Tag: Wine

BRACIOLI DI MAIALI O’ VINU (Sicilian for Pork Chops Cooked In Wine)

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.

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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

  1. Prepare the chops:
    Make a small incision in each pork chop and insert a sprig of rosemary or fresh oregano.

  2. 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.

  3. Add wine and spices:
    Pour in the red wine, add the fennel seeds and pepper, and allow the wine to evaporate.

  4. 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.

SALAMURRIGGHIU – SALMORIGLIO (Dressing made with oil, lemon and oregano)

RABBIT with cloves, cinnamon and red wine (CONIGLIO DA LICODIA EUBEA)

Rabbit with cloves, cinnamon and red wine is a traditional Sicilian dish from the rural town of Licodia Eubea, and it reflects the deep and ancient roots of Sicilian cuisine. Sicily’s food culture has been shaped over thousands of years by the Greeks, Arabs, Normans and Spanish, each civilisation leaving layers of flavour, aromatic spices, and agricultural techniques that still define the island’s cooking today. Licodia Eubea, in the province of Catania, sits among fertile hills once shaped by Greek settlers (hence Eubea, a reference to the Greek island of Euboea) and still known for agricultural abundance and rustic, slow-cooked dishes.

Recently in Australia, rabbit has been plentiful, and I have been cooking it quite often. The expression “breeding like rabbits” is especially fitting given Australia’s ideal conditions—good rainfall and abundant vegetation supporting fast and extensive breeding. When possible, I use wild rabbit. Apart from having a stronger flavour, it is satisfying to think that using wild rabbit contributes to reducing an invasive population that causes significant environmental damage. Wild rabbits destroy native plant species, compete with local wildlife and livestock for food, and their grazing contributes to soil erosion across large areas of rural Australia.

I bought wild rabbit in Borough Markets in London and cooked this recipe in our accomodation Airbnb

This recipe came from Pino Correnti’s authoritative volume Il Libro D’oro della Cucina e dei Vini di Sicilia. Like many Sicilian recipes, the instructions are brief and quantities rarely specified, but with experimentation I have arrived at a version that works beautifully. The character of the dish comes from marinating the rabbit in red wine with warming spices: cinnamon, cloves, bay leaves and garlic. For wild rabbit, I marinate overnight; for farmed rabbit, 3 hours is usually sufficient.

Rabbit in the Catania Market

Over time I have adapted the recipe to my own taste, sometimes adding small onions or whole mushrooms to enrich the dish. On one occasion I served it with fregola—a Sardinian toasted pasta, cooked like couscous. It was delicious, though perhaps unconventional in the eyes of both Sicilians and Sardinians!

One rabbit (just under 1 kg) is ideal for four people.

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 rabbit, jointed
  • 1½ cups red wine
  • 6–8 cloves
  • 4–6 bay leaves
  • 2 garlic cloves, halved
  • 1–2 cinnamon sticks
  • ¾ cup extra virgin olive oil
  • Salt and pepper
  • 2 tbsp tomato paste, dissolved in a little water
  • 3–4 sprigs fresh rosemary
  • 6–8 fresh mint leaves
  • Whole onions, 1–2 per person

PROCESSES:
Clean the rabbit and cut it into manageable sections at the joints.

Marinate it in the wine, some of the oil, bay leaves, cinnamon and cloves and turn it occasionally. Wild rabbit: overnight. Farmed rabbit: 3 hours

Remove the pieces of rabbit from the marinade and drain well. Keep the marinade with the bay, cinnamon and cloves for cooking.
Cut small slits into the flesh of the rabbit and insert the garlic into the slits (the recipe just lists garlic in the list of ingredients).
Add the rest of the extra virgin olive oil in a large frying pan and sauté the pieces until golden. Remove them and set aside.
Reduce the heat, add the whole onions to the oil and toss them around until golden.
Add salt and pepper, the diluted tomato paste, mint, rosemary, the wine marinade with the bay leaves, cinnamon and cloves (if you want to accentuate the taste of the aromatics you may wish to discard the old bay leaves and cloves in the marinade and add new ones).
Cover with a lid and simmer it gently until it is cooked (wild rabbit will take twice as long to cook as the farmed rabbit and you may need to add extra liquid).
Remove the lid and evaporate the juices if necessary.

Serve with extra fresh mint leaves.

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This rustic and aromatic rabbit dish brings together the historic flavours of Sicily—spice-led cooking introduced by Arab rule, wine reflecting local agricultural tradition, and slow simmering methods that speak of rural kitchens and generous family tables.

One way to cook Rabbit like a Sicilian