The Cooking and Cuisine of Puglia

[Kevin72]

Monday night's meal started with baked mushrooms, based on a recipe from one of the sites posted at the beginning of the month:

I augmented the bread crumb topping with some eggs, don't know why.

Continued the meal with orecchiette with sausage and turnip greens:

The greens were a happy accident: the store was out of both broccoli rabe and dandelion greens, and only then did I find the turnip greens and recall Franci's remark that those were more typically used in Puglia.

To drink with the meal:

[Pontormo]

Lately the Italian forum brings to mind this time of year in many towns and cities throughout Italy, especially after Ferragosto when institutions close and merchants pull down their metal shutters and head for the beach. At least Kevin got over his apathy regarding pasta on the day Prato displays the belt dropped into the hands of Saint Thomas and all the bells ring.

In looking back at earlier reports on this thread, I'm relieved to discover from another one of Kevin's posts that I made something quasi-Pugliese several months ago. The stuffed meatloaf with spinach, carrots, crust bubbling with escaped bits of cheese from Molto Mario is great. This week I also made a variation on Franci's focaccia with pomodorini since I can get the kind of Italian tomato that is sold in Philadelphia. However, I used pizza dough that was in the freezer and intend to start from scratch sometime before the season is over since it was so good. (Warning: let the focaccia rest a bit; the juice under the tomatoes is HOT otherwise.)

Tonight, I sat down to dinner around 10:30 to a composite of the meatballs Abra prepared and those in this recipe, with a few modifications of my own. If made with less than 2 cups of Romano/Gran Padana, nonetheless the copious amount of cheese and all those eggs really do produce an incredibly light meatball.

I appreciate the warning about the obnoxious braying on the site with a recipe for the Cutteriedde, Andrew. (Funny, it happened only once & I've visited that site before.) I also came across this from Clifford Wright while searching for Pugliese polpette. Again, I took what I wanted from each source.

Unfortunately, my source for

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didn't have any, so I made due with chard and one other odd-looking green that looked like it might be bitter and it was. I can highly recommend making the stew with meatballs. I was afraid they would break up while stirring in the greens and become like overcooked hamburgers after simmering for nearly an hour. Fears unfounded. The breadcrumbs coating the polpette helped to thicken the sauce. I highly recommend this variation on a dish I will definitely try with traditional lamb once supplies from Iceland appear in the fall. Edited August 19, 2006 by Pontormo (log)

[Pontormo]

I heeded Franci's comments and waited until tonight to eat the following dish:

Better lukewarm or roomtemperature with crusty bread. The next day are even better

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Yesterday, I cooked four different kinds of small eggplants, including what the farmer called French graffiti, elongated and curved, with a lavendar and white skin; two of the round Thai varieties that Mrbigjas photographed on page 2 of this thread (yellow and orange); and a slightly larger green and white Thai eggplant Austin documents in Eggplant thread of the Cooking forum. The problem with Thai eggplants is the paucity of flesh, and in the case of the latter type, its firmness. Consequently, I had a higher than desirable ratio of ground beef to mashed eggplant in the filling. Using one of the first crops of Roma tomatoes available at the market to make the sauce, I nonetheless was pleased with the dish and really like the capers scattered on the top. I baked it uncovered, a decision based on the recommendation for keeping the sauce very runny so that it could withstand 30-40 minutes in the oven. Please let me know if you recommend otherwise, Franci, since the sauce in your shot glistens without looking baked on--and thank you very much for inspiring my dinner.

Edited August 22, 2006 by Pontormo (log)

[mrbigjas]

pontormo, it seems like you are the only one cooking nowadays!

fortunately the reason for us is the arrival of a new baby, which means that people have been bringing food to us right and left.

(edited to add he's a little ol baby boy, who shares a birthday with julia child...)

unfortunately that means i haven't had the opportunity to cook much in the last week or so.

but i'm hoping to have a little time this afternoon to make orecchiete, with plenty of time to let them dry before dinner. i plan to serve with broccoli rabe tonight. after my experience making the saffron pasta a few months ago, my confidence is high.

Edited August 22, 2006 by mrbigjas (log)

[FoodMan]

Well, I have been away for most of the last couple of weeks, mainly due to the birth of my second son. Both his mom and him are doing terrific!

I did manage to make a couple of Puglian inspired things. First one was a nice pillowy soft bread with a crispy crust, based on a recipe from Peter Reinhart's book. It contains some mashed potatoes and very little semolina.

Served the bread slices as and antipasto topped with two home cured meats. Well the lomo (the one on the right) is Spanish not Italian but I am sure no one would mind...right?

I also made a delicious pizza Rustica based on the recipe in The Italian Country Table. The filling consists of onions, roasted red peppers, olives, raisins and parm cheese. Very good for dinner and for snacks at work

[Pontormo]

Mrbigjas and Elie:

Congratulations and best wishes to your wives and children!!!! How wonderful.

I didn't step in until late in the month myself and I just figured the silence is due to the time of year.

Foodman: How you could make all that under the circumstances is beyond me, although a baker's hours do resemble those of a new parent. Lovely loaves. I take it you liked the raisins in the pie.

I raise a bottle to you both and hope son and new baby love nocturnal slumber as much as you love food.

Edited August 22, 2006 by Pontormo (log)

[FoodMan]

Ah, how funny, I just noticed mrbigjas' comments as well! Congrats!

Pontormo, it's the second kid, so I guess we are more experienced now and baking at 2AM is just natural. Besides my wife is quiet a capable lady .

[mrbigjas]

thanks all, and same to you, foodman!

[NYC Mike]

Congrats to you both!! Very exciting news!

mike

[Franci]

Guys, congratulations to both of you!

Foodman I really can see that the baking at 2 am is really productive

I just got back today from Puglia, I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked and of course I didn't have the time to cook a lot, although I managed to gain a couple kilos anyway . I am just in time to post some pictures before leaving again for the real vacation

Sunday morning, very early and was already too hot, we went to our land just outiside town to pick up some fruit for jams.

It rained recently, so we were lucky enough to find tender wild chicory and "sivoni" which didn't bloom yet (in the first of the two pictures of sivoni you can see it was bloomed already)

We got back with 4 kgs of figs that we turned into jam

These would have been also very good for drying, figs are traditionally laid on these tables in the sun.

We brought home also some pagnottelle, wich we usually munch while eating pasta

Here other kinds of pagnottelle

Unfortunately it was not possible to find fresh cardoncelli (wild cardoons) but we managed to find cultevated ones

and this is the polpette and wild herbs dish I was talking about (can be done with chicories, catalogna, cardoncelli and polpette or lamb pieces)

[Pontormo]

Franci: Quick note as you're writing:

The figs!!!! Do you also eat them fresh with salami or is that just a Tuscan thing?

Those melons are absolutely gorgeous. I've never seen them in central Italy either.

Interesting to see the picture of the cultivated curved, thin cardoons. They barely resemble their larger relatives.

[Pan]

Congratulazioni, Foodman and mrbigjas!

Franci, that polpette dish looks very good! Ah, heck, everyone's contributions look good.

[mrbigjas]

thanks pan.

tonight i made orecchiette with broccoli rabe--a dish which i've made before, but this time i made the orecchiette, which i have never done before.

the interesting thing i found was that there were various recipes for the pasta. over on about.com, kyle phillips calls for a 2:1 semolina/AP ratio. lidia, in lidia's italian table, calls for a 3:5 ratio. ada boni calls for a 1:2 ratio. mario does a 1:1 ratio (as an aside: i just realized that in simple italian food , mario gives a recipe for making orecchiette, but no recipes for dishes including it).

anyway, it's all over the place.

i tried to remember what i did last time i made semolina pasta, and not remembering, i made a random choice and went with the 2:1 semolina/AP ratio. i might have made the dough a little too soft. you know, it's just not that easy. maybe if you grow up in puglia and have it several times a week it is, but for those of us who didn't, getting that shape just right, not making it too heavy around the edges so it's too chewy and unpleasant to eat, and yet not just ending up with a flat disc, or worse yet breaking through the middle of the thing... it's difficult. i ended up using my thumb rather than the knife.

i felt like i was getting better at it by the end, but still my pasta was kinda thick.

then the recipes continue to vary: some of them have you boil the greens with the pasta, and then finish the whole thing in oil in which you've sauteed garlic. some have you cook the greens separately. lidia has you braise the greens in stock and then add butter before you add the pasta, to make a sort of sauce. i stuck with sauteeing/braising the greens without boiling so as not to lose their bitterness, and then adding the pasta.

i gotta tell you, thick pasta or not, it was delicious.

there's something about the flavor of broccoli rabe and a couple of other, similar vegetables (yu choy, a kind of chinese broccoli rabe sort of thing, is another one) that i find incredibly satisfying. i can't quite describe it, but they taste 'right' to me. i've tended towards more and more bitter greens as i've gotten older, but broccoli rabe just has something the others don't.

ok the end. no pics this time.

[Franci]

t

then the recipes continue to vary: some of them have you boil the greens with the pasta, and then finish the whole thing in oil in which you've sauteed garlic.  some have you cook the greens separately.  lidia has you braise the greens in stock and then add butter before you add the pasta, to make a sort of sauce.    i stuck with sauteeing/braising the greens without boiling so as not to lose their bitterness, and then adding the pasta.

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Good try Mrbigjas! It's really not easy to make orecchiette. Monday morning we were invited for lunch at friend's house, they made orecchiette and with the camera I shoot a video, which I cannot manage to watch on my pc, I am guessing I need to download something (I want to make sure of the quality) and then I don't have a clue on how to upload it here. Any guess?

Going back to orecchiette, some people add a little bit of white flour to semola but the most use only semola and warm-hot water (it's a little thinner then semolina: way too coarse).

For the cime di rapa, Lidia is making my stomach twist.....no stock and butter . I boil the cime di rape, take them out and boil the pasta in the same water. Just to get the proper cooking time. My parents don't use the same water if the rape are really bitter but cime di rape in Puglia are so much more bitter then the broccoli rape. When the pasta is almost ready, heat up plenty of evo, add garlic, hot pepper (when golden) melt in it at least 10 unsalted anchovies (in NY you can find the cetara one at buonitalia). The quality of the anchovies can ruin the dish. When the anchovies are melted saute' the pasta with the rape (which are added back to the water at the end). In many towns some toasted breadcrumbs is sprinkled on top.

[Franci]

Another traditional dish from my town with cardoncelli is called

carduncidd azzis (azzis=seated)

Cardoncelli are bleanched and then briefly cooked in meat stock. In a pan make layers of carndoncelli and grated pecorino, cover with the stock beat one or two eggs with more pecorino and pour on the cardi. It's not really a frittata. Then gratinee' in the oven. The eggs should still be quite soft and the end dish is not dry, very good and tasty

Here is still a little stock missing, just before going to the oven, sorry I don't have the finish picture

This also can be considered a tiella, that's how is called the round pan (both of earthware but also alluminium). There are many layered dishes of vegetables: potatoes and cardoncelli (this time I mean the cardoncelli mushrooms), artichokes rice and potatoes, potatoes, zucchini and mussels, etc.

Besides tielle also the frittate in the oven are a staple

This was with wild asparagus, tons of pecorino, breadcrumbs, chopped garlic and parsley (almost same dough of polpette d'uovo but baked)

[Franci]

Franci:  Quick note as you're writing:

The figs!!!!  Do you also eat them fresh with salami or is that just a Tuscan thing?

Those melons are absolutely gorgeous.  I've never seen them in central Italy either.

Interesting to see the picture of the cultivated curved, thin cardoons.  They barely resemble their larger relatives.

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No, we don't eat figs with salame. They are served with other fruit at the end of the meal. Unfortunately I almost never eat them: in stores they are quite disapponting and expensive. In the States even from trees they were not good.

See pagnottella taste more like a sweet cucumber, the one on the left resemble a little more to a melon but is more chruncy and less juicy the one on the right is more like a cucumber. I could find pagnottelle in Astoria once.

[Andrew Fenton]

First, to our fruitful multipliers: auguri! And kudos for managing to put out some terrific sounding- and looking-food, even as you put out newborns.

I wish I could blame my slackerness on biology, but it's just sloth, or maybe Ferragosto...

At any rate, last night I did manage to come up with an approximation of Franci's stuffed eggplant. I say "approximation" because there were definitely some unorthodox aspects. I used ground chicken because I had some chicken thighs I wanted to use up. And the sauce was left over from Monday's bucatini all'amatriciana, pimped up with capers and herbs.

Here's the result:

More Pugliese in inspiration than in result, but still tasty. If I could eat good fresh eggplant every day of my life, I would. And this provided plenty of leftovers, for lunch today as well as a couple for the freezer, to enjoy during the busy days of the fall...

[Franci]

Andrew, your eggplants look very good.

Here are stuffed mussels

Mussels are open by hand, not on the stove without tearing them apart (Tarantini eat raw mussels )

eggs

pecorino

breadcrumbs

little garlic

parsley and salt

mix together to a soft consistency. Fill the mussels and secure with cotton string.

Make a runny tomatoe sauce (add water to it) starting with garlic and hot pepper.

After 10-15 minutes add the mussels and cook about 15 minutes longer. Eat with plenty of crusty bread. The sauce is very good for spaghetti

[Abra]

Congratulations and felicitations on the new additions to your families, gentlemen! Two babies on one month's thread must be some sort of eG record.

Those cardoncelli look nothing at all like what we have here for cardoons. Maybe that's why I'm never impressed with the way cardoon recipes turn out. It's the wrong vegetable.

And those stuffed mussels look like nothing on earth that I've ever seen before. I am dying to try them.

My husband and I have both been sick for a week or more, so while we've been eating, I can't claim to have exactly been cooking. I'm afraid I flunk Puglia, but I'll try to do better next month.

[divina]

Auguri for the figli maschi!!!

And for the labor of love making the stuffed mussels, one of my favorites!

I went for the Tiella..with mussles and potatoes .. now that I am feeling better!

in the oven so foto's later!

[divina]

here is my puglia homework! on this slow dialup.. just put it on my blog!My husband loved it..but he is Florentine!Franci what do you say???funny Franci is my husbands nickname!

Edited August 26, 2006 by divina (log)

[Andrew Fenton]

Wow. Just... wow. Divina, I think your homework earns you an A.

[Pontormo]

Franci & Judy: I love mussels, thanks for the inspiration! I usually associate them with cool, grey days, so it's nice to have two new ideas for making them during tomato season.

Judy, I did manage to get a look at your blog finally, though it took at least fifteen minutes to gain access to the full entry. (Please send me a PM if you've recently changed your server since I am not having problems with any other sites. I called Tech and that was the only explanation offered unless my own computer is to blame.) Tanti belated auguri for the Fete of San Lorenzo. I only wish gas stations around here sold cool rustic cookware for baking!

Franci: Should you read this thread before your trip to the Middle East and Hong Kong and have any specifically Pugliese preparations for zucchini that you have time to recommend, please share. I did eat eggplant in one form or another every single day last week, and as much as I felt the final serving of the stuffed eggplants was the best, I am ready for something completely different.

Edited August 26, 2006 by Pontormo (log)

[divina]

don't know why it took so long,, it took me forever to download the foto's too, so maybe something Italian!

[Chufi]

mrbigjas and Foodman, congratulations on the babies!

I haven't done any Pugliese cooking this month.. and I'll be away most of September too.. but I hope October and crisp autumn days will find me in the kitchen cooking Italian food again.