A year of Italian cooking

[Kevin72]

Final meal in Puglia was last night.

Started with "'ncappriatta e tria", a modification of "ciceri e tria", a Pugliese specialty that's a unique variation on pasta e fagiole. "Ciceri" in the traditional version, are a type of chickpea: Armando Bellastrazzi of Il Frantoio served them to us and said that ciceri are the chickpea's ancestor, and only in Puglia do they still consume them. At any rate, they ciceri are soaked and cooked down with celery, anchovies, chilies, and garlic, then mashed and used to sauce ribbons of homemade semolina pasta. Instead of ciceri or chickpeas, I used some leftover 'ncappriatta, the mashed dried fava beans, from when I made it last week. What makes the dish unique, however, is the "tria" part, where a third of the pasta ribbons are fried in olive oil and then garnish the dish, giving it a nice textural crunch.

The secondo was "pollo assute-assute", a dialectical variation on "asciute", dry. The chicken is quartered, rubbed with salt, pepper, copious olive oil, and a paste of chopped garlic, parsley, and oregano, then roasted over a bed of potatoes (also rubbed with the herb paste and olive oil) in a very hot oven, with no basting liquid.

And, yes, the chicken went back in for a little more color after that picture!

Dessert was an unusual dish stretching no doubt back to antiquity: wheat berries with grape must.

I used spelt instead of the wheat berries. The "must" is a cooked down grape juice which I augmented with a little honey. Certainly not what many Americans outside of hippie communes would probably run to for dessert. That would include me: it was interesting enough, but now I have a whole container of it to use up. I'd probably prefer it for breakfast, maybe with a little yogurt.

That's it for Puglia. Hopefully I've conveyed some of what I find so unique and appealing about its cuisine. It's a great region to get into and counter your presuppositions if you think you "know" Italian cuisine.

[Kevin72]

In Naples it is a vegetable stew too, only it is often called cianfotta. Aren't Italian dialects fun  ?

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Any unique ingredients, or is it pretty much the same stuff: (tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, potatoes)?

Yes, dialects are a delight there. I keep waiting to order a dish in some restaurant in a different region and touch off an international incident through my mangling!

Edited June 1, 2005 by Kevin72 (log)

[albiston]

In Naples it is a vegetable stew too, only it is often called cianfotta. Aren't Italian dialects fun  ?

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Any unique ingredients, or is it pretty much the same stuff: (tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, potatoes)?

Pretty much the same: those you mention plus zucchini and a good amount of basil at the end.

Yes, dialects are a delight there.  I keep waiting to order a dish in some restaurant in a different region and touch off an international incident through my mangling!

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Pizza can have a quite "interesting" meaning in Leccese, unfortunately the situations where you would use the term pizza as food and the other one are so different that you'll hardly get those mixed up... unless you eat pizza during sex that is .

[Kevin72]

... unless you eat pizza during sex that is  .

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I don't think any one man is meant to have that much pleasure.

[Kevin72]

Pretty much the same: those you mention plus zucchini and a good amount of basil at the end.

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It's interesting to me how absent herbs are from the Pugliese repertoire, relative to other Southern cuisines. For example, no herbs at all in the Pugliese ciambotta. Mint, parsley, and oregano seem to be the big ones used most often.

[Kevin72]

June will be the "forte e gentile" cooking of Abruzzo.

In cooking from Abruzzo on his show, Mario Batali pointed out that the descriptor "forte e gentile" (strong and kind) is often applied to the Abruzzese character, but was also a perfect descriptor of the cuisine as well. These two seemingly contrasting terms play out a number of ways in the Abruzzese cooking traditions.

Abruzzo is commonly considered where Northern Italian cuisine meets Southern Italian cuisine, using the qualities of both. Also, Abruzzo has a wild contrast of geography: gentle, herb blanketed meadows, rocky beaches and coastline with a wealth of bivalves, and steep, staggering, snow-capped mountain heights. This contrast in geography translates to a contrast in the cooking styles and ingredients: subtle herbs from the meadow top seafood caught at the coastline, but then this condimento is used for polenta and finished with chilies to create a more robust, rib-sticking dish necessary for living in the mountains.

Abruzzo combines the very best of pasta traditions as well: it is home to the Rustichella, Del Verde, and De Cecco pasta factories, three of what are considered the top brands of artisinal dried pasta in Italy. Yet even with so much top-quality dried pasta, the Abruzzese do not shy away from handmade pasta traditions: there is the region's unique maccheroni alla chitarra, sheets of semolina pasta that are rolled over a wired instrument that cuts the dough into square-shaped noodles.

Finally, Abruzzo is home to the Scuola Alberghiera, a 400 year old hotel management and cooking school in Villa Santa Maria. Chefs from this school have been employed throughout the ages in Rome, Naples, and as far away as Russia, giving Abruzzo a reputation for turning out top-quality chefs. So here is another contrast: the refined, professional level cuisine of a cooking school 4 centuries old against the robust, rustic cuisine of isolated mountain villages making the most of their meager supplies through long, cold fierce winters.

Chief reference besides the usual suspects (Batali, di Blasi, Culinara): Food and Memories of Abruzzo: Italy's Pastoral Land, by Anna Teresa Callen.

This book is a little frustrating for me. While it is top-notch as a general or Italian cookbook and great recipe reference at 459 pages, as a sourcebook on Abruzzese cuisine it comes up short. I bought it wanting to know much more about this region that despite being well-thought of (both Marcella Hazan and Mario Batali give it nods) has relatively little cooking literature about it. And a pet peeve of mine is buying a book on one region and then having to wade through recipes from others, and recipes from Bologna, Naples, Rome, and Venice all turn up here.

Still, her framing device for the cookbook: an autobiographical account of her upbringing in Abruzzo amongst her immediate and extended family, her travels elsewhere, and ultimate appreciation for and return to her homeland, makes for charming reading. As long as you go in looking at it more as a general Italian cookbook (despite what the title implies) and less as a specific regional treatise, it makes a good addition to your cookbook collection.

Cooking, travel, eating experiences welcome to be shared, yada yada, you all know the drill.

[Kevin72]

Friday night I made a dish traditionally served at Easter: fiadone, a savory pie with a filling of scamorza (smoked fior di latte or mozzarella cheese) and ham, loosely bound together by eggs.

My wife and I disagreed on the crust. Callen's recipe calls for leavening in the form of baking powder, which I was reluctant about but added anyways. As I feared, the crust came out too dry and nearly cookie-like (the sugar didn't help either). But my wife said that the crust was what made the dish.

With the meal we had arugula salad with some spicy pan-seared chaunterelle mushrooms, and a macerated fruit salad for dessert.

Edited June 6, 2005 by Kevin72 (log)

[Adam Balic]

Dessert was an unusual dish stretching no doubt back to antiquity: wheat berries with grape must.

Kevin in England this dish would be know as "FRUMENTY", although I imagine it is practically extinct. It was traditionla to eat it with venison, the recipes varied but were basically spiced wheat berries, with fruit and cream or milk.

Also, thanks for the blog I really enjoy seeing what you are up to.

[Kevin72]

Sunday night, we started with Abruzzo's famous "cardoon" soup. Taking a cue from Mario Batali though, I substituted artichokes, which are in the same family as cardoons, normally a winter crop. In addition to artichokes and a rich meat broth, the soup has small meatballs (I made them with pork and ground mortadella) and spinach, a personal touch.

For the main we had cornish game hens stuffed with ricotta, prosciutto, nutmeg, parsley, and a touch of chili pepper. The contorno was mushrooms and zucchini.

[Kevin72]

Kevin in England this dish would be know as "FRUMENTY", although I imagine it is practically extinct. It was traditionla to eat it with venison, the recipes varied but were basically spiced wheat berries, with fruit and cream or milk.

Also, thanks for the blog I really enjoy seeing what you are up to.

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Thanks Adam. Do you know how far back the dish goes, or what its ancestry is? I wonder if they come from the same sort of traditions. Romans were big on the pounded whole grains served any number of ways, so maybe that's how it travelled around.

[Adam Balic]

The word comes from Latin roots (frumentum = grain/corn) and is proberly French or Norman-French at least. The Romans ate puls which is a boiled mush of grains (ancestor of polenta?) and was a staple of the legions, but I would hesitate to make a direct connection, as boiled mushed grains must be common to a lot of cultures and is likely to have evolved independently I would think. Also, I don't think that it is healthy to credit the Italians with inventing everything..

[Kevin72]

What, now you're going to tell me they didn't come up with sushi?

Good distinctions though, there. I'm not as well-read on food history as you so thanks for the info!

[albiston]

Also, I don't think that it is healthy to credit the Italians with inventing everything..

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Definitely a good point. We definitely did not invent the following and want nothing to do with these:

Jello

Cheese spray

Marmite

Tofu

Pizza fried in batter

Fish fingers

Mozzarella that tastes of rubber... wait, we might have invented that

Who said we invented everything, huh?

[Kevin72]

Tuesday was a good friend of ours' birthday and we had them over to celebrate.

Antipasto: Baked scamorza; salami stuffed with creamed artichokes

Primo: Maccheroni alla chitarra "ma non la chitarra" with ricotta salata

Secondo: Pork caciatorre

Contorno: Fennel gratin

Dolce: "Lulus"

For the appetizers, we had scamorza, a smoked fiore di latte cheese quite beloved in Abruzzo, which was doused with chili oil and wrapped in foil, then baked. This is modified from other antipasto recipes where it is seared on a grill over and open flame. I can't comprehend how that would possibly work or be worth the effort, and how you wouldn't wind up with a mass of melted cheese fondue oozing all over your charcoal, so I bake it instead. Unfortunately, I let it cook a little too long and it got rubbery, but that didn't stop us from picking the foil clean!

When cooking from Abruzzo, and all points south from there, a necessary condimento is chili oil, aka olio santo. Take olive oil and slowly bring it up to heat with plenty of dried peperoncino chilies in it. To give it a little color I add paprika as well. This last batch I made is pretty fierce, just a few drops and it announces its presence. You can see some of it atop the baked scamorza in the pic below.

Surrounding the scamorza are slices of salami rolled around a paste of marinated artichokes (leftover from when I made them for the Roman antipasto meal) pureed with hardboiled eggs.

The primo was maccheroni alla chitarra, "ma non la chitarra", meaning I didn't use the standard cutting tool, a long board with strings that you lay the rolled out dough on top of and then pass a rolling pin over to cut the dough into ribbons. I was *this* close to buying an authentic chitarra on our trip to Puglia earlier this spring, but it was a bit cumbersome to lug around the rest of the trip with us, and my wife wisely pointed out that it would get used maybe once a year. Both Callen and Batali suggest that you roll out the dough a little thicker than normal on a pasta machine (or by hand, of course) and then cut it into fettuccini shapes. The condimento was a ragu of pancetta, celery, carrot, onion, and chilies pureed to a paste, then slowly cooked with tomato paste and white wine. It tasted like a cross between ragu bolognese and amatriciani sauce. Topped with ample amounts of coarsely grated ricotta salata.

The main course (background in the pic below) was pork cacciatorre, modified from a lamb recipe in Callen's book Memories of Abruzzo. Quite unlike the standard cacciotore recipes which call for mushrooms or peppers. Large pieces of pork are braised with chilies, anchovies, vinegar, white wine and garlic, then at the end a paste of fennel fronds, parsley, anchovies, vinegar, and raw garlic is swirled into the pan juices. Intense and very flavorful.

The contorno was a not-necessarily-Abruzzese gratin of baked fennel, pancetta, and bechamel (foreground).

Dessert was also non-Abruzzese, the Sicilian pastry lulus. These are cream puffs with a nutella and whipped cream filling instead of custard. This is our friend's standard birthday dessert for the past couple years so we stuck with tradition.

Edited June 10, 2005 by Kevin72 (log)

[Kevin72]

Last night I made a couple of dishes that have been featured both on Molto Mario and in Memories of Abruzzo. To start, we had mussels with a saffron vinaigrette.

Mussels are steamed open in white wine, shallots, thyme, and saffron. The mussels are fished out, the pan juices are reduced, and then off the heat you swirl in vinegar and olive oil and spoon it over the mussels. These could also be served chilled on the half-shell with the same sauce.

Callen notes that while saffron does grow naturally in Abruzzo, it isn't used as extensively as in Sardinia, where it also grows.

The main course was "potted" monkfish, which Callen says gets its name from the fact that it is cooked almost like a pot roast of beef, with peppers, red wine, bay leaves, and cloves.

The monkfish stood up quite well to such a strongly-flavored sauce.

To sop up the sauce from both dishes we ate Pane Barese, a recipe I had wanted to get to when cooking from Puglia but didn't. It is unusual because you steep bay leaves in the water that makes the bread to give it that flavor. The bread turned out great, one of my best loaves in a while, but didn't have much flavor of the bay leaves in it.

[ludja]

The maccheroni alla chitarra looks absolutely wonderful, and I like the idea of the salami appetizer.

*Somehow* I just started looking at your thread yesterday; it's really great. I'm sorry I missed a few of the regions in real time but will be reading along from now on. You're almost at the halfway point!

[hathor]

Ciao Kevin!! I haven't had internet for a few weeks...but I do today!

Abruzzo! Good food in Abruzzo!! The saffron that comes out of Abruzzo is simply the best tasting saffron I've ever had. Its a most intense red color when you steep it in water, think campari.

OK, I'm gone for weeks, and now I'm going to pick on you: DeCecco is not an artisinal product. Its a very good pasta, but its an industrial product. DeCecco buys their wheat from all over the planet and is very, very proud of having a 'consistent' product.

Oh, you should have bought the chitarra! We've been using ours a lot, its just a quick simple way to cut the pasta and its fun to use. I had our son using all last week while he was visiting us.

OK, what's for dinner??

[Kevin72]

Welcome back! I thought the fennel gratin would bring you out!

Well, I guess I used the wrong term with artisinal, but De Cecco is well-thought of, at least. Still on that soapbox from your visit?

[Kevin72]

The maccheroni alla chitarra looks absolutely wonderful, and I like the idea of the salami appetizer. 

*Somehow* I just started looking at your thread yesterday; it's really great.  I'm sorry I missed a few of the regions in real time but will be reading along from now on.  You're almost at the halfway point!

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Thanks for the kind words, ludja! Hard to believe we're at the halfway point already. Even so, maybe it's the unseasonably hot weather so early in the summer, but I'm already chomping at the bit for fall and the regions I'll be doing then . . .

[Kevin72]

My birthday meal for myself was last night.

Started with prosciutto rolled around more of the artichoke puree from the previous meal.

For a primo I did a timbalo di crespelle, a festive Abruzzese dish. There's a pretty established crepe culture in Abruzzo, a holdover from French rule, according to Callen. This is a baked dish of crepes layered over a prgoression of fillings: bechamel, peas and ham, spinach and hardboiled eggs, and a pork and mushroom ragu.

These crepes were the easiest I've ever done: I've noted earlier that I usually get through half the batch of batter before I start turning out good crepes after making them thick pancakes, or brittle, burnt wafers. These are almost entirely made of egg, and a lower proportion of flour, which I think aided their ease.

The fillings are improvised but based on similar timbale recipes in Callen's book.

The secondo was roasted duck with seven herbs. To leech out some of the excess fat, Callen's recipe calls for blanching the duck in boiling water for a few minutes, then setting it in the fridge overnight. If you do this, don't drape it with paper towels to absorb the moisture! As the fat congeals at the cooler temps, it glues itself to the paper towels. I went to take them off only to be horrified to see a thin film of the towel left behind on the skin, and so spent ten minutes laboriously scraping it off with a knife.

The duck is stuffed with apples, onion, lemon, and ginger, and rubbed with the "seven herbs" (Callen neglects to give an exact proportional recipe and only describes it ) bay leaves, rosemary, oregano, marjoram, thyme, sage, and mint chopped together with juniper berries. Despite all the wild flavor elements, I found that very little of that worked its way into the flavor of the duck. I should note that I didn't sew the stuffed duck closed as directed, something I just can't bring myself to do. Nor did I cut the duck in half and toss it back into the oven for a few minutes to crisp the skin, also as directed. I'm reminded now of when my mom used to buy and roast ducks for "special occasions", and then we would lament the amazingly low yield of meat you'd get. The breast meat was moist and juicy, if a little bland, but the leg meat was stringy. I love duck, but I think I'm going to stick with braising it from now on.

Contorno was "drunken cauliflower": cauliflower braised with white wine, fennel seeds, and a chili pepper. I threw in some kale as well.

For dessert, we had another non-Abruzzese item, but I defy any Abruzzese not to like it: my Mom's rhubarb cake.

This stuff has started fights, both witihin my family but even at lady's social events when my mom brings it and there's a mad scramble to get it. One year when my mom made it, my wife volunteered to her boss to bring her a slice and I was livid to have to give up a piece, and even more so when I saw the size of the slice my wife cut for her!

I plead the Fifth on the blatant Reddi-Whip topping there. I throw myself at the mercy of the eGullet elite and beg them not to revoke my membership.

[Chufi]

Based on another Marcella Hazan recipe.  The 'chokes and onions are blanched in a vinegar and water solution, then honey and vermouth are added and they cook a bit longer.  Meanwhile you simmer garlic, chilies, and mint in some olive oil.  Drain the artichokes and submerge them in the flavored oil. 

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Happy birthday! now you did not eat all that food by yourself did you??

I am very intrigued by that artichoke paste. Is it made from the marinated artichokes qouted above? And how do you get it stiff enough to hold together while wrapping salami or prosciutto around it?

btw thanks to you and this thread, I bought the Plotkin book on Liguria. It was on sale for 10 Euro, could not pass that up. I haven't cooked from it yet but it's a great read!

[Kevin72]

Happy birthday! now you did not eat all that food by yourself did you??

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Thanks! No, my parents were over, so it was us four. I think I might take the next week off from cooking and give my wife a turn at the stove!

I am very intrigued by that artichoke paste. Is it made from the marinated artichokes qouted above? And how do you get it stiff enough to hold together while wrapping salami or prosciutto around it?

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I was reading through Callen's book looking for an appetizer idea and ran across this recipe. I still had the marinated artichokes from when I did Rome and thought that this was a good excuse to use them up, so I pureed them with a hardboiled egg and some of the marinade oil. Callen's recipe calls for mayo. It isn't so stiff: you have to eat these in one bite pretty quickly after you pick them up. Actually, there's supposed to be breadcrumbs in there too, but I forgot to add them. Oh, and chill the salami (I thought it worked better than the prosciutto) before and chill the bundles after you make them so they hold up a little better.

btw thanks to you and this thread, I bought the Plotkin book on Liguria. It was on sale for 10 Euro, could not pass that up. I haven't cooked from it yet but it's a great read!

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Glad you like that book. He's a great writer, and I had always felt bad about neglecting such a good book. One of the reasons to do this yearlong project was to give some of my unused cookbooks a spin, and it made me appreciate the book (and of course Liguria) all the more.

[albiston]

I plead the Fifth on the blatant Reddi-Whip topping there.  I throw myself at the mercy of the eGullet elite and beg them not to revoke my membership.

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Kevin,

it's OK this time, but only because it was your birthday !

Buon Compleanno!!

Pity about the duck. The dish itself, at least as concept sounds intriguing. How much herb mixture did you end up using?

[Kevin72]

it's OK this time, but only because it was your birthday    !

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Did I just add another item to your list of things Italians didn't invent on the previous page?

Buon Compleanno!!

Pity about the duck. The dish itself, at least as concept sounds intriguing. How much herb mixture did you end up using?

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Grazie!

You mix it yourself and I'm really bad about proportions (hey, maybe I'm really becoming an Italian cook now!). She said the herbs should be dried, but I had all of those items growing out back and just went in and harvested. I just stripped the leaves off of a couple thick stalks of each, basically and then pulsed them together in a processor with the juniper berries. Rubbed the duck with it inside and out, and swirled the rest into the pan juices as I was reducing them. Smelled great, but alas, none of them carried through in the final dish.

[hathor]

Buon compleano!! Auguri!

Although I could say it was the fennel that me re-surface...its really acess to a hi-speed connection that enables me to visit!

Yes, I'm still on my DeCecco soapbox.

Reddi-whip....my, my.

I also think that artichoke filling looks luscious! As well as the crepes. What about some lamb? That's what I remember most about from Abruzzo, and now that you've more less broken your wife in with lamb.... I'm not recommending lamb testa or anything, but something with bay leaves could be good. Ciao!!