Sapori & Saperi di Calabria - Knowledges and Tastes of Calabria (Italiano Inglese)

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Greggi sui pascoli estensivi del Monte Poro VV

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Pane di castagne

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I ricchi signori feudali fanno costruire sulle loro terre un castello dove si recano per sorvegliare il lavoro dei fittavoli, vigne e terre coltivate a grano appartengono ai grandi proprietari laici ed ecclesiastici; i contadini possiedono solo le braccia, vivono di stenti, non riescono ad assicurarsi il vitto quotidiano, i giorni si consumano dal levare al calar del sole, escono dal villaggio la mattina, prima dell’alba, per andare a coltivare i campi o la vigna, spesso lontani, abbarbicati sulle pendici delle montagne circostanti o lungo i margini secchi dei torrenti.

Il lavoro è fatto di gesti ripetuti, il grano è l’eterno tormento, coltivato a fatica è una quotidiana preoccupa-

zione, la speranza invernale di un buon raccolto è affidata alla caparbia volontà di adattare e piegare la terra, alla clemenza del tempo, dipende dall’acqua ma anche dal cielo; il grano non è un bene disponibile per tutti i ceti sociali, ma «i ricchi hanno sempre sacchi ricolmi nei loro granai». La terra spesso è ingrata, ma «il sole e la pioggia sono amici migliori dei loro padroni terreni», i contadini si ritirano la sera, prima dell’imbrunire, all’ora dell’Ave Maria, per non farsi sorprendere fuori dai predoni berberi e spagnoli, hanno poche pecore, qualche volta un maiale, e un mulo o un asino per il tiro di un aratro rudimentale; vivono tutti sotto lo stesso tetto di piccole case: la nuda

% raggruppate in mandrie e condotte giornalmente in pascoli col sistema brado, allevate nelle zone montane e collinari di Mammola, Grotteria, San Giovanni di Gerace, Martone, Gioiosa Jonica, Canolo, Gerace, Marina di Gioiosa Jonica, Siderno e Agnana, in provincia di Reggio Calabria, viene prodotto in quantità limitata e con una lavorazione prevalentemente artigianale il formaggio caprino della Limina. Per circa 8-12 mesi è conservato nelle cantine dove viene curato esternamente con un’emulsione di olio d’oliva e un po’ di aceto e qualche volta con l’aggiunta di pepe rosso macinato. Il musulupu dell’Aspromonte che ha origini greco-albanesi si consuma fresco insieme alle verdure di stagione sulla pasta e anche come base per dolci tradizionali. È un formaggio tradizionale da tavola, prodotto su richiesta dai pastori del versante ionico reggino nel periodo pasquale. Sulle facce del musulupu dell’Aspromonte sono posti in rilievo i simboli appartenenti all’iconografia della spiritualità orientale la-

sciati dagli stampi di legno intarsiati, le musulupare, sulla cui parte interna è raffigurata la Croce. Ha una forma semisferica, una crosta finemente intarsiata, pasta molle e uniforme di colore bianco, sapore dolce. Il pecorino della Locride di media maturazione, ha una forma cilindrica con crosta rugosa e impressi i solchi del canestro. La pasta è compatta, di colore bianco nei prodotti freschi e ocra in quelli stagionati, con un sapore gradevole e delicato.

Sulle forme salate a secco, in modo accurato e prolungato viene esercitata la pressatura e un continuo rivoltamento manuale per qualche giorno. Preparato in prevalenza da ottobre a luglio nell’area della Locride, la stagionatura dura da qualche settimana a qualche mese in un appropriato ambiente fresco. Un po’ più a nord, nell’Alto Jonio reggino il pecorino della vallata StilaroAllaro viene prodotto a pasta dura con media o lunga maturazione, forma cilindrica con crosta dura e rugosa caratterizzata dai segni marcati del canestro. La pasta com-

Ricotta

Formaggi calabresi

patta, di sapore gradevole e delicato che progredisce a sapido e piccante con l’avanzare della stagionatura, è di colore biancoghiaccio nel prodotto fresco e giallo-paglierino in quello stagionato. Prodotto in prevalenza da ottobre a luglio viene salato a secco e soggetto a una continua pressatura e ad un rivoltamento manuale durante la stagionatura che dura da 4 a 10 mesi in ambiente fresco. Dai pascoli collinari e qualche volta montani di Andali, Belcastro, Botricello, Cerva, Cropani, Marcedusa, Petronà, Sellia, Sersale, Simeri Crichi, Soveria Simeri, Zagarise, in provincia di Catanzaro, Bocchigliero, Calopezzati, Campana, Cariati, Cropalati, Crosia, Mandotoriccio, Mirto, Paludi, Pietrapaola, San Giovanni in Fiore in provincia di Cosenza, viene prodotto l’ormai famoso e apprezzato pecorino crotonese. Di forma cilindrica, quando è fresco, con meno di trenta giorni di stagionatura, ha una crosta sottile di colore giallo paglierino e una pasta tenera, elastica e compatta di colore bianco, se stagionato il

Pecorino con pepe rosso

pecorino crotonese ha una crosta dura e spessa di colore ocra con i segni del canestro e pasta dura con rare occhiature da cui fuoriescono lacrime di grasso. Fresco ha un sapore acidulo, piccante quando è stagionato, matura tra i 40 e i 50 giorni in ambienti freschi e stagiona fino a 2 anni, curato e unto con olio di oliva. È consumato a tavola come antipasto insieme a pomodori secchi, salumi tipici e ortaggi sott’olio, quello fresco è un richiesto ingrediente della cucina tradizionale, viene grattugiato sui primi piatti, soprattutto quelli conditi con funghi porcini freschi, o con carne di capretto o d’agnello. Le caratteristiche organolettiche del pecorino del monte Poro traggono origine dalle essenze del comprensorio dell’altopiano del Monte Poro, dal sistema di pascolo estensivo ancora ampiamente praticato e dalle tecniche di lavorazione con un’accurata e prolungata pres-

satura manuale. Ha una forma cilindrica a facce piane, la crosta è sottile e gialla quando fresca, dura, rugosa, di colore gial-

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Fichi dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;India di Calabria

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Clementine della Piana di Sibari L’unico prodotto calabrese ad Indicazione Geografica Protetta (I.G.P.)

Tartufo di Pizzo

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Dolci al bergamotto

Scalille

Turdilli

cino, generalmente pesa da mezzo chilo al chilo ed è ottimo con i formaggi locali. A Soriano Calabro sono da apprezzare i sapori e le forme dei mostaccioli artistici, dolci a base di farina e miele d’api. Non si può resistere a questi odorosi biscotti caserecci dalle forme floreali che li rendono simili a curiosi altorilievi ispirati da motivi pagani come i babbaluti o cristiani. A Gioiosa Jonica possiamo degustare il pezzo duro, un raffinatissimo gelato, e per i palati esigenti le gelaterie di Pizzo, sulla piazzetta del castello Murat, offrono il tradizionale tartufo di Pizzo, il famoso gelato artigianale.

Ricoperto da un velo di cioccolato bianco o nero, nel gelato trova posto un cuore di cioccolato fuso. I maestri gelatai di Pizzo si tramandano gelosamente la ricetta del tartufo. Da provare a Pizzo anche la nocciola imbottita e le altre variazioni prodotte da una gelateria che vuole affermarsi in tutto il mondo. La Calabria dolciaria è famosa anche per le squisite varietà dei dolci al bergamotto di Reggio Calabria e per il torrone, in particolare quello di Bagnara Calabra, dove fin dai primi anni dell’Ottocento operano diversi maestri artigiani. I pregiati torroncini della cittadina della Costa Viola sono ancora oggi lavorati con antica fattura. Il torrone di Bagnara è stato definito da importanti riviste specializzate il re dei torroni. Per la sua preparazione sono utilizzate materie prime selezionate e ricette antiche, tramandate secondo la tradizione dell’arte dolciaria reggina. Gli ingredienti base del torrone sono le mandorle e il miele, di cui la Calabria è ricca. Con una cottura a bagnomaria per circa sei-sette ore, le mandorle tostate sono unite all’albume e al miele che non è solo un dolcificante, ma veicola i tanti sapori particolari attinti dalle essenze su cui le api si sono posate.

A cottura ultimata l’impasto è steso con il matterello e lasciato raffreddare. Tagliato a barrette, è ricoperto, per immersione, da cioccolato bianco e aromatizzato all’arancia, al cedro, al bergamotto.

Civita CS The Albanesis Valije and holiday sweets

Front cover Badolato (CZ) Coltivation of the house joniche green houses slopes

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San Donato di Ninea CS Bread with Sardella, Pitta with the pig ciccioli

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Terranova da Sibari (CS)

The crop of the olive tree is largely practiced in Calabria at least from the XIII century a.C. coming from Smaller Asia, other plants of olive tree, sacred to the goddess Minervas, arrive with the new Greek conquerors in the VIII century a.C. Since then these evergreen trees and a lot of long-lived are integral part of the agrarian bruzio landscape, giving stains of a green to the hilly reliefs and the lowlands extraordinary silver, degrading toward the sea. The arboreal systems, are constituted by real monuments of the nature woods of secular ultra vegetable patriarchs that have a preference for the mild climate of Calabria without excessive starts of temperature. In the Piana of Gioia Tauro are raised stately to heights that they often reach and they overcome the 60 metres, and sometimes, as the millennial olive tree of the Plans of Dasà or those secular of Torretta of Crucoli, of Cirò Marina, of Guardavalle, they have a long history to tell: the olive tree has contributed in important way to the income and the alimentary consumptions, to the rhythms of the life and the popular religiousness, it represents friendship, joy and comfort, it is blessed to Easter for the calm and the peace of the family, it recalls “peace, fertility, strength, victory, glory and even purification and sacredness.” The usual period of harvest of the olives, with the use of the nets, it is to the beginning of November, after the seeding of the wheat. Once, the collectors of olives went down to the navy for the whole winter: “The forastiere him June they anticipate for pugs 20 a month, an eighth of broad beans, a quarter of I serve in the military of oil and a half roll of salt a month. To the longobucchesi reduce by 4 pugs for the transport of its sack, and to those of Bocchigliero a trip of mule for every ten. You calculates the month including you that to come, not that of the return” (Vincenzo Padula). They are women forced by the necessity to leave for so many months their families to earn at least the provision of the oil and some small remuneration, with the lowered head, they picked up the olives with the hands to one to one to put back her in the baskets that brought to the trappeto on their head or on the back of donkeys and mules or on wagons hauled by oxen. The oil ends up in the jars being daily used for the seasoning of the poor foods and the dishes appreciated prepared in the days of party, in the country custom the best oil is that of the year, contrarily of the wine that is very more appreciated how much more it is aged, it is precious in comparison to the other fruits of the earth and it is taken care of and measured with minuteness, its presence on the cafeterias, as in the past, it is a constant. The oils are different extra virgin of olive excellent products in the whole Calabria, known particularly they are those of the Lametino in the province of Catanzaro, of the ionic hills presilane, of the Albanian

Corigliano (CS) Olive press of the 1900’s

PRINCIPAL VARIETIES OF OLIVE TREE CAROLEA: nicastrese • olivona • oliva dolce • catanzarese • cumignana DOLCE DI ROSSANO: rossanese • nostrana • frantoiana • oliva da olio GROSSA DI CASSANO: cassanese TONDINA: roggianese OTTOBRATICA: dolce SINOPOLESE: sciolarea • coccitana • chianota • sciolaria GROSSA DI GERACE: paesana • mammolese • geracitana • dolce ALTRE VARIETÀ: mafra • corniola • nostrana • napoletana •ricciarello (olivo amaro) • pennulara • tonda di Strongoli • borgese necks, of the Sibaritide, of the Valley of the Crati and the surrounding necks the river Savuto in the province of Cosenza, of the tall crotonese and of the Marchesato in the province of Crotone, of the Locride, of the overlooking territories the Narrow one and the low Ionian reggino in the province of Reggio Calabria and the necks of Tropea in the province of Vibo Valentia. They are held zones particularly predisposed for the olive tree, where the drupes are still harvests to hand from the plant that it doesn’t suffer chemical treatments, producing, so, an oil that is inserted to full title among those biological. The rational technical practiced of cultivation in the region, according to modern agronomic criterions, a workmanship that respects the tradition, and from the fresh pulp of the olives, with very low acidity, taste yielded with you sprout of spicy and bitter, it prepares

him appreciates her production of the oils extra virgin of olive D.O.P. Alto Crotonese, Lamezia and Bruzio, the plurimillenaries seasonings of the gods. In the national list of the Italian traditional productions the oils also they re-enter extra virgin of olive of the Colli di Tropea, of the Savuto, of the Locride, of Calabria. Other oils Calabrian extravirgin very appreciated are am the Geracese of the Locride, of the Stretto, Conca degli Ulivi, Basso Ionio reggino, Grecanico, Marchesato di Crotone. The picked olives that are not used for the oil, the prepared with different techniques of maintenance and different tastes: to the mortar, in brine, in the jar, black batches, crush, under salt. White or black, according to the degree of maturation, they have in the kitchen a vast and specific cookbook, with the addition, sometimes, of chilli pepper.

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Rocca of Neto (KR)

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tion agricultural and gastronomic Calabrian, the fig tree is another treasure that the region has inherited from the millennial traditions that originate from the Middle East. The summer is the season of the fresh fig tree, I taken by the plant with a lot of care and exclusively to hand, they are picked mature from June to the late autumn in base to the different varieties. They are select of big patches, clear peel, soft pulp, small seeds and from the sugary taste. For centuries the dry fig trees, from the long and delicate workmanship, I am the poor feeding and farmer, typically handed down of generation in generation. The desiccation happens with the usual layout to the sun on cots, cannizzi, wood tables, but also to the oven or in special air driers warm. Once dried, they are carefully selected for preparing crowns of dry fig trees to the myrtle, wrappings of dried fig trees, cooked fresh fig trees to the oven, balls of fig trees, braids of fig trees or open and stuffed with walnut-trees, pieces of orange or cedar and pressed for the crocette of fichi. Stuffed, baked and cooked, the fig trees also pass in the frosting, covered to hand with thin and selected chocolates or with the honey. The liquorice of Calabria is used by the most remote antiquity for its curative ownerships. Glycerrhiza, the scientific name of the plant, derives from the Greek and means sweet root. The stolons (buds) are the branches that grow crawling on the ground or they bury more often him and they form roots with knots to originate new plants that bloom in the summer between June and July. Various qualities of liquorice exist, those Calabrian are the kinds echinata and hairless.

The production of the liquorice begins around the XIV century and develops him up to represent 70% of the Italian production between the

end of the XIX and the beginning of the XX century. The stolons and the roots are turned into pasta by different firms, those more ancient traditions are in the province of Cosenza and they boast a long activity that is perpetuated by different generations. Already around 1500 some firms commercialized this perennial grassy plant that flourishes along the coastal Jonico cosentino. In 1731 it comes realized a foreman-industrial plant, said I tan, for the extraction of the juice from the roots of the plant. They are born so the liquorices, black, bright, seductive, joy of their children, but also of the adults that love the pleasures of a healthy and natural life. After three centuries these firms still produce, with exclusive methods, liquorice of high quality: pure, rubbery and candied or in the form of delicate aroma for torroncini, grappa and liqueurs.

Print of eight a hundred depicting the plant of liquorice

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The lemons of Rocca Imperiale

The citrus fruit of Calabria are very appreciated in the world, the oranges, the mandarins, the particular cedar of the valleys of the Lao, of the Abatemarco and of the Corvine one, the Clementine of the Piana of Sibari, the limetta of the province of Cosenza, the late blond of Trebisacce, the lemons of Rocca Imperiale and the bergamot of Reggio Calabria. Henry Swinburne in his chronicles of trip speaks to us of a very beautiful earth “covered with orange tree, of lemons, cedars, olive-trees, almond tree and of

other fruit trees that, for the conflicting stains of green and for the variety of their height and form, they offered one of the more launchings and intense landscapes that I had also seen never in Italy that also it is country of wonderful landscapes. I was spellbound from the stupendous sight and almost inebriated by the perfumes.” The quality of these citrus fruit is tied up to natural factors as the Calabrian coastal climate that doesn’t record strong starts of temperature and it is characterized by the pres-

Among the 271 products typical of qualities of Calabria recognized in the national list of the Italian traditional productions some distillates and liqueurs included very appreciated, prepared with procedures handed down by Greek and Saracens: amaro alle erbe produced on the Monte Poro, more known with the dialect name of Amaru du Capu, has for ingredients grasses and aromas all of Calabrian origin: the bitter and sweet orange tree, the mandarin, the liquorice, the camomile, the juniper, the sugar and the alcohol, that are set in a steel cistern inox for the grinding and the blending of the mixture. The gotten syrup is allowed to settle and it is filtered before being preserved in oak strokes set not in conditioned fresh environments and bottled. It has a kind and aromatic taste, dark colour. L’Amaro del Capo is produced according to an ancient elaborated again Calabrian recipe and improved. They are produced in the whole regional territory the anise composed by seeds of anise, natural aromas, sugar and alcohol and the fragolino, sweet taste, intense smell of strawberry, red colour, manufactured with little strawberry of mountain, natural aromas, sugar and alcohol. The techniques of workmanship foresee that the little strawberry of wood, preventively washed, are preventively set with other ingredients in a steel cistern inox that handles to grind and to mix the mixture for about 36 hours. The syrup obtained comes before left to extol and then leaked before being bottled with appropriate spirals. You goes affirming in Italy and in the

world the liqueur to the base liquorice of extract of the best Calabrian liquorice more and more. From the unmistakable taste, the liqueur gotten by the juice of liquorice is added to the alcohol and the syrup of sugar, the colour is almost black, the sweet taste, the aroma typical of the essence. Excellent as digestive it is to serve cold. The historical area of production is the province of Cosenza. For a long time immemorial the liqueur of citrus fruit, of lemon, it prepares him with the peels of the citrus fruit soaked in alcohol, water and sugar. The liqueur of bergamot is typical of the province of Reggio Calabria, it is produced with peels of bergamot, aromatic grasses, sugar and alcohol.

The liqueur of cedar manufactured especially in the tall Tirreno cosentino, in the territory of the Coast of the cedars, but also in the province of Reggio Calabria, it is a mixture to base of peels of cedar, aromatic grasses, sugar and alcohol. It is a liqueur of yellow colour from the reflexes greenish, aromatic and sweet, medium alcoholic, from the strong taste of citrus fruit. The barks of cedar, deprived of the white part, they are mails in infusion in the alcohol.

You prepares a syrup of water and sugar that, once cooled, the alcohol and the peels of cedar it is added to. You leaves in infusion for some days, so that the alcohol and the aromas of the cedar are well amalgamate, he allows to rest the liqueur for at least five months. It has a gastronomic use from dessert as digestive, to use for the preparation of you granulate and on the ice cream. The liqueur of wild fennel to be consumed after two months from the preparation with wild fennel of Calabria, alcohol and syrup of sugar, has a sweet taste and a green colour. For the ancient and pleasant soft drinks produced in Calabria with methods and from traditional recipes the soda to the lemon it has a simple preparation, it is composed from water, sugar, assembled of lemon and carbonic anhydride. It has a taste semicake to the lemon, slightly fizzy, smell of lemon, white colour. The soda to the coffee is to base of water, sugar, caramel, assembled of coffee, carbonic anhydride, from the taste semicake to the coffee, slightly fizzy, smell of coffee and dark brown colour.

SWEET and PIQUANT

Calabrian typical cakes

The bread of Spain of Dipignano it is a tall and soft dessert, yet among the ingredients there is not the yeast. They use 10 eggs, 300 flour grams and 350 sugar. They amalgamate the yolks climbed on with the sugar to the flour, then the egg whites are added beaten to snow, it pours I mix him in a baking-pan to tall edges and it is cooked for about two hours in firewood oven. The correct temperature is that that is found after having cooked the pizza and, after the pizza, the bread. The dessert that is gotten it is tall, it can be round or rectangular and it is appreciated as it is stuffed or of cream. Other Calabrian tastes to be tasted are the bread to: honey of Cerzeto, bread of rye of Canolo, bread of Cutro, bread with sardella of Spezzano della Sila, integral cutters, frise to the chilli , pizza to the reggina (pitta a riggitana), pizzi ccu niebiti, pizziccul’ova, tarallini to the chilli, canapés of sanguinaccio (tratini i sanguinacciu), ‘nzullini, bucconotto, buffeddi, chinulille, cuzzupe, ginetti, morticeddhi (you yield to the martorana), pitta di San Martino, pitta ‘mpigliata of San Giovanni in Fiore, scalille, sospiri di monaca, susumelle, tarallini to the seeds of anise, zeppole (zippuli di San Giuseppe). The Calabrian bread of chestnuts, prepared with wheat’s flour for two bystanders

and of chestnuts for the other, raised naturally and cooked in the firewood oven, round form or to filoncino, it generally weighs from half kilo to the kilo and it is excellent with the local cheeses. To Soriano Calabro are to appreciate the tastes and the forms of the artistic mostaccioli. They are base flour sweets and honey of bees. It is not possible to resist to these fragrant biscuits from the floral forms that make them similar to curious high-reliefs inspired by pagan motives as the babbaluti or Christians. To Gioiosa Jonica we can taste the pezzo duro, a refined ice cream, and for the demanding palates the ice-cream shop of Pizzo, on the square of the castle Murat, offer the traditional tartufo of Pizzo the famous handicraft ice cream.

Covered by a veil of white or black chocolate, in the ice cream it finds place a heart of fused chocolate. The teachers ice-cream vendor of Pizzo are jealously handed down the recipe of the hypocrite. To also try to Pizzo the stuffed filbert and the other variations produced by a ice-cream shop that she wants to affirm all over the world him. Confectionery Calabria is also famous for the delicious varieties of the sweets to the bergamot of Reggio Calabria and for the nougat, particularly that of Bagnara Calabra, where since the first years of the eight hundred

Torroncini of Bagnara

Calabrian typical cakes

different artisan teachers operate. The appreciated torroncini of the town of the Costa Viola are today still worked with ancient invoice.

The nougat of Bagnara has been deďŹ ned by important specialized magazines the king of the nougats. For his preparation select ďŹ rst subjects and ancient recipes are used, you hand down according to the tradition of the confectionery art reggina. The ingredients base of the nougat they are the almonds and the honey, of which Calabria is rich. With a cooking to steam cooker for about six-seven hours, the toasted almonds are united to the egg white and the honey that it is not only a sweetener, but it communicate the so many particular tastes drawn by the essences on which the bees are placed. To completed cooking I mix him it is spread out with the rolling-pin and allowed to cool. Cut to barrette, the nougat is covered, for immersion, from white and spicy chocolate to the orange, to the cedar, to the bergamot.

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