It’s always a pleasure for me to tell you about a cookbook that has interested and delighted me, but this week that pleasure is particularly profound: I have been utterly captivated by Gennaro’s Hidden Italy. It is a deeply fascinating book, with a collection of recipes that delves deep into the homespun history of Italian cooking, unearthing for us dishes that are often not known beyond the locality they spring from, and some that are no longer even familiar there save among the oldest inhabitants. And I want to cook all of them! Rarely have I had such difficulty whittling the recipes down to a workable shortlist for you.
So before I do give you my shortlist, I feel I need to tell you that if you have even a just passing interest in the food of Italy, you surely need this book in your life. Now I’ve made that clear, I shall give you a taster of what’s in store. Starting with Central Italy, and moving through the Islands, then North Italy to the South, I have bookmarked the simple Handmade Pasta with Beans/ Cazzarielli con Fagioli; the Polenta Dumplings with Sausage and Broccoli/ Suricitti Marchigiani; Roast Pork Shank with its sweet and sour Apicius Sauce/ Arrosto di Stinco con Salsina Apicius; Ricotta and Cherry Tart/ Crostata di Ricotta e Visciole; Chestnut Puddings/ Budino di Castagne, made in fact with chestnut flour; tomatoey, sultana-studded Pasta with Anchovy and Breadcrumbs/ Pasta all’Anciova e Muddica; Stuffed and Poached Chicken/ U Cinu Pollo Ripieno e Bollito; Sardinian Bread Bake with Tomato and Poached Eggs/ Pane Frattau; Baked Angel Hair Pasta/ Bazotti Romagnoli; Pasta Pie/ Pasticcio di Pasta alla Ferrarese; Cheesy Cabbage Bake/ Zuppa alla Valpellinese; Rice Bread Rolls/ Panini al Riso; Potato-Base Pizza/ Torta Tarantina; Cherry and Custard Brioche Cake/ Polacca Aversana; and little meringue-like cookies except that they are made with yolks rather than whites, and which, like my Forgotten Cookies are cooked overnight in the residual heat of the oven. So much to choose from, but given that we are in Lent, the recipe I just had to share with you this week is the Lenten Meatballs/ Polpette della Quaresima, which are cheesy dumplings made with stale bread, ricotta, Parmesan, eggs and garlic, “so soft they almost melt in your mouth”.
Gennaro’s Hidden Italy: Regional Recipes to Treasure for Generations by Gennaro Contaldo (Pavilion).
Photos by David Loftus.
