The Flavors of Abruzzo

Although I don’t have a lot of time lately to indulge in some of my favorite activities, I still do manage to squeeze one in now and then. One of those activities is preparing and cooking traditional foods. Whenever I taste something locally made, I want to know how to make it and I want to try to do it myself. And, while homemade pasta really isn’t all that difficult or exotic, making it with the traditional Abruzzo “chitarra” is a little more rare.

Of course, homemade pasta has a whole different flavor and texture than store-bought dry pasta, so that in itself is enough of a motivation to try to make some every once in a while, but then there’s the fact that Luigi absolutely chows down on the stuff. And, of course, it’s genuine, healthy food, so I’m all for that.

You may already know what a pasta “chitarra” is, but if you don’t, it’s a stringed, wooden tool for making pasta that resembles a guitar. Here it is in all its glory with a nice hunk of pasta dough next to it. It does require a bit of technique to make it, but it’s definitely worth it.

While I didn’t use durum wheat flour, I did stick with the traditional 1 egg per every 100 grams of flour recipe to make this pasta. Some people do make it with half durum wheat and half regular wheat, which will give you a more dense and chewy pasta.

After you’ve mixed the pasta (eggs, flour and salt) and you’ve let it rest for about a half hour, you have to roll the dough out into sheets slightly smaller than the size of the chitarra. They’ll still spread a bit and you don’t want to have it going over the edges. With the chitarra flat on the table, place the dough on the top of the strings and roll your rolling pin over it until they are cut. I found that if I rolled it until they were almost all the way cut and then tapped the strings just a bit, the individual pieces would fall down to the bottom. Then, gather it up, toss it in some flour and move on to the next piece of pasta.

The spaghetti won’t take very long to cook, so have your sauce ready before you even put it in the boiling water. And again, like the tacconelle, it’s often best to put a drop or two of oil in the salted pasta water.

I served mine with a traditional ground meat ragù. I’ve included the recipe I use below although I’m sure a lot of you already know how to make it.

Pasta

500 grams flour
5 eggs
Salt

Ragù

1 lb ground beef
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/3 cup red wine
1 liter tomato sauce
1 tablespoon tomato paste
Chopped fresh basil
Chopped fresh parsley

For the ragù, just brown the ground meat, add the garlic and then the red wine. Once the red wine has cooked down, add the tomato sauce, tomato paste and salt.  Cover and allow to cook for about an hour. About 5 minutes before it is done, add the basil and parsley.

Serve over cooked pasta.

Luigi says “yummmm”.

Festival season is getting started here. Just this past weekend we had the Festival of Saint Michael in Liscia and here in Palmoli we had a fair. That means that lots of vendors were here. Next to the peanuts, pistachios and candy, they also sell something called the lupine bean.
These little beans are one of my favorite treats. You bite the skin to cut it open and then pop it into your mouth, discarding the skin.

The lupine is a leguminous grain that has been cultivated since ancient times in the Mediterranean basin and the Middle East. It’s known for its adaptability to some of the most inhospitable areas where other leguminous plants won’t grow and also improves the fertility of the soil where it grows. The bean is rich in protein (over 35%) and other nutrients, but it comes at a price. Lupini beans contain bitter alkaloids that require a long process in order to remove them and allow them to be eaten by people or animals.

Typically they are soaked in brine which gets changed periodically – similar to the process for making olives edible.

Of course, when we buy them from the street vendors, they’re processed and ready to eat, so they’re a great snack. And apparently one that has lots of protein, very little starch, a high percentage of crude fiber, no cholesterol and lots of vitamins and amino acids.

But, I just buy them because they’re tasty and fun to eat.

In what seems to be a futile attempt to eat more healthily, I have decided to add more fish to our diet. Futile, I say, because it seems like whenever we decide to be healthy there’s a holiday or someone gives us baked goods or chocolate or the like. But, despite that, we can still make the attempt.

So, the challenge was to add more fish to our diet, and I’m not talking about canned tuna or shellfish. And, it is a challenge because, even though I do like fish, I am very picky about how I’ll eat it. Basically, for me, the simpler, the better. I can’t stand heavy sauces on my fish and I like it more on the dry side. But, those are personal preferences.

Since we do have a fishmonger who comes to town every Friday, I was buying fresh fish at one point, but that stopped when I was pregnant and I haven’t started again. Basically, I was faking it. I absolutely can’t stand cleaning fish. So, I put on a tough act and did it anyway, but while I was pregnant I couldn’t keep it up. At that point I told O that he would have to do it if he wanted fresh fish and, guess what….he can’t stand doing it either. So, we buy frozen, already filleted fish. And, you know what, it still tastes good and I don’t have to pretend to be tough.

So, with my cleaned and thawed fish fillets I marinate them in herbs and make a crispy, tasty fish. Yes, it does use a lot of oil but it’s good quality extra virgin olive oil and, I like to think that since it soaks in it but doesn’t fry in it, that it’s not quite so bad for you. Just a little of the oil sticks to the fish whereas if you put the oil in the frying pan and simmer it, it’s going to soak up a lot more. At least, that’s what I tell myself.

Ingredients

4 cod fillets – defrosted if you’re using frozen
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 Tablespoon fresh chopped thyme
1 Tablespoon fresh chopped parsley
1 bay leaf
salt
1 teaspoon ground red pepper (paprika)
hot red pepper to taste

I make the marinade in the morning and let it sit for a while before I put it on the fish. This is so the flavor gets infused in the oil, especially the bay leaf. So, sometime in the morning, put the olive oil, thyme, parsley, salt and red pepper in a small bowl or glass. Snap the bay leaf and two and add it to the mixture, mix together, cover and let sit at room temperature.

About two hours before you’re ready to cook, put the fish fillets in a shallow dish or plate and  carefully spoon the marinade over the top (after removing the bay leaf). Try to get the majority of the herbs on the top of the fish and not in the dish. Cover and refrigerate. About an hour before cooking, carefully lift the fillets and allow some of the oil to flow underneath. Recover and put it back in the fridge.

When you’re ready to cook, heat a non-stick frying pan over high heat on the stove. Since fish doesn’t take long to cook, basically what we’re going to do is sear them on both sides. Once the pan is nice and hot, add the fish. After a minute or two, turn the fish over to cook on the other side. If the first side isn’t nice and brown, turn it again after a few more minutes. Since you didn’t add any oil to the pan, the only oil the fish is cooking in is what is left on the fish, so it doesn’t tend to get greasy or gooey. (There’s nothing worse in my book than greasy, gooey fish.)

And that’s it. It’s great served with a nice salad. My toddler even loves it! (The fish, not the salad). That’s saying something.

Not to be confused with lasagna, le sagne are homemade pasta noodles that are sometimes cut like tagliatelle and other times cut into what is called tacconelle – basically a diamond shape.

Now, all homemade pasta is not created equal. Yes, the standard recipe calls for 1 egg per every 100 grams of flour. And here in Italy, when preparing homemade pasta the general rule is that the pasta is made with 1 egg per person. So, six people would call for six eggs and six hundred grams of flour. The other tip that is often heard is that pasta should be made with durum wheat flour and not regular wheat flour.

Well, let’s put an end to those little rules, shall we?

You see, I’ve always particularly enjoyed the pasta that O’s mom makes. It’s light and tasty. My first surprise came when we did some shopping for her and she needed some flour. When O picked up regular white 00 flour, I thought he was mistaken, but he said that’s what she always used.  A ha, I thought, that’s why her pasta is lighter. Then, a few weeks ago, we were talking about pasta and someone mentioned that she didn’t follow the one egg per person rule, so I asked her how she made her pasta. Now, I didn’t get a recipe, but she did tell me basically how she makes it. You see, she simply substitutes some of the egg for water. Easy peasy.

Of course, I had to make some pasta following her method. Since we were 8 people, I just decided to use a kilo of  “regular old” flour – a little more than necessary and there were leftovers, but that’s OK. So, with a kilo of flour, I used 3 eggs, a pinch or two of salt and about 1/2 cup of water. I suggest starting with about half of what you think you’ll need and adding more later since the amount of water needed when you’re making pasta also depends on how humid the day is. For a half kilo of flour I suggest using 2 eggs and start with 1/4 cup of water. For best results, let your eggs and water come to room temperature before using.

Use the classic pasta making method; make a well out of your flour and put the eggs and water into it. Gradually incorporate the flour into the egg/water mixture. Once you get it all mixed together, knead it well and then cover with a bowl or a towel and let it rest for 1/2 hour.

You may not believe it, but pasta that is rolled by hand, with a wooden rolling pin, actually does taste better. The pasta ends up being rougher and holds onto the sauce differently.  To make the tacconelle, just roll your dough out to a uniform thickness. Don’t make it too thin, you want them to have some substance.  Once you have it all rolled out, make sure it has a dusting of flour on it, then roll the dough onto the rolling pin and slice down the center. Like so….

Now slice it in rows and then into diamond shapes.

Don’t worry about getting them all uniform.

When cooking this type of pasta, it’s best to add a couple of drops of oil to the salted pasta water which will help keep them from sticking together. And, if you put your pasta into little piles, separate them one by one as you put them into the water. The time difference between the first and last piece isn’t that much.

I served mine with a sauce that is traditional here, made with ventricina and asparagus. You can use any kind of sauce, just plain tomato or a hearty meat ragu all go very well with this pasta.