The Cooking and Cuisine of Lombardia

[Pontormo]

On separate notes, I have another question about meal-planning.

Context: I am planning on making two tortelli this weekend and serving them together. This is not traditional practice, but since this will be the only full meal I make for February I will make both the tortelli di Cremona and tortelli di zucca.

Then main course will be a stuffed turkey breast alla Lombardia, courtesy of Mario Batoli, with sauteed apples instead of a vegetable as a contorno (traditional, actually for Christmas).

Question here: salad before the cheese course?

It is February, after all. To what extent are we respecting regional traditions and sticking to dishes that are seasonally appropriate? Since all sorts of greens are available nowadays, I am leaning toward being contemporary. However, if there is anything particularly Lombardian that I should do for a salad, please let me know.

Thanks.

[Kevin72]

Hathor: Anna del Conte, a native of Lombardia, complains about the number of recipes for osso bucco that call for tomatoes...including those by Important, Established Cookbook Writers .  I beat she's got Marcella Hazan in mind since her first edition of Gastronomy of Italy includes numerous recipes by the Regina della Cucina which the second omits . . .

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Marcella also admits to not liking gremolata on her osso bucco!

Marlena di Blasi, in Regional Foods of Northern Italy, relates a tale where she was interviewing a known local gourmand on either osso bucco or risotto milanese at a cafe and it touched off a fiery, lengthy debate amongst the locals who had overheard him describing how he makes the dish.

When I made mostarda last year during my project, I used Mario Batali's recipe from Molto Italiano. It lacks the senape/essence and utilizes mustard seed and powder in its place. No claims on authenticity, but it was pretty tasty.

[albiston]

Alberto: Of course, your most recent meal looks beautiful.  I am wondering if you have ever made polenta using buckwheat flour (what is the Italian word for that grain)?  From what I understand, buckwheat was used in certain parts of Lombardia before corn came to Italy.

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You are right Elizabeth, buckwheat is still a staple in the cuisine of Valtellina, though most of what's used in cooking today comes from China since growing buckwheat in the alpine valleys is hardly profitable.

I don't know if there's a polenta made with 100% buckwheat flour, though that would not surprise me. What I've eaten a few times is polenta taragna which is made with a mixture of maize and buckwheat meal. I know that a few recipes call for buckwheat flour, but whenever I have seen buckwheat for polenta on sale it was definitely not as finely ground as flour would be, so I am a little confused.

[Adam Balic]

Hathor: Anna del Conte, a native of Lombardia, complains about the number of recipes for osso bucco that call for tomatoes...including those by Important, Established Cookbook Writers .  I beat she's got Marcella Hazan in mind since her first edition of Gastronomy of Italy includes numerous recipes by the Regina della Cucina which the second omits.

A del C explains her huffiness by saying that recipes for osso bucco appear in very early cookbooks, long before the tomato was used in Northern Italian Cooking.  In other words, she's a purist. 

However, her objection is implicated in some of the same debates that rage among folklorists, musicians, linguists, conservators, and anyone, really, who thinks about cultural phenomona: how do you determine what is authentic and traditional---and does it matter?  Osso bucco has evolved and changed over time and now there are different ways to prepare the dish.

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Well you know how much I enjoy a good debate about 'authentic' (see Ragu thread), but in Anna's defense her recipe for Osso Bucco is incredibly good, even though the ingredient list is very limited. I may be bias though as her book was the second cookbook I ever bought and I have very happy memories of cooking recipes from it, unlike anything I had eaten before, and all the meals turning out wonderful. 10 years later and a cookbook with wow factor is much more rare.

'Traditional' is fine, but 'Authenitic' should be dragged into the street and shot for the rabid dog that it is, a'la "To Kill a Mockingbird".

[FoodMan]

Marcella also admits to not liking gremolata on her osso bucco!

I was surprised to read that in her book! I love the littble bit of crunch and freshness a fine gremolata adds to a long braised osso bucco.

[Kevin72]

I think this goes along with the common critique that her recipes can be a bit "bland"; she does seem to shy from strong or distinctive flavors.

Edited February 23, 2006 by Kevin72 (log)

[Boris_A]

Context:  I am planning on making two tortelli this weekend and serving them together.  This is not traditional practice,

The "bis" or he "tris" (two or three different kinds of tortellini or gnocchi) is not that uncommon in modern Italian restaurant cuisine.

Question here: salad before the cheese course?

I'd place the salad usually before primo and never after secondo. In winter time, add some (moderatly crunchy) cooked vegetables. Because salad (thanks to vinegar) is a natural enemy of wine, I usually place it in the pause between the white and red.

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Too extensive use of tomato? I fully agree. Subtleness is everything. I'ts not pizza cooking, after all.

[Adam Balic]

Right, new baby in the home is taking up more time then I thought was possible, so not as much cooking as I would like is being done.

However, here is my Lombard effort. Some regional dishes, some completely made up stuff using regional produce.

Salad of baby spinach, comice pear, procuitto and Taleggio Vecchia cheese. The later being one of my very favourite cheeses.

So I made some Luganega di Monza sausages, these were very good in flavour, but next time I will add more fat as my pork was a little dry. This was served with Risotto alla Milanese. As you can see it isn't exactly 'risotto giallo'. The recipe I use is from Anna Del Conte's book book, she says it is her family recipe. It uses beef marrow, beef stock and red wine, so the colour is always a lot more muddy they seen in most images of this dish. It has great flavour though and it is well worth getting bone marrow to use as the cooking fat.

Dessert was something I made up using mascarpone and making something similar to a tiramisu, except I layered in vanilla roasted strawberries as instead of coffee.

[Nathan P.]

That Sausage/Risotto platter looks great, Adam. If anyone needs lobbying on what region to pick next, I can tell you that the Ca. spring artichoke crop is coming in and should be around for the next couple of months. Can we say April, Spring, Easter, Artichokes, Roma!

This shot was taken this afternoon in Castoville, CA.

[Nathan P.]

Dinner tonight:

For a primo I decided to make pizzocheri. I was following the recipe in Bugiali on Pasta but also referenceing Ada Boni's book and Culinaria. My dough was 1 cup buckwheat flour, .5 cup AP flour, 1 egg and 5 tbsp milk. The dough was interesting; tacky, and softer than regular dough with the lack of gluten in the buckwheat flour. I thought there was a nice flavor to them and I think with a slightly thicker pasta for more texture these could be used for a range of pasta dishes.

The finished dish with cabbage, green beans, potatoes, cheese (I used teleggio) and sage/garlic butter.

Good dish that felt Italian even though it does not fit into more familiar catergories of pasta. I could not find any white wines from Lombardia to go with this so I opted for a white from their neighbors in Alto Adige. I recently did a tasting of a few wines from the wine co-op in Terlano just outside of Balzano in A.A. Worth a taste when we get to that region. http://www.kellerei-terlan.com/ My wine was the Muller Thurgau.

For my main I did a simple stufato of beef to pair with the nebbiolo from Valtillena I mentioned earlier. The beef chuck roast was larded with bacon (could not find any pickeled pork belly ) and then braised with Barbera, carrots, onions and celery in a La Chambra clay pot. I opted not to reduce or thicken the sauce and serve it naturaly. Looks rustic as it is falling apart in the photo but very tasty.

The contorno was, following the rest of the crowd, funghi trifolato (sp).

You can see the sforato wine here in the foreground. It lived up to expectations with the taste of nebbiolo with more concentrated fruit and less tannins and went great with the beef. Worth a taste if you can find one.

[Kevin72]

Solid looking meal, Nathan. How long did you braise the beef for?

And those artichokes! My favorite vegetable. Are you connected in the business of growing them, then? Are they just dirt cheap this time of year? In Dallas you can tell it's their season because the price drops from their normal $3/ea to $2/ea . . .

[Kevin72]

My lone contribution for Lombardia this month.

Asparagus alla Milanese: asparagus that is steamed, then sautéed briefly in butter. The asparagus is removed and then an egg is fried in the same pan and put over the top of the asparagus, along with a dusting of Parmigiano.

The secondo was a favorite of mine mentioned earlier this month: costolette (di maile) alla Milanese, a pork chop that is pounded flat, then breaded. To make it slightly more diet-friendly, I baked it in the oven after briefly browning it in just a little butter. To accompany, a salad of radicchio and arugula. Central Market, our local gourmet chain, had a beautiful display of radicchio the day I went shopping, including the standard Treviso and Verona varieties as well as two new ones I’d certainly seen in Italy but never here. One was elongated like the Treviso variety but had very narrow, finger-like leaves. The other was a greenish white, leafy kind with speckles of red that they called Terdivo, though I thought it was called something else . . . ? Anyways, I snapped that up and used it with some arugula and lemon juice spritzed over the top.

I had also been pondering doing osso bucco after all the talk last week, but frankly I got a little braised and risotto-ed out after Piemonte and the rich Holidays preceding. This was a nice hint of the Spring to come.

[hathor]

Ciao tutti! I'm afraid that I'm with Kevin, I cannot eat another risotto. I made some lovely Milanese risotto the other night and couldn't get past 2 bites. I'm ready for fish, and artichokes and Friuli! (I even cheated and broke out some confit last night...quelle horreure!)

Congratulations Adam! A new baby in the ice cave in Goth! That salad you made looked just perfect, wish I had some now. And the sausage looked pretty fine as well.

All that buckwheat...too....healthy for me. Gak. sorry, I'll eat lots and lots of farro, but there's something just too grainy about buckwheat. Although I would be willing to sample Nathan's dish. What a great example of a traditional dish. The word authentic has been completely removed from my dictionary.

[Adam Balic]

To accompany, a salad of radicchio and arugula.  Central Market, our local gourmet chain, had a beautiful display of radicchio the day I went shopping, including the standard Treviso and Verona varieties as well as two new ones I’d certainly seen in Italy but never here. 

This is most likely Radicchio di Castelfranco, the finger like one is actually the same as type of radicchio as Treviso, but is cultivated differently. After the first crop is harvested the tap root is left in furrows (excluding light) and these develop into the form you saw. Hence, you see these types with a bit of tap root attached, but rarely in Treviso. They are often called "Tardivo" or even "Fiori d'Inverno". I like them grilled.

Edited February 28, 2006 by Adam Balic (log)

[Nathan P.]

Solid looking meal, Nathan. How long did you braise the beef for?

And those artichokes!  My favorite vegetable.  Are you connected in the business of growing them, then?  Are they just dirt cheap this time of year?  In Dallas you can tell it's their season because the price drops from their normal $3/ea to $2/ea . . . 

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The beef was braised for 3-4 hours in the oven at around 300' in one of those very cool la Chamba pots that have become darlings of the eG set. The meat was insanely tender and still succulant with no excess drying. (did I mention the beef was larded with bacon?) I was particular pleased with the balance of the sauce considering I had to ignore my international cooking instincts to add stock to it! I have no interest in artichokes other than consuming them. I live just north of the major artichoke production center in the US so that pick was snapped at largish commercial farm stand where I stopped to buy some chokes and eat fried artichokes. Prices were $2 for Huuuuuge chokes and down to around $1 for smaller ones. (I think they had around 8 sizes) This farm on the side of the road was Pezzini Prices in season are around a $1 for a decent sized choke. There are also more small farms growing organic chokes as well. My little purple artichoke pic was taken last year at Mariquita farm which many of you will know is the farm of eG member chardgirl who did a good foodblog a few months back.

Ciao tutti!  I'm afraid that I'm with Kevin, I cannot eat another risotto. I made some lovely Milanese risotto the other night and couldn't get past 2 bites. I'm ready for fish, and artichokes and Friuli!  (I even cheated and broke out some confit last night...quelle horreure!)

All that buckwheat...too....healthy for me. Gak. sorry, I'll eat lots and lots of farro, but there's something just too grainy about buckwheat.  Although I would be willing to sample Nathan's dish. What a great example of a traditional dish.  The word authentic has been completely removed from my dictionary.

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I liked the buckwheat in this dish as the flavor stood out a bit more against the rich cheese, butter, and cabbage. This was particularly important, IMO, because in this dish the pasta was just one of the supporting flavors and not as prominent as most pasta with condimento dishes. But hey I love buckwheat crepes too! I have not decided my vote on the next regions but they will definately all focus on olive oil!

Edited February 28, 2006 by Nathan P. (log)

[hathor]

Nathan, I understand your point about the buckwheat being a balance to the richness. And I completely agree that its time to put the butter away and start foolin' with olive oil. (Although...there is a fair amount of butter in Friuli...they've got that Austrian 'thang going on, if you know what I mean.)

[Pontormo]

Birthday Dinner on February 25, 2006

In The Lives of the Artists, Vasari describes the sorry condition of The Last Supper painted on the north wall of the refectory at Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan scarcely half a century before. After preparing a five-course Lombard birthday dinner for a friend, I think I understand why Leonardo foolishly did what he did when he executed his fresco. All that butter! All that cheese! Trained in Florence, moving north only after political turmoil demanded that he seek new patronage at the Sforza court, the painter must have longed for the lighter fare of Tuscany. Recalling the pleasures of a grilled steak and a green salad, simply dressed, he mixed his pigments and yolks with oil before applying a brush to the surface of the wall, an unorthodox technique that led to the rapid deterioration of the composition.

THE MENU

Tortelli di zucca e tortelli di Crema

Tacchino ripieno alla Lombarda

Mele in Padella

Insalata di finocchio

Crescenza e Capra Valtellina

Torta di Paradiso colle more di rovo

Wine: Mazzolino Bonarda (Oltrepò Pavese) 2003

Bread: Ciabatta

There are many cookbooks in English that offer recipes for tortelli di zucca, or small ravioli stuffed with pumpkin. The major variable is the balance of sweet and savory qualities that each author prefers. Paul Bertolli includes an elegant, pared-down recipe in the first Chez Panisse cookbook, one that calls for browned butter; I sauced the pasta according to his advice, with reduced stock, Marsala, butter and sage. Having already decided to prepare Anna del Conte’s tortelli di Crema, I also followed her instructions for a filling, using butternut squash since I did not trek down to the farmer’s market to forage for Long Island pumpkins or a more exotic vegetable. Both pastas were made with dough that incorporates water after the eggs are added to the flour [imported, tipo 00], something she calls a “poor man’s” technique. The result was extremely malleable, easy to knead and fill.

Del Conte requires mostarda di Cremona which I bottled earlier in the week, adapting the one online recipe at the Food Network site where Mario Batali substitutes mustard seeds and prepared mustard for the essential mustard oil that is unavailable in the United States. (Kevin, I see you’ve made it, too.) I found that cooking the ingredients briefly made for a more interesting consistency, as opposed to merely seeping the fruits in the thin wine syrup. However, the seeds did not contribute much to the taste and had to be wiped off before the mostarda joined the cooked squash, ground amaretti, etc. I had never eaten cookies in pasta before, let alone mixed with the chocolate, marscapone and raisins in the tortelli di Crema, or coated with grated cheese and herbs. The combinations seemed to emerge straight out of a Renaissance banquet.

“Dessert!” exclaimed the Honored Guest.

“Do I have to try them?” asked her seven-year old who turned to the macaroni and cheese I baked just in case.

Leo, the youngest, loved helping me turn the crank and hold the dough as the very last batch was being prepared. However, all HE would eat was buttered bread and apple slices, raw (“Not the GREEN ones!)…and cake, of course, without the blackberries. While I did not follow April’s example and bake the loaf myself, I was grateful for the fact that ciabatta is a regional specialty.

Mario Batali supplied the recipe for the main course, something he associates with Christmas, especially when served with savory, tart sautéed apples. While capon is more traditional and available here in Washington, D.C., the HG is fond of white turkey meat. I’d be interested to learn more if anyone knows what is “characteristic” or Lombard about the way the boneless breast is spread with a paste of sweet Italian sausage, chestnuts, egg, Parmigiano, sage, rosemary, chicken livers, onion and prosciutto crudo before being rolled; prosciutto cotto stuffed under the skin [excessive, I felt]; and then tied up and roasted in a shallow bath of chicken stock and dry white wine. The spirals in the slices were very Leonardo (drawings of whirlpools, loosened tresses and petals) and quite delicious even without the chestnuts. There is enough left over to serve all thirteen figures in the artist’s Last Supper, except it’s not exactly Kosher. Better to feed it to the community of friars who dined before the fresco…or the rulers who paid for the commission since they’re more accustomed to such rich food. To go with the turkey, the artist conveniently wove green apples into the illusionistic garlands in the vaults above the biblical scene, appearing directly below the coats of arms of the Sforza and Este patrons.

While the children were happily prone before the DVD player, it was nonetheless getting late, so I served cheese and bread beside a very simple salad of shaved fennel (HG’s favorite), lemon juice (husband of HG’s favorite) and an intense Spanish olive oil. The Crescenza—“without added cream” says the label—is a type of stracchino, a mild, slightly sour and very runny cheese that tries to become milk again as soon as it is placed on the table. Inexpensive in Italy, but up there with truffles when special ordered at Whole Foods, it is delicious spread on fresh bread and even better at breakfast with strong coffee and toasted ciabatta. The goat cheese presented a perfect contrast. It resembles a pale Gruyère with a few small, scattered eyes and seems fairly innocuous until the nutty aftertaste steps forward.

As for the dessert, forgoing Italian custom was in order given the nature of the dinner. Paradise Cake calls for the elimination of wheat flour altogether, or a minimal amount in some recipes. Anna Del Conte requires potato starch and Nick Malgieri, cornstarch, in Great Italian Desserts (Boston & London: Little, Brown and Company, 1990). In the case of the torta I baked, the only flavoring was provided by the zest of Meyer lemons. Essentially, one ends up with a very light, sweet slice of buttery potato that suits the turkey, I suppose.

Sadly, my oven is not always reliable. The cake rose to more than twice its original height but was still at least 5-7 minutes away from being fully cooked when I first tested it. Moreover, the center rose just a little bit higher than the rest of the cake, cracking the surface slightly. (With bread, I know, mushrooming is a sign that the initial temperature was too high; this effect was more subtle.) Ten minutes after it began to cool, the center started to deflate and turn into a yellow puddle. I ended up scooping out the mess and serving slices of the fully cooked ring of cake with blackberries. I wonder if Malgieri’s recipe might have been superior in the added step of separating the eggs and folding in beaten egg whites…although premature exposure to cooler air would have done damage no matter what. The kids didn’t know the difference and loved it since it was plain, creamy white and sweet.

CODA: The recipe for the turkey breast is in Molto Italiano. The pan juices were so flavorful, they did not require either reduction or roux. Even better, some of the stuffing fell out into the pan. I used both the next night to make an absolutely sensational risotto.

TWO FURTHER NOTES

1. Pizzocheri

I prepared this dish as a filling, solitary meal, in part, because the buckwheat flour in my cupboards is woefully neglected. I also had not used my ancient Atlas pasta maker for at least a decade and wanted to resuscitate the machine before preparing the birthday meal.

Since Nathan supplies a beautiful photograph of the same dish up-thread, I will simply add that I cut mine into thick, squat, broad noodles made exclusively with buckwheat. I used chard stems, as per Marcella Hazan’s recipe, reserving the leaves for a gratin. Wowsa? Noooo…but different, wonderfully gooey, filling, seasonal, good with a light red wine. With the white, yellow and pink stems of Rainbow chard against the unusual dark grey-brown pasta, aesthetic value was high.

Comments made about Dr. Hazan’s blander tastes interest me. In fact, I actually combined some of Anna Del Conte’s recommendations with the recipe in More Classic Italian Cooking BECAUSE they called for fresh sage and promised more pronounced flavors. FYI: According to the expatriate who evokes nostalgia in the new father out there in Hoth, fontina is a more accessible substitute for bitto, a local cheese.

P.S. After these two months of cooking with the same herbs, I would have to say that in one of those Abandoned on a Desert Island scenarios, I would live happily ever after without marjoram, but sage is now somewhere on my list below water, but above the complete works of Shakespeare.

2. Zuppa alla pavese

After defeat in battle, Francis I ducked into a farmhouse just outside Pavia, asking to be fed. A resourceful woman promptly fried up some bread, fetched two eggs to plop on top, and spooned chicken broth slowly into the pan until the whites formed tattered curls, but the yolks remained soft. Finally, she grated cheese over the contents of the pan. While the French king was accustomed to receiving gilt, bejeweled salt cellars and kinky allegorical paintings from the Medici, he was so taken with the humble, improvised dish and the ingenuity of the cook that he demanded the recipe. Thus, as we know, the French owe much to Italian cuisine [sic] and simple food produced with fresh ingredients beats elaborate dishes every time.

Me, I did one egg with homemade stock and added some chopped, sautéed broccoli rabe for a quick, satisfying meal on a winter night with Artic air pouring down from the North.

[Pontormo]

P.S. The entry above was written before seeing the newest entries. I can't believe how in synch my initial comments are with the exchange between Nathan and Hathor which I SWEAR I did not have a chance to read until just now!

It will take me a while to catch up with all of February's postings let alone the most recent. I must add a quick note of appreciation and vicarious pleasure after what I glimpsed while posting my last entry.

Arrivederci.

Edited March 3, 2006 by Pontormo (log)

[hathor]

Great posts Pontormo!! What fun! What a menu!

I like that comfort soup recipe. Its good to be the king!

Edited March 4, 2006 by hathor (log)

[Pontormo]

I can't seem to get it together enough to make a meal for this region, either.  I did manage to bake again:

Again, baking from Carol Fields' book, I made Ciambelline Valtelline, "Little Rye Rounds from Valtellina".  The bread looks like giant rye bagels.  They turned out somewhat soft inside, with nice chewy crusts.  In her book, Carol says that rounds were dried and hung on strings to store for the winter. 

I do have two lamb shanks in my refrigerator, at about 1.5lbs apiece.  They are too thick to use for ossobucco, so I'm looking for other Lombardia recipes that calls for lamb shanks.  Any ideas?

April

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1. They do look exactly like bagels...and softer than rounds I've purchased in Naples. Are there any Italian breads that are boiled after they've risen?

2. Did you make the shanks? I agree that they might be good if you prepared them as ossobuco--perhaps without the tomato--even if that's not traditional.

Now that it's March, if you're interested, I'd be willing to share a recipe from Venezia Giula that calls for lamb shoulder and horseradish!!!! (Anna Del Conte.)

Edited March 4, 2006 by Pontormo (log)

[Pontormo]

Central Market, our local gourmet chain, had a beautiful display of radicchio the day I went shopping, including the standard Treviso and Verona varieties as well as two new ones I’d certainly seen in Italy but never here.  One was elongated like the Treviso variety but had very narrow, finger-like leaves. The other was a greenish white, leafy kind with speckles of red that they called Terdivo, though I thought it was called something else . . . ? Anyways, I snapped that up and used it with some arugula and lemon juice spritzed over the top. 

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Kevin, I have NEVER seen that variety of raddichio...and when I saw the first image alone, without knowing the texture, it seemed to be a spinach pasta dough ingeniously streaked to resemble borlotti! Might the Central Market be willing to share the name of its supplier? It's gorgeous! Are the leaves softer (thinner) and less bitter or...?

Your dietary adaptions are admirable, too.

[Pontormo]

Finally, Adam, I am very impressed by your home-made sausages! I for one could eat risotto forever, especially in new combinations such as the one you share.

You mention that the meat was rather dry. I wonder if European--or Scottish--pork has undergone the kinds of transformations experienced in the US where chops, loin roasts, etc. are far too lean. When I was in graduate school, there were always notices on the bulletin board outside the Office for Financial Aid offering generous fellowships for research projects devoted to pork.

And Nathan, I am impressed by your appetite as well as your meal. I found pizzocheri very, very filling!

As for your bounty of artichokes, do local growers sell the tiny ones that Romans stew and, yes, add to risotto?

[Adam Balic]

Adam,..

You mention that the meat was rather dry.  I wonder if European--or Scottish--pork has undergone the kinds of transformations experienced in the US where chops, loin roasts, etc. are far too lean.  When I was in graduate school, there were always notices on the bulletin board outside the Office for Financial Aid offering generous fellowships for research projects devoted to pork.

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Certainly, there is a move towards leaner pork in the UK and Australia. I worked in a piggery while going through university and the thickness of the backfat was measured by ultrasound. They were aiming to get a minimum level, but slightly under this level was detrimental to the animals health, so obviously this is a problem.

This is a pig from Lithuania were lard is still a major source of cooking fat. The depth of the backfat was 50-70 mm, rather then 17-20 mm in Australia.

[Pontormo]

Impressive visual documentation!

I suspect most of those grants to graduate students engaged in pork studies went to reducing the mm of fat that you record.

[FoodMan]

better late than never. This was my final Lombardian meal, from last Teusday. I made sauteed chicken breasts with porcini from Italian Country Table. Served it with a simple saute of swiss chard and garlic.