Little Straw Hats

Cappellacci di Zucca

It's Italy.  It is amazing that I have written 42 blog posts and not done one about pasta.  Let's remedy that right now!  Northern Italy loves to stuff pasta.  I was first exposed to the beauty of stuffed pasta many years ago by one of America's most famous Italian chefs, Chef Boyardee.  My, his ravioli were such a culinary complexity following spagetti-os. Who knew it could get even better?

There are loads of stuffed pastas in this region.  Some of the more readily found contain spinach and ricotto, prosciutto (parma ham) and cheese, but by far the most popular here in Ferrara is the Cappellacci di Zucca.  Cappellacci refers to the shape of the pasta.  It means "little hats".  Di Zucca refers to the filling "of pumpkin".  I know I have only written one other food blog and it was also about pumpkin...I am loyal if not terribly diverse. 

This pasta is part of the ancient and popular culinary tradition of our town of Ferrara.  Amazingly, there is record of this recipe dating back to 1584!  It didn't have the clever "hat" name back then (that took a couple extra centuries). 

If you are going to stuff pasta, you need some pasta to stuff.  So, let's get on it!

The recipe is not terribly complex.

One egg for every 100 grams of flour.  That's it!

For this demonstration, we used 400g of flour and 4 eggs.

On a solid surface, make a bowl with your flour and crack in your eggs.

Start working the eggs into the flour

until you are able to knead it.  If it is too sticky, you can add a bit more flour.

After your dough has been kneaded into a fabulous ball, cover it with a tea towel and let it rest for a while.  For reference, this is a lunch or salad sized plate, not a dinner dish.

While the pasta is resting, let's work on the filling!  The base is pumpkin.  Maestra's Mom cooked this pumpkin down for us.  She split the pumpkin and baked it in the oven.  To get the pumpkin to this point, you can also peel and dice the pumpkin and cook it over a low flame on the stove top.

Here's where the special happens:

Add three-ish teaspoons of sugar, one teaspoon of salt, and one grated nutmeg nut

Grate and add 300 grams of parmasean...or more

There seems to be some heated culinary debate over the addition of amaretto cookies.  It seems that one is either way for them or way against.  Maestra is a fan, but her sister who stopped by, is not.  We ended up adding three of these quarter sized cookies crushed to powder. 

 

The completed filling.

So the pasta has had a chance to rest and is ready to be rolled

Divide the pasta into workable sized sections.

We made a 4 egg batch and Maestra has chosen to divide the dough into four sections.

The pasta is getting worked!  Start with the setting rather thick and run the dough through several times.  If it is sticky, dust it with a bit more flour.  It will get worked in with the passes through the pasta roller.  Reduce the setting on the roller until your pasta is thin enough for cappellacci.

It is now past 11.  It's PROSECCO TIME!

 

Prosecco, there's happy in every bottle!

So how do you know when your pasta is thin enough?

The pasta on the left is still a bit thick.  The strip on the right is ready and has had the rough edges trimmed.

The rolled pasta needs to be cut into roughly two inch squares

Here is the life-cycle of rolling a cappalaci.

Put a slight teaspoon of filling in the center

Fold, then seal the pasta around the outside edges by pressing firmly with your fingertips

Pinch the ends

like so

Twist and pinch!

Voila!

Lather, rinse, repeat a few gagillion more times...

These have been placed on a screened board to dry a bit before cooking

To cook:

Bring a big old pot of water to a boil.

Toss in a reasonable amount of pasta (don't want to totally cowd those hats)

And a handful of sale grosso (big salt)

Return to a boil for at least three minutes

What sort of sauce you serve your cappellacci di zucca in is totally up to your taste.  Traditionally, they are served with butter and fresh sage.  They are also very often served with ragu.  One of my favorite restuarants serves them with a butter and orange sauce.  Another family favorite restuarant serves them in a brandy cream sauce with walnuts.  Each one, amazingly, is delish!

The butter and sage

Straight from the pot into the sauce

And onto the plate

Top with a bit more grated parmasean...

Ivy is having hers with ragu while Girl Crush remarked these are the best cappellacci she had ever tasted.

Maestra enjoys the fruits of her labor while I polish off the prosecco!

Delizioso!

Special great big thanks to Maestra for the fantastic cooking lesson as well as her Mum and Sister for helping us along.  And of course, to amazing friends that make everything a joy.

Right in your back yard

This is the view from my bedroom window.

Monastero Del Corpus Domini, Ferrara Italy

It is a monastery (Monastero Del Corpus Domini) and attached to it is a nunnery.  My kitchen window looks directly into the compound’s library.  Sometimes, cooking dinner, I catch glimpses of their life inside.  Reading in full habit, or hanging wash in the garden.  Not so different from my life in so many ways and completely different in others.  Regardless, my neighbors always make me grin.

This picture shows the entirety of the commute to one of Ferrara’s top thirty things to see.

 

The ceiling of the nave has a fresco of the Glory of St. Catherine Vegri, Joseph Ghedini (1770-1773).

I wasn’t allowed to take pictures in the crypt.  Which, I must say, sounds like a place I would rather take wooden stakes and garlic rather than a camera any way.  In all honesty, it looked like a religious meeting hall where kids would hold their eighth grade formal or leadership would discuss the working of the institution…you know, except for the graves. 

So it’s time to get my history dork on:  Here in Ferrara, the Estes family were the noble family until Ferrara became papal state and the Estes family took their toys (okay, mainly their art) and moved to Modena where you can still see the collection of works they pilfered from this fine town.  There’s a whole museum stuffed full of it.   So why am I boring you with this?  Well, because the graves belong mainly to Este family members who were found buried in unmarked graves, no coffins on the other side of town.  Mainly from the Este family: Eleanor of Aragon, Alfonso, Lucrezia Borgia, Lucrezia de 'Medici, Alfonso II and others.  Also, St. Catherine is  preserved here.  I think.  Or she stayed here.  My Italian is not so great, but the nun telling me all this was really sweet.

The public church was decorated in late Baroque era. On the main altar is the altarpiece of the Communion of the Apostles of Giambettino Cignaroli (1768)

This is the charming portal to this special place.  From here, I turned and took this picture:

Our House!

Our Back Yard

We have made it to fifteen of the twenty regions of Italy.  We have hit the double digits in European and Middle Eastern countries we have visited since arriving in Italy, but it took us this long to explore what was right in our back yard.

Riso di Zucca

Last week I could get away with sundreses! 

This week...it's time for hearty warm food.

I love autumn.  Getting dressed in the cooler temps is so much fun.  Layering jackets and bringing out the tights gets me excited to get out of my warm bed in the morning.  It’s more fun to go running when the air is crisp and being in the kitchen is sublime.  Soups and chilies are naturals when the temps drop, but since moving here I have to add risottos to the short list.  Full of fall veggies, warm and hearty, they make my tummy happy.  Risotto can be made with just about anything, but here in Ferarra they are particularly fond of pumpkins and all I can say about that is, “yum”.   

Even though I had eaten my share of risotto prior to my arrival, I had no idea how to make it for myself.  Turns out, it isn’t that hard.  Yes, it takes some time, but being in the warmth of the stove with all those delicious scents sort of makes it not suck. 

Normally a risotto here is considered a first course.  I still serve my meals American style so I make it either as an entrée or a side.  Either way…does not suck. 

I present my first cooking blog entry:

Poor a hearty glass of wine – you know for the anti-oxidants and heart health and all.

Here's what you'll need...other than more wine

An onion – diced

Risotto rice

Olive oil

A pumpkin - skinned and diced

Bouillon cubes or chicken broth

Pepper

Grated parmesan

Getting started:

Sauté the diced onion in some olive oil.  I don’t know how much oil I use…let’s say two tablespoons shall we?

Toss in the diced pumpkin.

When I buy pumpkin, I either get one of these green guys like in the ingredient photo or I get one of the monsters that look like butternut squash.

Pumpkins from a local farmer

Cover with water and let the pumpkin cook down stirring it occasionally.  I found it goes quicker if you add a bit more water and let it boil down.  Impatient perhaps, but effective.  You want to cook it until it looks like baby food.  This can all be done way ahead of time and refrigerated then popped back on the stove later.

So not Italian, but I add my bouillon at this point.  I use a veggie variety from the grocery store here, but whatever floats your boat.  If you prefer chicken broth, don’t add bouillon, skip this and add the broth instead of water later.

Grind in some pepper and refill your glass.

Toss in one hand full of risotto rice per serving and one for the pot.  Eight is a good bet for a full pumpkin like this one.

Add water (or chicken broth if you went that way) a bit at a time while stirring for about 20 minutes.  Luck for you, you only need one hand to stir, leaving the other free for your wine glass.  Perfect.  Also, haveing friends in the kitchen with you has been known to contribute to time warp.  After twenty ish minutes, taste to make sure the rice is tender.  If so – SWEET!  If it is a bit crunchy yet, top off your glass and keep stirring. 

Top with a bit of grated parmesan and ENJOY!  Or don’t – I don’t want to tell you how to live your life.