CHIAVARI,
Italy - Calabria is a rugged region in the
most southern part of Italy, set between two seas, the Tyrrhenian and Ionian, and the Appenine mountains.
There are many delicious dishes that come out of Calabria, and one of the stars
of the Calabrian cuisine is the red onion of Tropea, a town in the province of
Vibo Valentia.
The
red onions of Tropea are so sweet and crisp you can eat them raw in a simple
tomato salad dressed with local olive oil. They are also incredibly delicious
when cooked to a soft sweetness and put together with Calabria’s favorite pasta,
which is called fileja. Fileja is still
made by hand in many Calabrian kitchens. It’s a time consuming process as each
piece of dough must be wrapped around a wire, a ferretto in Calabrese dialect, to
give the fileja its unusual shape. Most of the ferretti in use today have been
handed down from grandmother to mother to daughter, as it is the women who keep
this tradition alive.
Hand Made Fileja |
My love affair with pasta and onions began a
long time ago, but it wasn’t until years later that I learned that this fast
and simple dish was a classic Calabrian recipe Calabrese grandmothers have been
making for hundreds of years. Tropea onions are not always in the market, but
this week they are.
Locals
in Tropea claim that these onions are so delicious that one of the town’s gelateria
makes “cipolla di Tropea” gelato. I not entirely convinced onion gelato is a
good idea, but I may be wrong. They also make squid ink gelato and gelato
flavored with a spicy salami called nduja. Those flavors might be good but I
think I’ll pass up the gelato and stick
with pasta and onions, thank you.
Pasta with Red Onions of Tropea
180 g short pasta (such as rigatoni, penne , paccheri ,
fusilli and Calabrian fileja , etc.) (about 1 ½ cups of pasta, but you might
want to increase that amount for heartier appetites)
400 g of onions (a little less than a pound)
1 clove of garlic 200 ml white wine (about a cup)
1 tablespoon of grated pecorino
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
salt and black pepper to taste
Peel
the onions , cut them in half and then in half again in the other direction
this time . Slice each piece into thin slices.
Stick
a toothpick in whole clove of garlic. In a large skillet heat the olive oil
over medium heat, add the onions and after a couple of seconds add the garlic
and onions. Mix together gently.
The
onions don’t take long to cook so this is a good time to put a pot of water on
for the pasta. Salt the water, cover the pot and increase the heat.
Back
to the onions. Cook them for a few minutes and then add a pinch of salt , a big
pinch of black pepper and white wine. Stir well, cover and cook for about ten
minutes. Check the onions now and again to make sure they do not dry out. If all the liquid has evaporated, you can add
a ladle of the cooking water from the pasta.
After
cooking the onions become soft . Taste them to see if they need more salt and
then take out the garlic clove . Combine the grated cheese and
stir it into the onions. For a vegan pasta with red onions do not add the
cheese, you can add chopped parsley if you like.
Add
the pasta to the sauce.
Serve
with a glass of white Calabrian wine and you have a feast fit for a king – or
queen.
Suggestion:
Try using whole wheat pasta for this recipe, it’s a good combination.
This
recipe and photos (except for the photo taken at Chiavari market which is mine) were taken from: http://www.chiccacook.it/crudo-cotto/primi/pasta-con-cipolle-di-tropea/
I just love what I have seen and read!!!!!!!!! Very very cool, I have never been to Italy yet, but is on me and my husbands bucket list!!!!!!
ReplyDelete