These plants are what I have always known as broccoletti selvatici. They are part of the group of edible plants called piante selvatiche (wild plants) or piante spontanee or erbe spontanee (spontaneous herbs) in Italian
For the photo, I collected two whole plants and the photos took place in my dining room (this is why they look so well groomed).
The weed, is classed as a brassica (family of vegetables which includes broccoli and cabbage) and if you can be patient enough to collect a sufficient quantity of wild broccoletti you will not be disappointed. As you see by the second photo, it is only the tender tips with young leaves that you pick – love and patience is required – take a bag, be prepared to walk and pick only the tender shoots from each plant.
They taste similar tocime di rape and tossed around in a pan with garlic, some chilli and olive oil, they make a vey tasty vegetable contorno (side dish) or a pasta sauce for orecchiette (pasta shaped like little ears and popular in Puglia). As a variation for that pasta sauce, a fresh, Italian pork sausage or some anchovies can be crumbled into the hot pan at the same time.
The pasta will need pecorino rather than parmigiano grated on top – not only because it is a southern Italian type dish, but also because a strong tasting sauce requires a strong cheese.
I discovered that what I have always known as cime di rape have local names in some regions of Italy. In Lazio they’re broccoletti. in Campania they’re named friarielli, and in Toscana, rapini. You may therefore not be surprised that what I call broccoletti selvatici are known by different local names in the different regions of Italy. For example in Sicily which is a small island, some Sicilians may call them lazzane (a similar wild green in Sicily) and other Sicilians from a different part of Sicily may refer to them as cavoliceddi.
Like all vegetables, these wild broccoletti are seasonal and you will need to wait till the yellow flower appears before you pick them, but not too many yellow flowers, because this means that the plant is going to seed. If this is the case, and the plant will be spindly – its energy would have gone into seed production, and in fact, if you look at the photo, this is already beginning to happen.
Most of the world’s other cultures harvested (and some still harvest) from the wild: dandelions, wild chicories, nettles, amaranth, purslane and wild fennel may be the most recognised.
Other cultures living in Australia also collect wild greens, for example Greeks call them horta and I have written about vlita – a summer weed, in a previous post. Indigenous Australians had their favourites and some early pioneers ate wild greens, such as Warrigal greens and pigweed.
anchovy fillets 3-4 chopped finely or 1-2 pork Italian sausages
extra virgin olive oil, ½- ¾ cup
white wine, a splash
pecorino for grating
PROCESSES
Wash the greens.
Heat some olive oil, add the garlic, chillies and the anchovies (or broken up sausage).
Add the vegetables sauté for a few minutes until they begin to wilt.
Add white wine, cover and cook till soft.(Some cooks pre-cook the greens and then sauté them – this is not necessary if you are only cooking the young shoots).
Cook the orecchiette and dress them with the greens.
Present them at the table with grated cheese, preferably pecorino -this is the stronger tasting grating cheese and more alined with southern Italian tastes.
I found this bunch of fennel at one of my favourite stalls in the Queen Victoria market this week. Apart from many other vegetables, I always buy my cime di rape, radicchio, chicory, kale, broadbeans, coloured cauli, violet eggplants – name any of the out of the norm vegetables and this is where I go: to Gus and Carmel’s. I even bought some milkweed this morning. This is where I also buy my vlita – another weed.
At the end of the fennel season (and it is well and truly this in Victoria, Australia) the fennel plant (called Florentine fennel) produces some flat bulbs, which never mature.
My friend Libby who grows fennel in her wonderful garden in the Adelaide Hills first alerted me to these flat bulbs last year – at the time we thought that this would be very suitable to use with pasta con le sarde which includes wild fennel as one of the ingredients. After speaking to her I saw some bunches of these small flat bulbs for sale at the Queen Victoria Melbourne Market. And here they were again for sale today. I spoke to the vendor (Gus) who said that rather than wasting them he thought that he could try to sell bunches of them. This fennel may become very marketable – good on you Gus.
Gus is Calabrese. He knows that I like to use this type of fennel for my Sicilian pasta con le sarde, but he told me how he uses the fennel to make a pasta sauce and he uses anchovies.
He slices the whole plant finely (the green fronds and non-developed bulbs) and cooks it all in some boiling water with a little salt. Then he drains it well.
Anchovies are the secret ingredient.
In a large frypan dissolve a few chopped anchovies in some hot extra virgin olive oil (the anchovies are crushed using a wooden or metal spoon until they melt in the oil).
Add the garlic (chilli is optional). Add the cooked fennel and toss it in extra virgin olive oil and flavours. This is your pasta sauce.
Sicilians would select bucatini. Calabresi may use spaghetti or a short pasta shape.
Present the pasta dressed with the fennel, topped with toasted breadcrumbs (the alternative to grated cheese not only in Sicily, but obviously also in Calabria).
For bread crumbs: use 1-3 day old white bread (crusty bread, sourdough or pasta dura).
Remove crust, break into pieces, place into a food processor and make into coarse crumbs. They can be crumbled with fingertips or grated. The term for breadcrumbs, in Italianispane grattugiato/ grattato – it means grated bread.
Heat about ½ cup of extra virgin olive oil in a frying pan and add 1 cup of coarse breadcrumbs (see above). Stir continuously on low temperature until an even, golden brown.
Obviously if you do not have access to someone who has fennel growing in their garden, or to wild fennel, or to Gus and Carmel’s stall you may need to use bulb fennel with as much green frond as you can get. Nearly as good, but not quite!!
I also bought this garlic at the same time – Gus and Carmel, heroes!
I visited friends recently who have a small, but very prolific vegetable garden – they have chooks, and that means fertilizer. I came home with huge bunches of basil and I made pesto. At this time of year it very handy to have pesto as standby in the fridge – in fact I have fed two lots of visitors pesto this week, this version with beans last night.
Those of you who grow basil in your gardens probably do not want to hear about pesto ever again, but maybe you do not know about the classic recipe of pesto and triofe (Ligurian classic shape of pasta for this dish), green beans and potatoes (last night I omitted the potatoes – see photo). I was reminded of this dish when I saw the film Summer in Genova recently. In the film, Colin Firth cooked this dish for his two daughters, a16-year-old and ten-year-old (all the children I know seem to like pesto). Their mother dies in a car accident and the family moves to Genova in Liguria – a new city, new start and a new recipe (one their mother had not cooked). There is probably only one positive thing that I can say about this film, and that is that it reminded me to cook this classic recipe.
It is very simple to compose this dish – the potatoes and beans are cooked in the same water as the pasta, drained and dressed with the pesto.
Some of you may be aware that pesto alla Genovese can only be made exclusively from ingredients grown in that small area in northwest Italy called Liguria. This is the area where pesto originated and the Ligurians want to give it a D.O.P. status (Protected Designation of Origin) and it cannot be called pesto unless it comes from that part of the world.
However I do make pesto as many of us do with plenty of garlic, extra virgin olive oil, pine nuts, basil leaves and the mixture of parmigiano and pecorino. (See post called SICILIAN PESTO – Mataroccu for an alternative recipe). If I am storing the pesto in the fridge, I always top it with olive oil to stop the oxidation.
For 500g pasta I use about 300g of green beans cut diagonally to the length of the pasta (triofe are like penne in length) and 200g potatoes cut into small cubes (if I am using them). Ligurians tend to cook the vegetables and the pasta at the same time, but I like to stagger their cooking time, mainly to preserve some crunch to the beans.
The potatoes may take the longest time to cook, so begin by placing the potatoes into a large saucepan of cold, salted water.
Bring to the boil and cook the potatoes for about 10 mins before adding the pasta.
Add the beans about 7 mins before the pasta and potatoes are cooked.
Drain, coat the pasta and vegetables with pesto and add the cheese last of all.
Easy, very fragrant, different, and much appreciated, especially by those who have never made fresh pesto.
Cannulicchi a la Favurita – Cannolicchi alla Favorita is a Sicilian pasta dish that celebrates three of spring’s finest vegetables: fresh broad beans, peas and artichokes.
In Sicily, as in much of Italy, these vegetables arrive at much the same time and are natural companions. Their flavours are different but complementary: broad beans are slightly earthy, peas bring sweetness, and artichokes add their distinctive gentle bitterness. Together, dressed generously with extra virgin olive oil and pecorino, they make a particularly good sauce for pasta.
In Melbourne, spring brings the same opportunity. Broad beans and fresh peas appear in the markets, along with beautiful fleshy artichokes, and this is the time to make the dish while the vegetables are young and tender.
Cannolicchi alla Favorita and the Charleston
The recipe, and its intriguing name, came to me from the menu of the Charleston, a celebrated restaurant in Mondello, the seaside resort on the outskirts of Palermo.
Mondello, Palermo’s famous seaside resort and the setting for the Charleston restaurant.
The Charleston was known for presenting Sicilian ingredients and traditional dishes with considerable elegance. Its setting by the water added to its glamour, and it had a reputation as a place frequented by pezzi grossi – literally “big pieces”, but colloquially important or influential people.
I have never discovered precisely why the restaurant was given the name Charleston. Perhaps it was intended to suggest the glamour and exuberance associated with the Charleston and the fashionable dance halls of the 1920s. Whatever its origins, the name certainly suited such a grand seaside restaurant.
Its cooking drew strongly on Sicilian tradition but presented familiar ingredients in a more refined and contemporary way. Cannolicchi alla Favoritais a good example: simple seasonal vegetables transformed into an elegant pasta dish.
What Are Cannolicchi?
There is a little linguistic complication here because cannolicchi can refer to different things depending on context.
In this recipe, cannolicchi refers to the pasta: short, smooth, hollow tubes, generally about 5–6 centimetres long. Their cylindrical shape is particularly suitable because the pieces catch the vegetables, cheese and olive oil.
If cannolicchi pasta is unavailable, another reasonably large tubular pasta can be substituted.
The name cannolicchi has also been used in Sicily for certain artichokes, which makes the title of the dish particularly interesting when both pasta and artichokes appear on the same plate.
Broad Beans, Peas and Artichokes. A Sicilian Pasta for Spring
This is not a pasta dish with a heavy sauce. I think of it more as a warm spring vegetable salad combined with pasta.
The vegetables are cooked only briefly so that they remain fresh tasting and retain their beautiful variations of green. For this reason, I prepare the vegetables while the pasta is cooking and bring everything together at the last moment.
For the artichokes, use the tender inner heart and the fondo (the fleshy base beneath the leaves). I also use the peeled stalks because they have excellent flavour and there is no reason to waste them.
Large, fleshy artichokes are particularly suitable. You will need to strip off the outer leaves to reveal a fresh looking crisp heart .When they are in season, I find excellent ones at the Queen Victoria Market.
Large, fleshy artichokes
Fresh Herbs and Ricotta
The original combination is already full of flavour, but I like to add fresh herbs towards the end of cooking.
Mint is particularly good with broad beans and peas. Tender fennel fronds are another very Sicilian choice, while basil works beautifully when it is in season.
I also sometimes place a spoonful of fresh ricotta on each serving. It is not essential, but its mild creaminess is a lovely contrast to the pecorino and the slight bitterness of the artichokes.
The important thing is not to overwhelm the vegetables. This is a dish about freshness, simplicity and the flavours of spring.
What appeals to me most about Cannolicchi alla Favorita is its restraint. There is no elaborate sauce and no need for long cooking. Its success depends almost entirely on the quality and freshness of the vegetables.
Cannolicchi alla Favorita Recipe
Serves 6
Ingredients
400 g cannolicchi or another tubular pasta
5 large artichokes, depending on size
1 lemon
1 kg young broad beans, in their pods
1 kg young peas, in their pods
1 large fresh white onion, finely sliced
100 g pecorino, freshly grated
¾ cup extra virgin olive oil
salt
freshly ground black pepper
fresh mint, fennel fronds or basil, finely chopped
fresh ricotta, optional, for serving
Shell the broad beans
Prepare the Vegetables
Shell the peas and broad beans.
If the broad beans are very young and tender, I leave their pale green outer skins intact. With larger beans, remove the tougher outer skin.
Peel the broad beans if necessary
Prepare a bowl of cold water acidulated with the juice of the lemon.
Trim the artichokes generously, removing the tough outer leaves until you reach the tender centre. Cut away any fibrous parts and remove the choke if one has developed. Retain the tender fleshy base and peel the stalks.
Slice the artichoke hearts, bases and stalks finely and place them immediately into the acidulated water to prevent discolouration.
Cook the Pasta and Vegetables
Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil, salt it generously and add the pasta.
While the pasta cooks, make the vegetable sauce.
Heat the extra virgin olive oil in a large pan. Add the sliced fresh onion and cook gently until softened and lightly golden.
Drain the artichokes well and add them to the pan with the peas and broad beans. Season with salt and toss the vegetables over medium heat for about 7–10 minutes, or until just tender.
The exact cooking time will depend on the age and size of the vegetables. Avoid overcooking them — they should retain their freshness, colour and individual character.
Add the finely chopped herbs towards the end of cooking.
Bring Everything Together
Drain the pasta when it is al dente, reserving a little of the cooking water.
Add the pasta to the vegetables and toss gently so that the olive oil and vegetable juices coat the pasta. If necessary, add a small amount of the reserved pasta water to loosen the mixture.
Serve immediately with freshly grated pecorino and plenty of black pepper.
For an extra touch, add a spoonful of fresh ricotta to each plate.
The complete dish is a reminder of something fundamental to Sicilian cooking: when produce is at its best, very little needs to be done to it.
Kohlrabi are called cavoli in Sicily and in Italian it is cavolo rapa.
Cavolo is the generic term for some of the brassicas, for example cavolo verza is a cabbage, cavolo nero is Tuscan cabbage, cavolo rosso is red cabbage.
In Italian cavoli are cauliflowers.
Just to confuse things even further, Sicilians call cauliflowers broccoli.
As well as the purple coloured Kohlrabi roots there are light green ones; the root is always sold complete with the leaves and the whole plant is eaten.
Kohlrabi in Ragusa is either eaten boiled as a vegetable side dish with a dressing of extra virgin olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice, but the preferred way is to cook it with pasta, as a wet pasta dish.
The photo above is of me during one of the many visits to Sicily. I am collecting the bunches of kohlrabi with their abundant green leaves from their ortalano (seller of fruit vegetables), who came around every morning – excluding Sunday – with his van to sell his vegetables.
The kohlrabi I am able to buy at the Queen Victoria Market are always much bigger than the ones in the photos (purple ones are from market in Syracuse) but because the plant is picked when large, the leaves are not as tender.
I could never say that the version I make is as tasty as the one my relatives in Ragusa make. For a start, they make it with home made pasta (called causunedda) and they also put in strips of cutini (cotenne in Italian, pork skin in English) to flavour the broth.
The cutini (from fresh pork) are common in Sicilian cooking especially in Ragusa. They are eaten stuffed, rolled and braised as a secondo (main course), but mainly added to soups (especially pulses) and nearly always as an ingredient to make a strong sugo to dress pasta or the ravioli di ricotta (a local specialty from the south eastern part of Sicily).
Because I do not make my own causunnedda, I buy Sardinian gnocchetti shaped pasta (called gnochetti sardi) or casarecce.
Kohlrabi is an autumn – winter vegetable and it is amazing how something so simple can taste so good.
Clean the greens and separate them into manageable pieces; peel the kohlrabi root and cut into bite sized pieces.
Boil them in salted water (add strips of fresh pork rind if you wish). The water will be used as the broth to cook the pasta so calculate the amount of liquid carefully. (There doesn’t need to be abundant amounts of liquid, that is, not as much as you may use to cook pasta as you do normally because the pasta does not get drained).
When the vegetables are soft, drain them, but save the water and the rind.
Cook the pasta in the broth. Return the vegetables to the broth and pasta. If there still is too much liquid, remove some. When my relatives cook it it looks like a wet pasta dish and is not floating in liquid, but you must not forget that the pasta cooked in the broth adds some starch to the broth and thickens it.
Add chopped chilli or chilli flakes. Now for one of the most important parts -dribble with your finest extra virgin olive oil and serve.
Grated pecorino is placed on the table as an option.
The Ragusani also cook the causunnedda with dried borlotti beans in winter and with fresh borlotti beans when in season. In spring fresh broad beans are used.
In the photo below is Franca, my cousin in Ragusa preparing the causunnedda with Kohlrabi.
This is an other one of my favourite winter greens. And it is not a bad bunch!!
In Italian they are called cime di rape – literally translated as turnip tips (cime di rapa is the singular). They are sometimes also called broccoli di rape and are characterised by their strong bitter taste. They are deep green with small yellow flowers.
Cime di rape are certainly a very popular green vegetable and cooked all over Italy. It is particularly associated with the region of Puglia where the traditional classic pasta dish, orecchiette con cime di rape originates (orecchiette meaning little ears).
Cime di rape are members of the brassica or mustard family group. This diverse group includes plants whose leaves, flowers, stems and roots are cooked and eaten. For example popular brassicas include broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, cavolo nero. Some of the roots are kohlrabi, radish, swede and turnips. (By the way, I eat all of the green tops when I can get them and one of my favourite stall holders at the Queen Victoria Markets know this only too well).
A number of Asian greens are members of the brassicas and the Chinese broccoli and mustard greens are very similar in taste to broccoli di rapa.
As far as I know this vegetable can only be found at my favourite stall – Carmel and Gus’s Stall 61-63- in The Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne, but it may also be available in suburban areas where the greengrocer is of Italian heritage.
In Adelaide many of the green grocer shops and vegetable growers are Italians and when I was living there, cime di rape seemed more readily available. The seeds are easily found especially in shops which sell Italian food – my son and a number of my friends grow them successfully in their Adelaide suburban gardens.
Strangely enough, I came across a patch of luscious looking cime di rape at Heronswood (Digger’s Seeds, Victoria). It is marketed as one of the Green Manures, a bio fumigant crop for soils.
The cime di rape can be eaten as a contorno (side dish of vegetables) and cooked in the same way as Italians cook most greens – wilted and then tossed around in oil and garlic (I use lots), salt and pepper or chilli, and cooked till softened. If the vegetable is cut small enough, there is no need to wilt them first.
This is also the way of making a strong pasta sauce for orecchiette. If you do not use orecchiette, casarecci (right -hand side of photo) or a small tubular pasta which can trap the sauce is suitable.
Clean and prepare the cime as you do broccoli – leaves, flowers, stems and stalks. The tough, fibrous outer layer covering can be stripped from the large stalks (see photo above with the fibrous outer layer peeled back – remove this layer entirely).
I was discussing travelling in Italy and regional food (frequent topics of conversation) with an acquaintance, who told me that she and her daughter had really enjoyed travelling in Tuscany and had eaten a wonderful pasta dish with walnuts. She had no idea what it was; she had tried to work this out from recipe books but to no avail. She said that the sauce was very fragrant.
I think it must have been pesto di noci, very common in Liguria, home of pesto alla genovese (the one with pine nuts and basil).
I first ate this in Genova. My cousin Rosadele prepared this for me when I first visited her many years ago (to meet our respective, then husbands). Being autumn, she made this sauce to accompany agnolotti (pasta shaped like half moons/ hers were stuffed with ricotta and stracchino). She is a wonderful cook. Her mother, from Piedmont was also a very skilled cook, and between the two of them, there was always alchemy in their kitchens.
Although I promised this recipe to my acquaintance, I have been a little reluctant to post it in winter – it is made with fresh marjoram, and those of you who grow it and live in the colder states, will know that marjoram is dormant at this time of year. It hates hard winters and frost. However, if you have planted marjoram somewhere sheltered from the cold, and in a sunny location or even kept it indoors in a sunny spot, you may still have this herb. Taking one’s plant indoors is quite a common practice for people in England. My plant of marjoram, which was doing quite well on my balcony till about a month ago, now looks dead. I did check at The Queen Victoria Market this week to see if there were bunches of marjoram available, and there were.
Traditionally because it is a pesto, it is made with a mortar and pestle (see my recipe for Sicilian pesto), but I admit that with these ingredients a blender has worked well for me ( unlike basil which is likely to taste grassy if blended).
INGREDIENTS
walnuts, 500g
marjoram and parsley, 4 tablespoons of each, chopped
ricotta, 250 g
extra virgin olive oil, ¾ cup
garlic, 1-2 cloves
water, 1 tablespoon
salt, to taste
butter or thick cream, 2 tablespoons
grated nutmeg, a little
pasta, 400-500g (trofie – Ligurian, traditional shape)
PROCESSES
Blend walnuts, oil and garlic – add chopped herbs, salt and blend some more.
Add water and butter/ cream and pulse blender to the desired consistency.
Cook pasta.
Stir in the ricotta and nutmeg in the sauce.
Drain the pasta but reserve approx ½ cup of hot pasta water to stir into sauce just before serving (to warm the sauce).
Combine sauce with pasta and serve.
Grated parmigiano can be added – I prefer it without.
Do not get confused with oregano and marjoram (many do). The genus name for both is origanum. Marjoram (origanum majorana) is also called sweet marjoram or knotted marjoram. It has a softer leaf and stem, it is paler in colour, the flavour is milder, sweeter and it is very aromatic. Marjoram leaves are best when fresh.
Oregano is a very common herb in Sicily, but not marjoram – this herb is generally used only in the northern part of Italy.
Several of my friends are beginning to discover and appreciate the taste of fennel. It is prolific at present in Melbourne and most refreshing eaten raw. It can be cooked – braised, baked, made into a tortino (see recipe in blog tortino di finocchio) and as in this recipe, made into a soup (not a very common way to cook fennel).
Traditionally this recipe should be made with wild fennel and this is how I first tasted this soup.Obviously if this ingredient is not close by, the bulb can be used. If you can collect some wild fennel (make sure it looks healthy, see recipe in blog pasta con le sarde), experiment with this recipe and use both the wild and the cultivated bulb with some of its tender fronds and stalks (choose round, shiny bulbs, as in photo taken in the market of Syracuse).
It is one of the simplest soups to make and when it was first made for me (using wild fennel) all of the vegetables went into a pot with the water and once softened, broken spaghetti were added – soup without pasta is rarely presented. The broken spaghetti were once the way to use them up, by all means use some short, small sout pasta shape.
I am always amazed how Sicilian soups cooked so simply can be so appetising. My relative presented the minestra with a drizzle of the very flavourful oil given to her by a relative in Noto. Maybe the oil is the secret ingredient! Boiled vegetables cooked this way and presented with the water is considered rinfrescante, calming and soothing for the digestive system and very common as the evening meal (Sicilians still eat their main meal at lunch time).
I have intensified the flavours by varying the method of cooking and I sauté the vegetables before adding the liquid, this being a common way to make soup in the north of Italy. I also like to add stock instead of water, but when I cook this version it is no longer traditionally Sicilian.
I also found a version of a recipe for maccu (a very Sicilian soup) made in the Madonie which is very similar but uses wild fennel , dried broadbeans (soaked overnight and peeled) and no potato. The dried broadbeans add a very different taste and as they are floury, also thicken the soup as does the potato.
Maccarruna (maccheroni in Italian) is sometimes used as the generic word for pasta and is still common, especially in Naples and Sicily. It is also the term used in ancient recipe books. Most pasta, of whatever sort, was labelled maccheroni until 1850-70, after which local folk names were widely adopted by producers and consumers.
There are many explanations for the origins of the term maccarruna. Some researchers believe that it comes from the term, maccare – to squash. Others believe that it comes from the word maccu – a Sicilian, thick soup specialty made with pulses and pasta. There are also Greek words: macron meaning long, or makaria a dough of barley and broth, or makar – it means ‘very happy’ – the state maccarruna eaters presumably experience. Whatever the origins of the word maccarruna, Sicilians consume large quantities of it.
There are many small shapes of fresh pasta made in Sicilian homes. The following are some of the favourite maccarruna.
Gnocculi, gnucchiteddi, cavati, caviateddi are the most common names for gnocchi or gnocchetti (Italian) shapes. Some are rigati (have ridges on the surface) and some are lisci (smooth). All have an indentation in the centre to ensure even cooking.
Gnocchi look like dumplings and in Italy can be made out of potatoes, bread, fine cornmeal or semolina and with wheat flour. Sicilians prefer gnocculi or gnucchiteddi (the smaller shape), made with durum wheat flour. They are called different names in different regions in Sicily. When my relatives in Ragusa make gnucchiteddi, they include 1-2 eggs for each 800g-1k of durum wheat flour and as much water as the dough absorbs, but the standard practice in other parts of Sicily is to use no eggs at all.
Pasta making is a family affair. The photo was taken during my last trip to Sicily. The extended family is shaping gnucchiteddi by using a very useful gadget that belonged to my great grandmother. As you can see it looks like a loom. Very fine strips of dough are rolled around a needle-like reed and then the reed (and the shapes) are rolled on the shaping device. This fuses the dough together and gives each of the gnucchiteddi, the grooves on the surface.
My aunt also makes causunnedda, these are cooked with kohlrabi (bulb and leaves). Sometimes they are cooked with kohlrabi and borlotti, in spring broadbeans are a favourite. Cooking home made pasta is alwys a family affair. Below is a photo of my cousin with a large bowl of causunnedda, ready to take to the table. Next to her is another relative ready to assist.
Laura and Nancy in the U.S. have a great food blog called ‘Jellypress’. They invite readers to share photos of old foodways called ‘Hands on’ and I have contributed to this very interesting section in their blog.
I read your bit about pappardelle. We had pappardelle sulla lepre alla cacciatora at La Pentola dell’Oro in Firenze. It includes cinque cucchiai di aceto rosso ( 5 spoons of red wine vinegar).
Fred
Dear Fred,
your recipe which includes five spoons of red vinegar does not surprise me. There are recipes where the hare, rabbit and boar are soaked in water and vinegar before it is cooked to remove the wild taste – my mother always did this with rabbit. It bleached the meat and left some of the taste. I think that Anglo-Australians soaked wild rabbit in salt water.
I bought a rabbit at the butcher’s in Greve in December 2008 and was given three parcels, one with the rabbit, the other had the head and the third, the liver – these enrich the sauce. The other variation is the use of herbs – the addition of parsley, sage and rosemary.
There is of course the recipe for hare cooked with bitter chocolate. Now there’s a good taste!
