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Sunday Scribbligs: Ode to the Peperoncino
Prompt #63: Spicy
Spicy means one thing here in the toe of Italy’s boot, and that’s the beloved peperoncino, literally “little pepper” in Italian. Yes, Calabrian peppers aka Calabrian chiles.
What is a Calabrian pepper?
It’s the chile pepper, the heat, the heart of Calabrian cuisine, and a group of them are thrown on the table with just about every meal.
To say that dedication to the peperoncino borders on obsession is not an exaggeration; I know men who carry peperoncini in their pockets to restaurants in case the provided Calabria peppers aren’t appropriately piccanti.
No joke amici. Don’t mess with the pep’.
Here in my house, we have a steady supply of fresh peperoncini through the summer from our own plants, but for when they’re out of season, it’s also popular to keep them under oil:
Yum!
Although we all love hot peppers down here, there’s one particular village in Calabria closely associated with the pods that pack a punch: Diamante, in the province of Cosenza, home of the annual Festival del Peperoncino held by the Accademia Italiana del Peperoncino.
I’ve never been (fellow blogger Judy has and there’s another great report here), but apparently everyone in Diamante gets involved with peperoncino-inspired jewelry being a big seller (good to keep away the malocchio you know).
Admission is free, and you can visit over 100 stands set up along the gorgeous lungomare along the Tyrrhennian Sea. Foods range from a cornetto al peperoncino (pastry filled with a peppery cream) to tartufo piccante (ice cream with bits of peperoncini), and there’s even a pepper eating contest, “Campionato italiano mangiatori di peperoncini,” for the competitive types.
Back here at the home office, you’ll see peperoncino in many of my What’s Cooking Wednesday recipes, but even if you don’t like spicy food, here’s a tip: just a little bit of the stuff brings out the flavor of just about anything without adding heat.
Don’t be afraid!
Also, if your mouth is burning from too much hotness, eat a piece of bread or something dairy-like instead of reaching for water. The heat in hot peppers is really an oil; water moves around the burning sensation but it doesn’t counteract it.
If you’ll be dealing with a large number of peppers, use disposable gloves. The oils of the peppers are very good at working their way into your pores and can be quite difficult to just wash away–bleach and water, salted water, or toothpaste, believe it or not, are your best bets.
Please be especially careful if you wear contact lenses.
Trust me. I’ve learned this the hard way.
Any more questions? Fire away! Ha!
Where to Eat Out in Calabria
A little while ago (what are a few weeks among friends?) I was tagged by Karla and Irene, and it goes a little something like this:
1. Link to the name of the person who tagged you.
2. Include the state and country you’re in.
3. List your top 5 favorite places to eat at your location (locally).
4. Tag 5 other people (preferably from other countries/states) and let them know they’ve been tagged.
We don’t eat out very often, but I have managed to come up with five places that have all the courses covered here in my corner of Calabria, Italy (that’s sort of like a state, right?).
Provinces are in parentheses after town names.
Oh, and I’ll end the suspense here and say I won’t be tagging anyone–however feel free to store this idea away for days when you have nothing else to say. Is that why I’m choosing this lazy Friday to finally post this?
I’ll never tell.
So here are five of the best places to mangia mangia! in bella Calabria (other than my house, of course):
1. Diavolo Rosso, Badolato Superiore (CZ)
Run by one of P’s very bestest friends, Mimmo, Diavolo Rosso is our pizzeria, our Saturday night place, our home away from home if you will. My favorite pizzas are the tonno e cipolle (tuna and onions) and the prosciutto crudo, grana padano, and rucola. Yum!
In the summer, you need to reserve a table ahead of time if you want to eat outside on the terrace, and believe me you do.
And if you’re really lucky, Mimmo will break out his guitar and sing traditional Calabrese folk music from his band Marasa‘s CD.
2. Excalibur, Santa Caterina Marina (CZ)
Excellent seafood year round, but especially in the summer when if you don’t get there early enough in the evening, you may be stuck ordering the (also delicious) veal. Poor thing. Great outdoor seating as well.
3. Soverato Dolci, Soverato (CZ)
Makes the best pastries I’ve had since I’ve been here–and yes, I have been to Sicily. They also do a really nice aperitivo so long as you order at least one alcoholic drink among your group. Not usually a problem in my groups.
4. Golosia, Gioiosa Ionica Marina (RC)
Homemade gelato in an impressive, creative collection of flavors. Hands down the best gelato I’ve had here, although the tartufo from Pizzo (VV) ain’t half bad either. Someday, Sara, I’ll get there with a camera in hand to join the Tour del Gelato, I swear!
5. Le Terrazze, Copanello-Stalettì (CZ)
The first and only time I’ve eaten here was last week as part of the 2-day conference I had to attend. We had a six or seven or was it eight course meal (can’t remember I was so stuffed), and every single thing was fabulous. It was fish-themed (seafood salad, risotto with shrimp, swordfish, grilled prawns, and much more); perhaps some photos of the place will give a clue why:
So, yeah, even if the food sucked, this place probably still would’ve made my list. The views are just unreal. We happened to be there on the night of the full moon, and that was amazing to see over the sea–didn’t get a great photo though because of the glare, so you’ll have to take my word for it.
Buon appetito!
love thursday: cherry pickin’ in three parts
I.
II.
I saw something on the news recently about it being a difficult year for the cherry crop here in Italy. In fact, I haven’t seen many around for sale and the ones I have seen have been quite expensive, but when I do come across an affordable bunch, I know just what I’ll do…cherry muffins, courtesy of KC at Niente di nuovo avviene sotto il sole! Yum!
Even if you won’t be baking anytime soon, be sure to head on over and check out the photo–adorable and awfully Love Thursday-themed too.
III.
I have to give a shout out to my favorite Cherrye over at My Bella Vita. She wrote a tear-jerker (at least to me) of a post about me not too long ago, and I have to say that the warm fuzzy friendship feeling is mutual.
I never would’ve imagined that I’d find such a kindred spirit here in the middle of nowhere bella Calabria. You can read about our first in-person meeting here, and trust me, the fun has only continued since then.
Next up in the adventures will probably be our first shopping trip insieme. I tend to require moral support while clothes’ shopping, especially around here, so it’ll be great to have a buddy.
And hopefully we won’t need anything stronger than a cappuccino from the new coffee machine to recover.
Although Love Thursday as an organized event is no more, I will continue to record the love that truly is all around, perhaps not every week, but as often as I need to.If anyone else is still participating, please feel free to leave a link to your post here so we can all share the love.
Happy Love Thursday everyone!
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[tags]love thursday, cherries, friendship, cherry muffins[/tags]
what’s cooking wednesday: turkey with sauteed peppers & onions
Before we get to this week’s What’s Cooking Wednesday, a little background.
I think I’ve mentioned this before, but for Thanksgiving last year, P got three turkeys to raise ourselves so we’d be assured of a good bird come Turkey Day. For those who don’t know, turkey isn’t commonly found in Italian butchershops, and although it can be specially ordered, you often end up with a truly enormous bird (just ask Cyndi if you don’t believe me).
Well just before that fateful Thursday, a fox got in and snatched one of our birds. So with only a female and male left, we let them be and ate chicken instead. Then another turkey was snatched, and P just let the other one get all big and meaty, figuring we might as well get our euros’ worth once slaughter time came.
So a couple months ago, when P got around to killing and cleaning our last surviving turkey, he put half of its enormous breast (this was a truly huge turkey, probably 25-30 pounds or 11-14 kilos) in the freezer. Now I’m sure many of you know that this means that once that section was defrosted, I’d have to cook all of it off within a day or so.
So I grilled some, made some turkey cutlets, and then I played around with a new recipe that I invented because I had a craving for peppers.
I put the experiment on the table.
P tried it.
He didn’t say anything.
He didn’t so much as make a face one way or the other.
I thought he’d be great at poker, and then I got nervous.
Me: “Dimmi qualcosa!” (Tell me something!)
P: “Chista è sua morte.”
Literally translated, this is dialect for “This is his death,” but what it means is that this is the way that turkey should be cooked–that it was delicious.
Phew!
As for our turkey fest, I told P it was just like having Thanksgiving in June…3 days of eating turkey! Woohoo!
Turkey with Sauteed Peppers & Onions
900 g (2 lbs) turkey cut into chunks
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon salt
a few sprigs rosemary
2 tablespoons olive oil2 large green peppers, cut into strips
2 medium onions, sliced
1/2 teaspoon salt
olive oil as necessary
Coat pieces of turkey in garlic powder and salt, sprinkling rosemary about. I let this sit for a few minutes while I cut the peppers and onions, and it worked well.
Now heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a pan (medium heat) and add turkey. Be sure to cook on all sides until no longer pink, then remove turkey from pan (leaving most of the oil/juice) and set aside. Cover to keep warm.
Add peppers to the pan and cook until just tender, about five minutes, and then add onions and cook until they are both the consistency you prefer. Add salt and more olive oil to pan as needed (if you find that peppers and onions are sticking, for instance, add some oil). Note that you’ll need to stir these quite a bit while they’re cooking.
Finally add in the cooked turkey and let the flavors mingle together for a few minutes.
I recommend serving hot and with crusty bread. I’d normally say this serves four, but it really only served us two.
Even poverina Luna was left out of the fun.
Buon appetito!
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[tags]turkey, turkey with peppers and onions, cooking, recipes, what’s cooking wednesday, peppers, onions[/tags]
I am Charlotte Simmons by Thomas Wolfe
I started. And stopped. And repeated that pattern since December until yesterday when I was so happy to close that 700-plus page tome once and for all.
Read on...
Michelle Kaminsky is an American attorney-turned-freelance writer who lived in her family's ancestral village in Calabria, Italy for 15 years. This blog is now archived.
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