AUNTIE PASTA: Over the Moon in Lunigiana

SARONNO, Italy - The Lunigiana is a strange kind of place that even many Italians have never heard of. It’s like an insiders secret, located in the provinces of La Spezia and Massa Carrara, It’s half in Liguria and half in Tuscany, going from the Apennine mountains to the Magra River.

The Lunigiana, A Well Kept Secret

The story is that before the territory was settled by the Romans, the Etruscan lived here. No news there, most of the towns, particularly in that area got their start exactly the same way. The story is – and you know how these stories are, often more fiction than fact – that the borders reflect the medieval diocese of Luni, which no longer exists. It is really was part of Luini, then Lunigiana was once the most important urban center on the northern Tuscan coast.

The Moon, The Bear and the ???

It is said that the area was called Luini because the people who lived there worshiped the moon. Luni is close enough to luna which in Italian is the word for moon, so it could be true. To add fuel to that fire, the symbol of modern day Lunigiana is a crescent moon held in the paw of a bear.

 Stele in Piagnar Castle Museum

Along with traces of both Roman and Medieval settlements, there are wondrously interesting stele, late pre-historic and Bronze Age stone statues which have been found in large numbers in this area.    

More Stele

From time immemorial, the ‘panigaccio’ and ‘testarolo’ have been a simple and low cost dishes eaten in the entire territory of Lunigiana and the Garfagnana. Panigaccio and testarolo are not the same thing as I initially wrote and now stand corrected by Andrea. He told me that panigaccio are a little like foccacia while testaroli are cooked like crepes, then cut into diamond shapes or strips and served like pasta. That part I knew because I've cooked, and made, testaroli, it was the panigaccio that confused me. He said that he used to eat panigaccio topped with a little cheese or ham. Nice to know and I stand corrected.  

Testaroli with Pesto

The recipe for testaroli is simple. Equal parts whole wheat or buckwheat flour and water, (buckwheat is best and white flour is not recommended) mixed to a consistency of heavy cream. Two cups of flour should be enough for four people. The cooking technique is basically the same as cooking crepe, with one small addition. Before you start to cook the batter, take a half of a peeled potato or half of a peeled onion, stab it with a fork, dip it in extra virgin olive oil and run it over the hot oil before you add the batter. Do this before you cook each one. These crepes are not quite as thin as French crepes so they take a few seconds longer to cook.

A Stack of Panigaccio

I prefer to use a large frying pan rather than a crepe size pan since I’m only going to cut them up anyway it’s easier to make a couple of big ones than a bunch of small ones. When the testaroli are cooked, lay them out on a clean dishtowel to cool. They don’t keep well but you can roll them up in cooking paper and freeze them to use another time, or cut them into wide short strips or diamond shapes and drop them in a pot of salted boiling water for a few seconds. Lift them out with a slotted spoon, drain them, put them in a dish and top with pesto and a little grated parmigiano reggiano cheese. Eat immediately. 

Where is this place, anyway?

On this map, the Lunigiana is the small yellow part between La Spezia and Massa Carrara. The first time I saw testaroli was in Parma, in an old shop that sold a little bit of pasta, a few cans of tomatoes, a couple of bottles of wine and some kind of a large, brown pancake. The shop owner seemed a bit perplexed when I asked him what they were, I guess he never had anyone ask him that before. At any rate, he said, they were testaroli and to cook them you just cut them up any old way, and boil them for a few minutes, drain them and top them with pesto. So I did. Once again it was love at first taste. 

Simple dishes like testaroli really speak to the heart of Italian cuisine.Many of the dishes Italians prepare in this day and age of high speed trains and the internet, were developed centuries ago. They are the thread that connects the Italy of today with the Italy of yesterday, and that is one of the reasons why, for me, Italy is so special.

And can I add one small rant regarding pesto? American Chef Michael Chiarello suggests adding a pinch of vitamin C powder (ascorbic acid) to your pesto to keep it from discoloring. He adds ascorbic acid to his pesto because his pesto is made so far in advance of serving there is a danger of it discoloring. But if you are making pesto at home there is absolutely no need for it.

LIFE: Change of Scene

SARONNO, Italy – It felt odd to actually be in a place that I’ve visited so many times on Google earth. It’s disorienting. Buildings and streets looked familiar but in reality I had no idea of where I was, other than I was in Chiavari. In real time, the distance between one place and another was often times shorter than it seemed when I was clicking along on my computer. In other cases, the walk along the sea for example, turned out to be a lot longer than I thought it was.

Corso Gianelli

Chiavari is a small city in Liguria, set right on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea. Something that surprised me was that the boardwalk is actually made of boards, and the beach area, unlike many other towns along the Mediterranean, is separated by railroad tracks. So you have the business part of the city of Chiavari and the the sea front with the boardwalk and bars and cafes and places that sell ice cream. To get from one part to the other there are sottopassaggi, underpasses that pass under the tracks.  

It was obvious that Chiavari was getting ready for summer. The sea front was under attack by bulldozers moving sand and stone as part of the town's project to expand the tourist port. At the harbor, yachts hung high in the air as workmen wielded saws and sanders and brought the boats back to their original sturdy selves.

Via Martiri della Liberazione

Chiavari is a lovely town. It is laid out in a typical Roman grid, even though traces of a pre-Roman necropolis from the 7^th to the 8^th BC  have been found here, dating it to pre-Roman times. There are main streets, or arteries, running north and south, east and west, and in between the main arteries there are hundreds of tiny alleys, capillaries that connect everything together. 

The two side panels are actually doors that are closed at night.

The historic center is well kept and exceptionally large for the overall size of the town, and its streets are all under porticoes, some dating from the 13^th century. There are some stretches where, if it were not for the way the people in the street were dressed, you could easily lose track of which century you were in.  Even with that said, walking along the ancient streets you get the feeling of being in a far-away place, not in terms of location but in time. 

Viale Millo

Outside of the historic center, the pastel colored buildings are regal and rich in architectural details. One of the most amazing places in town is the large, white Basilica of Nostra Signora dell’Orto. For the first couple of days I was there I didn’t even realize it was a church, it looks a lot like the Pantheon in Rome, which is my most favorite building in the entire world.  The fact that there was a bronze statue of a pope under the portico didn’t mean much as this is Italy and there are religious statues and paintings and frescoes all over the place.

Santuary of Nostra Signora dell'Orto

I was going to look for a plaque to see which Pope it was but I was distracted by a local policeman talking to a young man in front of the church. What caught my eye was that not ten minutes before, when I was going into the church, the same young man was leaning heavily on a crutch near the church entrance, looking pitiful and asking for money. And now, there he was, standing perfectly straight and looking just fine, talking to the cop. It was market day in Chiavari, and just like Saronno, there are always a lot of Rom hanging around trying to pick up a few euros one way or another.

The early morning sounds are different here. In Saronno I wake to cuckoo birds or woodpeckers  or sometimes the cawing of the large crow like birds known as merli. In Chiavari you wake to the sound of sea gulls and the delicious smell of freshly baked focaccia. Not a bad way to start a day.

LIFE: Awww, Nuts

SARONNO, Italy – Now here is a perfect example of why it took Italy more than 2,000 years to unite. Last week I posted a recipe for nut sauce (http://thisitalianlife.blogspot.com/2012/02/auntie-pasta-nuts-to-you.html) that was credited to Bartolomeo Stefani, chef to the Gonzaga Dukes of Mantua. It was a typical Renaissance dish served in the princely court of Mantua. 

Freshly Peeled Walnuts

I don’t remember saying that the Mantua nut sauce was the ONLY nut sauce in Italy, and so I don’t know what the Ligurians  are so worked up about. Everyone knows that the Ligurian nut sauce is way older than the Mantua nut sauce, which may make it the first nut sauce developed on these shores. The key word is may. 

 Sicilian Nut Pesto and Pesto Rosso

If you do an internet search for “nut sauce” you’ll find more than one web site offering recipes for nut sauce including http://www.makepesto.com/classics/sicilian-nut-pesto/ which offers a nut and basil pesto recipe which is even more stripped down than mine. Here, take a look.

Sicilian Nut Pesto

Ingredients: 

1 bunch basil, leaves picked
1 – 2 cloves garlic, peeled & chopped
1 cup cashews
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
squeeze lemon

Whiz together in a food processor. Eat.

They even call their sauce “pesto” which rankles the Ligurians no end. Truth be known any sauce that you make by pounding the beejeebers out of a bunch of ingredients can legitimately be called “pesto” since pesto comes from the verb “pestare” which means to pound.

Except for the fact that the Sicilian nut pesto recipe calls for cashews, which don’t grow in Italy, the connecting thread for all of these nut sauces is that when they were developed at a time when people made food out of whatever ingredients they found in their area. If they were rich, like the Gonzaga Dukes, they could afford to add exotic bits like cinnamon and nutmeg and jazz the dishes up a bit but otherwise they were limited to what grew outside their door. Think about it, if you walked out your door today and tried to put together a meal using what you found growing about your house or apartment, how successful would that be?

For me it would mean a gloppy soup of chopped grass and boiled twigs. Not particularly appetizing, so I give the Italians a lot of credit for what they managed to do with a handful of nuts.

For the sake of equality of all, here’s the Ligurian recipe,  “Tocco de nux”, which is delicious served with Genovese pansotti (little bellies), a Ligurian version of ravioli.

Ligurian Tocco de Nux

Ingredients

Garlic  - 1 clove  

Milk - 250 ml

Marjoram – small bunch of fresh

Walnuts – 250 grams

Extra virgin olive oil – ½ glass

Crustless bread – 40 grams

Parmigiano Reggiano cheese – 40 grams

Pine nuts – 30 grams

Salt q.b. (you know this means to taste, right?)

First blanch the walnuts in boiling water for about 5 minutes (1), or long enough that the skins peels off easily. After 5 minutes, drain the nuts and let them cool.  In the meantime cube the crustless bread and put it in a bowl along with the milk (2) and when the bread has absorbed the milk squeeze them and set them aside, saving the milk.(3).   

 Peel the walnuts one by one (4) and put them in a food processor (or pestle), together with the pine nuts, garlic, paremesan cheese (5) and the oil (6) .  

Add the bread, sprinkle in the marjoram (7) and whiz together adding a little milk (you can use the milk you soaked the bread in), and mix until the cream is dense (8) then add the salt. The nut sauce (9) is now ready to serve over plain pasta, ravioli (not meat filled) or pansotti.  

Note: It’s a lot easier to just buy already peeled walnuts, which is the way all packaged walnuts are sold.

LIFE: In My Opinion . . .

SARONNO, Italy – It’s always interesting to read  the public opinion polls taken by the newspapers  in various cities in Italy. Usually I focus on Milan and Genoa, but today I thought I’d venture south and see what the Neapolitans were thinking as well. The results just might surprise you.

Best Way to Start a Day

Readers of Genova’s Il Secolo XIX were asked:

Is the proposed settlement Costa is offering cruise accident victims adequate?

Yes – 50%

No – 50%

Total votes: 4,431

Is the proposed location of a new mosque a good choice?

Proposed location OK – 10%

In the port area of the city’s historic center – 57%

In the center of Genova – 5%

In another location along the coast – 6%

Not in any location – 22%

Total votes 24,188

Then they were asked: In your opinion, how was the cruise ship emergency handled?

Good – more than 4,000 people were saved – 59%

Bad – many passengers were upset – 41%

Total votes: 3,161

 
What are you hoping to find in 2012?

Love – 10%

Work – 16%

Health -  41%

Money – 18%

Total votes: 4,134

Should older women try to become mothers?

Yes – 10%

No – 60%

Each case should be decided individually – 30%

Total votes: 4240

The Costa Concordia

You Should Know: Genova is the home of Costa Cruises

 

In Milan, readers of Corriere della Sera were asked:

Italy’s Premier Mario Monti recently withdrew Rome's bid for the 2020 Olympics saying the Italian government can't supply the required financial backing at a time of economic crisis. The cost for hosting the Olympics has been estimated at $12.5 billion. Did he do the right thing?

Yes – 91%

No – 9%

Total votes: 3,143

Which of these news events affected you the most?

The killing of Bin Laden – 2%

The earthquake in Japan -  13%

The wedding of William and Kate – 0%

The Genova soccer team Sampdoria in Series B – 43%

The death of Amy Winehouse – 1%

The absolution of Amanda Knox and  Raffaele Sollecito – 2%

The killing of Gheddeffi – 3%

Death of Marco Simoncelli at Malaysian Moto Gran Prix – 9%

The floods in Liguria – 15%

Ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi’s fall from grace – 5%

The new Premier Mario Monti’s economic plan – 8%

Total votes: 8,162

How would you judge Premier Mario Monti’s first 100 days?

Good, he’s on the right track  - 33%

Not so good, it’s always the same group of people who end up paying the most – 46%

It’s too early to tell – 20%

Total Votes: 457

Tax evasion is a huge problem in Italy, so the question asked was:

What do you think about the government’s stricter controls for tax evasion?

Finally, it’s about time – 78%

They will never be implemented – 22%

Total Votes: 9611

Snappy Looking Guardia di Finanza

You should know: Finance and fashion are Milan's major industries and they are both constantly scrutinized by the Guardia di Finance, Italy's Internal Revenue Service. 

In Naples, readers of Il Mattino were asked:

Do you agree with the plan to allow advertisements in front of Capri’s famous Blue Grotto?

Yes -  14.6

No – 84.3

Don’t Know – 1.1%

There is a plan to arm Naples’ city police with batons, do you think it is a good idea?

Yes – 76.3%

No -  22.9%

Don’t Know - .09%

The concept of allowing merchants to decide their own opening and closing hours is spreading through Italy. Asked if they thought it was a good idea, readers responded this way:

Yes – 62.2

No -  35.6

Don’t Know -  2.1%

And finally Il Mattino readers were asked whether they preferred a Christmas tree or a Nativity crèche.

Tree – 23.4

Crèche – 70%

Neither one -  5.7%

Naples Via San Gregorio Armeno

You should know: The Via San Gregorio Armeno, in central Naples is the center of the world's nativity market, with several hundred workshops, stores and stands selling full nativity scenes and individual statues made of wood, plaster, terra cotta and even chocolate.