Pizzaiola (Neapolitan Nostalgia under the Leaning Tower of Pisa)

What if suddenly one needs to organise an impromptu meal. Before emails and mobile phones people in Italy used to pop in to say hello and if the conversation was getting close to lunch or supper time, how could one be a good host while still conversing and not getting into a state. I have a cousin (now a diplomat) who was a globe trotter in the happy hippy time and would appear unannounced on our door step. He was always very welcome and he would recount his latest journey to us.

My mother who had never been a traveller became through him a kind of adventurer by proxy, having in this virtual way visited many places, some of them at that time off the beaten track, such as Pakistan and Iceland. She would quickly write a note and slip it my pocket saying: “ buy what’s on the list”. I was 10sh or so. One particular meal was the Pizzaiola. I only needed to get some thin sliced beef from the local butcher, just down the road. Pasta, tomatoes and olive oil  were always in the cupboard.

Today in Pisa the weather was not really promising. It is all Saints Day which is a holiday in Italy. I manage to park the car in a parking free area just outside the old city walls. The appointment was in Piazza dei Miracoli but as soon as I left the car it started raining and after a couple of minutes it was really cats and dogs, so heavy that I could hardly see. Within minutes my trousers and waterproof shoes got soaked despite the umbrella. I decided to walk on. I missed Celia, who having spotted me, rung me on the mobile phone. She was with a bunch of drenched tourists squashed against a cathedral exit, trying to avoid the torrential rain. I quickly found my little slot next to her while she was chatting with a young lady. The rain seemed to increase and I suddenly became aware that the tower was in front of me, just a few meters away. The girl was telling Celia that her last trip was to Spain and it had never stopped raining. She was lamenting her personal lack of weather luck. She said that she was from Caserta and she was visiting Tuscany with her parents. I then pavlovianly asked “what do you eat there?” The answer was: “more or less what you Napolitans eat but I personally hate onions and here in Tuscany it seems I can’t avoid them”. So she went on to say that yesterday in Florence she had a sudden bout of nostalgia and looked desperately for a Neapolitan restaurant until she found it, having questioned every single local. I started feeling homesick.

The rain suddenly stopped and Celia and I decided to walk into the old town towards Borgo Stretto, and have a coffee at Salza an historical ‘pasticceria e cioccolateria’ to cheer ourselves up and forget our soaked feet. The coffee was excellent and on my request they also allowed me to snap a few pikkies. The cakes and the chocolates  looked mouthwatering. Isabella, who had been there on several occasions, says that the gelato is superb.

We walked to the Arno river and then to the Teatro Verdi to meet Isabella. She was full of energy and hungry. We had to return quickly to Lucca as she had to finish her homework. “I know what we are going to eat today, we are going to have a full Neapolitan meal,  primo and secondo and it’s going to be quick” I said.

“How quick?” Celia enquired “five minutes, ten minutes, that’s what I mean quick”.

“Twenty minutes, you cannot have a two course cooked meal for less than that. You are going to have spaghetti alla pizzaiola and carne alla pizzaiola. Less then half an hour later we were home and after a quick change of clothes I started cooking.

Spaghetti alla Pizzaiola & Carne alla Pizzaiola

Serves 4 people

Ingredients:

2 ½  tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

800 grams (3 cups) tinned chopped San Marzano tomatoes

2 cloves of garlic

½ teaspoon of oregano (or more if you like it)

salt

grated parmesan cheese

4 thin slices of (sirloin) beef

450 grams (1 pound) Spaghetti

1.When you’re cooking a quick pasta dish you need some co-ordination. First thing to do is to put a large saucepan filled with water on the stove (add the required salt).

Put the pasta in as soon as the water is boiling and cook al dente.

2. Put the olive oil and garlic in a large frying pan cook over a low heat until the garlic is light golden, then add the chopped tomatoes, the oregano and the required salt.

3. When the sauce bubbles add the meat. Lie the slices down without overlapping them.

4. Cook for ten minutes and turn them over once half way through.

5. Remove the meat and place it on a serving plate with some sauce on the top.

6. Drain the pasta.

7. Mix the rest of the sauce with the pasta in a nice big bowl. When serving the pasta add a sprinkle of parmesan cheese on top and ground pepper if you like it. This is the primo then the secondo will be the meat (or you can serve the pasta and the meat in a large flat dish if you prefer a Piatto Unico.

My nostalgia did not extend to wine so we washed it down with a glass of Gaillac, a bottle I bought a few months ago in France.

Cacciucco di Carne

The days are getting shorter and the nights are now cooler so our menus can return to the more earthy dishes.

A few days ago we entertained a few friends, two were local so I wanted to try something original but traditional at the same time. A while back I had heard that there was a meat version of the famous fish Cacciucco so I thought it would be fun to try it out.

In Tuscany Cacciucco (pronounced: ka – tchoo – kko) is a fish stew and there are two main versions: one from Livorno and an antagonist from Viareggio, a town a few miles north. The basic philosophy of Cacciucco is that fish and shellfish are added to the stew according to their cooking time so everything is evenly cooked. This technique is so ingenuous that I was surprised when I couldn’t find a recipe on the web and none of my locals could help me. The closest dish I could find was the Scottiglia, a mixed meat stew from the Casentino area near Arezzo, but it was prepared in a different way, so I decided to reconstruct the recipe using as a starting point the scraps of information in my possession with a bit of logic and imagination mixed in.

My recipe works like this: Fry the chopped onions lightly in olive oil then add minced beef, pancetta (cured bacon), red wine and tomato passata, followed in two further stages by the sausages and chicken pieces.

There were 7 of us so I made enough for 8 but I’m going to give the ingredients for 4 people.

Cacciucco di carne

Serves 4 people

Cooking time 1hr 30 min plus

Ingredients:

2 tbsp of Extra virgin Olive Oil + 1 tbsp for browning

1 medium sized chopped onion

A handful of fresh chopped parsley

6 oz  minced beef

2 Bay leaves

2 oz of Pancetta (Italian Cured bacon)

1 cup (250 ml) of Red wine

1 cup Tomato Passata

5 Juniper berries

4 Good quality Sausages

4 Chicken pieces (Thighs, legs or breasts)

A pinch of Chili powder just to flavour (it is not a hot dish!)

A few grinds of pepper

1 cup (250 ml) of meat or vegetable stock

Sea Salt

Brown bread 4 slices

In a casserole dish light fry the chopped onions until golden then add the bay leaves and a few seconds later the minced meat and the pancetta. Stir until the meat is brown, then slowly pour the wine and bring it to a light boil until the alcohol evaporates. Now add the passata and the juniper berries.

Simmer with the lid on for 30 minutes.

Then in a frying pan heat a film of olive oil and brown the sausages. Pierce them while they’re cooking so they can release the excess fat and liquid. When they are ready (it only takes a few minutes), add them to the stew.  Don’t pour the fat in the casserole but conserve it a bowl as you might need it later.

Leave to simmer for a further 30 minutes. 

Brown the chicken pieces in the frying pan using a film of fresh olive oil, then add them to the stew. Again do not pour the fat in the casserole but save it with the sausages fat.

Now add the chilli powder and the ground pepper cook to the casserole and simmer for another 30 minutes until the chicken is tender. If you see that it is becoming too dry, add some hot stock. The final consistency must look liquidish but not watery. Add the freshly chopped parsley, adjust the salt if required, bearing in mind that sausages and bacon transmit their salt to the stew. If you like more fat, which unfortunately adds flavour but affect people’s arteries, add a tablespoon of what you have saved from the chicken and sausages browning.

The original fish Cacciucco is poured on a slice of toast so one can serve the meat Cacciucco in the same way.

The result was very good even at the first attempt. As the casserole is quite rich I made a large mixed leaf green salad served as a side dish. Celia made the most extraordinary Neapolitan Rum Baba for pudding. She gets 5 stars as it was her first attempt, but this is another story.