Are you searching for a lost Italian recipe? Trying to reconstruct something your grandmother once made, or figure out how to cook something with sea urchin or chestnut flour or guanciale or vino cotto? Or maybe you’d just like to share a recipe or Italian food memory with me and all my readers.
If so, drop me a note via the “Leave a Reply” window at the bottom of this page.
I’ll respond as fast as I can.
This page has the following sub pages.
Ang,
I think you’re talking about chiaccere. This is the name it goes by in Southern Italy, but it’s also called cenci in Florence, and crostoli up north. It’s a long pasta like strip, sometimes knotted in the middle and then deep fried. In the South it’s drizzled with honey and topped with sprinkles, just like struffoli. In other areas this cookie is usually just topped with powdered sugar. I don’t have a recipe on hand, but I’ll look around and see what I can come up with. You might try goggling chiacchere and see what you come up with.
Ciao,
Erica
Dear Dora, You might be talking about Cuccidrati cookies. I have a great receipt if you want it. I tried it last week for the first time in my life. They turned out so well, I am now off my diet, and mus get back on my diet when the cookies are gone. They taste just like the kind my Nana used to make. Merry Christmas
Hi Erica,
My grandmother was from Campofelice di Fitalia and my grandfather was from Contessa Entellina.
I love the bacahausa story.
Thank you,
Louanne
Hi Louanne,
I searched all around for clues to your loggia but came up dry so I sent a note off to my friend Natalia in Palermo. She’s a food writer and knows about all sorts of local dishes. I’ll let you know if she comes up with anything.
Ciao,
Erica
Louanne,
I just heard back from our lady in Palermo. She says that in Sicilian dialect pane coll’ogghia means pane con l’olio (bread with oil). Coll’ogghia would be pronounced loggia, so I’m pretty sure that’s what she was saying and that’s what you heard.
I love when these thing actually get solved. Give a thanks to Natalia Ravida, whose family, by the way, produces the best olive oil in Sicily. Here’s the link to her site, if you’d like to take a look- http://www.ravida.it. She’s also on my links page, which might be easier to negotiate.
Best to you,
Erica
They are from Bari. It was more like focaccia from what she has told me.
Thank you so much for the information. My friend says that there could be a strong possibility of Genovese roots. She is going to try to make la fugazza from memory. However, I would like to be able to provide her with base from which to start. Is there a focaccia recipe from Bari and/or Genoa that you know of? I would really love to surprise her with it before Valentine’s.
Many thanks,
Juan
http://ericademane.com/2009/09/21/focaccia-with-zucchini-shallots-and-black-olives/
Juan,
Here is a link to a recipe on my blog for a focaccia, very different topping from what you’re looking for, but the dough is a classic Southern Italian focaccia type. If you follow my recipe you’ll certainly get a nice focaccia. As for the topping, since you don’t know exactly what type of tomato sauce or cheese your friend’s grandma used, it’s hard to advice you. Tomato and cheese is a pretty standard topping for focaccia type breads throughout the south. In Nancy Harmon Jenkin’s book ‘Cucina del Sole’, a book on Southern Italian cooking, she has a recipe for a focaccia from Puglia which is topped with sliced tomatoes (not a sauce), ricotta, dried oregano, and grated pecorino, which sounds delicious. If I were you, I’d just improvise, making a very simple tomato sauce with canned Italian tomatoes and then topping it with whatever cheese your friend remembers (was is mozzarella or a grating cheese?). It might not be exactly the same, but it should be good, and I’m sure she’ll be touched that you made the effort.
Have fun.
Erica
I can not believe I found your web site my husband and I would frequent Pappagallo all the time and miss it so. By chance would you know the recipe for his veal chop with chestnuts and tangerines it was one of our favorites I have been searching the internet but I can not find the recipe. Please let me know if you don’t have would appreciate it so much if you could find out.
Thanks,
Lisa
Hello Lisa,
Mario certainly has a following. You wouldn’t believe how many people have googled him and found their way to my blog.
I just so happens I was in Florida last week and my mother and I had planned on visiting Mario. He has a restaurant called Limoncello in, I believe, West Palm Beach. But when we called his wife we learned he was just going into the hospital for hip surgery, so we didn’t get a chance to see him.
I love that veal chop dish too, but I don’t have a recipe. You might try calling Limoncello (sorry, I don’t have the phone # off hand). Possibly they still make the dish and could email you the recipe.
Thanks for your note.
Erica
Dear Erica,
Dear Erica,
Would you know of the foods that contain the most iron but are also easy to incorporate into pasta dishes that children will love. We have a baby pasta lover,I would like to send a picture. She enjoys pasta like kids like candy!
Thank you.
Mimi
Hello Erica,
I am dying to get the recipe to make the thin crunchy pizza bread served at Orsos in New York. I have searched for recipes but cannot find out.
Can you help?
thanks.
Joanne
Hello Erica,
I was talking to a fellow who said his brother used to make a bread or a cake with dates and nuts and etc and it was rolled up like a jelly roll and baked. When it was finished he would cut it into slices and it was very hard. they would then put into a conainer for around forty five days and after that time they would then be nice and soft and chewy. His brother was one who would never share a recipe and when he died he took the recipe with him. This fellow did not know the name of this item and I was wondering if you have ever heard of this type of cake or bread or if you knew the name of it.
Thank you
Don
Good day, I am looking for an Easter Bread recipe that is different from most I have seen in the North End of Boston. My recipe has Romano, fresh cheese, flour, sugar, yeast, crisco, nutmeg baking powder, and eggs. It is baked in large loafs that raise and the top is egg yoke washed so it is a golden brown. The problem is that over the years my dad said it wasn’t exactly like his moms recipes. Apparently hers did not raise, more of a flat bread, 2 or 3 inches high with “big yellow lumps of cheese” in the center. Our orginal recipe has been changed so many times that each year it comes out different tasting and I have lost track of the orginal recipe. My mom would make the tradition dolly for me and a horse for my dad ’cause she didn’t have a little boy to bake for! Such memories. I would like to find someone who bakes the same style bread and compare recipes. We mix the ingredients on Thursday and let it rise overnight and always bake on Good Friday. Think this was part of my moms tradition taken from her mother-in-law. The recipe makes 6 large loafs.
The second recipe my dad always talked of was a turnover with chicpeas. I am not sure but it also might have dried fruit inside. Thats all the info I have as my dad has passed, but would love to try them, remembering how much he talked about good memories of his mom baking them.
A month from now we will be celebrating Easter and look forward to a new recipe with your assistance. Thanks and enjoy your website. Janet
Dear Erica,
We are searching for a recipe for cookies that we had in Ceglie Masapica. They were clearly made in a roll, sliced and then cooked again. The outer part was mostly almonds, very little flour, probably a combination of finely and coarsely ground almonds and a center of amarana jam. We have been told that the almonds were “bitter almonds” only available in Puglia. Apparently the cookies are only available in this one town – no one has heard of them anywhere else. We had slightly different verisons at three different restaraunts in the area (two in Ceglie Masapica and one in Locorotundo). The chef at Fornao da Ricca gave us her recipe, but it apparently didn’t translate well – we have tried it several times without success. They are not Oggi di Santa Lucia – several people from Puglia have tried to give us that recipe. They were truely wonderful and we’d love to try and make them. Our friends are beginning to think we’re a little nuts talking about these cookies so often. Thanks! Lee and Annette Paul
Help…..I am dying to find a recipe to make the pizza bread that is served at Orso’s in New York. I have looked all over and am having no luck.
Thanks.
Hi Erica,
I’m a huge fan of your “Flavours of Southern Italy” cookbook, and just discovered your blog by googling to see if your recipe for orecchiette with rapini was online anywhere (I’d just made some and wanted to share the recipe with a friend in Toronto). I also love the tripe recipe, the polpettone (this might be my husband’s favourite thing ever), that summer gratin of tomato and zucchini with cream…the list goes on.
My question, though, is about restaurant recommendations for southern Italy. I have the great fortune this year to have not one but two trips lined up: Puglia and Basilicata in the fall, and Ischia and the Amalfi Coast in May (my husband just got a paper accepted to a conference in Ischia, and I’ll be damned if he’s going alone!). I’ve lined up various agriturismi with mezza pensione, and, at one point, an apartment, so we won’t be restaurant-hunting for every meal, but we will need lunch. I’ve got pretty good restaurant radar and speak decent Italian, so avoiding tourist traps isn’t a problem. What I’m wondering is whether you’ve had any unforgettable meals in or around the following places (we’ll have a rental car in Puglia and Basilicata, but walking and taking the bus on the trip in May):
In Ischia, we’ll be in Forio and then in Ischia Porto; before that, in Minori and Agerola (but walking all over, hopefully).
In Puglia, we’ll be staying near Castellane Grotte, not too far from Bari; in Basilicata, in Maratea. And we’ll be doing at least a bit of touring around by car to interesting towns (Matera, for instance).
Not looking for anything fancy; holes in the wall with oral menus are fine with me, even preferable. All we care about is the food! I’ll probably buy a guidebook, but it takes a while to figure out if one can trust the guidebook (and it sucks to eat at an OK place and then walk around the corner and see a trattoria packed with blissful locals). You, I would trust!
A ton of thanks if you can give us any pointers, and my apologies if there’s somewhere on your blog where this is already discussed.
All the best, and thanks for improving my life with tripe (I’d never cooked it before your recipe)!
Jennifer
dear erica,
being of southern italian descent, and knowing that there is a Greek influence in that region, i was wondering if you have heard of or used Chios Mastiha in any of your cooking?
best,
artemis
Hi Artemis,
I have never heard of this stuff used in Southern Italian cooking. I know a little about it. I know that it’s from a Greek Island called Chios and that it’s some type of retsina. I would imagine it would be a very expensive thing to sell in Italy. I imagine it has a pine flavor, somewhat like the taste that’s imparted to retsina wine, but as far as using it in food, really haven’t a clue.
There are big Greek influences in Puglia and South of Naples, but I’ve just not heard of its use. Now, I’m curious though. I’ll try and track some down and play with it. If I come up with a good recipe, I’ll let you know.
Ciao,
Erica
Wow! Thanks for the quick response! I was asking out of my own curiosity, because I am from Chios and I own a shop with all things Mastiha as well as other Mediterranean goodies. I always feel Southern Italy, especially Sicily, is so similar to Greece and vice versa. We share so many flavors and spices. As I looked through your recipes, the question popped in my mind…
So, I’m happy to send you a sample of the resin for cooking. That way, you can play with it and let me know what you think :) Email me at info@mastihashopny.com to give me the address you’d like it shipped to.
Best,
Artemis
Hi Erica,
I have been searching forever for tradional Christmas Calabrese cookies… one is called a San Martini… a pastry like cookie filled with almonds, walnuts, raisins, figs and cocoa with a mandarin rind soaked in espresso and brandy the second I don’t know the name but it is again a pastry like cookie filled with a cocoa and ground chestnuts…
any help would be great!
Thanks so much!
Tracie
any luck with the request on the search for the cookies I described in March?
Hi Erica
My daughter’s grandmother told me about a filled pastry she called Onion Pie. The recipe came from her mother-in-law who was from Palazzo San Gervasio, in Calabria. The filling consists of figs, onions, raisins, walnuts and anchovies. The dough is a sweet dough similar to what I use for cuccidati. I made it and I liked it a lot, as did my husband. The favorable reviews were running about 50%. I will definitely make it again, but I’ll make 2 or 3 smaller pies instead of the one cookie sheet size, and freeze them. Grandpa loved it, no one else in the family even seems to have tried it, including Grandma, who made it. I had never heard of it before (and living in this area, there isn’t much in Italian cooking I’ve missed) nor have I been able to find anything like it on-line. I’m just curious as to whether this is a regional recipe of Calabria or just something a talented cook came up with using the ingredients she had on hand.
Dear Sandy,
Southern Italy has a huge repertoire of savory pies. The one you describe sounds really delicious. There’s a famous one I know of called Scalciaune di Cipolla, which contains onions, cheese, and olives, but that one is from Bari in Puglia. There’s also a Calabrian double crusted pie called fogquazade Cipodda, this one is filled with onions, capers, olives, anchovies, and potatoes. Not exactly the pie you know, but close.
The problem with tracking down specific recipes like yours is that they can be slightly different from town to town and even from family to family. There may be a particular pie from Palazzo San Gervasio, but I did some research and couldn’t come up with exactly what you described. And it’s also possible, as you pointed out, that someone in your family just created this nice thing and it got passed down.
I’ll keep hunting around though. If I come up with something more right on, I will certainly send it along to you.
Ciao,
Erica
I have been searching for a recipie to make a lamb, cheese and parsley sausage that I know as Chiv- A- Let (phonetically spelled). My Grand Parents came from Toritto and told me this recipie originated there. For many years we would get this sausage from a butcher in Brooklyn, NY unfortunatley he passed away and with him went his shop and the recipie. I would like a recipie to make 5 lbs of this wonderful sausage.
I hope someone can help me with this..
Deanna Fusco
Glad to see Alberto Sordi at the top of this page! I just visited a new Korean supermarket, H Mart, in Lexington, MA. Usually you can’t get into the parking lot it’s so busy and now i found out why! Anyway…within of an incredible variety of fish and meats I found fresh veal intestines. I guess Rome is sort of southern…but I really love a dish called rigatoni alla pagliata, which is the sliced intestines and rigatoni in a light sauce. I couldn’t really find a recipe on line ( got a lot of “did you mean rigatoni….”) but i wonder if you have some secret stash of obscure recipes. Since the mad cow disease scare i haven’t even been able to get it in Rome. Part of the charm of the dish is that the intestines and rigatoni are all about the same size and shape, and at least in Rome the intestines are from a milk-fed calf and still have curdled milk in them. Take my word for it…really good if a little strange. I might just wander back up there anyway… beautiful looking oxtails for coda all vaccinara and two different types of fresh tripe.
Hi Deanna,
There is a famous sausage from Puglia called cervellata, which is what you may be referring to, but to my knowledge this is always made with pork. Let me look into this a little more and I’ll see what I can find.
Erica
Erica,
Thank you, you are the first person to give me a glimmer of hope of getting this recipie. I actually wrote to the Mayor of Toritto in hope of getting the recipie from a Butcher in Toritto. I paitently await another response from you. This means alot to me.
Deanna
I found a couple of references to the pagliata (pajata in Roman dialect.) I think I’ll have no trouble recreating the sauce, which is flavored with wine, cloves and rosemary…I’ve had it both more tomato..ey with fresh tomato or with tomato paste. But how do I cook the intestines? I think I might just go for a long slow cook unless you have this weird dish in your repertoire.
Hi George,
I like this dish a lot myself, having eating it many times in the Testaccio section. Pajata is what they call it there. I’ve never made it myself, but I’ll bet I’ve got a recipe somewhere. I’ll have to look around. If can find, will send it along subito.
Erica
I was looking on your site and found pittenguise. My husband remembers his father calling something else by this name. It was in a salty dough and it had spinach, raisins, red pepper seeds and who knows what else. Is pittenguise a common name for anything with raisins or is there something in the Calabrian food dishes that have spinach, raisins and red pepper seeds that he has mistaken for pittenguise. If so, could you please send me the recipe because he remembers this pastry from his father and no one kept it. Thanks for all the help you give to people.
Hi my name is Kristen Ruffler, I am the daughter in law of Lucille DeMane Ruffler. Her father was Leonard DeMane of Port Chester. She is his only child. His siblings were Daniel, Louis, James and Carmella. Leonard is the son of James. James siblings were Nicholas, Angelina, Katherine, Joseph, John, Paul and Art. I believe you are a descendent of Nicholas? I know Nicholas was married to Gertrude and they had children by the names of Eleanor, Richard and John. Outside of that nothing more.
I know the Leonardo Demane was a DiMenna when they came from Italy and Carmella (Carrie) his wife was a Ricci. We can’t find find the where abouts in Italy. I believe it to have been in the Abruzzo region around Castel di Sangro.
I am working diligently on the family tree and any info you could help me with would be wonderful. I can be contacted by email or by phone pm for number. Thank you for taking the time to read this.
Erica,
I am Sicilian on my mother’s side, Scotch-Irish on my father’s, and I love to cook more than almost (almost) anything else. So of course I love your books and this site.
I am responding to your observation on the price of ducks in stores. It is the same here in Dallas. After much puzzling about this price surge in a time of recession, I have discovered, not the cause (which remains a mystery), but A SOLUTION! Chinese grocers. My local Chinese supermarket has frozen whole ducks for about twelve dollars. And a bonus: the brand name is “Quack on a Rack.”
Try an Asian market, especially one that’s Chinese-oriented. That should work in the Big Apple as it does in Big D.
Happy Trails,
Robert
Robert,
Damned good idea. I used to shop in Chinatown all the time, but somehow just forgot about it. Next time I will do so.
Thanks.
Erica
Hi Erica and Deanna,
My grandparents were also from Toritto and to my knowledge, Cervelleta is made with lamb, parsley, and cheese. I remember my granmother cutting the sausage into peices about four inches long, bending each piece into a “u” shape and securing the shape with a toothpick before BBQing…Can’t beat it.
There is a sausage sold in supermaket chains made of pork, parsley, and cheese that is similar but nothing is as good as the real thing.
I know that certain “Pork Stores” will make cervelleta upon request. Maybe you can find one in your area.
Joyce,
That sounds exactly like what I am looking for, I remember when we would BBQ we would squeeze lemon juice on the sausage and it was wonderful. I think that if I knew exactly what cheeses are used I would have a base to try to make it myself. I have called so many butchers in both Florida (that is where i am) and New York to see if any would give me information. I do ask at my local butchers and Italian markets for them to make it out of lamb not pork but they say they do not make it that way. I do thank you for your response, and if you have any further information as to the ingredients I would look forward to hearing from you. Thank you, I am not giving up hope.
Dee
I was reading your blog about the long neck squash, called cucuzza. Do you know where to buy it locally in NYC?
Ruth,
Yes. Several farmers who come into the Union Square Greenmarket grow it. It’s usually available in late summer, August through September. Migliorelli Farms from Hudson Valley grow it. They also carry the tendrils that are used in soups and pasta dishes.
Ciao,
Erica
Hi Dee,
My family all seem to use Pecorino as their choice of cheese for everything. That could be what they used in making cervelleta. I’ll see if I can find out anything else for you.
Joyce
Hi Dee.
I found a recipe for Barese sausage and I think this might be it. I just typed Sausage Recipes and Formulations into my Search Engine and there was a link that listed a recipe for “Bari Sausage”. When I got into the site I followed the prompts for a recipe for Bari Sausage and up popped a recipe using lamb and pork, pecorino cheese, parsley, chopped basil…exact amounts and directions included.
Good luck and enjoy!
Joyce