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The Story Behind My Recipe: Italy

"My grandmother’s laugh and the smell of coffee: this is how I wake up, around 5:30 AM, on a late October day in a little town in Abruzzo, Italy. I know I have to stand up quickly because time cannot be wasted: every moment of sunlight is useful for harvesting the olives. Everybody is gathered there to help in this family tradition that will give us oil for the whole year, until the following October. The nets are set, everyone has their own rake: the assault on the trees may begin. We start very early in the morning, so around 10:30 AM, we are already hungry. This is when we have a break in order to eat all together directly in the field: we sit on the dirt and take out our sandwiches made with local bread and pipindunə e ovə - peppers and eggs. It is a strong meal that will give us the energy to carry on. Once we finish eating, and after drinking water from a wooden bottle, we start to work again. Even though the work is hard, time passes by rapidly because we make jokes and tell stories. When the sun starts to fall and the temperatures to sink, around 4:30 PM, it is time to go back home. After 10 hours of work in the field, the hunger is giant. We need, for this reason, hot and energetic food. It is the moment to eat sagnə e faciulə, traditional pasta topped with tomato sauce and beans, and pallottə cacə e ovə, cheese-balls prepared with pecorino and eggs and then dipped in an onion and tomato sauce. After eating, we spend the time around the fireplace playing cards, telling stories and laughing, waiting for the stomach to do its digestion job."

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PIPINDUNƏ E OVƏ

This recipe is for 4 people.

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Ingredients

  • Oil

  • Salt to taste 

  • Half onion

  • 500 gr peppers (red, yellow and green)

  • 4 eggs

 

Procedure

  1. Put the oil in a pan and let it warm.

  2. Add the onions and wait until they are golden brown.

  3. Add the peppers, a pinch of salt, put a lid and wait until they become tender. Don’t forget to stir from time to time!

  4. After about 15/20 minutes, you can add the eggs and scramble them together with the peppers.

  5. Ready!

 

PALLOTTƏ CACƏ E OVƏ

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This recipe is for 4 people.

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Ingredients for the cheese-balls:

  • Grated Pecorino cheese, 400 gr

  • Grated Parmigiano cheese, 100 gr

  • 4 eggs

  • Fresh parsley

  • Oil to fry

 

Ingredients for the sauce

  • 500 ml tomato sauce

  • Oil

  • 1 onion

  • Salt and pepper to taste

 

Procedure

  1. Start with the sauce: put oil in a pot and let it warm. 

  2. Add the onion cut into stripes and, when they are golden brown, add the tomato sauce.

  3. Let it cook on a low heat with a lid.

  4. Now the meatballs: add in a bowl the two cheeses and mix them.

  5. Add one egg at a time and mix it with the cheeses: the result should not be too dense, a soft enough mixture that allows you to shape it with your hands and that remains in the form you gave it.

  6. Create with your hands cheeseballs half the size of your fist.

  7. Put the oil to fry in a pan: when it’s ready, dip the cheeseballs in it.

  8. When all the cheeseballs are fried, dip them in the tomato sauce and leave them there for some minutes.

  9. Enjoy!

 

Tip

  • If the mixture is not thick enough, you can add a very little amount of flour or bread crumbs.


 

SAGNƏ E FACIULƏ

This recipe is for 4 people.

 

Ingredients for the sagne

  • 200 gr flour

  • 1 cup of water

  • Salt

 

Ingredients for the sauce

  • 200 gr of boiled kidney beans

  • Half carrot

  • Half onion

  • Half celery

  • Oil

  • Tomato sauce

  • Salt

 

Procedure

  1. First, prepare the sauce: put the oil in a pan and let it warm.

  2. Add the vegetables cut into little pieces and wait a few minutes.

  3. Add the tomato sauce and the beans, and let it cook on a low heat with a lid.

  4. Now, the sagne! Add a little salt to the cup of water and put the flour on your table in the shape of a volcano.

  5. Make a hole in the middle and start slowly adding the salted water. You should put a little water and start incorporating it in the flour.

  6. Repeat this procedure until your dough is soft and not moist.

  7. Divide your mixture in four pieces and start flattening one with a rolling pin.

  8. Once it is around 3 millimiters high, cut the dough into stripes and then again into small rectangles: these are the sagne

  9. Repeat the procedure with all your dough.

  10. Cook the sagne into boiling salted water.

  11. Once they are cooked, dip them in the tomato sauce and serve!

 

Tips

  • The water needed for the dough changes according to the flour. There is no right amount, just watch it and check it!

  • The sagne will be cooked in very few minutes, be careful!

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