Typical recipes

2 broccoli, the light-green type, are all you need. After obtaining broccoli with a little stalk and tender leaves, wash it and cook it in cook in abundant salted water. After it has started to boil, cook the orecchiette pasta in the same water and with the broccoli. The 300 g of the fresh pork lard, cut into small pieces, possibly with layers of meat and rind, should be gently fried, separately, in a pan. Add half glass of white wine to bind it. Season the cooked broccoli and pasta, which should be a little “al dente”, with the fried pork lard and add a little pepper and grated Roman cheese. A "Torre Quarto" rosé wine is also suitable for this soup.

Cook 300g of homemade “stacchjoddi” pasta, typical of that province and similar to orecchiette, but flatter. Season the pasta with normal tomato sauce, in which small meatballs (“purpètte) made from veal have been cooked, and mix a teaspoonful of ricotta forte cheese (“recotta sckanda”) into it. Recommended wine: “Lacrima” of Mesagna , garnet red, intense aroma, dry, to be served at 18° C.

Place 400 g of durum wheat on a pastry board and form a mound. Make a well in the mound and put 4 whole fresh eggs into it, along with a tablespoon of grated Roman cheese, a handful of finely chopped parsley and salt to taste. Cut the pasta dough, which must be soft but firm, into lots of little pieces and flatten these to a thickness of 2-3 mm, then pinch them, making them into uneven little squares, the size of a fingernail. Leave to dry and then cook in abundant salted water. When cooked, drain the pasta and dish it up, covering it with turkey broth, previously made as follows: Wash 1/2 kg of turkey leg, wing and breast-and place it in a pan. Cover with water. Bring to the boil, skim and add 1/2 parsnip, a stick of celery, 1 onion, a couple of tomatoes and salt. When cooked, strain the broth well, pouring it into a clean pan. Let it boil again and add to the maltriti pasta, while very hot, season with grated parmesan cheese.

Cook 700 g of turkey breast and 300 g. of veal in water, with some celery, a few tomatoes, a parsnip and a sprig of parsley. In another pan, boil 600 g. of curly endive and two chopped celery sticks. As soon as the broth is ready, strain it and keep it warm. Make meatballs using 400 g of previously boiled turkey and veal and brown them in boiling oil. Then add the cooked vegetables to the meatballs and the broth and leave to absorb the flavours for a few minutes. Break 6 slices of toasted bread into small pieces and 300 g of scamorza cheese, adding 6 slicedhard-boiled eggs, and dish onto each plate. Just before serving, pour the broth, vegetables and very hot meatballs onto the plates.

In an earthenware oven dish, put a layer of 2 chopped onions and rows of peeled, sliced potatoes; then, some black mussels in half shells and a handful of uncooked rice. Season with salt, pepper, parsley, oil and grated strong cheese. Repeat the layers until the pan is full. Garnish with a few strips of tomato and bake in the oven. During baking, add some water from time to time, to ensure the dish will be cooked to perfection.

Cut about 1 kg of lamb, still with the bone, into pieces and brown in a pan in a few tablespoonfuls of oil and a sliced onion. Then, moisten it with dry white wine and put into a hot oven. After about thirty minutes, add 500 g of shelled fresh peas, salt and pepper and cover with a sheet of greaseproof paper. Break 3 eggs into a bowl, add a handful of chopped parsley and grated pecorino cheese and a little pepper. When the lamb is cooked, add the mixture without stirring and put it back in the oven for 3 minutes. Serve hot with a glass of red “Negramaro” di Lizzano, a mature, lively, dry wine, to be served at 18° C.

Cut 7-8 ribs of mutton and put them on the spit. In a brazier, almond and hazelnut rinds and sprigs of thyme are used with the charcoal; turn the spit from time to time. Sprinke some salt on it only and do not cook completely, otherwise the fat will melt entirely and the meat will lose its… homeric flavour.

Remove the bones and wash 600 g of fresh anchovies. Grease a pot with oil and add a layer of anchovies., sprinkle them with a little chopped parsley and garlic, capers, salt, pepper, 3 spoonfuls of breadcrumbs and a drizzle of olive oil. Add another layer of anchovies and the other ingredients and place the pot in a hot oven, leaving it for 5 minutes, until the surface is golden. They can be eaten hot or cold.

Clean and scale one 1 1/2 kg gilthead bream and cut it into slices. Arrange the slices in an earthenware pan, covering them with 1 litre of dry white wine, 50 g of seedless sultanas, 1/2 a parsnip, a handful of parsley leaves, a bay leaf, one chopped clove of garlic, 1/2 sliced onion, 100 g of oil, salt and pepper to taste. Leave to rest for 1 hour and then place on the stove and simmer until the fish is cooked. Then take the pieces out, put them on a plate and keep them warm. Reduce the leftover sauce a little, sieve it, pour it over the fish and drizzle with oil before serving. We recommend "Vino del Messere", a dry white wine, with a hot taste, to be served at 10° C.

Buy a couple of fresh octopuses, weighing 1/2 kg each, already slightly pounded to make them more tender. Do not clean them, but wash them and put them in a pot without water, adding garlic, parsley, oil, a small amount of sliced onion, a few winter tomatoes and pepper or hot chilli. When kept simmering in the earthenware pot for a couple of hours with a lid on it, the octopuses curl up and release their flavour of the sea. Once cooked, cut them into pieces and serve warm with all the sauce.

Put 1 kg of honey and 500 g of sugar into a saucepan and melt over low heat, taking care to stir continuously with a ladle. When the ingredients are melted, add 5 egg whites beaten until stiff; then add 1 kg. of peeled, toasted almonds, a pinch of vanilla or grated lemon zest and continue to stir with a ladle until cooked. You will know the nougat is cooked when you taste it and it does not stick to your teeth. Lastly, pour the mixture into a rectangular mould, lined with rice paper; leave it harden well and it is ready to eat.

Boil 500 g of dried fig extract with a little sugar, cocoa powder, cinnamon, cloves, the grated rinds of two mandarins and one orange in a saucepan. Once the mixture is boiling, gradually add handfuls of flour, just enough to form a firm dough, adding 30 g of brewer's yeast and stirring, as you do with polenta, for a good half hour. Take the dough out of the pan and make lots of little loaves, then leave them to rise. Once they are ready, dust them with cinnamon powder and sprinkles.

Put 1 kg of peeled, toasted almonds in a pan, with 1.250 kg of honey, 150 g of sugar and a little cinnamon. Put it on the stove and stir continuously with a spoon. Meanwhile, prepare some 16 x 8 cm rectangular wafers and pour the hot mixture over them to a thickness of 3/4 cm, then cover with another wafer and level the edges, cutting off any parts sticking out, using a knife. Keep each "filled wafer" pressed down with a slab for a couple of hours.

Soak 500 g of coarse wheat grain for three days, after freeing it from the husks, changing the water every day. Then cook it in abundant water until the grain opens slightly; wash it several times and putting it back in the water for a while. An hour before serving, removed the grain from the water, dry it and add a generous quantity of vincotto to it, along with chopped toasted, peeled almonds, chopped walnut kernels, pieces of candied fruit and chocolate, cinnamon, cloves and pomegranate seeds, mixing everything together.

600 g of superfine flour with 200 g of sugar, 200 g of toasted, shelled and finely chopped almonds, 10 g of ammonium carbonate, the grated zest of one lemon, 150 g of vincotto, 200 g of weak espresso coffee and ground cinnamon. Once a well-kneaded, soft dough has been obtained, cut two discs at a time, each 1/2 cm thick, using either an oval pastry cutter or the rim of a large glass. Put a teaspoonful of cherry jam on each one, cover with the other disc and use a fluted pastry wheel to finish off the edges. Bake and then spread melted chocolate over the pastries.