My mother would often say that I was ‘fissata’….fixed, almost obsessed….and I guess I am at the moment with making terrines and pâtes. And the many I have made lately are turning out just fine. (I have made three terrines and two pâtes in two weeks – all taken to friends’ places)
I think that one of the many things I like about making the above is that weights and measurements are not important. You can have a rough idea about the meats you want to buy, the herbs you would like to use, the alcohol you wish to use as a flavouring, texture you wish to achieve (layered strips of meat, shredded, minced, mousse) and off you go.
For the terrine above I used minced chicken, minced pork and twice the amount of yearling beef (low fat – I hate beef fat!) – all free range and preservative free. At times, I have used my food processor to mince different meats. Quantities were roughly 450g of pork, 450g of chicken and about 800g of yearling.
The herbs are fresh thyme and sage.
The alcohol was white wine and brandy. The only type of brandy I had at home was Vecchia Romagna, too good to cook with, but never mind.
Ingredients for making the mixed meat terrine
I used nutmeg and salt and ground black pepper. I added pistachio nuts and more thyme.
Meat and the other flavouring ingredients
I mixed it all up and left it overnight, but is OK to macerate just for a few hours.
Bacon is an important ingredient in terrines – moisture and fat. I trimmed the bacon and lined the terrine with the strips. My bacon rashes were not long enough to hang over the side, but this did not matter as I used other bacon strips to cover the terrine
Lining the mould with bacon.
I added the minced meats on top.
And placed more bacon to cover it. I used baking paper and a lid from my other terrine mold and placed it in a baine -marie, i.e. a hot water bath – mine was made with a roasting pan large enough to hold the terrine and deep enough for the water to come at least half way up. The purpose of cooking food via a bain-marie is that it creates a gentle heat around the food and results in a uniform cooking process.
I cooked it on 195C for two hours.
The baked terrine.
When you take off the lid and paper you will notice that the terrine has shrunk and there will be liquid around the meat. All good news – the liquid will turn into very flavourful jelly and the meat will need to be pressed. This is easily done by putting a wight on top.
I used a new piece of paper and an another terrine pan filled with water to press it. At other times I have used bricks and stones – be adventurous (another reason why I like making them).
Placing a weight the Terrine
Leave it overnight in the fridge for the flavours to mature (longer if you wish). When you are about to serve it, run a knife around the edges, turn it upside down and WOW.This one was taken to a holiday house at Balnarring Beach, Terrines are just so portable!
OK, it may not be Sicilian butI think that Sicilians would like it. if you wish to make a Sicilian Terrine see Gelatina:
This photo above is a photo of one of the courses I very much enjoyed in a Sardinian Restaurant in Bologna called Taverna Mascarella. It was listed on their the menu as Cicoretta con salsiccia (fresh pork sausage)
Cicoretta is either young chicory or it can also mean wild chicory. The large featured photo is of a man collecting wild greens in Agrigento (by the entrance to the temples) and the one below is a photo of wild chicory sold in the Catania market in Sicily.
I have written about chicory on this blog before and it is one of my favourite green leafy vegetables. You could also make it with other greens: Cime di rape or Cavolo Nero (also called Tuscan cabbage) or Kale or even spinach.
INGREDIENTS
1 bunch of Chicory.
2 Italian fresh pork sausages (with or without fennel or chilli)
PROCESSES
Clean and wilt the greens. Drain them.
Cut sausage or remove the mince from the skins and separate it into small pieces. Saute the sausage in some extra virgin olive oil. Add the greens, salt and pepper (to your liking) and toss them around in the hot pan with the sausage meat until the greens are well coated and flavoured.
Cheese wafers
The crusty wedges you can see in the photo are made with grated Pecorino sardo (Sardinian pecorino). If you add grated cheese to a heated non stick frypan and keep on cooking it it will stick together and form a wafer. You could do this on a stove or in an oven.
Try making small ones at first, just add a spoonful of grated cheese to a non stick frypan and watch it melt. Cool in the pan and the cheese will solidify and you will be able to lift it out with a spatula.
Pork is widely eaten in Ragusa, where my father’s family live
The Sicilians from the southeastern corner of Sicily, especially from Ragusa, eat a lot of pork.
One of their signature dishes is Ravioli di Ricotta al sugo di maiale
These are ravioli stuffed with slightly sweetened ricotta and dressed in a strongly flavoured, slow cooked, tomato ragù (ragout) made with pork meat and most times pork sausage and some pork skins.
Another dish my relatives in Ragusa make are Causuneddi, which is aSicilian word with no Italian or English translation.
Causuneddi are gnocchi-shaped pasta cooked with what Sicilians call broccoli which are, in fact, young kohlrabi complete with leaves. Strips of pork skin are added for flavour. My aunt Niluzza is a champion at making both of these.
A coiled pork sausage, a popular shape in Ragusa
Pork Sausages are coiled
They are added to sugo (a meat tomato sauce used to dress pasta), but are also eaten fried or grilled.
I have included a photo taken when I was last in Ragusa of a length of coiled pork sausage being cooked on a rustic grill – the Sicilian version of a BBQ – in fact, an Italian BBQ.
The length of sausage has no links and it can also be cooked in a frypan. Done this way the sausage is poached in a little water, without a lid. When the water evaporates the coiled sausage begins to brown in its own fat.
A Sicilian Rustic Barbecue (BBQ )with a coiled sausage being cooked
Variations in the terminology of Costate, Braciole and involtini
Costate di Maiale are pork chops.
Braciole are thin slices of meat like involtini that are usually stuffed.
Pork chops are a popular dish in this region of Sicily. They are typically pan fried with fennel seeds or sprigs of wild fennel (when in season) or other wild herbs and glazed with a small amount of red wine.
Braciole are also popular. They are thin slices of meat and usually stuffed with breadcrumbs, parsley, garlic, and local caciocavallo. They can be panfried or grilled.
Involtino is also stuffed rolled meat but this term is used more in northern Italy.
Costata, braciola, involtino and various dialect terms can overlap, while referring to quite different cuts and methods.
A recipe calling for braciole cannot automatically be assumed to mean a thin rolled slice. Historically and regionally, the term is associated more broadly with a portion of meat intended for cooking over an ember or grill. Consequently, a thicker cut, including a chop, can legitimately be called a braciola. And to make it even more difficult – in central and northern Italian usage, braciola di maiale is quite readily understood as a pork chop.
Costate di Maiale RIPIENE
The following recipe is for stuffed chops – The Costate are farcite or imbottite (words for ‘stuffed’) mainly with a mixture of pork liver and pork sausages and other fragrant addition.
You would have to ask your butcher to supply you with double pork chops with a slit in between them (as if you were cutting them into two chops) and then you can go home and stuff them.
Costata di maiale ripiena
My younger relatives (daughters of my cousins) would not dream of making them at home, they have a favourite butcher and he prepares the braciole for them. It was a different story for their mothers.
Stuffed chops can be braised or grilled. A thicker cut, including a recognisable chop, can be called a braciola because the term ‘braciola’ means a portion of meat meant for cooking over the embers- the Italian word for embers is brace.
Caciocavallo is a traditional Sicilian stretched-curd cheese, particularly popular in the Ragusa region where it is produced on farms. It is made from cow’s milk and derives its name from the historical practice of tying pairs of cheeses together and hanging them over a beam to age. Use mozzarella, the non wet mozzarella more common for use on pizzas.
HOW TO MAKE and COOK PORK BRACIOLE/ COSTATE RIPIENE
INGREDIENTS
pork braciole, (chops) 6 double
minced pork, 100g
pork liver, 100g, chopped finely
sausages, 100g, pork preferably made with fennel
pork salame, 100g, cut into very small pieces
caciocavallo fresco, 50g cut into very small pieces
fennel seeds, ½ teaspoon, crushed
white or red wine, 1 ½ cups
water or stock, 1 ½ cups
extra virgin olive oil, ½ cup
salt, and freshly ground pepper, to taste
onion, 1, chopped
PROCESSES
Mix liver, sausages (without skins) minced pork, salame, cheese, pepper, fennel seeds and a little red wine.
Stuff each double chop with some of this mixture.
Close the chops by sewing the edges.
Softened the onion in the oil, add the chops and sprinkle with the wine and water (or broth). Braise the chops (with lid) for about 30- 40 mins over low heat until cooked. You may need to add more water/wine – do not let them dry out.
Stuffed Braciole/ Costate
I have also eaten Costate di Maiale Ripiene cooked on the barbecue.
Free-Range Pigs and Culinary Memories from New Zealand to Sicily
Travelling through the North Island of New Zealand on the way to Napier, we found ourselves slowing down every time we passed paddocks dotted with free-range pigs. These were not isolated sightings—pigs foraging freely across spacious pastures seemed almost commonplace. We returned to photograph a particularly lively group near Greytown, but a sudden burst of rain sent them scurrying into their ‘kennel’ for shelter.
One scene remains vivid in my memory even without a perfect photograph: a gentle sow lying calmly as her piglets climbed, tumbled, and chased one another with the playful abandon of puppies or kittens. I had never imagined pigs could be so spirited.
The photo below was taken in Mondello, close to Palermo in Sicily.
Pork hanging in Butcher shop in Mondello Sicily
Sadly, when my thoughts turned to food, I did think that the pigs would be supreme in taste and tenderness; as cute as these piglets are, I know that eventually they will have to face the butcher’s knife. Quality meat is achieved through keeping pigs in a stress free environment, able to graze their whole lives and free to roam. The care and quality of life that appears evident for these pigs points to a more humane end than what is apparent for the live cattle or sheep that are being sent to brutal and cruel slaughters in some other countries.
A Sicilian Connection: The Nebrodi Black Pig
The last time I ate braciole like these was in Ragusa, at a relative’s country house—Sicily’s equivalent to a holiday home. We discussed il suino nero dei Nebrodi, the famed Sicilian Black Swine native to the Nebrodi Mountains. Small, black, and bristly, they resemble wild boar and continue to forage in wooded landscapes.
During that same trip, my partner and I had just returned from Monreale near Palermo, where we tasted exquisite salame made from Nebrodi pigs.
Exquisite salame made from Nebrodi pigs.
Around this time I was reading Carlo Petrini and immersing myself in the Slow Food movement; the Nebrodi pig, listed in the Ark of Taste, is a symbol of heritage animal breeds at risk of disappearing.
All of this—ethics, flavour, memory—comes together beautifully in a simple Sicilian dish.
Sicilian Recipe: Pork Chops Cooked in Wine (Bracioli di Maiali o’ Vinu)
Ingredients
6 pork bracioli (chops)
1 tbsp fennel seeds
1 glass red wine
1 glass water
6 small sprigs fresh rosemary or oregano
Juice of 2 lemons
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
(Optional) Olive oil, if the meat is very lean
Method
Prepare the chops: Make a small incision in each pork chop and insert a sprig of rosemary or fresh oregano.
Start the braise: Place the chops in a single layer in a frypan with a little water and salt. Braise uncovered until the water evaporates and the chops begin to colour.
Add wine and spices: Pour in the red wine, add the fennel seeds and pepper, and allow the wine to evaporate.
Finish with lemon: Add the lemon juice and serve immediately.
If the pork is very lean, mix a little olive oil with the lemon juice to make a light salmoriglio.
I love the Italian language – polpettine, polpette, polpettone, much better than small meatballs, meatballs and meatloaf. (Polpette from polpa, meaning flesh). The Sicilian word for meatballs is purpetti, and even better.
I had bought some beef mince (my butcher selects the meat, shows it to me and then puts it through his mincing machine in front of me – no additives, no preservatives) and I was going to use it to make a fausu magro – a large braciola stuffed with hard boiled egg, mortadella and cheese and braised in tomato passata).
Usually this dish is made with a large slice of beef topside, (a lean cut of beef I buy in Australia) but some Sicilians use mince and I wanted to see what amount of stuffing the mince would tolerate without falling apart in the cooking. My mother used to cook a large unstuffed meatloaf which was partly based on the cuisine from Trieste where we lived. She called it a polpettone (Italian name for meatloaf) and rightly so because sometimes she braised or baked it using a little white wine and some stock for moisture rather than using tomatoes.
Then a friend arrived unexpectedly from interstate and I had no time to prepare the fausu magru so I made large meatballs instead. It only took about 15 minutes to make the meatballs – they were great.
If you look at recipes for making meatballs, they are always sealed (sautéed in hot extra virgin olive oil) before the braising liquid is added (passata or tomato paste and water) but not this time. A Sicilian friend of my mother’s once told her that where she came from (Agrigento) meatballs were dropped unsealed in the hot tomato based sauce – this results in a much lighter dish. The other thing I did was to add cinnamon sticks and bay leaves to the braising liquid.
As a teenager I had a friend who was from Calabria and her mother would always add sultanas to her polpette. For a short time I also lived next door to a family from Naples. The signora added sultanas and cinnamon to her mixture – my mother was even more horrified about this – obviously this was not part of the Sicilian cuisine that my grandmother knew (my grandmother was born in Catania, on the east coast of Sicily). Both the Calabrese and Napoletana women seemed to add a large proportion of bread to their mixture, much more than I was used to in my mother’s kitchen.
I have checked my many resources and there are Sicilian recipes that list ground cinnamon, dried grapes (currants or raisins or sultanas) and pine nuts in the meatball mixture, as well as the usual ingredients used to make meatballs all over Italy: breadcrumbs (usually soaked in water or milk beforehand and squeezed dry), grated cheese (parmesan or pecorino, depending which part of Italy you come from), salt, pepper, nutmeg, raw egg and a little chopped parsley.
I even found a version in Giuseppe Coria’s Profumi Di Sicilia which lists amaretti biscuits, whole pine nuts and ground pistachio nuts, cinnamon and sultanas as part of the meatball mixture (I can see more meatballs coming!)
Meatballs, of course, were eaten throughout Italy way back in time, and in many other parts of the world, too (maybe not always shaped like a ball) – think of the Greek (sometimes with powdered cloves) and the Middle Eastern lamb variations with coriander and cumin; Swedish meatballs with a cream gravy (tomato-less and much like my mother’s version of polpettone); Vietnemese meatballs with pork mince, water chestnuts and fish sauce; or the Chinese lion head and the oversized pork meatballs from Shanghai cooked in a clay pot. (I could go on, but it is not appropriate for a blog.)
INGREDIENTS
minced beef, 600g
eggs, 2
fresh bread crumbs (from 2 slices good quality sourdough white bread, crusts removed)
cinnamon sticks, 2
grated pecorino cheese, a small handful
salt and pepper
nutmeg, grated, a pinch
parsley, 1-2 tablespoons, sliced finely
bay leaves, 2-3
sun dried sultanas, a small handful
pine nuts, a small handful
extra virgin olive oil, a good splash
passata, 1-2 bottles( or tomato paste and water or tinned tomato)
garlic, 1-2 large cloves, whole
oregano, dried, a pinch
PROCESSES
Mix minced meat, cheese, eggs, bread, parsley, salt and pepper and nutmeg together, add pine nuts and sultanas and shape into balls (mine were large- tennis ball size – I was in a hurry).
Place passata, oil and garlic, a little salt and pepper, cinnamon sticks, bay leaves and oregano (or fresh basil which I try to do without in winter) in a pan and bring to the boil.
Drop the balls in gently, turn down the heat and do not stir or turn them over for at least 10 minutes (prevent breakage). I like to have the meatballs completely covered with liquid.
Poach them on low heat until cooked (approx. 30mins).
They smell good too and unsurprisingly, the sauce can be used to dress the pasta, the meatballs are presented as second course.
On the 5t of July Bar Idda celebrated its first birthday and their new menu strongly influenced by recent discoveries of recipes experienced while in Sicily. Gelatina di Maiale was one of the offerings.
Lisa and Alfredo are the proprietors of Bar Idda in Lygon Street. Their heritage is from the South Eastern Part of Sicily and they have returned from their holiday in Sicily full of ideas and enthusiasm for their small, Sicilian restaurant.
Anthony is the bar person and after discussing the wine with him we selected a bottle of ROSSOJBLEO, a bio-organic, Sicilian Nero d’Avola from Chiaramonte Gulfi (Ragusa). My partner and I then ate our way through many very enjoyable Sicilian specialties. These included:
Hot ricotta soup with home made pasta. Ricotta is very much appreciated by Sicilians especially when it has just been made. Particularly in Ragusa and the environs people visit cheese makers (sometimes on farms) and watch the ricotta being made. Ladles of hot, fresh curds and whey are usually poured on broken pieces of bread and eaten like soup.
Gelatina di maiale(brawn, made with pork- see recipe and photos below) and some affettati (a selection of cold cuts of salumi). An eggplant caponata was also included in this antipasto.
Farsumagru (il falsomagro is a beef, meat roll stuffed with hard boiled egg and can include cheeses , salamini and mortadella). It is braised in a tomato sauce and presented sliced. In this case it was made with minced beef and Alfredo’s version included a little zucchini for colour and variety of textures. Farsumagru translates into false–lean. It contains delectable ingredients including meat, so this is a pun on ‘lenten’ food – during the liturgical seasons Catholics were required to eat simple food and to abstain from eating meat. These laws have relaxed over time.
Farsumagru ( in Sicilian) Falso magro,(in Italian) meat loaf with egg in the middle
The farsumagru was accompanied by a warm potato salad with capers and comichons, and a fennel and orange salad with a sprinkling of pomegranate seeds.
We then had a glass of Malvasia a very rich flavoured dessert wine made by drying Malvasia grapes (bianche– white variety) before crushing. It was an excellent accompaniment to the small fried pastries called cassateddi. There are many local variations to this recipe, and in this version the dough was stuffed with ricotta, cinnamon, and honey. I could taste some alcohol too. (Honey is used instead of sugar in the Ragusa area).
Thank you Bar Idda, for a very enjoyable meal. Auguri e complimenti and may there be many years to come.
Recipe and photo of the Gelatina I make
Gelatina (means gelatine or jellied). It is sold as a Smallgoods food.
In various parts of Sicily the gelatina di maiale is called by a variety of names: jlatina di maiali, Suzu, suzzu, or zuzu.
I found a recipe for gelatina scribbled in one of many notebooks which I use to record recipes when I visit Italy. In this particular notebook from 1980, there are many Sicilian recipes, but on this particular trip I must have visited the relatives in Genova (a Piedmontese aunt married to my father’s brother and living in Genova and her daughter Rosadele who is an excellent cook also). There were also some recipes written in Trieste (my zia Renata was from Rovigo and married my mother’s brother).
I have not made gelatina di maialefor many years but I have nearly always included a half of a pork’s head – this provides the jelly component. The tongue adds texture and extra flavour (you can throw out the eyes).
It is always a good idea to pre-order a pork’s head beforehand and I was not able to purchase one. I used pork feet instead (as you can see by this photo) and fortunately it turned out very well. In this gelatina I included approx 1.500 kilo of lean pork (cut into large pieces) and four pig’s feet.
INGREDIENTS AND PROCESSES
The recipe is one of my zia Niluzza’s who lives in Ragusa (Sicily) and it simply says:
1 part vinegar to 3 parts of water, red chilli flakes or whole pepper corns and salt. Use a mixed selection of pork meat, including the head.
Place in cold water mixture, cover meat.
Boil for 6 hours (covered) on slow heat.
Filter broth, remove some of the fat and reduce, remove bones, shred meat.
Lay meat in earthenware bowl, cover with cooled broth and leave to set.
Over time, I have altered the recipe and include bay leaves and peppercorns and I boil the pork without the vinegar only for about 3 hours (until I can see the meat falling off the bones).
Once it is cooked, I leave it to rest overnight.
The next day I remove the meat from the jelly, I add ½ cup of vinegar and the juice of a couple of lemons to the broth and reduce the liquid down to a third of the original amount.
I shred the meat and place it into a terrine and cover it with the cooled reduced stock. Any fat will rise to the surface and can be scraped off when it is cool (in fact, it acts as a seal).
In Adelaide in 2010 I attended a Tasting Australia event called Mondo Di Carne and it dealt with using pork to make salumi (small goods), sausages and porchetta.
It was held at Rosa Matto’s cooking school – Rosa has been the queen of Italian cooking in Adelaide for many years.
Some of you may remember the film/documentary about bizarre local rituals called Mondo Cane (literally translated as a Dog’s World – 1962). This is a collection of disconnected snippets from around the world on rather repellent cultural customs and ritual practices, among which there is one showing the slaughter of pigs in New Guinea and an other of Asians who eat dog meat.
Vincenzo Garreffa is a famous butcher from Western Australia and Mondo Di Carne is the name of his business. Vincenzo seems to have a good sense of humour (having spent five hours with him at the workshop) and I hope that he intentionally named his business with the film in mind, however he is also very serious about his meat – he bought all of his own meat to the event including a small suckling pig which was 3-4 weeks old and weighed 5.2 kilos.
We made pancetta and cacciatore (a hunter) is a type of small sized salami and called this because it is ideal for a long day’s hunt.
A squirming sight – small boned and stuffed pig in the oven
I was not expecting a piglet, but there it was. Vincenzo boned it and stuffed it with three whole pork fillets (it had to be flesh as tender as the piglet), blanched almonds and a few slices of pork liver. Salt, pepper, extra virgin olive oil and rosemary are a must. I have written about roasted suckling pig once before (a different recipe). As you can see he had trouble fitting it in the oven; there is a drip plate underneath.
Boning and stuffing the piglet
And we all ate it and it tasted wonderful, but I had to tell myself that there is no difference between slaughtering and eating a mother pig and a baby pig.
Those of you who may be thinking that you might like to try cooking a baby pig, can have one dispatched to you by Vincenzo within 24 hours. As for the price, it will cost you as much as a large pig, so you may think again.
Carving the porchetta
Here is a happy photo:
2010 TASTING AUSTRALIA (Adelaide), one other Piggy event
It was a piggy weekend.
On Sunday I also attended A Word of Mouth session called: Is Spanish the new French?
Pork features strongly in Spanish cuisine. I heard chef and co-owner Frank Camorra from Movida (in Melbourne) and his travelling companion and writer Richard Cornish (books = Movida and Movida Rustica) discuss the delights of travelling and eating pork with writer John Barlowe .
John Barlowe is an Englishman, lives in Galicia, with his Spanish wife and two sons and in the book we encounter his travels and his experiences of eating every bit of the pig. (Book = Everything But the Squeal, recently republished by Wakefield Press.)
It is a fabulous read.
I feel all pigged out but they were great sessions to attend.
Maialino Arrosto and Porchetta – Roast Suckling Pig
Maialino arrosto is simply roasted piglet, while porchetta refers to a particular Italian tradition of seasoning and roasting pork. The two are closely related, but they are not quite the same thing.
Maialino arrosto and porchetta – what is the difference?
Maialino di latte is a suckling piglet, still young enough to be feeding on its mother’s milk. Roasted whole, it becomes maialino arrosto, prized for its tender meat and crisp, golden skin.
Porchetta, on the other hand, is particularly associated with Lazio and the town of Ariccia, south of Rome. Traditionally, a young pig is carefully boned, generously seasoned inside with salt, garlic, rosemary and other herbs, then closed or rolled and slowly roasted. The result is succulent, highly seasoned pork encased in crisp skin.
Today, smaller versions of porchetta are commonly made from boned cuts of pork, rolled around their seasoning and roasted. These are much more practical for the domestic kitchen.
Porchetta and the tradition of Ariccia
Cooking a whole pig is associated with celebrations and festivals in many parts of Italy, but Ariccia is especially famous for its porchetta. There it has long been sold at markets, festivals and from street stalls, sliced generously and often eaten simply between pieces of bread.
The seasonings vary according to region and local tradition. Rosemary and garlic are strongly associated with Roman and Laziale versions, while wild fennel or fennel seeds are characteristic elsewhere.
Similar traditions are found throughout Italy. In Sardinia, for example, roast suckling pig is known as porceddu or porcheddu and may be flavoured with aromatic myrtle. Lemon zest, rosemary, garlic and fennel are other flavours that marry particularly well with pork.
A celebratory roast
The maialino di latte in these photographs—and another piglet—was cooked by a chef at Libertine, then a French restaurant in North Melbourne. It was one of the courses at a particularly festive farewell lunch for friends who were going overseas for six months. The occasion also marked their twentieth wedding anniversary.
A whole piglet requires a substantial oven. Traditionally, in some rural Italian communities, families could take large roasts to the local baker’s wood-fired oven, particularly on days when the oven was not being used for bread.
Some cooks bone the piglet before roasting, which makes it easier to stuff and later to carve. Stuffings can be elaborate, incorporating minced pork and sometimes offal, or very simple, consisting mainly of herbs, garlic and spices.
For the recipe below, the flavours traditionally associated with porchetta—rosemary, garlic and fennel—are rubbed inside the piglet and into the skin.
Preparing a whole suckling pig… if you are up to it.
Maialino arrosto is not something I cook, but it is a dish I know well. In Australia, whole roast pig or porchetta has also become part of the celebratory table for some Italian families, particularly for Christmas, New Year and other large family gatherings.
If you intend to cook a whole piglet in a domestic oven, there is one very practical consideration: measure your oven before you buy the piglet.
Begin preparations the day before cooking. Leaving the piglet with its aromatic seasoning overnight allows the flavours to penetrate the meat, while keeping the outer skin as dry as possible helps produce good crackling.
Cooking time will depend on the size of the piglet and your oven, so use the timing below as a guide rather than relying on it alone.
Ingredients
1 small suckling pig, cleaned
Extra virgin olive oil, approximately 1 cup, for rubbing and basting
Dry white wine or water, approximately 2 cups
For the herb mixture
About 1 cup fresh rosemary leaves, finely chopped
3–4 tablespoons fennel seeds, lightly crushed
6–10 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
A generous amount of salt
Freshly ground black pepper
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
Method
Make sure the cavity of the piglet is thoroughly clean and that the organs have been removed.
Combine the rosemary, fennel seeds, garlic, salt, pepper and olive oil to make a fragrant paste.
Make several small slashes in the skin, including over the shoulders and hips. Rub some of the herb mixture into the slashes and spread the remainder generously around the inside cavity.
Place the piglet on a wire rack over a tray and refrigerate overnight, uncovered if practical or loosely covered without trapping moisture against the skin. The drier the skin, the better your chances of achieving crisp crackling.
The following day, remove the piglet from the refrigerator early enough to take some of the chill from it before roasting.
Preheat the oven to 220°C.
Place the piglet belly-down in a lightly oiled roasting pan, positioning the legs close to the body and securing them with kitchen string if necessary. Wrap the ears and tail loosely in foil to prevent them from burning.
Pour about a cup of white wine into the bottom of the roasting pan. Rub the skin with olive oil and season generously with salt.
Roast at 220°C for about 30 minutes, then reduce the oven to 200°C and continue roasting. As a broad guide, allow approximately one hour per kilogram, but the actual cooking time will depend on the size and shape of the piglet and the characteristics of your oven.
Turn the roasting pan every 30 minutes or so to encourage even cooking, but avoid turning the piglet itself. Baste lightly and replenish the wine or water in the bottom of the pan when necessary.
During the final 30 minutes, increase the temperature to 210–220°C to encourage crisp, golden skin. Remove the foil from the ears and tail towards the end so that they can brown without burning.
The pork should be thoroughly cooked and the juices should run clear. For greater certainty, especially with a large whole animal, check the thickest parts with a meat thermometer rather than relying on cooking time alone.
Remove the piglet from the oven and allow it to rest for 20–30 minutes before carving.
Meanwhile, deglaze the roasting pan with a little additional wine or water, scraping up the caramelised juices to make a simple sughetto.
Carve the maialino arrosto and serve with the sughetto.
See posts:
In Adelaide I attended a Tasting Australia event called Mondo Di Carne, held at Rosa Matto’s cooking school – Rosa has been the queen of Italian cooking in Adelaide for many years.
Vincenzo Garreffa is a famous butcher from Western Australia and Mondo Di Carne is the name of his business. Vincenzo boned it and stuffed it with three whole pork fillets (it had to be flesh as tender as the piglet), blanched almonds and a few slices of pork liver. Salt, pepper, extra virgin olive oil and rosemary are a must. We all squirmed but we all ate some and enjoyed 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.
