The Cooking and Cuisine of Liguria

[FoodMan]

←

Lovely lovely looking dish Hathor. I have to agree that maro is the best thing I learned in this Liguria thread. I will be making it often since frozen favas are available now.

I am also intrigued by all the pies/tart type dishes. I recently read about one Ligurian pie in Paula Wolfert's "Mediterranean Grains and Greens" and it is stuffed with lots of wild greens and pumpkin. It sounded delicious and I am hoping to make it before this month is over.

[albiston]

Haven't had much time to dedicate myself to cooking lately, but just reading these regional cooking threads has made up for it. Great efforts form everyone! Too bad one cannot taste the lovely descriptions and pics.

So, while I haven't done any Ligurian cooking I did manage a little focaccia baking last week-end.

The base was classic focaccia dough (flour, water, salt and olive oil) made with a pre-fermented poolish-style starter and rise-retarded overnight in the fridge. With that I made two focaccie. First a classic one, topped only with extra olive oil (from Umbria, no Ligurian oil available around here) and a little salt (before baking, below),

It mysteriously disappeared before I could take a picture of the finished baked product

I also made a less traditional one with thyme, olive, onion and tomato topping.

[hathor]

Gorgeous foccacia Alberto!!

I made so much of it last summer that I can't quite work my up to making any right now.... but, yours makes me wish I had some biga growing right now!

Left over maro?? We had this the other night and it was very good: orzo with fresh peas and a few spoonfuls of maro. The peas had a nice 'pop' to them and the maro was a nice 'carrier' flavor.

Kevin, you are right...this thread moves along very quickly!!

Regarding fried ravioli, these are not in the fried "Twinkie" category at all. This is a crowd pleaser, and makes a nice nibble. I use tiny raviolini, basic cheese, nothing fancy and give them a quick boil, then a fry in olive oil until they are crispy, add a little sea salt. Then I serve them with a slow roasted cherry tomato dipping sauce: whole cherry tomatoes, onion, garlic, capers, olives and olive oil. Could be Ligurian given the ingredients, certainly Hathorian!

[hathor]

Something Mrbigjas said upthread, and reading thru lots of Ligurian recipes, it seems to me that the ‘essence’ of Ligurian food is freshness with an accent on vegetables and herbs. Most of the recipes I’ve found seem fairly ‘intuitive’, things like the tortes, or simple salad combinations like fennel with orange and walnuts.

So, inspired by Chufi’s sea bass and finding some beautiful bass in the market, last night we had roasted sea bass (in a salt crust, with a few pieces of orange stuffed inside) and I served it with a simple sauce of marjoram, parsley, basil and a little bit mint.

Here’s the fishy fellows before they got covered in salt. Looking a bit Oriental…. I took the photo on the floor as the dish was too big to put anywhere else!

Up for lunch today is nice big pot of minestrone soup. Can’t say that we aren’t getting our vegetables this month.

[Pontormo]

A trip to Murray's was so-so, found dried trofie which look smaller and tighter rolled to Adam's pic.  Bummer was that they only carry crecenza during easter, I struck out at both fairway as well, the uptown one never even heard of it.

←

When we were still in Lombardia, Kevin at Whole Foods put in a special order for crescenza. If it's not seasonal (why would it be? it's a fresh cheese ), and you haven't been utterly converted by all the buzz created by Michael Pollan, you might call up the WF in Manhattan to see if they'd do likewise.

* * *

My apologies to KJ for not noticing even earlier that the question regarding anchovies and cylinder jars was answered. I must read more slowly, more carefully and retain.

* * *

All the new photographs are beautiful. Hathor, you have a way with presentation, especially, that strikes me as being in the spirit of traditional Italian regional cooking; I love the sprig of mint and the reserved fava beans sprinkled over your bowl of maro-coated pasta. I hadn't thought about making soup, but you all are tempting me, especially with references to fresh herbs and that parsley in the center of the chickpea soup.

(A recent chef's demo at the market placed a wonderful salsa verde made with fresh garlic and arugula on top of sauteed prawns and new asparagus.)

* * *

(I do have chickpea flour, too, and was thinking about farinata except I just get sick of the Piemontese version back in January.)

* * *

I also appreciate more details about fried ravioli. I'm going to try it.

Finally, I urge you to consult the linked entries on Rubber Slippers in Italy above. The plate of the region's "fritto misto" looks wonderful. I wonder if there will be more ramps at the market THIS weekend...

Edited May 12, 2006 by Pontormo (log)

[mrbigjas]

this an interesting link:

http://www.virtualitalia.com/recipes/tv0700.shtml

specifically this:

For example, the Genoese prefer a sharp, pungent pesto sauce which they serve with ravioli filled with veal and cheese. Many people opt for a mild pesto sauce, sometimes with cream or butter added.

cream? that is interesting.

for some reason it's taken me three pages of this thread to realize that 'maro' is just a thinned-out version of the fava bean spread i've been making for years. i don't know where i got the recipe (and i haven't used a recipe in a long time) but it's a spring staple in our house, on toast. i don't know why i've never thinned it out and served on pasta...

[NYC Mike]

More firsts for me today, first focaccia, first pesto. I knew things were going well because the smell in the kitchen was unreal. I'll apologize in advance for the picture quality!

First, here is the olive oil that graced my floor a few days ago, its quite wonderful. This is very different from any other olive oil I have tasted. It is very aromatic and floral but very mild at the same time. I'd like to do a little side by side antipasti over the weekend with a few other oils we have.

I gave the 79st Fairway a second chance on the Crescenza and got someone who knew their stuff. Antipasti today was some marinated ligurian olives some flatbread and the cresenza, even if it is from Wisconsin! Loved the cheese. Especially loved the flatbread but they screamed out for some potted meat or tapenade, the cheese was too mild for them.

Alberto, your focaccia looks amazing!! Here is my rookie version, in hindsight, I should have left it in just a few more minutes. I just did Plotkin's base recipe, my favorite way to eat it is with rosemary.

I can relate to that article MrBigJas about the pesto being sharper and more pungent. I used Plotkin's "authentic pesto" recipe minus the mortar and pestle. What a lesson that chapter is so many "types" to try. Murray's had the dried trofie.

-mike

[Adam Balic]

I also appreciate more details about fried ravioli.  I'm going to try it.

←

Fried ravioli seem to be common thoughout the Riviera, the version in Nice is known as Barbajouan ("Uncle John"). I have also had them in the Dauphine in France. Makes sense really, given the regions history and geography. Garibaldi (from Nice) spoke a Ligurian dilect, rather then Italian as a first language for instance and many of the dishes are shared.

One day I must work out if there is a connection between these fried ravioli and classic rissoles, I imagine they are one and the same.

[Pontormo]

More firsts for me today, first focaccia, first pesto. 

First, here is the olive oil that graced my floor a few days ago, its quite wonderful.  This is very different from any other olive oil I have tasted.  It is very aromatic and floral but very mild at the same time.   I gave the 79st Fairway a second chance on the Crescenza and got someone who knew their stuff.  Antipasti today was some marinated ligurian olives some flatbread and the cresenza, even if it is from Wisconsin!  Loved the cheese.  Especially loved the flatbread but they screamed out for some potted meat or tapenade, the cheese was too mild for them.

←

Mike: Congratulations on the firsts, including first bottle of Ligurian olive oil to survive a trip to your kitchen. All looks wonderful. If you go back to the link for Michol Negrin's Rusticocooking, at the bottom is a type of spinach pie called a focaccio that I THINK she said would be good prepared with crescenza as one of the fillings. I envy you the bounty that is NYC. Now that I see what the flatbread looks like, I know what kinds of alternatives to look for; I was contemplating matzah until I saw your shot.

* * *

Also, regarding the blandness of the green bean & potato polpettone, one author recommends using leftover green beans that have been coated with pesto. She feeds them into a grinder and feels the pesto perks up a dish Colman Andrews might fit into a category of Ligurian cuisine that would not inspire many outsiders to stay in Genoa forever. However, he has an affection for the good home-cooking of the region's "cucina povera".

Flavors of the Riviera is proving to be a really good book, albeit the photographs are almost as plentiful as mine and the pen-wielding reader who used the library's copy to give a report for the local association of culinary historians ought to know there's a new circle in Dante's hell for people like her/him. It's scholarly while still engaging. The recipes are interesting. However, what I really like is the cultural comparison it provides by setting up the French Riviera and Liguria as mirror upon mirror.

Enjoying the image of swimming with the little fishes, I decided to make BAGNUN last night. No fresh anchovies in these parts, but every once and a while there are fresh sardines, a recommended substitute. I am not sure I would have bought them were they not already packaged since the smell was suspiciously too fishy when I broke the seal on the plastic. Decapitating them and removing the guts made me wonder a bit about fishaterians.

The dish proved sweetly fishy and delicious: the sardines are cooked in a sauce of onions, garlic, parsley, tomato and white wine and then placed on top of Mike's flatbread, although in my case, toasted baguette. Green beans on side. Dutch dessert: Klary's roasted rhubard compote with orange peel mixed with thick yogurt.

Edited May 13, 2006 by Pontormo (log)

[Kevin72]

Even harder to come by than Ligurian olive oils are, it seems, Ligurian wines.

I did manage to find, if not a Ligurian olive oil, at least one made with the regions taggesca olives. No luck on the wines, though.

Tasted a little of it and it was buttery and even vaguely sweet. Unforunately, it's a small bottle and probably a good portion of it would go to making a regular batch of pesto, so I'm not sure what I'll do when I do get to it.

The primo for Saturday's meal was pansotti with walnut sauce:

The pansotti were not in the traditional ravioli or triangular shape but rather folded into a triangle, then the base ends looped together as for capelacci (my triangles are always sloppy and misshapen, and this technique masks it well).

The walnut sauce is green from the chives I substituted for garlic in hopes of a more delicate and herbal flavor.

The main were tomaxelle "di tacchino", with turkey substituting for the $24.99/lb veal scallopinni the recipe usually calls for. As a side note, I think cookbook authors should be required to live in, say, Kansas City or St. Louis or some other "normal" city besides New York when writing about ingredients. Plotkin recommends veal leg for the cutlets. Veal itself is hard enough to come by; and he so casually recommends getting not just veal but the leg? Grrr.

But I did use ground veal in the stuffing, along with porcini and breadcrumbs.

Ada Boni has cow's udder in her recipe, but sadly, I had uses the last of that to make a sandwich that afternoon.

They tasted like a really good meatloaf encased in a nice, firm coating of turkey to keep everything moist. For the contorni, zucchini with green olive pesto and basil.

[Pontormo]

Ada Boni has cow's udder in her recipe, but sadly, I had uses the last of that to make a sandwich that afternoon.  

←

What was IN the pansotti?

(Veal scallopini at WF are made from the leg. Ingenious substitutions. This is SUPPOSED to be cucina povera.)

Edited May 14, 2006 by Pontormo (log)

[Kevin72]

In the pansotti: prescinseua cheese (as a substitute, Plotkin suggests ricotta and yogurt mixed together, which I did), then wilted watercress and spinach, fresh oregano flowers, and lemon thyme.

[Chufi]

Did you like the pansoti Kevin? I've been thinking about that recipe and it sounds good, but for some reason I don't feel much like making fresh pasta lately, so it has to be really good before I can be persuaded to make it

Pontormo: so glad you had rhubarb. Everybody should eat rhubarb. After cooking a Ligurian dinner first, ofcourse.

[Kevin72]

Did you like the pansoti Kevin? I've been thinking about that recipe and it sounds good, but for some reason I don't feel much like making fresh pasta lately, so it has to be really good before I can be persuaded to make it 

←

You know, I'm kind of in the same mood lately myself. Wasn't so into cooking this meal and got frustrated when the pansotti (made with 00 flour) started sticking and coming apart easily while resting before cooking.

My wife loved them, they were good enough I guess but nothing so enormously different from other stuffed pastas to run out and make. Plus, you've made more than enough stuffed pastas after your party I'm sure!

[Chufi]

Plus, you've made more than enough stuffed pastas after your party I'm sure! 

←

thank you.. I think that is the reason I'm tired of making stuffed pasta right now

I hope the pasta making spirit will return..

[hathor]

Great looking food! That walnut sauce looked wonderful Kevin! What did you think of the chive subsitution?

Pontormo: any leftover sardines??? I'm a whizz at cleaning them next time you need help!

My food processor seems to be getting the biggest workout this month. I keep making all kinds of fresh herb mixtures as sauces. Not complaining, just observing.

Klary, what party? I missed a party? Damn!

I STILL haven't tracked down the Ligurian oil. I never quite venture above 14th St...at least not without shots and a passport.... I didn't even try for the wines this month. I might try once I'm back in Italy. Not that Umbria is known for 'importing' wines from other regions....

PS Happy Belated Mothers day to any mothers out there.

[FoodMan]

My Saturday green pasta.

This is probably not traditional Ligurian, actually it is restaurant food. However since I saw the chef cook this last week on Great Chefs of The World I knew I had to try it. Also he made it seem like it is Ligurian inspired and he did make a point of pointing out that the oil he is annointing this dish with was Ligurian. If all that isen't enough the vibrant green color should be!

I have to agree with all your comments on this thread, Ligurian cooking and its flavors are so simple fresh and rely a lot on vegetables and herbs. In this plate of pasta every flavor was pungent and distinct but the whole worked so good together that I actually ate it cold from the fridge tonight. The ricotta I used here is homemade and not as smooth as the one he used on the show. To make up for the lack of the pungent tangy goat cheese flavor I mixed in a bit of salt and some tangy creme fraiche. I was also amazed that besides looking awsome, the pasta had a great watercress flavor with that nice bitter edge the green vegetable has.

Here is the recipe from Discovery Home Channel

Making the pasta by hand

The finished plate with the vibrant green pasta

[Kevin72]

That's beautiful. What's the red, a tomato puree?

[Kevin72]

Monday night's meal: Chicken with walnut sauce, zucchini tart.

The chicken was a modification of a rabbit with almonds in Plotkin's book. After my rabbit experience last fall, I decided to do skinned chicken legs and thighs instead.

What makes this an interesting braise is that a second sauce gets added to the pan juices just before serving. The original recipe is almonds pounded with garlic and breadcrumbs. Similar, then to the walnut sauce I had leftover from Saturday's meal. I drained the walnut pesto to remove the excess oil, then added it to the pan juices and it kicked up a wonderful, whole new aroma and lifted the deep, braised flavors quite well.

The zucchini tart, as Plotkin notes, is different from the tarts we've seen previously that are encased in a crust. Here, it's zucchini and rice coated with breadcrumbs and baked. I was worried that this would be a bit too much like the tiella I made last year from Puglia, but there's a much lower proportion of rice to vegetable, and in fact the rice was more a filler or binder than anything. Very satisfying.

[mrbigjas]

excellent job, foodman--i saw that same ep of great chefs and thought about making it as well. i really need to get over my fear of making fresh pasta. just because i don't have a pasta roller-outer doesn't mean i can't do it, right?

[FoodMan]

excellent job, foodman--i saw that same ep of great chefs and thought about making it as well.  i really need to get over my fear of making fresh pasta.  just because i don't have a pasta roller-outer doesn't mean i can't do it, right?

←

You don't need a pasta "roller-outer" for this. As you can see I actually did not use mine, instead I opted for the therapeutic use of my rolling pin

Kevin-

You know I did provide a link to the recipe up there ....yes it is a raw tomato sauce/puree made with peeled, seeded tomatoes olive oil and salt. Even though I bought good quality tomatoes, the sauce was not as bright red as the one on the show. It tasted great though.

I like your walnut chicken dish BTW, might be another recipe I have to steal in the near future since I am Plotkin-less.

[mrbigjas]

I like your walnut chicken dish BTW, might be another recipe I have to steal in the near future since I am Plotkin-less.

yeah what he said. in my googling around last night (we had pasta with favas and another shot at that eggplant with egg sauce dish, which turned out much better), i could have sworn i found something, but i was on like 10 different websites and i'm damned if i can remember which it was.

[Kevin72]

Kevin-

You know I did provide a link to the recipe up there  ....yes it is a raw

←

All right, smartass. Have mercy on those whose caffeine hadn't kicked in yet.

[Pontormo]

Elie: Your dish is beautiful. I love the Italian flag effect.

What might have made it more Ligurian is a stamped design on each little square of pasta, transforming them into corzetti. Traditionally made into slightly thick disks and then decorated with the use of a wooden stamp, corzetti are sauced simply with tomatoes. I have a Swiss mold for making Christmas cookies, carved with images of a giraffe, peacock, studious elf and baby-bearing stork, but suspect the designs are carved too deep to be of use.

Like Kevin, I made Ligurian chicken, although with thighs reserved when making stock this weekend. The dish is called Pollastro a-a caccieuia and is basically chicken cacciatori. Andrews said the secret ingredient is high-quality free-range chicken. I decided it was fresh oregano and added that. I served it with simply boiled potatoes, preceded by sformati di cardi as documented in the Piemontese thread.

Earlier I also used up a batch of pesto on trenette with boiled potatoes and green beans.

[Chufi]

Klary, what party? I missed a party? Damn! 

←

ravioli for 24

Elie, that pasta is really beautiful.

and Kevin, the chicken with walnuts looks very good.

I'm going on a Ligurian wine hunt tomorrow.. see if a couple of my favorite wine shops have it!