1,000 Foods To Eat Before You Die: A Food Lover's Life List (44 page)

When served as a vegetable side dish, the broccoli di rapa is first blanched, which reduces its bitterness somewhat and also its water. Drained and chopped, it is sautéed in garlic-flavored olive oil just before being brought to the table. (Leftovers can be enjoyed at room temperature as a side dish or as part of an antipasto.)

In the southern Adriatic region of Apulia, where the combination of pasta with vegetables is especially popular, sautéed broccoli di rapa—with or without crumbles of pork sausage—is tossed through the region’s favorite pasta, the orecchiette or little ears. No cheese, please, but feel free to add lots of black pepper, peperoncini, or both.

Further information and recipes:
Flavors of Puglia
by Nancy Harmon Jenkins (1997);
cookstr.com
(search broccoli rabe and sausage bastianich; sautéed broccoli di rapa marchetto; orecchiette with rapini).

A long the Mediterranean coast of Italy, a hearty fish soup is called
zuppa di pesce.
Travel east to the edge of the Adriatic, to the provinces of Marche and Abruzzo, and
zuppa
becomes
brodetto
—each variation subject to intense competition from town to town. In one place, exactly thirteen kinds of fish may be required; in another, ten or fourteen. Some versions include shellfish but not mollusks, and may use hot fresh or dried peppers, while in others only saffron or vinegar will do. The soup may be portioned out of a tureen or prepared as individual servings.

The gold standard is
brodetto Vastese
, credited to the lively clifftop town of Vasto, which overlooks its own
spiaggia
, or beach, and the clear, blue Adriatic. Almost every
ristorante
and trattoria in the region boasts a brodetto Vastese, but for the cognoscenti, all roads lead to the tiny Abruzzi village of Rocca San Giovanni and its Ristorante Il Cavaluccio, the seahorse. This big
resortlike restaurant, with outdoor tables and a family-friendly beach in summer, sits at the edge of the sea, where its own nets and traps are fished out before every meal. (Actual seahorses are perhaps the only denizens of the deep not on its menu.)

Each portion of its legendary brodetto is individually prepared in a terra-cotta
tiello
, much like a pie pan in shape, and filled with rows of fish from roseate
triglie
(red mullet) to silvery
merluzzo
, or cod, plus local pink crustaceans and stony mussels and clams. A tomato broth is fired with incendiary dried red peppers and milder fresh green ones, all still at the boil when served, so that the fish seem to be jumping to escape. They’d best give up, as no one who tastes this supple blend of seafood, spices, garlic, and sprightly parsley would ever stop while there was a single morsel left, nor before every drop of the aromatic broth had been sopped up with coarse, yeasty bread.

Where:
In Rocca San Giovanni
, Il Cavalluccio, tel 39/087-260-196,
lidocavalluccio.it
;
in New York
, Marea, tel 212-582-5100,
mareanyc.com
.
Further information and recipes:
Italian Regional Cooking
by Ada Boni (1994);
foodnetwork.com
(search brodetto fish soup).
Special event:
Festival Internazionale del Brodetto e delle Zuppa de Pesce, Fano, Italy, September,
festivalbrodetto.it
.

If you visit Lucca without eating buccellato, you’ll miss out.

Rich and fragrant, satisfying yet light, the anise-flavored sweet bread
buccellato
has been a specialty of the Tuscan town of Lucca since almost Roman times—its exquisite balance no doubt the result of years of cumulative practice in an ancient town that is the proud birthplace of Giacomo Puccini and home to the elegant San Michele in Foro church, built between 1100 and 1300.

Lucca’s bakers, particularly those at the Pasticceria Taddeucci, family owned and operated since 1881, have had plenty of time to get the formula straight. The long, narrow shop sells all manner of traditional Italian sweets and drinks, including bracing espresso and fennel-scented biscotti, along with its excellent loaves (
filoni
) and rings (
ciambelle
) of buccellato Lucchese. The bread itself is chewy, with a texture reminiscent of coffee cake, and perfumed heavily with yeast and anise. Its venerable recipe derives from
buccellatum
, the bread of the Roman legions who took over the formerly Etruscan region in 180
B.C.
(It’s been sweetened since those days.)

Classic buccellato is made with only flour, sugar, anise, egg, and yeast, but variations have sprung up;
treccia
, also on offer at Taddeucci, includes gratings of chocolate, raisins, bitter orange peel, and candied fruit. At the little tables outside overlooking the piazza, visitors can enjoy either one with their espresso. The rings, traditionally baked on feast days and holidays, keep well for several days and thus make great gifts—assuming you don’t devour them on the plane home. In Italy they are typically purchased by grandparents in honor of their grandchildren’s religious confirmations. As an extra reward, leftover slices make delicious French toast.

Where:
In Lucca
, Pasticceria Taddeucci, tel 39/0583-494-933;
in New York
, Pasticceria Bruno, tel 212-982-5854,
pasticceriabruno.com
.
Further information and recipes:
The Italian Country Table
by Lynne Rossetto Kasper (1999);
italianfood.about.com
(search buccellato di lucca).

Peaches and prosciutto accent the cheese.

The ultimate in creamy luxury, fresh burrata cheese is a specialty of the southern Adriatic province of Apulia. It is a fragile, fleeting pleasure best consumed within about twelve hours of its handcrafting, and therefore preferably on home ground. (Many cheesemakers, however, will tell you that, refrigerated and uncut, it can last up to two weeks.)

Suggesting a plump pouch of mozzarella made of Italy’s richest milk,
fior di latte
, or with buffalo milk, and filled with pure, heavy sweet cream, burrata oozes with a satiny richness that puts whipped cream to shame. Wrapped in wild asphodel leaves that impart a subtly green flavor, it is the essence of springtime.

Although burrata is made in various towns of Apulia (including Foggia, Martina Franca, and Torremaggiore) and beyond, in the province of Basilicata, the benchmark product comes from Andría, halfway between Bari and the legendary tenth-century octagonal castle of Federico I. But because not even air travel brings the imported cheese to grocers’ shelves soon enough to satisfy the dictates of its consumption, if you cannot sample it in Italy, opting for a local domestic variety is your best bet. Either way, it makes for a delicious dessert when served with ripe peaches, white muscat grapes, or wild strawberries; or a sublime antipasto when plated with olives, prosciutto, and crusty bread or handmade breadsticks.

Where:
In New York and Chicago
, Eataly,
eataly.com
;
in El Monte, CA
, Gioia Cheese Co., tel 626-444-6015,
gioiacheeseinc.com
.
Further information:
Cheese Primer
by Steven Jenkins (1996);
Flavors of Puglia
by Nancy Harmon Jenkins (1997);
thenibble.com
(search burrata cheese).

Probably the most widely known and beloved of all Italian pastries is the cannoli, whose name means “pipes.” The pipes in question, crisply fried pastry tubes, come with a heavenly filling of sweetened ricotta cheese that is scented with rosewater and perhaps a whiff of cinnamon (sometimes in the form of cinnamon oil, to avoid the dusty flecks). Depending upon the pastry chef, the filling may be enlivened with crunchy chocolate bits and/or candied fruits and toasted pignoli nuts, or the open creamy ends dipped into bright green chopped pistachios for a modern touch of eye-grabbing color—that last being overkill for some.

For cannolis to be at their best, the crisp shells should be filled just before they are served, or not long before they leave the
pasticceria.
Pre-filled cannoli left standing around on shelves are inclined to become soggy, thereby losing one of the main appeals: the textural contrast of the crackling shells against the cool and silky softness of the filling. At some of the most impeccable Italian bakeries, the shells are sold empty and a container of the filling is provided. (A pastry tube comes in handy.)

In this time of gastronomic excess, chocolate-dipped cannoli shells filled with ricotta flavored in all manner of ways are not uncommon. Such embellishments are to be avoided, as all they do is override the pastry’s innate subtlety.

Where:
In Rome
, La Cannoleria Siciliana, tel 39/06-6880-6874,
lacannoleriasiciliana.it
;
in New York
, Veniero’s, tel 212-674-7070,
venierospastry.com
;
in Boston
, Mike’s Pastry Shop, tel 617-742-3050,
mikespastry.com
;
in New Orleans
, Angelo Brocato, tel 504-486-1465,
angelobrocatoicecream.com
;
in San Francisco
, Stella Pastry Café, tel 415-986-2914,
stellapastry.com
.
Further information and recipes:
Pomp and Sustenance: Twenty-Five Centuries of Sicilian Food
by Mary Taylor Simeti (1989);
epicurious.com
(search sicilian cannoli).
Special event:
Annual Cannoli Eating Competition, San Gennaro Festival, New York, September,
sangennaro.org
.

Taking its name from the salt-cured capers—
capperi
—that are its main ingredient, caponata is a silky vegetable salad with plenty of bite. The zesty Sicilian relish owes its sunshiny richness to an all-Mediterranean blend of eggplants, celery, olives, tomatoes, onions, those capers, and drizzlings of good red wine vinegar and olive oil, with a pinch of sugar to smooth things out; but its many recipes and variations
sometimes call for artichoke bottoms, peppers, and anchovies as well. Italian scholars guess that the dish likely came to Sicily via the Spanish Catalonians; they have a similar cold vegetable salad called
caponada
, from the Spanish word for capers,
alcaparras.

Served at room temperature, and especially restorative on a summer day, caponata is delicious as a topping for
crostini
(see
listing
) or bruschetta, a filling for crisp celery stalks, or spooned onto cucumber slices or hard-cooked eggs. Though traditionally an antipasto, the spread can also be warmed slightly and tossed into short pasta such as rigatoni, ziti, or penne. (Cheese would be unnecessary, but chopped parsley adds a fresh kick.)

In a fastidious Sicilian kitchen, its preparation can be a leisurely affair. First, unpeeled, cut eggplants are lightly steamed and then fried. Celery is sautéed until just al dente so as not to become mushy. Tomatoes are simmered separately as well. Salt-dried capers are thoroughly rinsed and chopped. Once mixed, the caponata is often refrigerated for up to twenty-four hours to develop a rich, ripe flavor. Then, the mix must warm to room temperature. It’s a taste of summer that’s ripe for the picking—but not without a little bit of finessing.

Where:
In New York and Chicago
, Eataly,
eataly.com
.
Further information and recipes:
Coming Home to Sicily: Seasonal Harvests and Cooking from Casa Vecchie
by Fabrizia Lanza and Kate Winslow (2012);
Pomp and Sustenance: Twenty-Five Centuries of Sicilian Food
by Mary Taylor Simeti (1989);
epicurious.com
(search classic caponata);
saveur.com
(search eggplant caponata).
See also:
Aubergine en Caton
.