Antica Cucina Genovese

*LOCAL GASTRONOMY and TYPICAL PRODUCTS*
Once upon a time…..there was and there is still a very small village situated between the sea and the mountains. Like in every little village, Sunday was a day of rest and festivity. Children didn’t go to school; they played and ran happily in the backyard. Girls, feeling already grown-up, dreamt of meeting in the village square that “old” friend they played with, who made them blush. Mothers spent more time in front of the mirror to make-up and adorn themselves also by choosing the most suitable handkerchief to match their newly remade dress. And then…. All went to mass, feeling pleased of their beauty and attractiveness, hoping that the other people would notice them and think: “Oh! Isn’t she a baciocca (a beauty)!?” Later everyone went straight home to finish cooking the potatoes and onion pie which was to be eaten at lunch time. And….all of a sudden , as by a spell, the simple potatoes and onion cake became a “Baciocca”. That small village was “ PRATOSOPRALACROCE”, and it still exists. It is a small neighbourhood of Borzonasca, and the “Baciocca” is still their traditional vegetable pie. Generally, gastronomy is not only an expression of historical, economic and cultural event of a land, but it is also connected to ballads and handed down oral history so that it is often very difficult to separate truth from imagination.
This is why I think you would find both interesting and amusing the story of how my grandfather “Checchin” (Francis), very fond himself of gastronomy, and a greatpreserver of the “Ligurian cooking”, as well as of its ancient origins, would try to make me fall asleep telling me fables that were a mixture of recipes, ingredients,cooking times,….all very pleasant indeed! In order to complete what has been said about the “Baciocca pie”, I would like to tell you how it is still cooked today in some of our peasants’ homes Please imagine a large cast iron up-side-down bell with a double bottom (see photo on the right); the bottom is heated up on wood fire and the cooking continues directly on the coals where the pan is laid by a chain. Very soon the “Baciocca” is ready!
It is important to remind you that the “Baciocca Festival” takes place each year in July in its native village: PRATOSOPRALACROCE. In our restaurant and gastronomy centre you can find old recipes and traditional dishes of our land, coming from old cooking-books or from free interpretations of the same.
Francesco


	*LIQUEUR OF GENOESE BASIL*
	The lability of memory, with time passing, as well as of words, results in traditions, behaviours or habits loss, which often don’t have historical records. My Grandfather “Checchin”, great keeper of the Ligurian and in particular Genoese tradition, often told me about a “Basil” liqueur whose Grandmother used to prepare and serve, due to its characteristics, at the end of the meal on special family reunions.

Bringing to the attention of “Gastronomy Lovers” not only tastes, but also the memories of our ancestors, involves both pleasure and duty for whom today dedicates himself to the diffusion and continuity of our Region’s traditions. This effort doesn’t mean shutting ourselves in our own regional environment! Instead we should look for ways to communicate, also by using such a great mean of communication as Internet, and share our culture and experience to people who are not fromLiguria.
Francesco

70 cl.

Coming closer in history, as it was written in “IL CORRIERE DI RAPALLO” (a local magazine which tells both facts and curiosities) a few years ago, “the Pansoto” with walnut sauce was born in a small village near Rapallo called “San Martino di Noceto”. As the name says, (the word Noceto means walnut grove) this village had a very large production of walnuts as well as, unfortunately, much poverty. Therefore, in order to make more tasty wild herbs which don’t require any time to be planted or cultivated, but costs only the effort to picking and transforming them into this “round belly raviolo” (pansoto comes from pansa, meaning belly in Genuese dialect) filled with “PREBOGGION” and served with walnut sauce, making it not only a very nourishing but also very tasty dish.

A very curious and interesting aspect of the area between Recco and Rapallo is that almost all the gastronomic specialties born in this area, have migrated further outside the Ligurian borders: Recco’s cheese “focaccia” is nowadays known and appreciated not only in Italy but also in England (some well informed journalists say that in 1995, it was served to Queen Elisabeth and Prince Charles and they found it delicious ). Also in Japan some owners of famous Recco’s restaurants served this typical cheese focaccia during an international wine-gastronomy exhibition.

The “Troffie” which originated in Recco as well, is still made by hand by the women of Testana (a village on Recco’s hills) have had a nationwide diffusion in Italy and are the result of amazing patience. They look like small twisted double cones. Since flour in the Ligurian Region was more precious than elsewhere, and the space for cultivating wheat very limited, the typical Ligurian “stinginess” found two solutions to make this specialty give the most of itself: completing the dish with string beans and potatoes or to add to the troffies’ dough chestnut flour, as there were many chestnut trees.

Looking for other historical, typical and even curious products on our Genuese table, we find “MOSTARDELLA”, a peculiar kind of sausage, between salami and a real sausage. It is very tasty and can be eaten raw, in thick slices. This sausage is produced in Sant’Olcese, a place on the hills near Genoa, famous for its salami.
In the past, the MOSTARDELLA has always been considered the poor people salami, because, being made with the leftovers of the salami-production, its price was very low. If you put it on the stove, the excess of fat melts, and the sausage tastes very good. If you spray it with white wine it becomes particularly tasty.
Old peasants used to scramble eggs with MOSTARDELLA, and their wives put it often in the pasta sauce.

SMALL TERM DICTIONARY.

PREBOGGION: a mix of at least seven wild herbs, among: sow-thistle, pimpernel, wild beet, dog-tooth, rampion, nettle, dock, ribgrass, borage.

PANSOTI: large, round belly ravioli with a borage, beet and “preboggion” filling.

TROFFIE: fresh pasta made of flour, water and salt, shaped in small double cones twisted on themselves.

MOSTARDELLA: sausage halfway between a salami and a real sausage.

READY TO BE SERVED

PANSOTI: Put the pansoti.in a salted boiling water and cook them for 5 minutes. Serve with the walnut sauce slightly diluted with the cooking water.

TROFFIE: first boil separately green tender string beans, and potatoes with their peel. Then peel the potatoes and cut them in small pieces with the string beans. Cook apart the Troffie (for 12 minutes) in boiling salted water and then add the potatoes and string beans:
Serve with pesto first diluted with some cooking water.

MOSTARDELLA: cut it in small pieces, put it in a saucepan on the fire, so that a part of its fat melts; without any other fat, scramble it with eggs.

N.B.: both pesto and walnut sauce must always be diluted with the cooking water, and never with oil.





Via S. Maria del Campo, 133-135-139 Rapallo 16035 GE -Telephone: 0039-0185-206036 Office: Tel.0039- 185-206009 - E Mail: anticacucina@libero.it

History and Legend