Sapori e Bontà: Della Cucina Regionale Italiana
By Chef Franco Brigandi
I would like to start off by saying “Thank You” to Randy and Rosiland Gibson, from Bloomin’ Desert Herb Farm. They presented me with the honor of having chosen my suggestion for the name of their new herbal culinary rub, “Italian Symphony,” on John Donavan’s Dice Tomatoes radio broadcast, at the Feed Farmers Market, near Fremont Street. It was a wonderful surprise!
Ottobre in Italia brings to my mind wonderful chestnuts and wild mushrooms that are abundant in the mountainous regions of Italy, during autumn’s rainy season. The largest and best “castagne”(chestnuts) are found in Benevento, near Naples. They are plump and easily opened, and have a little tail protruding from the shell. Those are the ones used traditionally to make “Marron Glace,” a delicacy where they are boiled, shelled, then dipped in caramel or chocolate. These wonderful confections can be found in Italian gourmet shops throughout the world, including Las Vegas. They are a truly delectable treat, if you have never savored them.
These larger, more popular Neapolitan, sweet “castagne” grow in many other regions as well, but some may not be quite as big and plump as the ones from Benevento. These are what make “Chestnuts roasted on an Open fire” a memory worth waiting to repeat. Roasted chestnuts have a smoky, sweet nutty flavor, with a floury texture almost like a sweet potato. I remember when I lived in New York City, I used to get them from street vendors and they were just as wonderful as I remembered from my childhood days in Italy, when my grandfather roasted them over a coal and wood fire that he built in a big copper kettle called “conca.”
There are other more common varieties of chestnuts that are smaller and do not have the “tail” that the sweeter Neapolitan variety does and are not as easy to shell, but nevertheless are delicious too. These are called “cucci”. This kind of castagna is more commonly used to make chestnut flour, which has a heavy semi sweet nutty flavor and is used to make a variety of Italian desserts, especially “Castagnaccio,” most typical of the Toscana region. Castagnaccio is made with the chestnut four, water, extra virgin olive oil, a little salt, and fresh rosemary. It comes out like a dense cake that is subtlety sweet and aromatic. In Roman times, chestnut flour was used to make a porridge for the Roman soldiers to consume for energy before going into battle.
As a child, during and after the war, in the month of October, I used to find chestnuts in the mountains near Patti Marina, in Sicily, whenever I was looking for food in the wild for my hungry family.
Some castagna trees found in Italy are as much as 1,000 years old. The pods that hold the nuts are round, green, and have little spines sticking out to keep away the animals that would eat the fruits before they are ready. To me they looked like a sea urchin. When the pod reaches maturity, she opens up like a womb giving birth, and drops her seeds to the ground. Also as a child, I used to take a pillow case with me and fill it up with as many chestnuts as I could find under the trees in those hills, but I had to be careful because sometimes the owner of the property would be watching with a shot gun, and chase me away. When the fall rains caused the chestnuts on the ground to be swept into the river Simeto and be carried down stream, and whenever it overflowed, I used to run along the side of the river, and gather the chestnuts that deposited up on the banks.
In my restaurant in Florida, the Villa Santa Monica, I used to make the Tuscan dessert, “Castagnaccio,” and I used the “Marron Glacè” to top one of my Italian cake confections. But my chestnut and Italian sausage stuffing for turkey brought in a lot of reservations for Thanksgiving dinner.
Wherever there are chestnut trees, you will also find wild “funghi” (mushrooms). Both require the high, forestial terrain and both mature in the humid, rainy season, starting in October. They can be found in areas wherever the climate is temperate, like California, as well as the Mediterranean countries.
It can be dangerous to gather wild mushrooms if you do not know which ones are poisonous because there are only subtle differences in appearance between the good ones and some of the bad ones. In Italy, mushroom hunting in October is very popular. Today, it is required to have a license, to insure you have the knowledge to keep you safe. When I was growing up, in Sicily, I used to go up into the hills right after a rain, and with a stick, I used to brush away the piles of leaves under the chestnut trees. I always found “Porcini” mushrooms hiding there, like camelions, as their colors were very close to the colors of the leaves, but I would pick all types mushrooms and bring them home. My mother used to pick out the ones she knew were good, and the ones she was unsure of, she used to put in boiling water with a clove of garlic, and if the garlic turned black, the mushroom was poisonous.
The mushrooms I have frequently used as a chef are, “Crimini,” which look like button mushrooms but are light tan to dark brown in color, and have an earthy flavor. I used them in sauces like Marsala and stuffed them with seafood; “Portobello,” which essentially are giant “Crimini,” have a deep meaty flavor and a thick texture.They are excellent grilled or breaded, alla Milanese, and their caps can be stuffed.; “Champignon” (white button mushrooms), mild flavored and are used mostly in salads, and marinated as an appetizer; “Porcini,” are golden brown in color with a wide cap and thick stem, have a wonderful aromatic flavor, and are great for flavoring sauces and stews; “Shiitaki”, have a broad umbrella shape and a rich meaty flavor. These are sometimes sold dry to rehydrate in boiling water.
Boil with red wine, beef bullion, and arborio rice, to make a wonderful risotto to accompany red meat; and also, the “Morel” mushroom, a relative of the truffle, which have a large dark brown cap with a smokey, nutty flavor. These can stand alone, or be used to flavor sauces and stews.
However, there are many different rare, wild mushrooms that are good to eat. About 40 years ago, I went to a restaurant in Genova, Italy that had nothing but mushrooms on the menu, about thirty different varieties. I had a salad with marinated, colorful orange and yellow fluted, “chantarell” mushrooms. Then I had a Portobello “steak with a shiitaki au jus, and fresh ravioli stuffed with Porcini with a brown Morel mushroom sauce. Dessert was champignon mushroom and Marsala wine custard.
Just as mushrooms are fungus that grow above ground, so are “Tartufi” (truffles), a tuber fungus that grow under ground. Most of Italy’s truffels are found in Piemonte around Alba. To find them, they use specially trained dogs, and sometimes pigs; but the pigs tend to eat the truffles they find. Tartufi are very rare and expensive and make any dish they are used in to become heavenly aromatic. Whenever I was lucky enough to get some, I liked to make a special demi-glaze with truffle shaved into it, to use in some of my meat and poultry dishes.
Ask Chef Franco welcomes all questions and requests for any recipes mentioned in my articles. Please contact me at cheffrancofoods@yahoo.com, and I will gladly answer, as soon as possible.
Q: Dear Chef Franco, How do you make the colorful “citron” used in fruit cakes and pastry creams? Thanks, Donald Manetto (Boulder City)
A: Dear Donald, I peel the rind off of any citrus fruit I want to use, like orange, lemon, lime, grapefruit, or tangerine, etc. leaving as little of the white part as possible on the peel. Then I put the rinds into a pot with a half cup sugar to a pint of water, and bring to a simmer, and cook for at least 30 minutes or more over medium heat, until the liquid begins to reduce to a clear syrup, and the rinds begin to become opaque. Do not let it go dry or it will burn. When the citron is cooled, cut it into small pieces to use in baking, and save the syrup to flavor cakes sauces etc..
