A typical Umbrian Christmas sweet: Ciccuto's torrone

 by Silvia Matricardi

Once upon a time in a charming medieval town in Umbria there was an old confectioner’s shop. It was run by a man called Ciccuto, with his wife and daughter. It was one of those old fashioned, family-run artisan’s shops, typical of early twentieth-century Umbrian towns, with little furniture which hadn’t got pretensions to beauty or style. They sold all kind of typical products, most of which were hand made by them, such as maritozzi (kind of currant bun) with whipped cream, custard or chocolate, pastries, as well as rhubarb candies and liquorice drops, besides giving out spirits, coffee and co.
They also made the best chocolate and hazelnuts torrone ever!

You probably know that torrone is a typical Italian Christmas candy, kind of nougat, and that there are dozens of varieties all around Italy: it can be soft or hard, white (made with honey) or black (made with chocolate), with hazelnuts or almonds or pistachio, and so on….

Ciccuto’s chocolate and hazelnuts torrone was really a masterpiece of deliciousness, it was different from any other chocolate and hazelnuts torrone you could find around. Like it happens with Nutella: many artisans try to make chocolate and hazelnut cream and you can find really good ones around (especially in Piemonte) but no one has ever succeeded in reaching the same taste. It’s unique.

My memories of Ciccuto’s shop are very old and foggy, as he closed his activity at least 25 years ago.

Anyway I clearly remember that I used to go there on Sundays at Christmas time, before lunch, with my Dad. I was little but tall enough to see the board where torrone would be kept; it was long, of course, but differently from any other one, when you looked at it frontally it was not large and short, but square. Two foils of host would cover its bottom and top and you could immediately see the huge hazelnuts in the middle.It was also different in terms of consistency: it was not so compact and smooth, but very doughy and slightly crumbly. You did not need to cut it with a knife, you could easily break it with your fingers and get them deliciously dirty.

Anyway, what made it really unique was its taste: it was very strong and rich; when you bit it you could feel many little crunchy tiny pieces of chocolate and it would spread immediately in every corner of your mouth.

Ciccuto would measure it with a knife and cut it where you wanted. Then he would wrap it in an oily white paper and put it in a paper bag.

And each Sunday at Christmas time at my house it was a joy!

Unfortunately Ciccuto’s daughter has not carried on her family’sactivity and the traditional torrone recipe got wasted.

Anyway, for true torrone lovers, those who are really keen on traditional one, hope is not lost. There is an artisan of traditional pastries and cakes in Spoleto who makes a wonderful chocolate and hazelnuts torrone, whose taste and consistency is very close to Ciccuto’s one: it’s the award-winning Pasticceria Pirola, in Spoleto. Giuseppe, the owner, explains the reason: “Of course, it’s my Grandfather’s recipe!”.

Their torrone is not an inexpensive one, believe me, but it’s worth a drive from any corner of Umbria!

The "bad" season in Umbria: smells and colours

by Silvia Matricardi

Some people IN Umbria complain when the Summer is over, as if they couldn’t stand the coming season. I can partly understand them, as the “bad” season is really long here: some years you have to wait until April before you can say that Winter is over.
But is Fall really the beginning of a bad season? How could you define “bad” (or “brutta”, as we say here, “la brutta stagione”) what we are going through these days?!

I personally love this time of the year and also the following weeks, all the period until Christmas. And the reasons are so many I could hardly list them all.

What is beautiful about Autumn IN Umbria is mainly the look and the smell.

The smell you feel going around, in city centers, in the narrow streets and squares, is the smell of the smoke coming out the houses’ chimneys. As soon as the temperature lowers Umbrians start lighting up the fireplace in their homes; not because of the cold (we do have heating, of course!) but because the fireplace “tiene compagnia” (keeps you company), as we say it. Before and after dinner, in fact, families like to gather around the fire and chat a little bit.
But there is also another reason to light up a fire: you can cook a fast dinner based on roasted pork meat and roasted bread (bruschetta), which is typical of Umbria. And you know, the fact of being roasted on the grill on the fire gives the meat a special flavour.
And, talking about the smell of Atumn in the city centers, sometimes when walking in a narrow street or turning a street corner your nose gets whetted by a sudden smell of roasted pork meat. That’s typical too!
There’s another wonderful smell in the Fall: you feel it when you walk along a street besides a public garden or along a row of trees, or better when you go out in the country. It’s the smell of moist earth, of rotten leaves and wet grass: it’s strong, fresh, rich, loamy and succulent. It reminds me of ancient walks, as a child, with my grandfather…It reminds me of a beautiful secret garden in Spoleto, cloistered between the stone walls of an old convent. My garden.

The colours of Autumn are no way inferior to its odours.
Besides the green, the everlasting green of the Green Heart of Italy, the predominant colours you find around are: yellow, orange, brown and red, with different shades and nuances. Not only can you see them out in the country or in the woods, or along the many walks up and down Umbrian hills, but also in the many fruits and vegetables that fill people’s kitchen tables and market’s stalls.
What I find interesting it is that also the clothes people wear during this season have got these colours, as if everyone wanted to be in tune with nature.

We could not list all the trees that have beautiful colours in the Fall, but we can surely list the fruits and vegetables that fill our tables, which you can find in the stalls of weekly markets (il mercato), like the one we spotted last Friday.

Chestnuts or marrons (Spoleto marrons are famous): different shades of brown and reddish –brown; you can prepare them roasted or boiled, or you can use them to make soups or tartes or flour.

Mandarines: total orange; they are the first citrus fruit that come out and their smell is just delicious, being one of the precious gifts Winter brings in, which reminds a little bit of approaching Christmas time.

Nuts: light brown; you can eat them raw or crush them to prepare stuffing for typical cakes, such as the “attorta”, the just-great-! Christmas cake we make in Spoleto.

Pumpkins: orange, yellow, green, brown and mix; those that survive Halloween time can be used in a thousand ways: sliced and fried, in soups, as a seasoning for pasta and risotto or to make cakes; there’s also a bad joke about pumpkin icecream that my husband tells, but let’s skip that!

Khaki: oh Gosh, my favourite! Total orange; this incredible fruit can be hard or soft; my favourite is the soft variety, which is pulpous, sweet and “slippery” besides being highly nutritious. I eat it fresh, raw, with a tea spoon.

Winter string beans, chard, chicory and the other winter herbs: different shades of green; these herbs are wonderful if you cook them with simple ingredients: extra virgin olive oil and salt; you can boil them and add some lemon juice; or you can fry them in a pan, together with celery, carrots and small tomatoes; or you can use them to stuff pizza or calzoni or piadina or...whatever, they are wonderful with anything!

Cabbages and broccoli: different shades of green, white; they can be cooked the same ways as the other herbs we mentioned.Our favorite way is: boil them, then put them in a pan with extra virgin olive oil, garlic, salt and hot pepper and fry them for a while; then spread them on hot, crispy bruschetta.

Spinaches: bright green; besides being Popeye’s favourite food they are great to accompany a roasted meat course or to make a pie, with parmesan cheese, eggs, grated bread and pieces of smoked pork underbelly.

Grape: different nuances of red and green; at the end of special refined dinners we love to serve our friends crackling grape accompanying soft and hard cheese seasoned with acacia honey. Aren’t we just immoral?!

Black olives: absolute black. This is the most typical fruit here in Umbria, that’s the land of olive oil. When you don’t use all of your olive trees’ fruits to make oil you keep some of them in glass jars, under salt, either close to the fireplace or out of the window in the cold, for some days, until they are ready to be eaten; then you season them with pieces of garlic and orange peel, olive oil and salt. And they come out perfect and delicious: incredibly bitter!

Anyway, there is something that’s really special about November, which isn’t neither a color nor a smell; it’s something that embraces all that we have been mentioning and everything else, giving this time of year its special mood: it’s fog, the light, transparent fog of sunny days at Fall, you can only find in a few Umbrian valleys.

Dear non-Umbrian friends, please forgive us for praising something so annoying as fog can be: we are Umbrians, we love to wander in woods, to go up and down hills, to eat marrons, herbs and mushrooms, and, to quote a young and promising Umbrian actor - Filippo Timi - we are a little bit like “hairy wild boars”!

Roveja from Castelluccio: the official recipe

by Silvia Matricardi

In our last article we talked about a typical legume of Valnerina-Castelluccio area that we just discovered: the roveja.

We had the chance to try it on the spot, one stormy day in Castelluccio, with a group of American guests.

It was delicious on bruschetta; that’s why we asked for the recipe.
We got it and immediately after we cooked it ourselves.

That’s the outcome.

And this is the official recipe.

Dose for six people

500 gr of roveja
Extra virgin olive oil
Celery, onions, 3 spoonful of peeled tomatoes
Salt
Hot pepper
Unsalty bread


Soak the roveja in water with some coarse salt for about 12 hours. Put the salty water and the roveja in a pot and let cook for 2 hours.
In a pan prepare a “soffritto”, that is: slice onions and celery, add some peeled tomatoes (just a little) and hot pepper and let fry for some minutes in a little bit of extra virgin olive oil.
Drain the roveja and add it to the “soffritto”.

Let cook another 10-15 minutes.

Slice some unsalty bread and roast it; add the roveja on top of each slice and season with a little extra virgin olive oil.
Serve immediately, before the bread gets cold.

This plate would normally be part of an antipasto-course or, together with some vegetables, it can be a perfect light dinner or lunch.

We are sure that there are several other ways of cooking roveja. One of them, we guess, could be to prepare it, like we would do with lentils, in a soup. You would only have to avoid draining the roveja after having boiled it: you would have to pour it into the soffritto together with its boiling water and let cook for another 15-20 minutes to let amalgamate. Then serve it in bowls and season with some extra virgin olive oil.

We are going to try it soon, as we, being 100% Umbrians, love legumes soups, especialy in cold and rainy days like the ones we are having now, here IN Umbria.

Thanks to Gianni and "La vostra cantina" for giving us the recipe.

And there comes the legume: the roveja!

by Silvia Matricardi

Most of you probably know that the area of Valnerina-Castelluccio is famous for the production of legumes. We, Umbrians, have been eating lots of legumes since our early childhood, as they are a highly nutritious and healthful food that brings very high quality proteins to the body.
Anyway, even after more than 30 years of eating legumes, sometimes it happens that you find out one that you have never had before, which has been the basic element of nourishment for many of your fellow Umbrians.

The occasion was given to us by a group of 15 guests visiting our region a couple of weeks ago.
We took them to Castelluccio, a beautiful place IN Umbria (see details on our article “Castelluccio dressing white”, dated March 23rd 2010), for a glance at the beautiful plateau and a taste of our typical products.
And there we found it: the roveja.
And we immediately became visitors ourselves, eager to know more about it.
And to have it, of course!

The roveja (pisum arverse) is a small wild pea which can be called also by different names, such as roveglia, corbello, pea of the fields, rubiglio. It can be found in Valnerina area and in the past it represented mountain people’s essential means of nourishment, together with other legumes and cereals. They told us that local people were eating a lot of it at the beginning of the 20th century, when our country was going through a severe period of hunger; when bad times were over people were so sick of eating it that they would not want to have it anymore. So the cultivation was abandoned (also because of the difficult processes related to its harvest).

It spontaneously grows on the slopes or in the fields at an altitude between 600 to 1200m, it is harvested between the end of July and the beginning of August and threshed like lentils are. It has got coloured seeds tending from dark green to browning-grey or red.
Roveja can be consumed in the form of soups or ground into flour between stones.

That day in Castelluccio our host, Gianni (whose father manages the Consorzio for the protection of local legumes), served it as part of our antipasto-course, on a slice of bruschetta (roasted bread) cooked in the traditional way.
It was delicious: its taste reminds a little of lentils, maybe a little stronger, as it is a very tasty legume.

Which was the perfect food for a stormy day like that one was.

We immediately got a pack of roveja together with the official recipe, which we are going to try soon. And write an article about, of course!

Our American friends did the same and so I like to imagine that these days in some homes all over Massachussets, Pennsylvania and Florida, some lucky families are having their own roveja for dinner and tasting a little of far-off, wholesome Umbria.

P.S. By the way, did you know that besides most common legumes such as lentils, chickpeas and beans there are many others, typical of different areas in Umbria? We found out some of them: the risina, the bean of the eye or monachella, the bean of Cave, the roveja (of course!) and the cicerchia. Do you know other legumes?


Specific information about roveja has been taken from “Enogastronomicae” edited by Sistema Turistico Locale Valli e Monti dell’Umbria Antica.

Saturday evening in an old-fashioned Café

by Silvia Matricardi

There are Saturday nights when, after a long, long week full of events, meetings and work, you don’t feel like doing anything special and all you want to do is enjoy the company of a person you love. So, what you choose to do is go to a town near by and watch a movie. What happens then, especially if the movie starts at 8pm, is that you come out of the cinema around ten and you feel a little hungry; anyway, you don’t want to have a big meal or a pizza, you just need something small and delicious, accompanied by a hot or cold beverage. In case you are IN Umbria and all of this is happening to you, that’s what you should do.
Go to Antico Caffè in Piazza della Repubblica, in Foligno city center. This Café is famous for several reasons. The first one is that its furniture has mainly remained as it used to be in the 19th century. The counter dates back to 1890 and it is covered with tin; you can still see the pipes from which the water used to come out. And also the shelves and the product’s jars are those you would find in the 19th century: made of wood, porcelain or glass. At the beginning this used to be a drogheria, a place where you would buy spices: and the spices are still there, only nowadays they cannot be kept loose in big jars, but they must be packed and sealed; that’s why you find many packets of different kind of spices all around the café. The smell must have been great some decades ago, when all the spices were kept in the open air. Anyway, the smell you feel when you get in is great now too and that’s the second reason why this place is so renowned.

They produce their own biscuits, cakes, crostate, muffin and tartes and they serve several kinds of coffe, teas and herb brews. They also have several kinds of craftmade chocolate with different flavours and aromas: with hot pepper, with sweet salt, with fruit - truly delicious! And also confetti, marmelades, liqueurs, candies and several kinds of wine. All the goods and goodies have that special look of original, authentic and very well prepared things, the things made the old way, when people would realize their recipes at home, respecting preparation times and ingredients’ nature and natural rythms.
The athmosfere is old-fashioned and cozy, maybe because the room does not host many tables and all the clients seat in the same room where the counter is and because the owners love to tell the story of the Café. When you seat there, sipping a good cup of coffe, enjoying a slice of cake or some cookies filled with marmelade or muffins made with carrots, coconut and cinnamon, or a glass of wine accompanied by dry biscuits, you have the chance to look everybody in the eyes, sharing the same feeling of fulfilment and pleasure, while feeling away from the noisy, frenzy, always on the run world.

Sabato sera in un Antico Caffè
di Silvia Matricardi

Ci sono alcune serate di sabato in cui, dopo una lunga settimana piena di eventi, riunioni e lavoro, hai voglia di non fare niente di speciale, ma solo di goderti la compagnia di qualcuno che ami. Così decidi di andare in una cittadina vicina e vedere un film. Ciò che accade, specialmente se il film inizia alle 8 di sera, è che si esce dal cinema intorno alle dieci con un certo languorino; e può succedere di non aver voglia di una cena completa, né di una pizza, ma solo di qualcosa di piccolo e squisito, da accompagnare ad una bibita calda o fresca. Nel caso in cui vi trovaste IN Umbria e tutto ciò stesse accadendo proprio a voi, ecco cosa dovreste fare.
Andate all’Antico Caffé in Piazza della Repubblica, nel centro storico di Foligno. Questo Caffè è noto per diversi motivi. Il primo è che il suo arredo è rimasto essenzialmente com’era nel 19° secolo. Il bancone risale al 1890 ed è rivestito di stagno; si possono ancora vedere i tubi dai quali fuoriusciva l’acqua. Ed anche le mensole e i contenitori che raccolgono i prodotti sono quelli che avreste trovato nel 19° secolo: fatti in legno, porcellana o vetro.
All’inizio il locale era nato come drogheria, un luogo in cui si acquistavano spezie: e le spezie sono ancora tutte lì, solamente che ora non possono più essere tenute sfuse in grosse giare, ma devono essere impacchettate e sigillate; questa è la ragione per cui tutto intorno al locale si vedono sacchetti contenenti vari tipi di spezie. L’aroma doveva essere meraviglioso qualche decade fa, quando tutte le spezie venivano tenute sfuse. In ogni modo l’odore che si respira anche oggi entrando è delizioso, ed ecco la seconda ragione per cui il locale è famoso; sono loro a preparare i biscotti, le torte, le crostate, i muffin e i dolcetti, che accompagnano ai caffè, tè e infusi di erbe che servono. Hanno anche diversi tipi di cioccolato preparati artigianalmente con diversi aromi e sapori: con il peperoncino, con il sale dolce, con la frutta – davvero deliziosi! Ed anche confetti, marmellate, liquori, caramelle e svariati tipi di vino. Tutti i prodotti e le squisitezze hanno quell’aria speciale delle cose originali, autentiche e preparate con cura, le cose fatte alla vecchia maniera, quando le persone usavano realizzare le loro ricette a casa, rispettando i tempi di preparazione e la natura e i ritmi naturali degli ingredienti.
L’atmosfera è antica e intima, forse perché la sala non ospita molti tavoli e i clienti siedono nella stessa stanza in cui si trova il bancone, e anche perché i proprietari sono cordiali e amano raccontare la storia del Caffè. Quando siedi lì, sorseggiando una buona tazza di caffè e gustando una fetta di torta o dei biscotti ripieni di marmellata, o dei muffin fatti con carote, cocco e cannella, o un bicchiere di vino accompagnato da biscotti secchi, hai la possibilità di incrociare lo sguardo degli altri ospiti, condividendo la stessa sensazione di appagamento e piacere, sentendoti allo stesso tempo lontano dal quel mondo rumoroso e frenetico che va sempre di corsa.

A special restaurant IN Umbria: "natural creative cooking"

by Silvia Matricardi

Sometimes, during a week full of engagements and duties, you don’t feel like cooking your lunch and all you want is to relax for an hour and a half in a calm, slow place, to be with people with different cultural and linguistic backgrounds, enjoying a good and healthy meal. There are not many places where you can have all of this at the same time without having planned it in advance and without driving for some kilometres. Anyway, we are smart girls and a little lucky too, so we have spotted one of them just by our office: it’s the Ristorante Biologico in Spoleto.
We try to go there at least once a week because we love the food and we like the athmosphere and the friendliness of the owners. Maria Paola and Gianluca have been running the business for a couple of years, introducing in traditional and lazy Spoleto a new proposal of cooking: that to our great pleasure is proving to be very succesfull!
The place is small, with about 20 seats; it is simply furnished, with natural materials such as wood, paper and warm colours; everything gives you the idea of being in a place where things are “raw”, simple and authentic and the food is healthy and prepared respecting ingredients’ nature.
From the sitting area you can see the chef preparing his masterpieces.
When Gianluca, the chef, describes his cooking you can feel his passion and commitment and you can see fire in his eyes; we will have to explain this peculiar way of cooking in a specifi article, in order to convey the deep meaning of this experience. Now, to summarize the message, just in a few sentences: “Food is sacred. When you prepare a dish you have to pay attention to food’s nutritional qualities and you have to respect them. The association of food is very important and so is the way you present it on the plate. Simplicity is a merit, not a fault. Cooking must be performed out of love”.
It is hard to describe what kind of cooking this is: you can call it natural, creative cooking.
You can come here also for breakfast and they will serve you cakes and crostate made with organic ingredients; they also have a mini market, where they sell all sorts of milk - cow milk, rice, soya, and all sorts of food coming from all over the world: a great variety of rice, cereals, sugar, pasta, spices; you cal also find fresh vegetables, tea, yoghurt, natural detergents and many other things.

Take a look at what we had last time we were there for lunch:



Salad mix with fake mayonnaise (and cicoria sauce)







Soup of carrots and savoy in “sweet-strong” (with aniseeds)








Vegetables and poppy couscous flan

Rice and sesame wafer with beetroot and almonds velouté

Chocolate cake with stracciatella yoghurt

Everything tasted great and was “slowly” and carefully prepared. You can judge by the pictures we took.
The dishes not only look good, they taste deliciously! Believe us!

Un ristorante speciale IN Umbria: cucina naturale e creativa

di Silvia Matricardi

A volte nel mezzo di una settimana piena di impegni e doveri non hai voglia di cucinarti il pranzo, vuoi solo rilassarti per un’oretta e mezza in un luogo calmo e “lento”, stare insieme a persone con diversi background culturali e linguistici e gustarti un pasto buono e salutare. Non ci sono molti luoghi dove si può avere tutto questo allo stesso tempo senza averlo programmato in anticipo o senza dover guidare per chilometri. Ma siccome siamo ragazze intelligenti e anche un pochino fortunate ne abbiamo scoperto uno proprio vicino al nostro ufficio: è il Ristorante Biologico di Spoleto.
Cerchiamo di andarci almeno una volta alla settimana poiché ne amiamo la cucina e ci piace l’atmosfera e il calore dei proprietari. Maria Paola e Gianluca gestiscono il locale da circa un paio d’anni ed hanno introdotto nella tradizionale e pigra Spoleto una nuova proposta di cucina: che con nostro grande piacere sta riscuotendo un notevole successo!
Il locale non è grande, con una ventina di posti a sedere; è arredato in modo semplice, con materiali naturali come legno e carta, e colori caldi; tutto dà l’idea di trovarsi in un luogo dove le cose sono “naturali”, semplici e autentiche e il cibo è sano e preparato rispettando la natura degli ingredienti.
Dall’area ristorante si può osservare lo chef mentre prepara i suoi capolavori.
Quando Gianluca, lo chef, descrive la sua cucina si può sentire tutta la passione ed l’impegno che ci mette e si vede il fuoco nei suoi occhi; spiegheremo la sua particolare filosofia culinaria in un articolo specifico, così da comunicare in modo completo il significato profondo di questa esperienza. Per ora ci limitiamo a riassumere il messaggio in poche frasi: “Il cibo è sacro. Quando si prepara un piatto bisogna stare attenti alle qualità nutritive del cibo e bisogna rispettarle. L’associazione degli ingredienti è molto importante e lo stesso vale per il modo in cui essi vengono presentati nel piatto. La semplicità è un pregio, non un difetto. Il cucinare deve essere fatto con amore”.
E’ difficile descrivere che tipo di cucina venga proposto qui: la chiameremo cucina naturale creativa. Si può venire al Biologico anche per colazione, e allora vi serviranno torte e crostate fatte con ingredienti biologici; c’è anche un minimarket in cui vendono svariati tipi di latte – di mucca, di riso, di soia, e vari cibi provenienti da ogni parte del mondo. Una grande varietà di riso, cereali, zucchero, pasta, spezie; si può acquistare anche verdura fresca, tè, yogurt, detersivi naturali e molte alter cose.

Date un’occhiata a ciò che abbiamo mangiato a pranzo l’ultima volta che ci siamo stati:

Insalata mix con finta maionese (e salsa di cicoria)
Zuppa di carote e verza in dolce-forte (con semi di anice)
Sformato di couscous con verdure e papavero
Cialdine di riso e sesamo con vellutata di barbabietole alle mandorle
Cake al cioccolato con yogurt alla stracciatella

Ogni piatto era squisito ed era stato preparato lentamente e con cura. Potete giudicare dalle foto che abbiamo scattato.
Le pietanze non solo erano belle da vedere, erano anche deliziose! Parola nostra!

A light supper

A light supper

By Silvia Matricardi

There are periods in your life when you spend a lot of time sitting at tables, whether it is in a restaurant or at home or at friends’ home, enjoying lots of great food. Not that you don’t like it, on the contrary, you get addicted to having sumptuous dinners and lunches. Anyway, a certain moment arrives when you have to say BASTA and have a light meal.
We have just come out of a time of the year when we have had plenty of delicious dishes: Christmas, Easter, asparagus time, wine and food tastings, etc., and now, very often, we feel the urge to have light meals, based mainly on vegetables and food “in the raw”.

Yesterday evening, for example, we were in the mood for a light supper; luckily we had already boiled some vegetables the day before, so the preparation was “light” too.
That’s what we had: a mixed vegetables soup with extra virgin olive oil and a toasted slice of bread, bruschetta with ricotta cheese spread on top and some cooked wild herbs (Cicoria di campo).

It might sound banal, after all the delicious recipes we gave you lately, but I assure you that our light supper was delicious and very healthy. Take a look at it.

Life’s good, take it easy!

The Season of Wild Asparagus - La Stagione degli Asparagi Selvatici

The Season of Wild Asparagus
by Silvia Matricardi

Umbria, the Green Heart of Italy, in this period is very green, especially this year, as we had a lot of rain during the Winter / beginning of Spring. This means that the Season of Asparagus has now started.
If you drive along the roads, up and down our Umbrian hills you cannot help noticing cars parking everywhere, in the middle of nothing (it is never nothing, though!), apparently without any reason. There is nothing mysterious about it: it’s just an army of people, climbing all over, any time of the day, searching for the exquisite protagonist of Spring Umbrian meals….the wild Asparagus.
They are ravenous like wolves and invade the hills like locusts and the reason is simple: the asparagus is a great ingredient of dozen of recipes. Most of them are men, eager to get as many as they can, to bring them home to their wives, like hunting trophies; and wives are usually happy, especially at the beginning of the season, when their laid tables have been missing asparagus for many winter months. Anyway, some weeks after the opening of the season and especially when men start getting a little obsessed by the idea and start to bring home kilos of them every day, wives start getting sick of them, better to say, of cleaning them. This happens every year in my parents’ house…but maybe it is not so in other families.
Anyway, joking aside…..Wild asparagus is something deeply rooted in Umbrian culinary tradition: it is something genuine, something that dates back to ancient times when men used to take home the daily harvest and women would cook it for the whole family. I think there is something left of that feeling in nowadays families: when someone calls you at the phone or just steps into your house saying “Look what I’ve got for you…I picked up so many!” your face always lightens up! One of the elements to make an asparagus picking successful is clothing. You don’t need to wear anything special: just comfortable clothes allowing you to climb up or slide down little slopes, long sleeves and pants to avoid getting scratched by thorns, bushes and rocks, comfortable but strong shoes (better climbing boots) to prevent slipping, and gloves. Sometimes in fact, especially in the hottest hours of the day and late in Spring, you can make unpleasant encounters: vipers love basking in the sun and even though they run away when they hear humans’ steps getting close, they can get aggressive and bite you if you slip your hand into the bush they have tried to take shelter in. And the last thing you wish when you are walking in a wood or in an olive grove or in a field, is to get bitten by a viper!
That’s why some smart guy has invented a special tool to pick up asparagus: I’m afraid I don’t know its name, but I known how it looks like and I have used it also, a couple of times. It’s like a stick, made of iron, having a sort of handle at one edge, like an old bicycle brake, and at the other edge something between scissors and pliers moved by the handle; thanks to this tool, once you spot the asparagus, you don’t need to bend forward, stretch out your hand and pick it up: you just seize and cut it, sparing your hands and back.

Picking asparagus is not an easy job. First of all it takes time and lot of exercise to get able to spot them, as they usually grow under olive trees, inside bushes or in the middle of tall grass and all sorts of plants and brushwood; you can be watching carefully for minutes without seeing it, while it is standing right in front of you: it happens all the time! Second, if you wander around easy paths it can happen that you don’t find many, as other people might have just passed there. In order to find big bunches of wild asparagus you have to climb up impassable paths, get into the wood or up and down olive groves. And become wild yourself!

My advice to any of you who are not used to do it and want to try is: never go alone, take your mobile phone with you in case you get lost, take some water and…enjoy yourself! In any case, even if you don’t find any, you have been in the open air, breathed the smell of grass and flowers and any of the restaurants and trattorias or locandas you find around Umbria will serve you fresh, wild, wonderfully cooked asparagus!


La Stagione degli Asparagi Selvatici
di Silvia Matricardi

Umbria, il Cuore Verde d’Italia, è molto verde in questo periodo, specialmente quest’anno in cui abbiamo avuto molta pioggia in inverno e ad inizio primavera. Ciò significa che è cominciata la Stagione degli Asparagi.
Se si vaga per le strade, su e giù per le nostre colline umbre non si può fare a meno di notare auto parcheggiate ovunque, in posti sperduti nel nulla (anche se non è mai il nulla!), senza alcuna ragione apparente. Non c’è nulla di misterioso in questo: è un esercito di persone, che si arrampicano ovunque a qualsiasi ora del giorno, alla ricerca dello squisito protagonista dei pasti umbri di primavera … l’asparago selvatico.
Sono famelici come lupi e invadono le colline come cavallette e la ragione è semplice: l’asparago è il meraviglioso ingrediente di decine di ricette. Gran parte di loro sono uomini, desiderosi di raccoglierne il maggior numero possibile per portarli a casa dalle loro mogli, come trofei di caccia; e le mogli di solito ne sono contente, specialmente ad inizio stagione, quando alle loro tavole imbandite gli asparagi sono mancati nel corso dei lunghi mesi invernali. Tuttavia, a qualche settimana dall’apertura della stagione e specialmente nel momento in cui gli uomini iniziano ad essere ossessionati dall’idea e cominciano a portarne a casa chili ogni giorno, le mogli iniziano ad esserne stufe, o meglio, ad essere stufe di pulirli. Ciò accade ogni anno a casa dei miei genitori … ma forse non è così in altre famiglie.
Scherzi a parte….L’asparago selvatico è profondamente radicato nella tradizione culinaria umbra: è genuino, qualcosa che risale ai tempi antichi quando gli uomini erano soliti portare a casa il raccolto della giornata e le donne lo cucinavano per tutta la famiglia. Penso che qualcosa di questo sentimento sia rimasto nelle famiglie di oggi: quando qualcuno ti chiama al telefono o bussa alla tua porta dicendo “Guarda cosa ti ho portato… ne ho raccolti tanti!” il tuo viso si illumina sempre!

Uno degli elementi che condiziona l’esito della raccolta degli asparagi è l’abbigliamento. Non è necessario indossare niente di speciale: solo abiti comodi che vi permettano di arrampicarvi o discendere coste scoscese, maniche e pantaloni lunghi per evitare di graffiarvi con rovi, cespugli e rocce, scarpe comode e resistenti (meglio scarponcini) per evitare di scivolare, e guanti. A volte infatti, specialmente nelle ore più calde del giorno o in primavera inoltrata, si possono fare cattivi incontri: le vipere amano crogiolarsi al sole e, anche se all’udire passi umani che si avvicinano queste di solito scappano, possono comunque diventare aggressive e mordere in caso qualcuno decida di infilare la propria mano nel cespuglio in cui hanno deciso di rifugiarsi. E l’ultima cosa che si vuole quando si cammina per boschi o uliveti o campi, è essere morsi da una vipera!
Ecco perché qualche furbo appassionato ha inventato un arnese speciale per raccogliere asparagi: credo di non conoscerne il nome, ma so di sicuro come è fatto e l’ho anche utilizzato un paio di volte. E’ come un bastone, di ferro, con una specie di maniglia ad una estremità, tipo quelle per azionare il freno delle vecchie biciclette, mentre all’altro capo c’è una specie di forbice o tenaglia azionata dalla maniglia; grazie a questo arnese, una volta scovato l’asparago, non c’è bisogno né di piegarsi in avanti, né di allungare la mano a raccoglierlo: si afferra e si taglia, risparmiando le proprie mani e la propria schiena.

Raccogliere asparagi non è facile impresa. Innanzitutto ci vuole tempo e molta pratica per riuscire a scovarli, visto che solitamente crescono ai piedi degli ulivi, nei cespugli o in mezzo all’erba alta e a ogni sorta di piante e sottobosco; si può stare diversi minuti a cercare con gli occhi senza vederne uno, mentre lui è lì, dritto davanti a te: succede spesso! In secondo luogo, se si battono sentieri comodi può capitare di raccoglierne pochi, dato che altre persone potrebbero essere passate di lì da poco. Per trovare grandi mazzi di asparagi selvatici bisogna arrampicarsi su sentieri scoscesi, inoltrarsi nel bosco o passare su e giù in mezzo agli uliveti. E diventare anche noi un po’ selvatici!

Il mio consiglio a chiunque non fosse abituato ma volesse dilettarsi a provare è: non andare mai da soli, portare con sé il proprio telefono cellulare in caso ci si dovesse perdere, portare una bottiglietta d’acqua e … divertirsi! In ogni caso, anche se non ne aveste trovati per niente, sarete stati all’aria aperta, respirando l’odore dell’erba e dei fiori; e poi, tanto, qualsiasi ristorante, trattoria o locanda incontriate in giro per l’Umbria vi servirà asparagi selvatici, freschi e cucinati meravigliosamente!

Easter lunch - Pranzo di Pasqua

Easter lunch
by Silvia Matricardi

An Italian old saying goes: ”Natale con i tuoi e Pasqua con chi vuoi” (“Christmas with your folks and Easter with whomever you want”). As for us this year we decided to spent Easter with our folks, in our family’s house. Therefore we spent the day in the most traditional way: Mass in the morning, Easter lunch, afternoon by the fireplace, given the incessant rain.
In a traditional Easter lunch in Umbria some elements cannot be lacking: cheese pizza, salami or capocollo meat, lamb, the chocolate egg. Then, each village or small town has got its specific local tradition.

At our house, in Spoleto, this is what we ate.

We started with an antipasto made of Easter cheese pizza, strictly home made by us (we posted the recipe a few days ago), local salami and lamb “coratella” (lamb’s interiors cut in small pieces and cooked with wine, oil and several herbs). This would already be a whole meal!

Following, meat broth (turkey, chicken and veal) with “stracciatella”. Stracciatella consists in pouring in boiling broth the grated pealing of lemon and then adding very slowly (“a filo”) some beaten eggs. The result is a proteinic dish with a delicate taste and a lemon scent: truly delicious!

Then, the ever-present lamb, baked in the oven with potatoes: soft, warm, scented with garlic and rosemary, lamb melts in your mouth, while potatoes that have been baked with it taste like uncountable family holidays, taste like genuine things: like home.
A shy and colourful “misticanza” salad peeped in amongst the dishes: it was made by mixing several kinds of leafs and vegetables: red chicory, green leafs, carots, wild herbs…
All of it was accompanied by a good red wine.
This year we did not dare adding traditional fry: artichokes in antipasto and lamb cutlets as a second course. We will eat them the day of Pasquetta.

To finish, with a good glass of Sagrantino Passito di Montefalco (sweet) wine, Easter Colomba (sweet bread wit almonds, candied fruit, sugar grains shaped like a dove), chocolate egg and strawberries with lemon and sugar.

Lunch at our home has been delicious, the company cheerful… and we are sure you could breathe the same atmosphere in thousands of homes alla round our Umbria!

Pranzo di Pasqua
di Silvia Matricardi

Un detto italiano recita: ”Natale con i tuoi e Pasqua con chi vuoi”. Noi invece quest’anno abbiamo deciso di trascorrere la Pasqua in famiglia, con i nostri cari. La giornata è quindi trascorsa nel più tradizionale dei modi: la Messa alla mattina, il pranzo pasquale, pomeriggio davanti al caminetto, vista la pioggia incessante.
Nel pranzo tradizionale di Pasqua in Umbria non possono mancare alcuni elementi: la pizza al formaggio, il salame o il capocollo, l’agnello, l’uovo di cioccolato. Ogni paese o cittadina umbra ha poi una sua specifica tradizione locale.
A casa nostra, a Spoleto, ecco cosa abbiamo mangiato.
Si è iniziato con un antipasto a base di pizza pasquale al formaggio rigorosamente fatta da noi in casa (di cui abbiamo postato la ricetta qualche giorno fa), salame nostrale e coratella di agnello (interiora di agnello a pezzetti cotte nel tegame con vino, olio e vari odori). Questo sarebbe già un pasto completo!
A seguire brodo di carne (tacchino, gallina e vitello) con “stracciatella”. La stracciatella consiste nel versare nel brodo bollente la buccia grattata del limone, aggiungendo poi molto lentamente (“a filo”) delle uova sbattute. Il risultato è un piatto proteico dal sapore delicato e dall’aroma di limone: una vera delizia!
Immancabile poi l’agnello, cotto al forno, con le patate: tenero, caldo, profumato di aglio e rosmarino, l’agnello si scioglie in bocca, mentre le patate, che con lui si sono cotte nel forno, hanno il sapore di tante feste in famiglia, il sapore delle cose autentiche: di casa.
Tra le varie portate ha fatto capolino una timida ma colorata insalata “misticanza”, creata cioè mischiando vari tipi di foglie e ortaggi: radicchio, insalata verde, carote, erbe selvatiche…
Il tutto accompagnato da un buon vino rosso.
Non abbiamo avuto il coraggio quest’anno di aggiungere la tradizionale frittura: di carciofi nell’antipasto, e di cotolette d’agnello nel secondo. Li mangeremo il giorno di Pasquetta.
Al termine, con un buon bicchiere di Sagrantino Passito di Montefalco, la Colomba pasquale (pane dolce con mandorle, canditi, chicchi di zucchero), uovo di cioccolato e fragole con zucchero e limone.

Il pranzo a casa nostra è stato delizioso, la compagnia allegra…e siamo sicuri che la stessa atmosfera si è respirata in migliaia di altre case in giro per la nostra Umbria!

The recipe of Pizza di Pasqua al formaggio

Easter cheese “Pizza”
recipe by Mamma Giuliana

article by Silvia Matricardi

Ingredients:

5 whole eggs
(optional) 200 gr of lard or ham-fat cut in smal cubes
200 gr of grated Pecorino cheese
100 gr of grated parmesan cheese (Parmigiano Reggiano or Grana Padano)
75 gr of brewer’s yeast in cubes
a glass with two fingers of white wine
½ glass of extra virgin olive oil
1 glass of semi-skimmed milk
1 pinch of salt
flour, as much as needed (approximately 300 gr)


Let the brewer’s yeast melt in a little bit of milk by heating it in a small pan.
In a big bowl beat the eggs, add (optional) the lard or ham-fat cut in small cubes, the grated Pecorino cheese and parmesan cheese and stir well with a wooden spoon. Add the melted yeast with the milk, the white wine, the extra virgin olive oil, the rest of the milk and a pinch of salt.

Stir the mixture energically and start adding the flour slowly continuining stirring with the wooden spoon. The consistency of the mixture will be right when, if you stick the wooden spoon into it vertically it stays still for a few seconds without falling (usually it takes about 300 gr of flour).

Take a baking-pan having a circular shape, no less than 25 cm tall and with a diameter of no less than 20 cm; oil it all inside to the upper edge using extra virgin olive oil. Pour the content of the bowl inside the baking-pan and make it smooth using a fork.
Cover and wrap up the pan with a cotton cloth and place it in a dry place; let the dough stay at natural temperature for about 6 hours until it rises (the duration of the rising process varies depending on the temperature of the place where the dough is stored).

When the dough has risen take the cloth away, turn on the oven, bring it to a temperature of 250° C and insert the baking-pan containing the dough. Avoid taking the pan out of the oven afterwards, otherwise the Pizza will wilt.
After about 20 minutes the surface of the Pizza will colour, without being cooked inside; therefore, you need to take a leaf of food aluminium paper and put it on top of the baking-pan (try to do it directly in the oven, without taking the pan out of it). Keep cooking for another 25 minutes. At this point take the Pizza out of the oven and stick a long toothpick inside it; if when you take it out the toothpick is dry it means the Pizza is done. Otherwise, cook it for another few minutes.
The cheese Pizza is a typical dish of Spoleto (Umbria) culinary tradition; we usually enjoy it as an appetizer or also as a second course. It must be served cold, sliced, accompanied by all sorts of typical salami and cold meats: ham, salami, dried sausages; the best pairing is with capocollo.

As it is a quite fat dish you should not exaggerate with the quantity you eat; a less fat version can be obtained by eliminating or cutting the quantity of lard/ ham-fat.

*******

Pizza di Pasqua al formaggio
di Mamma Giuliana

by Silvia Matricardi

Ingredienti:

5 uova intere
(facoltativo) 200 gr di lardo o grasso di prosciutto tagliato a pezzettini
200 gr di pecorino grattato
100 gr di parmigiano grattato (Parmigiano Reggiano o Grana Padano)
75 gr di lievito di birra in dadi
un bicchiere con due dita di vino bianco
½ bicchiere di olio extra vergine di oliva
1 bicchiere di latte parzialmente scremato
1 pizzico di sale
farina quanto basta (circa 300gr)


Sciogliere il lievito di birra in poco latte, scaldandolo in un pentolino.
In un grande piatto sbattere le uova, aggiungere il lardo o grasso di prosciutto tagliato a pezzetti (facoltativo), il pecorino e il parmigiano, mescolando bene. Aggiungere il lievito sciolto in poco latte, il vino, l’olio extra vergine di oliva, il latte ed un pizzico di sale. Mescolare bene il composto e cominciare ad aggiungere lentamente la farina, mescolando con un cucchiaio di legno. Quando piantando il cucchiaio di legno in senso verticale nel composto questo resterà fermo per qualche secondo senza cadere, allora la consistenza della pasta sarà quella giusta (di solito occorrono almeno 300gr di farina).
Prendere una teglia di forma circolare, alta almeno 25 cm e con un diametro di almeno 20 cm, ungere l’interno totalmente fino al bordo con olio extra vergine di oliva. Versare il composto nella teglia e renderlo liscio in superficie passandoci sopra una forchetta. Coprire ed avvolgere la teglia con un panno di cotone e riporre in un luogo asciutto; far lievitare per circa 6 ore a temperatura ambiente (la durata della lievitazione può cambiare a seconda della temperatura dell’ambiente in cui viene riposta la teglia).
A lievitazione ultimata togliere il panno, accendere il forno, portarlo a 250° C ed infornare la teglia. Evitare di estrarre la teglia dal forno, altrimenti la pizza si affloscerà. Dopo circa 20 minuti la pizza prenderà colore in superficie, senza essere cotta all’interno; prendere quindi un foglio di alluminio alimentare e senza togliere la teglia dal forno coprirla con l’alluminio. Continuare la cottura per altri 25 minuti. A questo punto estrarla dal forno e infilare la punta di uno stuzzicadenti per spiedini all’interno; se estraendolo esso risulterà asciutto la pizza sarà pronta. Altrimenti cuocere ancora per qualche minuto.


La pizza al formaggio è un piatto tipico della tradizione culinaria spoletina; viene di solito gustata come antipasto o anche come secondo piatto. Essa va servita fredda, a fette, accompagnata da salumi di ogni genere: prosciutto, salame, salsicce secche; il top è di abbinarla con il capocollo.

Essendo un alimento piuttosto grasso non bisogna esagerare con le quantità; una variante meno calorica si può ottenere riducendo o eliminando del tutto il lardo o grasso di prosciutto.

The recipe of CRESCIONDA Spoletina

CRESCIONDA SPOLETINA

☺ by Silvia Matricardi


Crescionda is a typical cake Spoleto people make during the Carnival. Anyway, you can enjoy it in almost every restaurant in Spoleto all year long; sometimes with weird decorations.... Everybody makes his/her version of Crescionda: this is my family's, since ages....

Ingredients:

4 eggs (whole)
1/2 l of semi-skimmed milk
2 spoonful of Mistrà or Sambuca liqueur
7 spoonful of sugar
250 gr of Amaretti (macaroon) biscuits
2 spoonful of flour
2 spoonful of breadcrumbs
cocoa powder (3 or 4 spoonful, depending on personal taste)
a pinch of salt
the grated peeling of one lemon and of one orange
extra virgin olive oil


Crumble the Amaretti biscuits with a grater and put them in a bowl. Add the flour, the grated bread, the salt and the cocoa powder. Mix them well with a spoon.
In a bigger bowl put the whole eggs, add the sugar and beat them. The add the milk slowly and keep beating; add the liqueur; grate the orange and the lemon pealing and add them to the mixture of eggs and milk.
At this point you have to pour the contents of the first bowl (the powdery ingredients) into the big bowl; you have to do it very slowly, while keeping beating the liquids, so to avoid to form lumps.
Once the mixture is well amalgamated, take a baking tin and oil it with the extra virgin olive oil. Pour the mixture into the baking tin, warm up the stove and put the tin inside. Cook at middle temperature (about 200° C) for about 15-20 minutes. While cooking the elements in the mixture will form 2 different layers: one more milky, the other one less creamy, in a different colour; it is normal and it must be so.
When the Crescionda is done you will see it: first you will feel the smell, then you will notice that when you take it our of the stove if you touch the surface the cake will “move” (it must be “springy”) beneath, indicating that what is under the surface is still quite liquid. Do not cook it anymore: it will become more solid when it cools down and in any case our Crescionda must be eaten with a tea spoon.
Let it cool down and then move it on a plate.



You can eat it alone or with a ball of vanilla icecream... with a good sweet wine....

Enjoy!

Sunday morning in Norcia - Part 2

Sunday morning in Norcia - Part 2

by Silvia Matricardi

In the norcineria we met a local man whose features remind of oriental people living in other sorts of mountains and plains. He has run his own norcineria business for years and now simply enjoys welcoming people, chatting and telling stories of when he used to make his own cheese and salami and when he was selected to be part of the cast of “Giubbe rosse”, a famous movie.

He has got a daughter who is studying some sorts of modern advertising in New York, a subject that could not be found in Umbria. “She costs me one and a half lamb each month!” he said: but we could feel the pride in his voice..... It’s true: the walls and mountains that surround this town, neither in past centuries nor now can keep Norcia people from exploring the world....

And there it is, the precious tuber, the black gold, the aphrodisiac fruit, the VIP, the protagonist of next week activities: the Nero Norcia, the black truffle!
You can buy it raw, greated and conserved under extra virgin olive oil, or mixed with other ingredients to make delicious pasta and meat seasonings.

After this whirl of visual and olfactory stimulus we headed towards the main square, where a statue of St. Bendetto saluted us. Here and there knots of people chatted pleasantly and enjoyed the warm winter sun.

(end of Part 2)