Easter pastieri

In a previous post I mentioned how pastieri is one of my favourite Easter dishes to make simply because it's so easy. This dish was passed down to me from my Calabrese Nonna Filomena. Other than our family, I've never seen it made by anyone else. 

Mix all ingredients together before baking.

In Naples they make something called pastiera, which is completely different from our recipe. Go to the Napoli Unplugged blog for a mouth-watering collection of recipes. The Sicilians make a pastieri but it's a stuffed pastry, which looks fantastic, but still not like ours.

From what I've been told, after immigrating to North America, my Nonna's cooking was greatly influenced by her Neapolitan sister-in-law who was a wonderful cook. Could this be where the name came from? I'm guessing this recipe is a combination of influences of Italian immigrants from other regions, along with the availability of ingredients in a small city at the time they immigrated. 

Whatever the reasons, it's a lovely food tradition that finds its way onto the table at family reunions reminding us of how we're connected.

If you've made pastieri or recognize this dish, please leave me a comment. If you try this for the first time, let me know about it. 

Cut in rectangles and serve cold. Eat with your hands.

The recipe

Pastieri makes an interesting addition to an Easter Brunch. It keeps well in the fridge, making it a good prepare-ahead dish.

• Cook 1 lb (or 500 g) linguini in salted water. Once cooked, rinse in cold water to cool (so it won't cook the eggs when they’re mixed together). Drain well.
• Beat 1 dozen eggs
• Add:

- Ricotta, 1 container (16-ounce or 500 gram)
- Grated cheese, 1 cup or more of parmesan, use romano if you like a stronger cheese
- Italian parsley, chopped, 1 bunch or 1/2 cup (to your liking)
- Black pepper, to taste

• Mix all ingredients together and let rest for about 20 minutes.
• Pour into a greased 9x13 baking pan. Press down on the pasta mixture with your hands (to get the air out) and smooth the top.
• Bake at 350°F for 1 hour.
• Remove from oven and cool.
• Serve cold, cut into rectangular pieces. Eat with your hands.

Enjoy!

Mushroom (funghi) memories

I don't know of anyone who has a middle ground position on mushrooms. You either love them or you hate them. I love them.

While digging out dandelions and mushrooms from the garden, thinking I should be making a nice insalata with them, I realized I had no idea how to pick a "safe" mushroom. The backyard mushroom yield reminded me that two years ago we were in Calabria during funghi season.

On our way to Bocchigliero, we stopped for lunch at La Tavernetta, an upscale restaurant outside of Camigliatello Silano, which is a charming ski resort with small shops selling the wonderful old-world foods Nonna Filomena used to make.

La Tavernetta specializes in local foods including fungi Silani. We savoured shaved porcini in olive oil while watching gigantic mushrooms being brought into the restaurant's kitchen.

After a very expensive but fabulous lunch, we returned to the winding road and forests of the Sila. We kept seeing guys smoking cigarettes, leaning against their trucks with a scale and basket on the ground. They were waiting to buy the haul from mushroom harvesters.

We decided to make our own trek into the forest in search of prized mushrooms. It was easy pickings rummaging though leaves and around tree roots. Sadly we had no idea what was edible and what was poisonous. I wished my Uncle Nick was with us.

For me, Uncle Nick is synonymous with mushrooms. One of my fondest childhood food memory is eating his amazing marinated mushrooms. Sadly, Uncle Nick died last month. I will never know his secret and I'm sure I'll never taste mushrooms like that again.

Anniversary

Nonno Joe & Nonna Filomena married in Bocchigliero (Calabria, Italy) on May 1, 1915. I've been thinking about them a lot as my own parents pass wedding milestones. Here's an excerpt from their wedding registration:

"L'anno millenovecento quindici, il giorno primo del mese

di maggio, alle ore pomeridiane quattro e minuti venti,

in Bocchigliero, nella casa posta in Vico Manca."

Check out this family portrait from their 50th wedding anniversary in Canada.

While Nonno & Nonna are long departed, their descendants gather annually for a cousins' party. The family portrait -- now trying to contain over 100 cousins -- is a staple of the party.

Happy Father's Day

On this Father's Day I'm thinking of my nonnos, the two fathers who brought their families from Calabria to Canada for a better life and unknowingly gave me two lands where my heart and soul dance.

Nonno Joe was born in the late 1800s. It makes me pause: I know people who were born in three different centuries. We may be the first generation to make that claim. 

Nonno set out for the USA on his own when he was barely a teenager. I can't imagine the strength needed for that journey in a time before mass communications and transportation. How would WE do it without the Internet and our cell phones? Nonno was resourceful enough to make that trip several times. Returning to Calabria to marry and emigrating with my nonna and their Italian-born children.

Nonno Joe

Nonno Tony arrived in Canada at mid-20th century with full family in tow. Even then, they left knowing they'd never see mothers, fathers or siblings again. And no text messages, no tweets. I was lucky to know this Nonno who lived into his 90s. His grapevines are in my back yard and his lemon tree is in my living room (this is Canada). 

Nonno Tony

I will write more about their journeys. Today is for a simple remembrance of the fathers who brought me here.

And happy father's day to my dad too.

Dad

Sunday: food, family & churches

Had a late start to the day after an evening of Vin Santo and a morning finding bus tickets for our journey to the deep south of Italy. We raced out to Saint Peter's for a quick peek at the basilica before a fabulously rich lunch with cousins I hadn't seen in over 20 years. Then we walked to a nearby church, which had a long line waiting to get into the the start of a bible reading marathon featuring the pope. The old & new testaments are to be read continuously, lasting about a week. All the porta-potties were set up and ready for the crowds. My eldest zia was anxious to get there but no one was anxious to wait. Then we strolled along the ancient wall of the city, feature some Mussolini additions to build roads through them, ending at S. Giovanni in Laterano -- the pope's main church in Rome.





After the stroll and many stories between the eleven of us, we departed. I wonder if I'll ever see zia again.

A quick coffee and then off to dinner with cousins I've spent much time with but haven't seen in decades. I recognized them by there mannerisms before I recognized the features buried below memories of youth. We had a lovely dinner -- more food, drink and sweets, then parted, sadly.

We head to Cosenza by bus early tomorrow morning so this may be the last post while I seek out Internet access.

Florence: food & family

I'm falling a few days behind with this blog because of being away from Internet access. I hope to post photos and more updates if we ever get into wifi range. As we're leaving Rome in a few days for Calabria, this may be one of the last posts until we get to Poland.

Yesterday, we had a marvelous time reuniting with our cousin from Brazil at his home in Florence. We toasted with champagne the long-awaited meeting; for my parents, 40 years. We were also delighted to toast with our Terry cousins ;) who are spending a wonderful year in Italy.

A feast of simple Florentine cooking, including the renowned bistecca was followed by a morning walking tour by our art historian and cousin. Because our family is loaded with foodies, the tour took a delicious culinary twist and included samplings of maron glace, 15 year old balsamic vinegar, vin santo, and pecorino romano. Oh, and the best cafe macchiata. Yum.

Booking seats

We're flying British Airways to Rome for the family "roots" trip. BA doesn't allow you to pre-book seats until 24 hours before your flight. Last night we had our countdown with two laptops to book 7 seats together as soon as the website would let us. It was more stressful than I imagined.

Glasses and old photos

I went shopping for new eye glass frames this week -- long overdue! I tried on dozens of frames and the more I tried on the more they reminded me of old family photos from the 1960s. The strongest images were of my aunt's glasses and my mom's sunglasses. Of course images of my dad, a la Drew Carey, also weighed in.