the world will find it. Hearty and good for the spirit. I like soaked and cooked cannellini better than canned ones.
Serves 12 to 14
2 Italian sausages, skins removed and meat crumbled
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 onions, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 quarts chicken stock
1 cup white wine
6 thyme sprigs
1 bunch of kale, washed and chopped
4 cups cooked cannellini beans
Sauté the crumbled sausage in the oil until browned, and reserve. Sauté the onions and garlic until translucent. Add to the chicken stock in a big pot. Add the wine and cook until the alcohol has evaporated, then add the thyme and kale. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Add the cooked sausage and the beans and simmer another 15 minutes.
C ALDARROSTE
Roasted Chestnuts
We gather baskets of chestnuts in the fall and we have to hurry—we’ve got competition from every wild boar in the area.
Do we search for the chestnuts or the Chestnuts. The latter are marrone , the kind made into marrons glacés , that syrupy sweet coated Chestnut. I could eat an entire box, if permitted.
We like to roast either type in the fireplace, as much for the smell as for the taste. Chestnuts must have their skin sliced; otherwise they’ll explode. With a short-bladed knife, carefully cut a slit in the flat side. Pile in the chestnut roaster and set it over hot coals (not an open flame) for about 5 minutes and then turn over or shake well to redistribute the chestnuts. After another 5 minutes, pierce one with a knife. It should go in quite easily. Pour them into a bowl, let them cool only long enough to handle, then peel.
In an oven: Preheat to 450 degrees F, and spread prepared chestnuts on a sheet pan. Bake for 20 minutes and then start checking every 5 minutes.
O LIVE ALL ’ A SCOLANA
Olives from Ascoli Piceno
The fifty thousand ascolani , the people who live in the Marche town of Ascoli Piceno, dwell around one of the most beautiful piazzas in Italy, the Piazza del Popolo. At cafés, everyone is nibbling these stuffed, fried olives, a local treat that is famous all over Italy. The olive of choice is their local one, the tenera ascolana , quite large, green, with a small pit. The recipe is also called Ascolane all’ascolana , that is, the ascolana olive in the manner of the town of Ascoli Piceno.
If you can’t find the ascolana olive, and you probably can’t, use large olives with the pits removed.
Serves 6 to 8 on an antipasto platter
Peanut oil for frying
20 large olives, pits removed
½ pound Italian salami, finely chopped
Beaten flour, egg, and bread crumbs on three separate plates
Salt and pepper
Heat oil in a pan until it reaches 375 degrees F or so.
Stuff the olives with the salami. Roll in the flour, then the egg, and then the bread crumbs. Fry until golden, turning when needed. Drain on paper towels, and season with salt and pepper.
A LTERNATIVE FILLING: With a pastry tube, try piping in a mix of garlic, chopped anchovy, and lemon zest .
B RODETTO
Seafood Stew
If you look on a topographical map of central Italy, you’ll see the Apennines (Appennini), a string of mountains that forms the sturdy and well-articulated spine of Italy, splitting the country in two. On the eastern side, the Cortona side, the mountain range gives to wide fertile plains that end in the waters of the Tyrrhenian, the Tuscan part of the Mediterranean Sea. There’s no such landscape on the western side of the Apennines, where the mountains and the sea have a more intimate relationship. Part of the reason the Marche region hasn’t been as explored as much as Tuscany is because of mountains, everywhere, making it more difficult to get around. Naturally, the marchigiani turn toward the sea for their food. Up and down the Adriatic coast, you’ll find everyone who has a stockpot has a recipe for brodetto .
If Cole Porter had been Italian, he might have written, “You say brodetto , I say buridda , you say cioppino and I say cacciucco …” Fish stew by any
Serves 12 to 14
2 Italian sausages, skins removed and meat crumbled
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 onions, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 quarts chicken stock
1 cup white wine
6 thyme sprigs
1 bunch of kale, washed and chopped
4 cups cooked cannellini beans
Sauté the crumbled sausage in the oil until browned, and reserve. Sauté the onions and garlic until translucent. Add to the chicken stock in a big pot. Add the wine and cook until the alcohol has evaporated, then add the thyme and kale. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Add the cooked sausage and the beans and simmer another 15 minutes.
C ALDARROSTE
Roasted Chestnuts
We gather baskets of chestnuts in the fall and we have to hurry—we’ve got competition from every wild boar in the area.
Do we search for the chestnuts or the Chestnuts. The latter are marrone , the kind made into marrons glacés , that syrupy sweet coated Chestnut. I could eat an entire box, if permitted.
We like to roast either type in the fireplace, as much for the smell as for the taste. Chestnuts must have their skin sliced; otherwise they’ll explode. With a short-bladed knife, carefully cut a slit in the flat side. Pile in the chestnut roaster and set it over hot coals (not an open flame) for about 5 minutes and then turn over or shake well to redistribute the chestnuts. After another 5 minutes, pierce one with a knife. It should go in quite easily. Pour them into a bowl, let them cool only long enough to handle, then peel.
In an oven: Preheat to 450 degrees F, and spread prepared chestnuts on a sheet pan. Bake for 20 minutes and then start checking every 5 minutes.
O LIVE ALL ’ A SCOLANA
Olives from Ascoli Piceno
The fifty thousand ascolani , the people who live in the Marche town of Ascoli Piceno, dwell around one of the most beautiful piazzas in Italy, the Piazza del Popolo. At cafés, everyone is nibbling these stuffed, fried olives, a local treat that is famous all over Italy. The olive of choice is their local one, the tenera ascolana , quite large, green, with a small pit. The recipe is also called Ascolane all’ascolana , that is, the ascolana olive in the manner of the town of Ascoli Piceno.
If you can’t find the ascolana olive, and you probably can’t, use large olives with the pits removed.
Serves 6 to 8 on an antipasto platter
Peanut oil for frying
20 large olives, pits removed
½ pound Italian salami, finely chopped
Beaten flour, egg, and bread crumbs on three separate plates
Salt and pepper
Heat oil in a pan until it reaches 375 degrees F or so.
Stuff the olives with the salami. Roll in the flour, then the egg, and then the bread crumbs. Fry until golden, turning when needed. Drain on paper towels, and season with salt and pepper.
A LTERNATIVE FILLING: With a pastry tube, try piping in a mix of garlic, chopped anchovy, and lemon zest .
B RODETTO
Seafood Stew
If you look on a topographical map of central Italy, you’ll see the Apennines (Appennini), a string of mountains that forms the sturdy and well-articulated spine of Italy, splitting the country in two. On the eastern side, the Cortona side, the mountain range gives to wide fertile plains that end in the waters of the Tyrrhenian, the Tuscan part of the Mediterranean Sea. There’s no such landscape on the western side of the Apennines, where the mountains and the sea have a more intimate relationship. Part of the reason the Marche region hasn’t been as explored as much as Tuscany is because of mountains, everywhere, making it more difficult to get around. Naturally, the marchigiani turn toward the sea for their food. Up and down the Adriatic coast, you’ll find everyone who has a stockpot has a recipe for brodetto .
If Cole Porter had been Italian, he might have written, “You say brodetto , I say buridda , you say cioppino and I say cacciucco …” Fish stew by any
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