The Cooking and Cuisine of Le Marche

[FoodMan]

I agree with you completely Kevin, and your point is not tiresome. with both books by Schwartz and Kaspar I was actually confused as to what to cook because most recipes felt so region-specific. With FT's book it's the other way around..I mean how many times have we seen a fillet of fish poached in tomato sauce or a grilled Orata....

For Abruzzo Molto Mario might be one of the best resources honestly.

[ludja]

...  I don't have any sort of sweet tooth, so I tend to forget about the dolce....but I have some great recipes from Ital.cook.

One particularly interesting one is a filled cookie that has an orange peel/parmigiana stuffing.  If anyone wants the recipe, PM me. Warning: the filling tastes really good and you wind up eating a lot of it before it gets to the cookie!

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Sorry if I missed the earlier reference, but where did you find the recipe? Is Ital.cook a webite or magazine?

The cookie recipe sounds very interesting. Do you know if it is a traditional or else a more "nouveau" Le Marche recipe?

Thank you!

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Nice photos of the apple fritters, Foodman! I've made the recipe from Marcella Hazan several times. In that recipe the apple slices are macerated with sugar, lemon zest and rum. The batter is simply flour and water. Thanks for the tip regarding the drizzle of honey!

[hathor]

Ludja, Ital.cook, is the Slow Food school in the city of Jesi, in LeMarche that I attended 2 years ago. Can it already be two years?? Oh my, time flies.

The school's curriculum centers around the Italian regions....each few days we had a chef come from a different region, along with his ingredients. It was a wonderful experience. Somewhere around here on eG is a thread from when I was there....

Kevin and FM, you are both raising interesting points about cookbooks and regionality. In my conversations with different tourists, I'm always surprised at how little is known about the differences between the regions. And cookbooks, like this one from LeMarche, don't help the matter. A region specific cookbook should invoke all the flavors of that region, and teach us how to use those indigenous ingredients.

Which brings me to a question that I was pondering today while chopping up the ingredients for lunch. I made some spaghetti with an anchovy sauce. The sauce had garlic, onions, parsley, anchovies, chili peppers.

Could this be considered a LeMarche recipe? The anchovies and chili peppers are common ingredients in LeMarche dishes, as is garlic. Never an abundance of garlic, but a small hint of it. You could find this simple preparation in LeMarche certainly, but also in Puglia, Calabria, Sicily, Lombardia, Abruzzo etc. Is this a pan-Italian recipe? Meaning, it crosses borders? And if so, what are other pan-Italian recipes? Risottos and polenta come to mind. Seems my mind was wandering while chopping parsley!

[Kevin72]

For Abruzzo Molto Mario might be one of the best resources honestly.

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Except that he gets most of his recipes from Calen's book. Which is good, because he really distills the most essential and unique recipes from the collection.

Kevin and FM, you are both raising interesting points about cookbooks and regionality.  In my conversations with different tourists, I'm always surprised at how little is known about the differences between the regions.  And cookbooks, like this one from LeMarche, don't help the matter.  A region specific cookbook should invoke all the flavors of that region, and teach us how to use those indigenous ingredients.

Which brings me to a question that I was pondering today while chopping up the ingredients for lunch.  I made some spaghetti with an anchovy sauce.  The sauce had garlic, onions, parsley, anchovies, chili peppers.

Could this be considered a LeMarche recipe? The anchovies and chili peppers are common ingredients in LeMarche dishes, as is garlic. Never an abundance of garlic, but a small hint of it.  You could find this simple preparation in LeMarche certainly, but also in Puglia, Calabria, Sicily, Lombardia, Abruzzo etc. Is this a pan-Italian recipe? Meaning, it crosses borders? And if so, what are other pan-Italian recipes? Risottos and polenta come to mind.  Seems my mind was wandering while chopping parsley!

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I was thinking about the conversations you and I have had over the years about this topic, Judith. I remember once that you made the excellent observation that the hardest regions to really capture a sense of are the poorer ones, or the ones where the cooking is its most simple. The recipes don't jump out because they seem so basic and universal: spaghetti with anchovies for instance. I'm sure this is a good, satisfying dish. But imagine it in some dockside shack of a trattoria, served with shimmering anchovies just a few hours out of the ocean . . . I'd imagine it would be like nothing you've had before.

And there's nothing wrong with these more simple or basic recipes, but there has to still be something unique in the larger collection. Another prime region-specific cookbook I can think of is Flavors of Puglia by Nancy Harmon Jenkins. Now, in my opinion, cooking doesn't get more sparse and basic than it does in Puglia, and there are many recipes in the book that you could find in any other Italian cookbook anywhere: stuffed mussels, spaghetti with clams, and yes, fish in tomato sauce. But yet at the end of the book, you still have a sense of the cuisine as a whole and understand the simplicity of the recipes or why they are so simplistic. You still get recipes like lamb braised with dandelion greens, or fried pasta with chickpeas, or dried fava puree. There's no stray recipes for ragu bolognese or risi e bisi recipes (which you'll find in Calen's Abruzzo book, unfortunately). You get a pure, undiluted sense of the region.

[weinoo]

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Mmmmmmmmm - that looks delish, Judith!

[hathor]

I was thinking about the conversations you and I have had over the years about this topic, Judith. 

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I think you may have identified one of the best aspects of eGullet: conversations we have had over a number of years.

But, to go back on topic: You have probably done the job of many a book editor, you've figured out what makes a regional cookbook work. That sense of place. You have to wonder why its so elusive or difficult.

[ludja]

Ludja, Ital.cook, is the Slow Food school in the city of  Jesi, in LeMarche that I attended 2 years ago.  Can it already be two years?? Oh my, time flies.  

The school's curriculum centers around the Italian regions....each few days we had a chef come from a different region, along with his ingredients. It was a wonderful experience. Somewhere around here on eG is a thread from when I was there....

...

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Doh! I remember your experience and the thread, just not the name... For those that missed it, here's the link

(Thanks for the cookie recipe!

Edited March 29, 2007 by ludja (log)

[FoodMan]

I was thinking about the conversations you and I have had over the years about this topic, Judith. 

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I think you may have identified one of the best aspects of eGullet: conversations we have had over a number of years.

But, to go back on topic: You have probably done the job of many a book editor, you've figured out what makes a regional cookbook work. That sense of place. You have to wonder why its so elusive or difficult.

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Because some editors/authors think it won't sell?? Just a thought.

Kevin-

Why do you say that Mario gets his recipes from Callen? Just curious.

[Kevin72]

He makes them "his", certainly, with a little twist here and there, but you can just tell that was his prime source in doing those shows. And, looking over his regional writeups on mariobatali.com, he specifcally cites her as a definitive resource in getting to know the region.

[FoodMan]

To wrap Le Marche up (as well as a final shot at the Trabocchi book) this weekend I made the Bostrengo rice cake. I made half the recipe since the thing is BIG. The recipe works good here...no excess eggs or loose batters. The result while good, was not what I was expecting and since I have no idea how a real Bostrengo is supposed to be like I have no basis for comparison.

The cake has arborio rice, lots of caramalezied fresh apples and pears, cocoa, honey, raisins and dried figs. The flavor was richer than what I expected and reminded me a lot of the chcocolate and dried citrus peel 'Xmas keeping cake' I made in the E-R region. Probably due to the fact that this one has fresh lemon and orange zest in it as well as rum. Also, all that tasty mild caramelized fruit was just lost in there and overpowered by the rest of the strong flavors. My vision was for a lighter flavored cake...more like a rice pudding cake with chocolate.

Cooled cake

Served it with a scoop of vanilla gelato and some homemade Seville orange marmalade

Me thinks the Le Marche book might soon be written off and sold at Half-Price Books in exchange for something useful.

[hathor]

Ludja, Ital.cook, is the Slow Food school in the city of  Jesi, in LeMarche that I attended 2 years ago.  Can it already be two years?? Oh my, time flies. 

The school's curriculum centers around the Italian regions....each few days we had a chef come from a different region, along with his ingredients. It was a wonderful experience. Somewhere around here on eG is a thread from when I was there....

...

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Doh! I remember your experience and the thread, just not the name... For those that missed it, here's the link

(Thanks for the cookie recipe!

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Did you get a chance to make the cookies? They taste better when they sit for a few days, IMHO.

Hope you enjoyed!

FM, that barely looks like a cake...it looks like a cooked pudding! OH! Maybe I'm finally understanding what my British friends say when they ask for pudding for dessert!

That cakes looks incredibly rich and tempting. Especially with your condiments.

[hathor]

See. I'm still cooking regional!

My fishmonger talked me into trying scorfano today (rock fish or scorpion fish. Or an ugly person...hey, that's just what the dictionary said.) It was one UGLY fish...and strong smelling. Puzzo!

My fish guy told me to roast it or make a sauce, but not to grill it. So when I came home I looked it up in my Le Marche cookbook, and they had a nice sounding recipe: roast it with a sauce made of lemon juice, lemon peel, little bit of garlic and parsley. The sauce was good, I mixed in some orange juice with it to mellow the lemon, but I can't say that I love the fish. It's a very 'particular' flavor. I think it would be better as part of a mix.

Also, if anyone has any great ideas how to get the stink off of my hands...please call me, write me, anything....help!

[Kevin72]

Gorgeous picture of ugly fish.

Stainless steel is supposed to be pretty good at getting that funk out.

You're on the right track saying that scorpionfish would probably be better as part of a mix, since it is, along with red mullet, considered one of the "essentials" in Mediterranean fish soups and stews. How's the bone content?

[hathor]

Gorgeous picture of ugly fish.

Stainless steel is supposed to be pretty good at getting that funk out.

You're on the right track saying that scorpionfish would probably be better as part of a mix, since it is, along with red mullet, considered one of the "essentials" in Mediterranean fish soups and stews.  How's the bone content?

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One center big bone, and then some tricky little feathery ones that you really had to watch out for. It would be much better to use it in stock, debone, and then add the fish meat back to any brodetto that you have going on.

I love red mullet, and I'll put up with the bones, but I'm not sure I'm going near this guy again!

edit to add p.s. What am I supposed to do with the stainless steel....enrobe my hands in it?? That might work....

Edited June 27, 2007 by hathor (log)

[Kevin72]

Rub your hands on it. They sell stainless steal "bars" for such a purpose.