AUNTIE PASTA: Mercantino of Yummy Yum Yum

CHIAVARI, Italy – It was another one of those OMG moments when I walked out the door last Saturday to find the Mercantino dei Sapori e delle Tradizioni in full swing along the porticoed streets of old Chiavari.

Take a Little Proscuitto  from Prato

It was a foodie’s paradise. Looking down the row of stands all I could see were cascades of caciocavallo cheese, stacks of salumi, chunks of grana padano piled one on top of the other, mountains of giant round loaves of crusty Pugliese bread, bottles and bottles of olive oil and wine and cute bottles of balsamic vinegar and it went on as far as my eye could see.

and a little caciocavallo from Cilento 

I had seen an advertisement for the Mercato while walking around Chiavari last week, but I had no idea it would be as vast or as good as it was. The brochure advertised it as a food and wine event of regional products from all around Italy. Apparently it’s not the kind of market that just anyone can sell at, you have to be a producer of good quality products that meet the criteria of quality, authenticity and territorial origin, and you have to be approved by the National Association of Sapori e delle Tradizioni. 

a little grana padano from Lombardy,  

What that means for us, the consumers, is that we come face to face with the people who actually produce the products they are selling and they are selling the best of what Italy has to offer. The Mercantino dei Sapori is similar to the Slow Food Movement in that it promotes local artisan food products, but because you do deal directly with the producers it is, in my estimation, one step better. 

a little porchetta and salami from Tuscany,

I think what surprised me the most was to find food stuffs from one end of Italy to the other. I figured there would be foods from Liguria, Lombardy and Piedmont, and there were. But there was also so much more. 

 don't forget the sbrisolona from Mantua

To begin with there was sbrisolona from Mantua that looked so crumbly and buttery it could easily make you forget that Mantua was where Romeo went to buy poison so he could lie forever with his beloved Juliet. Then there were the chocolate bars from Modica that brought back memories of a great weekend I once spent in Sicily visiting Modica and Noto and Siracusa and eating the most delicious food I had ever tasted. It was on that trip that I finally understood why they used to think that tomatoes were fruits, they were that sweet in Sicily.

 rice from Piedmont,

And it just went on and on. The stacks of salumi of Toscana conjured up all the great dinners I’ve had in rustic Tuscan trattorias with bottles (and bottles) of local red wine and even the taralli, those crunchy biscuit like curls from Puglia brought back memories of a great trip to Bari and Lecce that ended with me falling completely in love not just with Puglia but the Pugliese too. It was like re-living my travels through Italy.

 a little something from Calabria,

But that was only the beginning. There was also Ligurian olive oil, old time handmade pastas, honey from the mountains, nut bread and brown bread and sacks of rice from Lombardy and Piedmont and bags of all types of spices too. There were over 40 stands and everyone was eager to talk about their products, as well they should for they really are the best Italy has to offer. I couldn’t help but think how lucky we are, those of us who live here, to be in such a special place with such a variety and abundance of really good food, it is a place like no other. 

 And a proud farmer from Cuneo -

The best part is it was not a one-time thing. The Mercantino will be back in Chiavari the last weekend of every month from now until November. I already have my list made up of what I want to buy because I know once I hit that market my mind is going to go traveling again and I’ll completely forget what I’m supposed to be doing. But that’s OK, even if I just walk around and look and smell and take a taste of this or that and whatever, it will be time well spent.

AUNTIE PASTA; Tiella di Gaeta

CHIAVARI, Italy - There may be a lot of things to see and do in Gaeta, but  the two main reasons for going there are the food and the beaches. Seeing that the town is equal distance from Naples and Rome, this little city on the sea is a major get-a-way destination for both of those metropolises.

 

Aragonese Castle in Gaeta  

Gaeta kicked off the summer season last weekend with a food fest that was really a love fest for the town’s most famous dish, the tiella. I’ve written about tiella before, that Auntie Pasta post was called Song of the South, (http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4191681270252851547#allposts), but that was the tiella from Bari. This is a whole ‘nuther thing.

So how can a tiella from Bari be different from a tiella from Gaeta? The secret to that little mystery is that “tiella” isn’t what you are eating, it’s what the thing you are eating has been cooked in. A tiella is a type of pot with a lid. It comes from the Latin word tegella, and it changes depending on where you are in Italy.

Tiella Fest

In Modena the original Latin tegella becomes tigella, in Puglia it’s tieed, in Lazio and Campagna it’s tiella and in Abruzzo it is tijella. The word has come to represent the things cooked in it, much like Americans say casserole,” which is actually a French word for saucepan. 

And not to go too far astray, just as the word changes from the original Latin, depending on the area you are in, what goes in the tiella changes as well. In some regions a tiella is a kind of focaccia, sometimes with a filling and sometimes without. In other areas it is complete meal that is layered in the pot, but without a crust.

Tiella, Tiella and More Tiella 

 

And then there is the Gaeta tiella, which isn’t like any of the above. In Gaeta, it not only has a crust, it has two of them, one on top and one on the bottom, like a pie except it isn’t filled with apples or cherries, but fish or vegetables.

 

There’s a humptydoodle story about the origin of Gaeta’s tiella that says it was invented by Ferdinand IV of the Spanish house of Bourbon. The Spanish House of Bourbon was a powerful royal dynasty that at one time or another ruled most of Europe. For that reason alone I find it hard to believe that good King Ferdinand put his lily white hands in the dough one day when he was out fishing with the natives, and made the first tiella. He just doesn’t sound like the kind of guy who’s going to sit down and have a beer with you, let alone start messing around chopping fish and rolling out dough. 

Gaeta’s tiella is not hard to make if you are a cook. Because Gaeta is on the sea, the most popular fillings are octopus and squid, along with a few tomatoes to keep the filling moist. Other good fillings are fillings sardines, anchovies, escarole and cod as well as spinach, zucchini and onions. Not all at once, of course. The secret of a good tiella is to keep the filling soft but not soggy, the dough must be thin and well cooked and to use top quality ingredients, but you already know that.

  

Gaeta’s Tiella

500 grams of flour,

20 g of yeast,

3 tablespoons of olive oil,

200 ml of warm water,

1 kg of boiled octopus or squid,

50g capers,

100 g of Gaeta olives pitted,

100 g of peeled tomatoes,

parsley, pepper, salt

For the Crust

Combine warm water, yeast and oil in a small bowl.

Place flour and salt in a mixing bowl.
Stir in liquid mixture onto dry ingredients, mix well.
Knead by hand for 5 minutes on floured board.
Transfer dough into covered and oiled bowl.  Let rise in a warm, draft free place for 1-1 1/2 hours until doubled in size.

For the Filling

While the dough is rising, you can prepare the filling by chopping the boiled octopus or squid into small pieces and drizzling it with olive oil, parsley, pepper and tomatoes. Then add the pitted olives and capers, and mix.

When the dough has doubled in size, punch it down. Take half the dough and roll it out just as you would a pie crust, and layer it in a greased tiella pan (or deep dish pie pan). Add the filling, distribute it evenly, and cover with the second half of the dough. Then seal the edges of the two crusts together.

Let it sit (in a warm, draft free place) for about 45 minutes, then bake in a preheated 180°C oven for at least 30 minutes, until the crust is golden brown.

Let sit for about15 - 20 minutes before serving.