My Easter in Italy

As far as food goes, anyway, in my tiny kitchen

Have you ever cooked so much it feels like you’re forever washing dishes?

I have some time off from classes, and one then another visitor coming from the States this week and next, and since it’s a holiday I’ve been spending a lot of time in my very small kitchen. (My kitchen is so small, I have to go to another room to change my mind.)

We need to start by going back a couple days to my Italian Nachos. I love nachos — doesn’t everyone? — and we’ve taught nacho classes at Tale to Table, and they are great fun to construct, and to consume.

Nachos can take many forms, but for the best form you need to spread the chips out on a pan in a single layer (leave no chip behind!) so they all get some of the layer of savory, and then the layer of gooey. And for color and flavor and ‘grammable photos you need to add some toppers.

This savory layer consists of a two-ingredient masterpiece of n’duja sausage and pinto beans (previously made and frozen) that got happy together in a pan over low heat. N’duja is a spicy, spreadable sausage from the Calabria (as in Calabrian peppers) region. Lots of places make it in the US, and in St. Louis you can get it from our friends at Salume Beddu.

But I’ll tell you right now, it’s less spicy in Italy than the U.S., being more about that Calabrian pepper flavor and less about the heat. It’s also surprisingly challenging to get Calabrian n’duja in Piemonte, because, well, that’s a whole n’other post.

Anyway, probably the best nachos I’ve ever made. So there’s that.

My Easter meal is baked beans, and my favorite recipe is this one from Amy Thielen, who also hales from northern Minnesota. More on the challenge of finding Midwestern ingredients in Italy in a bit.

When I asked about local Easter dishes, I was referred to Torta Pasqualina, a savory pie with greens, cheese, and whole boiled eggs. I wasn’t up for making pastry dough, and needed a smaller recipe, and found this one, which was more easily modified for my toaster oven.

I’ll let you follow along, but the spoiler is that while five things could have challenged this dish, only one of them actually took hold. But now I know for next time.

But my version was straightforward. I cooked some chard (you can/should also include/substitute artichoke), roughly chopped it and then ground it up with an immersion blender. (My big mistake was not squeezing out as much juice as possible, for a more crumbly filling.) Mixed with ricotta and grated pecorino.

Store-bought puff pastry (I’m not sorry about this), lay down some filling, nestle in the eggs (which you already cooked and peeled, right?!?), more filling, and then wrap it up as gracefully and beautifully as you can. (This is how much I appreciate all of you, that I’ll share the lower right photo…)

Brush with an egg, and then bake. Came out looking really great, but didn’t slice up very well. Gotta wring out those greens!

Still, it was tasty and healthy and will be three meals over the next days.

Sunday is Sourdough Day, when I need to feed my starter, and then use the discard in pancakes and/or pizza dough, because Sunday is (often) Pancake Morning and (almost always) Pizza Night. (Sundays can be busy kitchen days.)

Along with the pancakes I had fresh-squeezed orange juice. There are tons of oranges around, and I bought a heavily discounted bag, more than I could simply eat. Two big glasses (saving one for tomorrow), and then started macerating the pulp for a syrup. I also put the peels in sugar, where they should ferment over a month or two to become another syrup — we learned this trick in class, and I’ll let you know how it works out.

And now to those beans! A good number of substitutions are in play right now: No molasses to be found, so I substituted a balsamic glaze for a similar sweet/sour/bitter richness, and added some Canadian maple syrup (available but expensive!) to balance the acidity. No smoked turkey legs (and very few turkeys!) so I roasted chicken wings with smoked paprika. And since I’m in Italy, I subbed the smoked pork sausage with local salami. And 100% on the stovetop, as the toaster oven isn’t going to manage this.

Oh, and the beans. Mama mia make your own beans! It’s so much better, healthier, cheaper, and it will just make you feel good. Soak them overnight, drain, and boil in salted water with a bay leaf for 45 minutes, maybe more. I cooked a half kilo, and have two portions in the freezer for future use (more nachos…?), right next to most of the broth they cooked in. (Don’t save the water they soak in.)

I’m not sure how Amy Thielen would feel about them, but I’m happy.

And then something sweet, especially today. I present to you Colomba Pasquale, an Easter Dove cake. To be sure, it is shaped like a dove (obviously, right?) not made from doves. It is not nearly as complicated to make as panettone, but still I was happy to purchase this one rather than attempt to make it myself.

Happy Easter!

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