Tastes of Italy: Regional Favorites
by Meg Smith on 22/08/09 at 11:43 am
Each of the 21 distinct regions of Italy has its own preferences in cooking techniques and ingredients. Italian cuisine consists of far more than spaghetti with ground beef sauce, square ravioli filled with beef and covered with a thin, nearly flavorless red broth, and pizza made with a thick layer of canned spaghetti sauce, topped with pepperoni and grated mozzarella. None of these dishes appear on a typical Italian table. Italian cuisine uses fresh garden ingredients still warm from the sun, bursting with flavor. Seafood, fresh fruits and vegetables, cheeses and breads all play a part in Italian cooking. This article focuses on preparing Abruzzo, Tuscan, Lombard, Calabrian and Sardinian specialties.
Use meat from free-roaming hogs, mountain goats, sheep and fish in your Abruzzi recipes. Abruzzo is a region in east central Italy that borders the Adriatic Sea to the east. Flavor Abruzzo dishes with wine, garlic, olive oil, saffron and rosemary. Cheeses made from sheep’s milk, such as pecorino, are a mainstay of the Abruzzo table, according to Micol Negrin and Dino De Angelis of Rustico Cooking. Maccherone alla chitarra, a local specialty, is made with fresh egg pasta cut thin with a rolling pin over two layers of wires, then covered with a generous dip of red sauce and roast lamb chunks.
Marinate your steak in olive oil from the local press, and add fresh minced garlic to make the signature dish of the Tuscans. Bistecca alla Fiorenta is a 3-inch thick charcoal-grilled Porterhouse steak served with arugula and other grilled vegetables. Tuscany, with Italy’s Tyrhennian seacoast off to the west, produces award-winning grapes and olives. It is also a source of white truffles, one of the most expensive ingredients in the world. Other Tuscan specialty ingredients include wild asparagus, wild hare, artichokes, cauliflower and mushrooms. All are used to make, fritto misto, which are mixed fried foods. Cut your vegetables, chicken and wild hare into chunks, dredge them in flour and fry everything just enough to turn golden brown.
When in Lombardy, grate fontina di Val d’Aosta into a cold rice salad made with artichoke hearts, eggplant, mushrooms and fresh albacore tuna flakes. Lombardy is on Italy’s north central border, opposite Switzerland. Lombards favor risottos, made from rice, and polenta, made from cornmeal. Flavor your Lombard dishes with plenty of basil, sage, celery and onion. Mix candied fruit and raisins into a light, buttery sweet bread to make Panettone, a possible forebear of Christmas fruitcake. Serve your panettone sliced with a glass of sweet Moscato d’Asti wine.
Cook with chili peppers, lemon, chives and honey in Calabria, on Italy’s southwest coast, in the “toe” of the Italian peninsula. Serve littleneck clams poached in white wine with garlic and parsley. Make focaccia, which is thick, flat yeast bread. Top it with anchovy fillets, sliced tomatoes, garlic and olive oil. Dip roasted figs in melted chocolate for a rich Calabrian dessert.
Lamb, wild fennel, and pecorino sardo make frequent appearances on Sardinian dinner tables. Sardinia is in the Mediterranean Sea off the Tyrhennian coast, just west of Tuscany. Mix pecorino sardo, a sheep’s milk cheese, with ricotta, black pepper and sausage and serve it over malloredus, which as a mini gnocchi pasta. Quarter a rabbit and cover it with fennel chunks, whole garlic cloves and black olives. Sprinkle with chili pepper flakes, crushed fennel seeds and salt. Poach everything in white wine and olive oil in a covered dish.
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