, simple and effective. If you find one, buy it. I mad because mine is in Italy, and I'm *not. 

*“Guitar-string” pasta with ventricina sauce (The ventricina is a soft salame typical of this area, flavoured with hot red pepper and fennel seeds and takes its name from the fact that the casing is usually taken from the stomach, or ventre.)

*Guitar-string pasta with lamb ragù

*Guitar-String Pasta with Fresh Tomata

and Aromatic Herbs from the Maiella Park

*Guitar-String Pasta with Poor Man’s Ragù (This is a very wacky recipe. Calls for hard boiled eggs that you cut apart, tie up, which is not so easy..then take them apart and mush them up into the sauce. If somebody wants this recipe, I'd suggest keeping the eggs whole so that you can show off your handiwork.)

Lamb and Artichokes

ciao!

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Oh, look what I have in my cupboard! How about I get back into the swing of cooking after a break by making lamb ragu?

Edited April 20, 2007 by Adam Balic (log)

[Pan]

We had dinner at a fun restaurant (Cacio e Vino)  with Weinoo the other night, and yes, we drank some wine from Abruzzo ( )[...]

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Please post a report on the New York forum. That's in my neighborhood, and I haven't been there yet but heard another good report from a neighbor.

[hathor]

Adam...tune up those guitar strings and get going!

But....you have so much available space in your cupboards, I'm green with envy. You could rent out that space in Manhattan!!

[Adam Balic]

Nope, shelves clear due to 14 month old boy. Chittara happens to be there as he likes to play the strings like a harp....

[weinoo]

We had dinner at a fun restaurant (Cacio e Vino)  with Weinoo the other night, and yes, we drank some wine from Abruzzo ( )[...]

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Please post a report on the New York forum. That's in my neighborhood, and I haven't been there yet but heard another good report from a neighbor.

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Okay, here you go....Cacio e Vino

[NYC Mike]

Congrats Kevin!! :-)

I'm in such a cooking rut, like a sophmore slump or something. I picked up "Food and Memories of Abruzzo" by Anna Teresa Callen when I saw this thread go up. Maybe something will reinvigorate me!

-Mike

[hathor]

Mike...we missed you! Nice to see you....slump, bah!

[Andrew Fenton]

I'm afraid I've been off the regional-Italian fun for a while now; mainly been making the ol' standbys. Clearly it's time to change that.

Here's last night's dinner; saffron pasta from Rustichella d'Abruzzo with a simple tomato sugo. The Rustichella pasta has a great texture; I'm afraid I couldn't taste the saffron much, but the color is really lovely:

And the secondo, involtini con fagioloni bianchi. The involtini are veal, stuffed with a mixture of pork, veal and mushrooms, and simmered for a little while with the bean and tomato mixture. In theory, the beans are supposed to be "fagioloni di Paganica" (that is, from a town near L'Aquila), but I just used cannellini. It's not the most photogenic dish, I fear:

The contorni aren't especially Italian; carrots marinated in sherry vinegar and olive oil, and okra. (I had a tough time finding good vegetable recipes from Abruzzo; and the wife wanted okra. Nowadays, what she wants, she gets...)

The involtini were fine. I like involtini in general; but I'm not really sure if they really gain a whole lot from being paired with beans like this. Not mind-blowing, but a solid dish.

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Oh, a fun fact I just learned: Philadelphia had a particularly large number of immigrants from Abruzzo; evidently most of the Abruzzese who came to America came to this area. There are a couple of restaurants in South Philly that claim to serve Abruzzese dishes; I may have to try them one of these days...

[mrbigjas]

mamma maria's! you ever see her show on the tv? it's fun.

the restaurant has very mixed reviews on every site i've found though.

[Kevin72]

Sunday night's meal was necessarily from but inspired by . . . yada yada yada.

Anways, after an antipasto of fresh mozzarella with toasted almonds, arugula, and a pomegranata reduction, we moved on to baked tagliatelle with peas and ham:

Then a Sunday Roast lamb on bed of potatoes:

The lamb was stuffed with an herb mixture of garlic, mint, marjoram, and rosemary, and the rest of the filling was tossed with the potatoes.

Lamb is of course heavily used in Abruzzo, so I can't imagine too many Abruzzesse being put out by this meal!

Dessert was a cherry and custard tart, something I've made many times previously and always crave most in the spring.

[hathor]

Kevin, that lamb is beautiful, and I'm certain that it would be right at home in Abruzzo!

I've been such a slouch this month....only Abruzzo wines!

I was reading Waverly Root's chapter on Abruzzo and he talks about the mountains being snow covered all year. That's not true anymore. The Gran' Sasso is incredibly beautiful, but I saw no snow on it. DeCecco gets the water that they use in their pasta from these mountains, directly behind the factory. Will global warming even affect DeCecco? No snow. No water.

[Shaya]

Very tasty looking chicken, Foodman. That cake is good, no? I really like it, although I think I will grind the almonds more finely next time, it seemed to bug my older guy a bit.

Nice pasta, Andrew. I haven't seen that one around here. I must remember to add saffron the next time I make a batch of fresh pasta.

Kevin, way to go, cooking already, and bravo to your wife for sitting at the table too!

I made an old standby taught to me by a Roman cook, scripelli di Abruzzo. They are like thin crepes, rolled up with some parmigiano reggiano, and served in a broth. I made a nice consomme for the occasion.

Scripelli di Abruzzo

I also had a beautiful grassfed organic T-bone steak asking to be prepared in an Abruzzese manner, but alas, I couldn't put my finger on any particular preparation for beef, so I did it a la fiorentina.

I also made some focaccia that I served on the side, again not from the region, but I could not come up with a single bread from here. Sigh. Anyway the focaccia, which was Peter Reinhart's version, was amazing, I highly recommend it; it didn't have that light airy texture that it sometimes takes on.

[hathor]

That's an interesting dish, Shaya. Do the crepes soak up all the broth?

Poor Abruzzo, we all seem to be struggling with this one. Wonder why.

[Shaya]

That's an interesting dish, Shaya.  Do the crepes soak up all the broth?

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No, not really, they are light but they hold their shape really well. I've also made cannelloni-style dishes with them, as the same Roman cook taught me.

[ghostrider]

De Cecco considers themselves to be a sort of bridge between classic artisinal pasta and mass produced pasta.  DeCecco actually uses bronze dies for extruding the pasta, but they also use heat to dry their pasta.  In my opinion, what makes DeCecco not artisinal is the wheat that they use. They strive for a very consistent product and will use wheat from all over the world to maintain that consistency. And for anyone in the US, the DeCecco product that is exported to the US must be vitamin fortified, so it is not the same product that you eat in Italy.

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Those are some really interesting points - I knew that DeCecco uses the bronze dies but not the other points.

But does the vitamin-fortified business not also apply to the Rustichella d'Abruzzo? If not, why are they exempt?

[FoodMan]

Why on earth does it have to be vitamin fortified?? Odd.

Shaya, these pillowy looking crepes are very delectable. Are they prepared like crepes (using batter like Crespelle) or rolled like pasta?

Abruzzo was a tough month for some reason. Calabria coming up in May seems more promising, the Ada Boni book has quiet a few simple and interesting recipes.

[Kevin72]

Oof, didn't we say that about Abruzzo last month after having such a hard time with Le Marche?

Anyways, I'll take the Baby defense on this one. Next month doesn't look much better for me on that front.

[Pontormo]

Kevin, I wish we could all deliver covered dishes to tide you and your wife over for the weeks and months ahead.

Andrew, are you implying something relevant in your justification for serving okra?

Elie, look at how much an emphasis on nutrition and vitamins has contributed to the health of Americans!

* * *

About all I did in honor of this region was pick up a bottle of red wine, though it remains unopened.

Also spoke to a couple who sells lamb at my farmer's market about purchasing a milk-fed lamb (abbacchio) since they raise sheep in Virginia. Apparently regulations governing the slaughter of animals are extremely restrictive. While a friend and I could have ordered a whole animal, it would have to be sent to one of the very few meat processing facilities in this area--which is actually some distance away. The fee for processing would have been around $75 in addition to the cost of the meat. The head would not be returned to us. All organs would be discarded as well.

Since I couldn't figure how to make my dulcimer do double-duty in the kitchen, I was also pleased to find a package of spaghetti alla chitarra on the shelves of a supermarket that has switched from local to Dutch ownership. Here's their upscale line: Simply Enjoy. Scroll down to see the pasta. Can't say my sautéed ramps were in the spirit of the region.