Italy's move towards making simple foods divine has a name - La Cucina Povera - 'poor cuisine'.
Whether it's the cuisine 'of the poor' or a 'poor cuisine', non centra, it doesn't matter, because the country's deep love of good food steps up for the most basic of ingredients, whatever the dish.
The frugal use of as much as you can of every ingredient means bread is never thrown away for example, in Tuscany. There are a few favourite dishes which have become part of Tuscan food culture celebrating the humblest of ingredients, one of them being stale bread, something we'd bin in the blink of an eye, yet here, they would never.
Hard times often call for resourcefulness simply to stay warm, stay healthy or feed your family. When farmers were once forced through necessity to become inventive in their cooking and food storage, a plethora of Tuscan recipes emerged which have now become favourites in the region's list of classic plates. They're not as fashionable in Tuscany as they may be internationally, that's because in central Italy, and in fact throughout all of Italy, cucina povera is simply a title for a certain style of cooking that encourages us to use of all parts of the plant or of the pig, or of the loaf of bread. Something we might aspire to in our current climate of kitchen waste.
Bread, legumes, polenta and pasta can masterfully be fashioned into flavourful, wholesome food reliant on fragrant olive oil, vegetables from the garden and herbs to create memorable meals capable of filling an entire family's tummies while hardly spending any money at all. The trick is being inventive and knowing how to store your supplies.
Tuscany is often mentioned first when talking 'Cucina Povera' but many regions of Italy celebrate this style of cooking. Puglia, for example, as an area away from from industry and commerce, showcases local produce like fava beans and the region of Campania around Naples relies on its juicy San Marzano tomatoes and salty anchovies to bring simple dishes to life.
Cucina povera dishes you can find in our recipe book Appetito:
The humble Paccheri allo Scarpariello gets its name from the shoe-makers once working in the busy city of Naples. The story goes they'd repair their customers' shoes (scarpe) for cuts of meat, garden produce or pieces of cheese and fashion a dish from these ingredients. The flat, wide pasta tubes called Paccheri are a southern pasta shape that have earned themselves a certain status through the perfection of the 'Paccheri Slap' at the Cerea brothers' Michelin Starred Restaurant Da Vittorio in Bergamo. Read all about the 'Paccheri Slap!' in our blog post about this quirky institution.
The simple Napolitan Paccheri allo Scarpariello takes deliciously ripe local tomatoes, fragrant garlic and handfuls of basil leaves, mixing grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese with acqua della cottura (pasta cooking water) for a creamy, silky sauce which the paccheri finish cooking in. The result is a mouth-watering plate of pasta that gets its creaminess from a masterful emulsion made by vigorously stirring in the cheese, just like the 'mantecatura' of risotto. One forkful transports you to the bustling streets of Naples where bold flavours reign supreme.
Orecchiette con Cime di Rapa is to Puglia what Carbonara is to Rome. There's no pasta dish more regionally pugliese than this one and it's so satisfying in taste, comfort and character that you'll find it hard not to place in your favourite pastas of all time. Cime di Rapa translates as 'tops of the turnips' but it's easier to think of these as sprouting broccoli or broccoli rabe. When farmers would sell their produce, the broccoli tips were always less prized and left behind. Just as tasty as the flowery heads, the small leaves and florets would be picked out and kept for this particular dish to be made at home. Sauteed in garlic and anchovies using the bold, fragrant olive oil of the land, these broccoli tips quickly become a local delicacy. Toss them into cooked orecchiette and there you have it!
Cheese was a luxury in Puglia when times were hard so as wonderful as a sprinkling of aged Pecorino may sound, in Puglia a sprinkling of bread crumbs is what happens. Not just any breadcrumbs though... these are toasted in garlic in olive oil for flavour and extra crunch.
Like Tuscany's iconic panzanella salad fashioned from stale bread, tomatoes and cucumbers, north Italy's Canederli uses stale bread as the main ingredient. Essentially a bread dumpling, the Alpine canerderlo takes what's available locally to bring the flavour. Speck is a north Italian cured meat used in small chunks for a salty, smoky taste or wild herbs or cheeses can be chopped into the mixture, or even foraged porcini. The canederlo is then boiled in broth and brought to the table in melted butter or a bowl of more broth. It's a wonderfully warming food we look forward to when heading north into the Dolomites or to typically Tyrolean cities like Bolzano.
Crema di Fave con Cicoria takes what we'd consider a garden weed to wholesome foodie heights in another dish from Puglia. The chicory plant is such a contender in the Italian fruits and vegetable market that it takes up most of the salad section in various shapes and forms. Purple variegated radicchio heads or long, curly stemmed Radicchio di Treviso fronds as well as the 2 foot long thick bunches of stems and pointy leafed catalogna are all chicory sisters and the bulbous white bunches called puntarelle. You'll find pale green heads of salad, frilly endives and tight purple chicories that we can cook or eat raw, depending on the recipe. This one uses dandelions.
Pick the youngest leaves from your garden or a field, wash well, steam and fry in garlic for a bitter condiment to the creamy fava bean. Drizzle extra virgin olive oil and if you like, add a little dried chilli. As my go-to winter lunch, I mix up the greens with cavolo nero or fennel bulb to bring a warm smile to a grey day every time.
Find these recipes with a collection of family favourites and regional specialities from all four corners of Italy in our beautiful cookery book Appetito available to pre-order now.
Buona cucina!
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