#41 Italy

SPOILER

**There will be no pizza or spaghetti Bolognese in this blog.**

Spag bol isn’t even Italian, really. Where the world outside of Italy smothers an incompetent pasta shape in a tomato-based sauce with a bit of mince thrown in, Italians enjoy a slow-cooked, meat-based ragù alla bolognese with a far more robust tagliatelle or pappardelle pasta. A proper ragù alla bolognese will start with a sofrito of onion, carrot and celery. Only a little tomato will be added, there will be red wine, and meat from both cattle and pig.

Italian cooking is a celebration of Italian produce. Many traditional dishes are cucina povera, or peasant food, and use only minimal ingredients – whatever is local and seasonal. What makes these simple dishes great is the quality of the veg, meat or cheese used in them. There are so many wonderful ingredients and traditions of their preparation that differ between regions that I wish I was doing an entire ‘Cook the Boot’ blog. What follows below is merely the tip of the iceberg.

Cena

An ancient Roman dinner party was called a convivium, which is Latin for ‘living together’, as mealtimes were very social occasions. That ethos lives on in modern Italy, where family and guests sit down together and take their time over dinner.

A formal cena (dinner) consists of 10 courses (TEN!) and they must be served in the correct order.

1. APERITIVO

As the French would call l’aperitif, this is simply a pre-dinner beverage. Prosecco, or an Aperol spritz if you want to feel like you’re on holiday, would be suitable sipping options, and simple nibbles, such as olives or nuts, would be fitting accompaniments.

2. ANTIPASTI

Antipasto (singular).

This course often takes the form of a sharing platter, with charcuterie, cheeses, preserved vegetables, and breads.

Italian charcuterie is one of the biggest reasons I could not be vegetarian: salami, nduja, bresaola, prosciutto and so many more.

Prosciutto itself is an umbrella term for ham from northern Italy. There are sweet hams, salty hams, cooked hams, raw hams, all the hams. Prosciutto di Parma is, in my opinion, the finest ham in existence. The way those slivers melt in your mouth realising heavenly bursts of savoury and sweetness in tandem is sheer perfection.

Give me only a glass of Prosecco and a plate of prosciutto di Parma and I will ask for nothing more.

The antipasto could also be a simpler affair, such as a bruschetta, served individually. Naturally, this varies by region, but one region in particular takes great pride with their antipasti. In Puglia, antipasti are designed to awaken every one of your taste buds before the main event, and as such, usually involves multiple plates!

I threw a little antipasti party for my friends and here is my selection of Puglian antipasti and links to the recipes I used.

Aubergine involtini - Jamie Oliver

A paste of pine nuts, sun-dried tomatoes, anchovies, extra virgin olive oil and basil, rolled up in a slice of grilled aubergine, with prosciutto, fresh basil leaves and mozzarella. These marvellous morsels are similar in appearance to Georgian nigvziani badrijani but superior in flavour.

Courgette salad - Sainsbury's

Thinly sliced summery courgette dressed simply with balsamic vinegar, olive oil and lemon juice, and scattered with toasted pine nuts, rocket and Parmigiano-Reggiano shavings.

Bean puree - Waitrose

A puree of garlicky cannellini beans topped with charred onions, more garlic and rocket.

Acqua e sale - Jane Baxter

A simple salad of tomatoes, cucumber, herbs and chunks of bread, with marinated onions – an excellent way to revive stale bread. Unbelievable for so few and such simple ingredients; a shining star of traditional Italian cooking. It was Jane Baxter on a recent Saturday Kitchen who inspired this quartet of antipasti so it only seems right to use one of her recipes.

Arancini

One of Sicily’s greatest inventions. For those of you who know what I’m talking about, these little deep-fried, molten mozzarella-stuffed risotto balls need no introduction. If you have no idea what arancini are, I implore you to book a table at your local Italian restaurant immediately and order the arancini!

3. PRIMI

The first substantial course. This could be a plate of risotto, gnocchi, pasta, soup, or seafood. The primo shouldn’t really be a meat dish…but, I really liked the sound of casoncelli alla Bergamasca from Lombardy. This is pasta stuffed with pork and served with a butter, sage and pancetta sauce.

I had every faith that the filling would be bellissimo, but my first ever attempt at making my own pasta using only a rolling pin proved risky. The pasta for my casoncelli was so chewy it was almost inedible! I think it was both under-kneaded and just too thick. I hang my head in shame.

What makes my failed pasta even more disappointing is that the alla Bergamasca part of the dish was one of the best things I’ve ever tasted in. my. life. The pasta filling was a mixture of pork sausage meat browned in butter, fresh breadcrumbs, egg, Grana Padano, crushed amaretti biscuits and raisins.

…Let that sink in…

The sauce for the casoncelli is butter, lardons and crispy fried sage leaves.

…Let that sink in too…

Casoncelli alla Bergamasca (with rubbish homemade pasta)

Those meaty, savoury, sweet mouthfuls made me feel like I was melting. If I’d nailed the rich, delicate, fresh pasta? I think I might actually have died of joy in that moment.

4. SECONDI

This is the meat or fish, the main event.

Saltimbocca alla Romana is a veal escalope and sage leaves wrapped in prosciutto, pan-fried and served with a butter and marsala sauce.

Saltimbocca originates in the Rome area and can be translated as ‘jump in my mouth’, and oh yes, this can most definitely jump in my mouth. Crispy ham, tender meat and sweet sauce. This is a thing of gastronomical beauty.

5. CONTORNI

These are side dishes served alongside the secondo, usually vegetables, and served on separate plates.

My contorni to accompany the saltimbocco were selected based on what arrived in the seasonal veg box I keep forgetting to cancel. Here we have roasted crushed new potatoes, garlicky runner beans and balsamic glazed heritage carrots. Perfect for a summer Sunday lunch.

6. INSALATA

A plate of salad leaves after the main course. However, if there are leafy vegetables in the contorni the insalata course may be left out completely.

7. FORMAGGI E FRUTTA

Cheese and fruit.

I feel almost as passionate about Italian cheese as I do about Italian cured meats. The importance of regional cheeses is recognised globally as over 300 Italian cheeses have a protected designation of origin!

An Italian cheese board should showcase cheese from the milk of different animals and should include both soft and hard cheeses. An example selection for an Italian cheeseboard is given below.

From cow

Parmigiano-Reggiano, often referred to as the ‘King of Cheeses’, is produced in the Emilia-Romagna region. In 2012 two earthquakes struck and damaged an atmosphere-controlled warehouse containing 360,000 wheels of Parmigiano-Reggiano, threatening the entire global supply. Luckily, local chef, Massimo Bottura, swooped in to save the day. Bottura developed a simple risotto recipe involving lots of P-R and held an online fundraiser one night in October of that year, so called Parmigiano-Reggiano night, where anyone in the world could join in and prepare and eat the dish at the same time, thus shifting a significant quantity of the cheese. Check out Chef’s Table on Netflix for more on this heart-warming tale.

Gorgonzola - one of my favourite blue cheeses. Semi-soft, tangy, creamy and pungent.

From nanny (goat)

Formaggella del Luinese is a semi-hard, sweet, delicately flavoured cheese. I’ve never tried it, but I really want to!

From ewe

Peccorino Romano, a hard cheese and beautifully nutty and savoury.

From lady bufffalo

Stracciatella is a spreadable soft cheese made from mixing shredded mozzarella with cream (like the centre of burrata) and amazing on a crunchy cracker.

8. DOLCE

Dessert.

I always find myself reaching for a Lindor ball or the Heroes after the cheese board on Christmas Day, so I think that having the sweet course after the cheese board makes complete sense.

My wonderful friends provided the dessert after the antipasti party.

Rach brought cannoli from The Prince’s in Pontypridd (we’re still not entirely sure what she was doing in Ponty on a Wednesday afternoon…). Cannoli, from Sicily, are little fried pastry shells filled with a sweet filling, traditionally ricotta, but they’re fabulous with a chocolate filling.

Fi made tiramisu. It was the best tiramisu I’ve ever had!