Tuscan salami from Garfagnana!
If there is one animal whose role can be considered essential to the diet and gastronomic tradition of the Garfagnana, it is for sure the pig.
Every part of it is used into typical delicious cured meats, such as biroldo, bondiola, and lard, represents “a ritual” in which entire rural families have always taken part.
These products have also recently received a quality trademark recognition.
Among the traditional preserved meats, we can mention special Tuscan salami: Mondiola, a fresh salame flavoured with bay leaves, the tasty lard of the Serchio valley, flavoured with herbs, and the biroldo, il prosciutto Bazzone.
What could be more Lucchese than Castagnaccio (chestnut tart)?
It is said to have been first created by a Pilade di Lucca. It’s a typical tuscan dessert. The key ingredient is chestnut flour “farina di castagne” or “farina dolce” traditionally made in the winter months. It is a most delicate flour with a sweet, rich flavour, made from dried, milled chestnuts.
It can now be found in specialists flour suppliers outside Italy, although readers living in Lucca willa have no diffuculty to finding excellent local produce from the Garfagnana.
Ingredients: ( serves 8 )
. 400 g chestnut flour (the best you can find, from Garfagnana)
. 6 tablespoonfuls extra virgin olive oil
. Approx 600/800 ml. water
. 1 cup of peeled pine seeds (pinoli)
. 3 tablespoonfuls of sugar
. 1 orange
. pinch of salt
. fresh rosemary leaves
. ricotta (cottage cheese of ewe’s milk)
Method:
Whisk the chestnut flour with the salt, sugar, grated orange rind and 3 tablespoonfuls of olive oil.
Warm up the water to more than lukewarm and add it little by little to the mixture to obtain a liquid creamy consistency. pour this cream into an oiled 30/32 cm diameter baking tin.
Sprinkle with the rosemary leaves and pine seeds and spread the ramaining olive oil over it.
Place in an oven heated to 220° C and cook 30/40 minutes.
The Castagnaccio should be crispy in the top and creamy inside. Serve hot with a generous portion of fresh ricotta.
This is a very ancient local recipe, not difficult to prepare but as is always the case with simple recipes the ingriedients must be top quality.
Buccellato
Perhaps you have already tried buccellato the traditional lucchese fruit bread?
It’s poor man’s food, bread made with a few simple ingriedents, which have made it a symbol of good luck and therefore very suitable for a Celebration.
For example, it contains aniseed, thought to promote fertility in women, and raisins, still seen on the table as a sign of good luck for the coming year. And of course while you may find it in a baguette shape know as a sfilatino, it is usually made in a shape of a circle or crown, the symbol of honour and glory. The name comes from the latin “bucella” which means a morsel, or bread for the poor. But there also existed in latin the word “buccellatum” which is probably best translated as “hard tack” or “ship’s biscuit”, the sort of iron rations provided for Roman troops.
The Buccellato is perfectly good form to dunk it in your wine or vinsanto.
You will find it in any good panificio or alimentari, and in Piazza San Michele (Lucca) at Taddeucci’s shop.
Pork tenderloin with balsamic vinegar and baked radicch
Ingredients (serves 4)
. A fillet of pork of about 600/800 g
. A marinade consisting of: 1 peeled lemon cut into slòices, 1 carrot, 1 stick of celery and 1 onion chopped together, a piece of cinnamon, a spring of thyme, 6/7 grains of coriander , a glasso f wine, half a cupo f cognac, half a cupo f ordinary balsamic vinegar, and a tablespoon of white vi negar
. 2 large balls of red radicchio
. extra virgin olive oil, butter, salt, pepper, half a teaspoon of corn flour (cornstarch)
Method
Dip the fillet in the marinade, and leave in a cool place for 24 hours turining it occasionally. Then remove in from the marinade and wrap in paper towels to dry for a few hours.
Remove the lemon, then place the marinade on the heat, reducing by half. Pour through a strainer pressing well to extract all the flavour from the vegetables. Add salt and pepper.
In a good size non stick pan, heat 30 g of butter with one tablespoons for 8 to 10 minutes, and add salt and pepper. Remove from the heat. Dissolve half a teaspoons of corn flour mix in three tablespoons of cold water, and when it is dissolved pour in the hot marinade, stiri t and leave it to thicken. Meanwhile, heat the grill, remove the outer leale from radicchio balls, wash, dry well and cut into quarters, lay them in a newly oiled non-stick pan, add salt and coock under the grill until they are well roasted.
Cut the tenderloin into slices one inch thick and place on a flat dish spread with the hot sauce. Serve with the roasted radicchio dressed with a little oil, and the remaing sauce.
I’ve always loved the Christmas Holidays both here and in the U.S. I have to admit, however, that in Italy there’s a much more festive feeling for a longer period and so many more traditions.
There are two i’d like to mention. One is the live Nativity representation in Barga on December 23 and one, more falily oriented, is making the coockies called befanotti, wich the Befana gives to children who’ve been “good” during the year. If they haven’t, they get charcoal.
The Nativity representation in Barga take place every year on December 23 starting after 9 p.m. It takes place trhough Barga’s lovely historic center and ends at the cathedral at about midnight when the bells ring out announcing the birth of baby Jesus. Everyone follows the two people representing Joseph and mary as they walk from hostelry to hosterly aking if there is room in the inn for them. Jospeh and mary are enacted by a young couple from the town. They are, of course dressed in period costumes and i have to say how well made the are. People follow them and the donkey and as they walk through the town, they can watch various crafts being dine by carpenters, shoemakers and weavers, al dressed in period costumes. Of course there are people roasting chestnuts over an open fire, making sausages and also the pancakes called necci and frittelle which are made from chestnut flour.
Nothing isa charged for. You are only asked to make a small offering to cover the expenses of organizing suach am important event.
Making befanotti i san important family tradition, especially for those living in the villages in the mountains. These are a kind of butter cookie made in various shake such as the Befana, animals, stars and trees. The Befana then distributes them through the village on the eve of the Epiphany.
