Tag: Triestine food

LUGANIGHE CON CAPUZI GARBI – Sausages and sauerkraut, and yes, it is Italian regional cuisine

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.

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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.

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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).

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Adding a little white or savoy cabbage is optional.

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And with the cabbage, add the sauerkraut and the remaining ingredients. A dash of white wine (or water) will keep it moist during cooking.

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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.

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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:

PATATE as a contorno (Two recipes for ‘squashed’ potatoes). 

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A few of the other recipes from Trieste:

PATATE as a contorno (Two recipes for ‘squashed’ potatoes). 

MARINADED FISH and a recipe for PESCE IN SAOR

IOTA (Recipe, a very thick soup from Trieste) Post 1

IOTA FROM TRIESTE, Italy is made with smoked pork, sauerkraut, borlotti beans-Post 2

Traditional Easter Sweets in Trieste in Friuli Venezia Giulia

INSALATA RUSSA (Party time – Russian salad)

APPLE STRUDEL (TRIESTE: Strucolo de pomi)

GULASCH (Goulash as made in Trieste)

 

MARINADED FISH and a recipe for PESCE IN SAOR

Pesce in Saor is one of the iconic dishes of Venetian cuisine, and it is marinated fish. It is also popular throughout  the coastal areas of the Veneto region.

Pesce in Saor—describe a traditional method of preserving fish by frying it and marinating it in vinegar, onions and other flavourings, creating the distinctive Italian balance of agrodolce (sweet and sour).

Long before refrigeration, marinating or ‘sousing’ fish extended its shelf life and is still a popular method. Vinegar inhibits microbial growth in a manner like salt while sugar acts as a preservative and softens the vinegar’s sharpness. This practical necessity has evolved into one of Italy’s most memorable regional dishes.

 

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Pesce in Saor – Sweet-and-sour marinated fish, one of Venice’s and Trieste’s most celebrated traditional dishes.

Pesce in Saor and My Family Traditions

The Italian word for fish is pesce, but in the Triestine dialect it becomes pesse. I lived in Trieste as a child, where pesse in saor was commonly prepared with sardines and served with soft white polenta.

My Sicilian grandmother also made marinated fish, known in Sicilian as pisci ammarinatu, but her flavourings reflected the cuisine of  Catania in Sicily. She preferred mint, bay leaves and garlic in the vinegar marinade, whereas the Venetian and Triestine versions include raisins and pine nuts.

These regional variations demonstrate how a simple preservation technique became adapted to local tastes and ingredients.

Marinated Fish Throughout Italy

Venice is not alone in its love of soused fish. Similar preparations appear throughout Italy:

  • Pesce alla scapece from central and southern Italy, with regional versions flavoured with saffron, garlic or sage.
  • Pesce in carpione from Lombardy, scented with celery and carrot.
  • Scabeccio from Liguria, featuring garlic, rosemary and peppercorns.
  • Sardinian versions that may include chilli, garlic and tomato.

The idea extends well beyond Italy. Escabeche is found throughout Spain and Portugal and travelled to North Africa and Latin America. Nordic countries also have long traditions of preserving fish in acidic marinades. Even a German friend of mine prepares soused fish, adding coriander seeds to his recipe.

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Part of the bay of Trieste
Trieste, Ponte Rosso

 Childhood Memories of Trieste

My maternal grandmother always had pottery terrines of marinated fish in her Sicilian kitchen, covered simply with plates used as lids. When she visited us in Trieste, she continued the same practice, and our kitchen would soon fill with the unmistakable aroma of fish and vinegar.

She especially loved eel. We would walk together to the Pescheria on the waterfront in Trieste, where she would select a live eel from a large tank and the fishmonger would prepare it for her. I never enjoyed watching that part, but I loved visiting the fish market overlooking the bay.

The Old Pescheria of Trieste – now EATALY

Today, the fish market building has been fully renovated and found a new life as Eataly, but my memories remain tied to the sounds, smells and traditions of the old Pescheria.

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The Old Pescheria of Trieste as I remembered it

Using Coorong Mullet Instead of Sardines

Traditionally, pesce in saor is prepared with sardines that are lightly dusted with flour and fried until crisp. However, many small firm fish are suitable.mullet, sand whiting, garfish, flathead or leatherjackets, cleaned and filleted

On some regular trips from Melbourne to Adelaide, I drove through Meningie at the northern end of the Coorong and bought freshly caught Coorong mullet. Their firm flesh made them an excellent substitute, and I used them to prepare this version.

Traditionally, the fish is lightly dusted with flour and salt before it is fried in very hot, extra virgin, olive oil. Although the flour helps to hold the fish together, the oil used to fry the fish will need to be discarded (the sediment will taint the taste of the oil) and the flour coating will often come away from the fish in the marinade.

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Coorong mullet and how it is sold and wrapped in newspaper
Recipe: Pesce in Saor

Serving suggestion: White polenta is traditionally used as an accompaniment for fish and yellow polenta is usually an accompaniment to meat.

Good bread is also good.

Ingredients

Serves 4–6

  • 12–16 fresh sardines or other small fish such as mullet, sand whiting, garfish, flathead or leatherjackets, cleaned and filleted
  • Plain flour
  • Salt
  • Olive oil for frying
  • 2–3 large white onions, finely sliced
  • 1 cup raisins
  • 1 cup pine nuts, lightly toasted
  • White wine (enough to soak the raisins)
  • 250 ml white wine vinegar
  • Freshly ground black pepper

Method

Soak the raisins in the white wine for about 30 minutes.

Lightly dust the fish with flour and a little salt, shaking off any excess.Fry the fish in plenty of hot olive oil until golden and crisp. Drain on kitchen paper.

Gently sauté the onions in a little olive oil until soft but not browned.

Add the vinegar and freshly ground black pepper and simmer for a few minutes.

In a deep terrine or ceramic dish, place a layer of fish followed by onions, drained raisins and pine nuts.

Continue layering until all the ingredients are used, finishing with onions, raisins and pine nuts.

Pour the vinegar mixture over the fish, ensuring everything is well coated.

Cover and refrigerate for at least 24 hours before serving. Like many marinated dishes, the flavours improve with time.

Serve at room temperature, traditionally with soft white polenta.

 

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Coorong Mullet fillets, a very suitable fish to make in Saor

See: PISCI ALL’ AGGHIATA – PESCE ALL’AGLIATA (Soused fish with vinegar, garlic and bay)

 

INSALATA RUSSA (Party time – Russian salad)

Helping my mother to make Insalata Russa was my job throughout my childhood and teenage years. It was a legacy from Trieste and a reliable antipasto served on special occasions. She kept making it well into the 80s and then it would re-appear intermittently throughout the years. She would present it before we would sit at a table for a meal, as a nibble…  she would pass around a spoonful of Insalata Russa on a slice of bread from a French stick.

Those of you who are of a certain age may remember Rosso Antico (a red aperitif) or a Cinzano (vermouth) or a martini. Sometimes it would be a straight gin with a twist of lemon.  Today you may prefer a different aperitif like Aperol or a glass of Prosecco or a Campari  – you get the idea!

It keeps well in the fridge and is an easy accompaniment for drinks – I am thinking of those unexpected guests who may pop in …. a drink, a small plate of Insalata Russa and some good bread. If my mother was still alive she would probably be making it on Christmas eve or Christmas day.

Insalata Russa is made with cooked vegetables: peas, green beans, carrots and potatoes cut into small cubes and smothered with homemade egg mayonnaise. She always decorated the top with slices of hard-boiled eggs and  slices of stuffed green olives. Sometimes she also placed on top small cooked prawns or canned tuna.

***** Modern Times…..Try it sprinkled with Yarra Valley caviar (fish roe) instead.

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Ensaladilla rusa is the Spanish version of this salad and it is a very common tapas dish; It was certainly still popular as a Tapas in Madrid and Barcelona when I was there last year.

The Spaniards make it the same way, but the canned tuna is often mixed in the salad rather than being placed on top. Some versions have olives, roasted red peppers or asparagus spears arranged on top in an attractive design or just plain with boiled eggs around the edge of the bowl.

Making it with my mother, we never weighed our ingredients, but the following combination and ratios should please anyone’s palate.

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This recipe (and the photos of the pages in the book) are from my second book – Small Fishy Bites.

2-3 medium sized potatoes, waxy are best
1 cup of shelled peas
3 carrots
3 hard-boiled eggs
3/4 -1 cup of green beans cut into 1cm pieces
1/2 cup of Italian giardinieria (mixed garden pickles in vinegar) or cetriolini (small pickled gherkins)
1 and 1/2 cups of homemade egg mayonnaise

Cook potatoes and carrots in their skins in separate pans; cool, peel and cut them into small cubes.
Cook the peas and beans separately; drain and cool. 
Hard boil the eggs; peel them and cube 2 of them.
Cut the giardiniera into small pieces (carrots, turnips, cauliflower, gherkins).
Mix all of these ingredients together with a cup of home made egg mayonnaise.
Level out the Russian salad either on a flat plate or in a bowl and leave in the fridge for at least an hour before decorating it by covering it with the remaining mayonnaise.
Have a good old time placing on the top slices of hard-boiled eggs, drained tuna or small cooked prawns and caviar. Bits of giardiniera will also add colour.

Maionese (Mayonnaise)

My mum made maionese with a wooden spoon. I use a food processor or an electric wand to make mayonnaise:

Mix 1 egg with a little salt in the blender food processor, or in a clean jar (if using the wand).
Slowly add 1–1 ½ cups of extra virgin olive oil in a thin, steady stream through the feed tube while the blender or processor is running, Before adding additional oil, ensure that the oil, which has previously been added has been incorporated completely.
Add a tablespoon of fresh lemon juice when the mayonnaise is creamy. If you are not making the traditional Italian version, it is common to add vinegar instead of lemon juice and a teaspoon of Dijon mustard.
As an alternative, the Spaniards like to add a little saffron (pre-softened in a little warm water). Add this once the mayonnaise is made.
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GNOCHETI DE GRIES (as called in Trieste), GNOCCHETTI DI SEMOLINO (Italian), SEMOLINA Small GNOCCHI

GNOCHETI DE GRIES (as called in Trieste), GNOCCHETTI DI SEMOLINO (Italian), SEMOLINA Small GNOCCHI are popular additions to Brodo (broth). They are popular in Trieste.

BRODO (Broth)

In my parent’s house we ate brodo (broth) once per week. Sometimes it was made with chicken, sometimes with yearling beef and at other times it was a mixture of the two meats; a few bones were always included.

We always had brodo as the first course and the boiled meat as the second course, and this was always accompanied with Salsa verde.

Brodo is popular all over Italy and is considered essential especially when a member of the household is feeling unwell. It is seen as a restorative food in many other cultures.

What to have in Brodo

Often we would have tortellini in brodo, but at other times, my mother added pastina (small pasta); these were either capelli d’angelo (angel’s hair) or thin egg noodles or stelline (small stars) or quadretti (small squares).

Most of the time we had or favourite: gnocchetti di semolino floating in our brodo – these are small gnocchi, a specialty from Trieste.

Because I spent my childhood there I became an expert gnocchetti maker from an early age.

Gnocchetti in brodo.

Recently, I have been making brodo with semolina gnocchetti. I used a tea spoon to shape them.

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RECIPE GNOCCHETTI  made with Semolina
To make brodo, see:  BRODO DI GALLINA
INGREDIENTS
50 g of butter,
1 egg,
100g of semolina,
pinch of salt,
grated Parmesan cheese (1 tbs in the mixture and some to present at the table)
PROCESSES
Make the brodo:
Beat softened butter and egg with a small wooden spoon until soft and well mixed. Use a small jug, milk saucepan or a bowl with steep sides.
Add the semolina and grated cheese slowly and continue to mix vigorously until perfectly smooth.
Bring the broth to the boil.
Use a wet teaspoon to shape the gnocchetti. Take small quantities of the mixture and slip small oval shapes off the spoon into the boiling broth. Keep the broth on a gentle boil.

Continue shaping the gnocchetti and poaching them until the mixture is finished. The gnocchietti rise to the surface when cooked (about 5 minutes). If cooking large quantities of gnocchetti, to prevent over cooking, take the cooked ones out with a slotted spoon before slipping in the new ones, but with the above amounts this will not be necessary.

Ladle broth and a few gnocchetti into each bowl and present with grated cheese.

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Pastina, cut into little squares (quadrettini) by hand

The pasta I use  in brodo is commercially made, but when I eat brodo in Sicily at my zia Niluzza’s (my father’s sister) makes fresh quadrettini (very little squares) – she cuts the fresh pasta amazingly quickly.

MUSSELS IN TRIESTE and Mussel recipes

IOTA FROM TRIESTE, Italy, made with smoked pork, sauerkraut, borlotti beans ; Post 2

 

BACCALÀ MANTECATO (Creamed salt cod, popular in the Veneto region and Trieste)

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 Ortigia, Syracuse

According to my Sicilian relatives, only Sicilians know how to cook baccalà. Having lived in Trieste (north Italy), I was very familiar with this fish that is cooked in a variety of ways in this region. I particularly like baccalà mantecato, (boiled cod fish and then whipped or beaten with oil and garlic – one of the most representative recipes in Venetian cuisine). I tried to introduce my Sicilian relatives to this once, but they were not interested. Sicilians are particularly conservative about food that isn’t theirs.

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Baccalà mantecato is not easily found in restaurants (most restaurants in Australia cook Southern Italian food) but I have eaten it at Guy Grossi’s, The Merchant –an osteria in Melbourne with typical food from the north-east of Italy.  Most of the food is presented as cichetti— bite-sized morsels.

The food at The Merchant brings back many childhood memories, including the Veneto dialect used for the names of the offerings on the menu (very similar to the Triestino dialect spoken in Trieste) .

Baccalà mantecato, has the thickness of a creamy, mashed potato. The fish spread is served cold and in my youth i ate it spread on crostini – thin slices of white bread, lightly fried till crisp in extra virgin olive oil. We passed the crostini around to guests while they drank an aperitivo. – usually a vermouth. Needless to say, a glass of prosecco or soave is also a good accompaniment. In Venice, baccalà mantecato is more likely to be spread on crostini made with cooked polenta that has been lightly toasted ( lightly fried or grilled) .

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There are various recipes for how to make this and not all add milk. I was taught that the milk sweetened the taste and helped to preserve the white colour.

Thick pieces of salt cod (cut from the centre) are the thickest and the best. Leave the skin, but cut away fins and obvious bones. Cut into serving size pieces (7- 10cm). Rinse well in running water before soaking for 36-48 hours (over soaking will not spoil the fish, especially if the pieces of baccalà are thick). Keep it covered in a bowl in the fridge. Change the water at least 4-5 times.

INGREDIENTS
baccalà, 800g, pre soaked
garlic, 1-2 cloves chopped very finely (I use a garlic press)
extra virgin olive oil, at least 1 cup
pepper
bay leaf, 1-3
parsley,  finely chopped 1-2 tablespoons
milk, 2 litres
water, 1 litre
PROCESSES
Cover the pre soaked baccalà with cold water and milk, and bring it slowly to the boil. Add a bay leaf.
Simmer gently for 30- 40 mins. Allow it to rest and cool in the liquid.
Remove the fish from the poaching liquid, pick out all the bones and remove the skin. Use a fork to break the flesh into small pieces.
Place fish in a bowl and add the garlic and about ½ cup of extra virgin olive oil. Begin to beat the fish with a wooden spoon and keep on adding oil as you would if you were making mayonnaise by hand. The mixture will look like a thick, white, fluffy cream. Keep on adding oil until the mixture will not absorb any more – it may absorb 1-1½ cups of oil.
The above process can also be done in a food processor.

The photograph of baccalà montecato was one of the entrées presented a couple of years ago as part of The Melbourne Food and Wine Festival; the event was called Around Italy in 7 Days – Travel north to south with a different gastronomic journey each night.

Massimiliano Ferraiuolo was the chef (originally from Naples) who was visiting from Italy for a week’s residence at Society Restaurant and cooking each evening. (This was the evening to celebrate food from the north of Italy). the baccalà montecato was presented on a bed of mashed fresh peas with black toasted bread (black squid ink was used in the bread mixture), sprinkled with paprika, toasted almonds and a fresh, red autumn leaf . Pumpernickel bread is also suitable.

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