‘Nduja is a good ingredient to have in one’s fridge to liven many recipes, especially pasta dishes.
I have been away from home recently, and what I really enjoy is coming up with a dish using ingredients that I have at home and need to be used. This must be one of the reasons I enjoy camping and we always eat so well.
INGREDIENTS
I had ‘nduja (a soft chilli-laden, soft salame from Calabria), a bunch of cime di rapa or rape (rape is plural of rapa) and some small and fabulous, pure pork sausages that I had cooked in some tomato salsa the day before. We had eaten most of these with polenta and these were left over.
PROCESS
What I did was simple. I braised the cime di rapa in some garlic and extra virgin olive oil as I do when I cook cime di rapa with pasta. Once cooked, I added the ‘nduja….probably too much, I love chilli but do others like it as much as I do? I could have used a half of the quantity and it still would have tasted great. The ‘nduja melts with the heat and coats the vegetables.
Next, I added the sausages and a small amount of tomato salsa. My mother often reminded me that I was making a pasta sauce rather than a soup, so I required only a small quantity of liquid.
I had rigatoni on hand, and some Sicilian pecorino pepato.
You will need to accept that it tasted vey good. So much so that I did not have time to take a photo of the finished pasta dish – it was gobbled up far too quickly by my two guests.
Luganighe con Capuzi is a Triestine dish and the name of the dish is written in the Triestine language. In Italian it would be called Salsicce e Crauti – sausages and sauerkraut.
As a child, I lived in Trieste with my parents, while my Sicilian relatives resided in Ragusa, Catania and Augusta. Both Trieste (located at the head of the Gulf of Trieste in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region) and Sicily are at the extreme ends of Italy, and as one would expect, their cuisines are very different.
I grew up with both cuisines and appreciate them both for very different reasons.
Capuzi garbi (or crauti/krauti) is sauerkraut in Triestino (the Triestine dialect) and it is a very popular ingredient in Triestine cuisine especially when mixed in Gulash (made with pork or beef), or with a lump of smoked pork, or luganighe (Triestine) – salsicce di maiale in Italian, and pork sausages for us mere mortals in the English speaking world.
When you look at a map of Italy, it is easy to see why this part of Italy has common roots with the cooking of Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia and Istria.
I have German and Polish friends who also enjoy sauerkraut, and like my relatives and friends from Trieste, they tend to overcook it. My mother also did this when preparing capuzi garbi.
However, as we know, cuisine evolves and some of us have adopted new methods of cooking traditional foods.
In my kitchen, I cook sauerkraut for approximately a quarter of the time compared to the traditional method. I occasionally add a small amount of fresh cabbage to lighten the flavour and provide a different texture. Caraway seeds are also added as do many Triestini.
A small amount of browned flour in oil is added to the sauerkraut towards the end of cooking. Unlike my Triestine contemporaries, I also add bay leaves and a dash of white wine.
INGREDIENTS
The ingredients are: pork sausages, sauerkraut, bay leaves and caraway seeds. Onion, extra virgin olive oil and pepper (the sauerkraut could be sufficiently salty). Fresh cabbage and a dash of white wine are optional.
PROCESS
Drain the sauerkraut and squeeze out the moisture. Soften some onion in a little oil (in Trieste lard is also common and added to the oil).
Adding a little white or savoy cabbage is optional.
And with the cabbage, add the sauerkraut and the remaining ingredients. A dash of white wine (or water) will keep it moist during cooking.
Cover and cook for about 15- 20 minutes on low heat until the sausages are nearly cooked and the flavours have had a chance to meld.
Remove the sauerkraut and slightly brown the sausages – only for appearance.
This dish is excellent with Patate in Teccia…. another Triestine culinary delight. A techie is a pan in Triestine . The potatoes are squashed in the pan. See:
I love a good Italian pork sausage (Salsiccia di maiale). There are regional variations, some add white wine, some red, other common ingredients are fennel seeds, chilli flakes, orange peel, black pepper…but no additives to bulk up the meat, and it should have the right balance of fat and lean meat.
I first encountered what was called All-in-one Sausage Roast at one of the cooking classes by TSAA (The Sicilian Association of Australia). I liked them.
My young nephew Luke who lives in Adelaide recently cooked for me Roasted Sausages, Peppers, Potatoes and Onions, almost the same as the same dish I enjoyed at TSAA and it came from The Sopranos Family Cookbook, as compiled by Arti Bucco.
My brother and sister in law were away overseas recently and Luke had to fend for himself. He discovered cooking. Thank you Luke, we all liked it and it is good to see a member of the Raniolo family enjoying cooking and eating.
The cookbook contains all of the recipes of the food that featured in the TV series. There were 6 seasons of The Sopranos about mobster Tony Soprano, (James Gandolfini), his family and his mob who live in New Jersey. The food, like the Sopranos, is Sicilian.
I like pork sausages especially those that have a bit of chilli in them and Luke bought his from an Italian warehouse-come supermarket called Banquet Food Wholesalers at 994 Port Rd Albert Park. The butcher who has a corner of the shop sells good meat and like a good butcher makes his own sausages. Adelaide is a great place for finding good produce – I love shopping there when I visit.
Luke also included carrots in his baked dish. We all like vegetables and root vegetables do not release any liquid when they cook so the carrots were an appropriate edition.
It is easy and tastes great. You will need good quality Italian sausages (those that include fennel and/or chilli are great!)
Here is the recipe, fiddled with, as good recipes always are so as to suit one’s tastes.
You could add garlic cloves, fennel cut into chunks, fennel seeds, sprigs of rosemary, more chillies…Go for it!
We had 6 people, Luke cooked sufficient quantities for 10, but they all went.
Sufficient for 4 people:
500g waxy potatoes cut into 5 cm chunks or slices (I like them not peeled, Italians peel them)
2 medium red onions
3 red peppers (use green and yellow as well if you wish)
1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil
pork sausages, 1-2 per person
carrots to taste, optional
Preheat oven to 200C. Cut potatoes into chunky slices about 5mm thick. Similarly cut onions and peppers (and carrots) into chunks. Place them all into a roasting dish and toss in olive oil with some salt and pepper. Place vegetables in a single layer in a large shallow roasting pan – do not crowd them, otherwise they won’t brown.
Roast vegetables, for 30- 45 minutes, turn once or twice.
Place the sausages on top of the vegetables. Prick them.
Bake 20 to 30 minutes, or until sausages and vegetables are cooked through.
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.
