The Cooking and Cuisine of Friuli Venezia-Giulia

[azureus]

Nathan--Wow! I think that you have Kevin beat for access to coolest ingredients (outside of Italy). San Daniele ham, Mantasio cheese, and Tocai wine! Sigh. I don't think anybody has heard of Friuli around here.

Everyone is full a few fricos ago but it would be a sin to waist the leftover mushrooms ($20/lb) so one more frico with onions, mushrooms and potato.

Heh--I imagine that's where all of the fricos were headed anyway. I feel the need to go for a run after just looking at your luscious photos.

This must be the coolest cooking pun ever:

Let your Frico flag fly

April

[azureus]

Batali's grapes are there as a nod to the grape must traditionally used to ferment the turnips, of course, as either you or Ludja mentioned earlier in the thread.  His versions of brovada and mostarda di Cremona [the recipe in Molto Italiano differs from the one online, FYI] remind me that as much as we have access to so many ingredients not imported a couple of decades ago, it's still necessary to make a few adjustments.

I look forward to hearing about the results of your venture.  I had no idea the turnips are left whole and not grated first.

P.S.  I found a copy of Waverly Root's "Foods of Italy" from the Time-Life series recently.  Writing in th 60's, he says that families in Friuli still bake their own bread at home.

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Batali's on-line recipe only calls for two days of fermenting, hence the need smaller pieces. He probably doesn't want to wait two months to use it. My on-line sources mention grating or thinly slicing the turnips just before use. My turnips have already softened and are now red all the way through. It will be interesting to see how the flavor and texture changes over time. Has anyone here had the original version?

Does Waverly Root mention what kinds of bread were baked in Friuli? I haven't been able to locate any mention of wheat- or rye-base unsweetened breads. How much wheat is grown in Friuli?

April

[Pontormo]

April: Regarding the bread, I was hoping to find more information than I have thus far; focaccia is the only unsweetened variety mentioned. Perhaps Root elaborates on his brief comment in the longer book that Kevin owns. It would be interesting to find a type of loaf that incorporates a finer cornmeal than polenta since corn is a major crop.

Nathan: Yes, gorgeous pictures, indeed.

How was the age of the cheese estimated? I was told that the rind of aged Montasio is noticeably harder than it is on younger cheeses and has a distinctly greyish cast.

[Nathan P.]

This must be the coolest cooking pun ever:

Let your Frico flag fly

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Thanks- I was feeling rather clever but was also in a wine and cheese fat blur!

How was the age of the cheese estimated?  I was told that the rind of aged Montasio is noticeably harder than it is on younger cheeses and has a distinctly greyish cast.

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The store I bought the Montasio from had no idea what the age of the cheese was. Based upon a few of the descriptions of the cheese I had read and the fact that it took a bit of weight on the chefs knife to cut it made me think it was the higher aged stravecchio version. It was drier than the parmigiano reggiano I have aright now. It is possible the cheese was a bit dried out as well as these pieces were pre-cut and pulled from back stock at the store.

[Pontormo]

Look at what I found: Official Web site of Montasio (in English).

The link was discovered by accident, after finding a regional series Faith Willinger composed for epicurious. Click on the link to the Bureau for Tourism. The latter has a wealth of even more specialized links, determined largely by areas where wine is produced.

All wineries are listed as well.

[Kevin72]

Bravo on the brovada, April! I can't conceptualize it in a jota, though.

I've been thinking about why the jota that I made was so appealing to me.  The soup was tasty on its own merits, but it really reminded me of something that I'd had before.  I finally remembered a dish that my parents made frequently when I was young that we called "Hot German Potato Salad".  I don't know if this is made in Germany.  Potatoes were boiled whole, then peeled and diced and added to a sauce containing mainly bacon, vinegar and celery.  I swear that this tastes just like jota.  In a way, my culinary wanderings have brought me home.  I'm eager to prepare this soup for my Mom to see what her reaction is.

April

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Ha! My grandmother in Wisconsin used to make this all the time! My mom then picked it up and I must've OD'ed on it somewhere, because I could go the rest of my life without having it.

Nathan--Wow!  I think that you have Kevin beat for access to coolest ingredients (outside of Italy). 

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Eh, Hathor lives in New York. They probably have a whole store dedicated to each region of Italy lurking in one corner or another . . .

Does Waverly Root mention what kinds of bread were baked in Friuli?  I haven't been able to locate any mention of wheat- or rye-base unsweetened breads. How much wheat is grown in Friuli?

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OK, just dug back out the book which I'd managed to misplace. He hints around breads but never explicitly says what kind. Somewhere along the line I picked up that the stock bread in FV-G is rye, but now I don't know where I would have seen it. Maybe on Mario's show . . . ? Marlena de Blasi lists several potato breads in her Friuli chapter in Regional Foods of Northern Italy.

See, for all the intro and history and whatnot in Plotkin's book, there's something he's missing: a chapter on the regional breads.

P.S.  I found a copy of Waverly Root's "Foods of Italy" from the Time-Life series recently.  Writing in th 60's, he says that families in Friuli still bake their own bread at home.

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What's the difference between that version and the full book? Are you referring to those "Foods of the World Series"?

A note on the Root book: he groups Veneto, Venezia Giulia, and Trentino Alto-Adige into a broad section of the book under the heading "Veneti", but does break each of the aforementioned out into separate (albeit painfully brief) chapters, so I did misrepresent his writings a little when I started this thread.

Nathan, great frico! I like how you got the frico to "encase" the ingredient, particularly the asparagus.

[Kevin72]

So at this point it would seem I’ve just given up and decided to recook best-of meals from my Friuli month last year. It’s hard not to, though: I remember that month fondly. And, a lot of the dishes I didn’t get to make last year were variations on braises. I still may try one, but this weekend was balmly already, so braising still isn’t so appealing to me.

Anyways, Friday night I re-made the three appetizers I kicked my whole experiment off with last year:

Crostini with apple and basil spread:

For some reason, I had thought Plotkin’s recipe included ricotta and it wasn’t until after I had made it that I looked it up and saw that it in fact did not. Oh well: I like it that way.

Radicchio “wallets” with prosciutto San Daniele:

I really like this antipasto. Perfect balance of bitter, sweet and rich meat, then the zing of vinegar. I was out of apple cider vinegar, the best match I think for this dish.

Finally, broiled scallops with horseradish:

Last year I bought a whole horseradish root to grate fresh over dished. I only used about half of it though, and wound up throwing it out in July when I couldn’t rationalize keeping it around any more. I think that damned thing cost $9. Now, despite Plotkin’s urgings otherwise, I’m just using jarred horseradish sauce. Sorry.

[Kevin72]

Saturday night was a recreation that I had mentioned earlier, and exactly the meal I thought it would be. We had invited friends over and I rather presumptuously bought ingredients enough for all of us, but they couldn’t make it, so quite a bit of not-exactly-diet-friendly leftovers.

Fricco: one with potato, one with pickles.

Yikes, that paper towel is transparent! Still, you know you’re in for something good if you can see through whatever paper it’s served on.

Cjalson:

This was a modification, slightly more traditional as opposed to the gnocchi version I made last year. Now they are stuffed pastas, as the recipe calls for. However, I still didn’t include the laborious list of ingredients Plotkin calls for. I played up the sweet angle decidedly more and they turned out very well as a result.

Baked ham in crust, cabbage with cumin:

For dessert, something that just popped into my head. Basically, it was a sour cream “custard” (sour cream, brown sugar, one whole egg, several yolks) pie, topped with a blueberry compote.

Decent, would’ve been better had I not botched the crust. As usual.

[Adam Balic]

Cumin? But you said....

[Kevin72]

Yeah, I need to look that one up.

[Adam Balic]

So what was in the cialzons?

[Kevin72]

Some inconsistencies here from Plotkin.

The recipe itself is in fact cabbage with cumin. He hints that it's fairly unusual but doesn't get into where or how it would have originated here.

In his long intro chapters, he has a glossary of the various herbs and spices used in FVG. Of carraway, he says that it's called kummel in this region.

For cumin, he says:

Known as comino in Italy, this seed is often mistaken for caraway.  But they are distinct. 

BUT! Later on he has a carraway soup and lists it by its Italian name, Zuppa di Comino . . .

In the cjalson this time: sugar, ricotta, bitter cocoa powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, chives, grated apples, currants. The condimento was just butter (Plotkin calls for more cinnamon but I thought it was overdoing it) and roasted ricotta.

[Adam Balic]

Carraway is also known as "Cumino tedesco, Carvi, Caro" in various parts of Italy. I'm rather curious about this as I know of many. many recipes that call for cabbage cooked with carraway, but not any cooked with cumin (I prefer the flavour of the later though fow what it is worth).

[Kevin72]

I don't like caraway at all, and I also do like cumin, but I think I overdid it in this particular dish. I can tell my wife didn't like it 'cause she asked what that flavor was, was it in there last time I made it, then left most of it on the plate ("But I'm so full!").

[Pontormo]

Quite a feast!

Since Adam already asked about the beautifully made cjalsons, I'd like to know more about the radicchio. Are those Juniper berries or capers? Anything inside with the prosciutto? Sauce?

(As for the book by Root, yes I own the volume from the Time Life series, although the title is actually The Cooking of Italy. F-VG is hardly mentioned at all, and I believe, dismissed because it doesn't have "real" Italian cooking.)

* * *

While trying to find out more about bread online, I came upon this. If the link restores the main page, click on Food & Wine to left, then Bread and Pasta. (The English seems like a mistranslation at first, but it isn't. Still baffling.) You'll note that one of the possible ingredients they list for breads (do they really mean polentas?) is kummel, a liqueur made with BOTH cumin and caraway.

[Kevin72]

The sauce for the wallets is juniper berries, the butter that the wallets were sauteed in, and red wine vinegar (though again, I prefer apple cider vinegar but was out). You blanch several leaves of radicchio and lay a slice of prosciutto over them, then fold them in half and attach with a toothpick.

I also have that Time Life book then, didn't know Root had a hand in it. It's been years since I've read it, but if I recall it was pretty much arranged by directions, ("The Northwest", "The South", etc.), right?

Cumin liquer? I'm sure it works somehow, but ewwww.

[Adam Balic]

Aquavit?

[Kevin72]

Damn, cumin's in there? Is it a major player?

Gotta love the aquavit.

[Adam Balic]

From the flavour of it I would say caraway. From google, I would say caraway with a few mistranslations as 'cumin'. The Swedish for caraway is "Kummin". Stupid Europeans.

Edited March 14, 2006 by Adam Balic (log)

[Dan Ryan]

Kevin, in Slovenia your jota comes in two basic variations: either with sauerkraut (kislo zelje) or with turnip sauerkraut (kisla repa). The turnip is shredded, but otherwise brovada would be fairly similar. The Slovenian dish always contains a bit of potato.

I'm a jota fanatic too, and prefer the cabbage version.

Another interesting dish with turnip sauerkraut is bujta repa, which is made with more pig than jota normally has, no beans or potato, and millet as a thickening agent. Not sure if it can be found on the Friulian side of the border.

[Adam Balic]

It is also made in Croatia (well the Istrian bit) and has potato, so this seems to be a widespread dish in this area.

[kanljung]

From the flavour of it I would say caraway. From google, I would say caraway with a few mistranslations as 'cumin'. The Swedish for caraway is "Kummin". Stupid Europeans.

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Yes, it's caraway that's in aquavit. Cumin is called "spiskummin" in swedish. The most common use for caraway in Sweden (apart from aquavit) is for breads.

[Kevin72]

Finally, a new meal from Friuli-Venezia Giulia last night.

Adriatic style grilled squid, and "flavors of the garden"

The squid was topped with oil flavored with garlic and parsley before grilling, and then a little more right off the heat. Plotkin urges you to grate garlic and parsley right into the oil, but how the hell do you grate parsley? Into the mini processor it goes!

[FoodMan]

Kevin-

Very good looking meal, but I am trying to figure out what's what in that picture! Is it an extra large squid that is opened flat or smaller ones next to each other?

I still have to contribute to this region, my damn work is taking more time than it should . Hopefully this weekend I will. I am thinking some of those pumpkin noodles (forgot the name) from Roden's book and maybe a pork stew with cabbage from Batali...we'll see.

[Kevin72]

They're calamari "steaks"--CMs here sporadically sell them. Not sure how they even work, but they're extra thick cuts from calamari. That's gotta be one huge squid, though.