Traditional Sourdough Pork Fat Bread: the "Coppia Ferrarese"

Do you want to immerse yourself in a recipe that is in use by almost 8 centuries?

It's in "Statuti of Ferrara", written in 1287, that you can find the first mention of the "Coppia Ferrarese" (in dialect "ciopa" or "ciupeta") and is also the first traditional food, not casually bread, that we encounter in our journey through the "Bassa" (flatlands).

Its double-horns shape and characteristic aroma, due to the use of pork fat, are imitated everywhere but only in the flatlands between Bologna and Ferrara you can still find bakeries that produce a "coppia" that remains crunchy after a few days and does not become quickly dry and practically inedible.

Since 2004 this type of bread has been recognized with a PGI regime (protected geographical indication) to protect its originality and its ties with the territory.

But we can try to bake this bread also at home.










Ingredients
- for about 2½ lb. of bread
10 cups all purpose flour
7 oz. natural yeast
3½ oz. pork fat
4 teaspoons of salt
1 tablespoon brewer's yeast
1½ cup water
- for about 4½ lb. of natural yeast
20 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon red vinegar
6 cups of water

Preparation
Prepare the yeast first as it takes about a week to be ready. Knead 20 cups of flour with 2 cups of water and the vinegar. Stir the mixture for 10 minutes, being careful to keep it soft, and form a ball that will rest for 24 hours away from heat. Add further 2 cups of flour and less than ½ cup of water and knead again, then left the dough rest for other 12 hours. Do the same every 12 hours for five days after which knead the dough, place in a container covered with a cotton cloth and let rest for another day.

When the natural yeast is ready, start the preparation of the bread. Place the flour in a ring and pour in the center the brewer's yeast, dissolved in little warm water, and the pork fat. Knead the ingredients slowly, adding the remaining water in which you dissolved the salt. Add the natural yeast and continue to knead for about 15 minutes until you create a smooth and compact dough. Cover with a cotton cloth and let rest for another 15-20 minutes. Create from the dough two cylinders of equal weight. Spread them in order to have a flat strip about 4 in. wide and ½ in. high. Roll one side of the strip but take in count that the secret is not to roll the strip completely, but leaving the last part flat. When the horn is formed roll around it the flat part and then join it with the identical part of the other piece of dough to form a pair. Bake at 400-480 F for about 20 minutes.

References:
Wikipedia: Coppia Ferrarese
Panificio Fabbri: la Coppia Ferrarese (with images on how to form the bread)


The other articles of the reportage: Tales from the "Bassa" (Flatland):
Tales from the "Bassa" (Flatland) - Introduction

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Autumn Colors

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Poached Eggs with Lentils

If you are similar to me, when coming back home late in the evening, you are simply too tired to spend an hour cooking but you'd also like to eat something different than the usual.

This recipe could help you quote much in those situations then!

It uses some not very commonly used legumes like the lentils and combines them with other flavors to produce full meal dish really simple to prepare but exceptionally tasty.

Anyone who follows this blog knows that I have never advertised anything, not even through Google ad-sense, because I couldn't really see the utility to earn some dimes. This time instead I have to admit that the idea for this recipe came to me thanks to Montello, a food company based in Rovereto, Italy, that sent me some of its products so that I could have the chance to taste them.


In particular a tin caught my attention: boiled lentils from Castelluccio di Norcia, typical protected legumes distributed through an agreement with the Cooperativa della Lenticchia di Castelluccio di Norcia: the king of the lentils in few words.

So I gladly advertise this product if it could earn me some more of those wonderful lentils ;)

Ingredients (serves 2)
¾ lb. raw lentils (or 1½ lb. boiled ones)
2 eggs
3 shallots, finely minced
½ lb. bacon, minced
2 oz. Pecorino cheese, grated
1 sprig of sage
1 tablespoon white vinegar
2 tablespoons tomato puree
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt
pepper

Preparation
Cover the lentils with water and let soak for about 4 hours. Drain and boil in salted water for about half an hour.  In a pan fry bacon, shallots and sage with some oil, when the bacon starts to brown, add the lentils, the tomato puree and cook for further 5 minutes, add salt if needed and pour into two dishes. Meanwhile boil a pint of water to which you add a tablespoon of vinegar. Crash into the eggs and cook for 4 minutes, collect them with a perforated spoon or spatula and place over the lentils, sprinkle with pepper and Pecorino cheese and serve.

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Photo Manipulation and "Purism"

How many times have you heard from amateur photographers: "Ah today, all photos are manipulated through Photoshop, the photos must remain like when they are taken with the camera, because otherwise they do not represent reality, they are fakes, and so on (insert here the mystical-philosophicalphrase you prefer)."
 
If there is one thing I hate, like all absolutes, is photographic "purism": the picture shown here is the evidence that purism doesn't have any historical or artistic basis and great photographers of the past, including Richard Avedon, like in this case where he gave to his printer instructions on how he wanted corrections on a B&W film shot, always manipulated their photos to pursue the idea they had in mind.

The camera, the lenses, up to the image processing software, are only tools. It's the idea that counts: if it sucks there is no tool or manipulations that could save the day.
References:
CONSTANT SIEGE

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Tales from the "Bassa" (Flatland)

I used this post of a few days ago to make it the 'starting point' for the current monthly reportage which will cover, as you may have guessed from the title, the landscapes and the cuisine of the flatlands stretching from Bologna to Ferrara: the 'Bassa'.

There are so many stories to tell about these places, as well as images to show, we start right outside Bologna, where we immediately meet one of the protagonists of this tale: the river Reno.




Reno rises in the mountains between Bologna and Pistoia and it ends its mountainous stretch near the lock of Casalecchio di Reno. From there its course is inextricably linked to the human history of these zones. In fact, its course was changed by men for centuries, both for reclaiming land from marshes, formerly it didn't flow into the Adriatic Sea but in some wetlands south of Ferrara, both for navigation and agriculture with numerous canals that were built since the Middle Ages (the first sources about Canale Navile date from the twelfth century but is believed that it have been dug prior that time).




We meet Reno just off Calderara di Reno (sorry for this name repetitions, but as you will understand, the name of the river in the topography is a sign of the importance that it had for the area), in Longara.





Here we find a beautiful church dating from the XVIII century, built by the architect-priest G.B. Baroni, but near from here also a natural oasis where you can go right on the banks of the river.




The atmosphere is magical and strange at the same time there: in this flat region trees are usually few and sparses, but here the scrub is thick and all the time you can hear waterfowles cry. There is also a path for an easy walk which crosses the stream and allows to continue the journey on the opposite bank of the river toward Trebbo di Reno.

We continue instead along the road following the left bank of the river and passing through the village of Castel Campeggi where there is this a beautiful votive shrine.




The fields that lie on the plains around Bologna are dotted with these little votive shrines for the most part dedicated to Our Lady, thanking for (or requesting) protection from storms and flooding.

Even today, most of them are well tended and is rare to find one without fresh flowers or abandoned.

The reportage will continue in the forthcoming post where we will talk about food!

(to be continued... here I will insert the links of the next posts of the reportage, come back to check!)

The other articles of the reportage: Tales from the "Bassa" (Flatland):
Traditional Sourdough Pork Fat Bread: the "Coppia Ferrarese"
Pumpkin Tortelli
Quinces and Plums Preserve
Fruit Preserve Filled Pastries (Raviole Bolognesi)
Tales from the "Bassa" (Flatland) (part II)
Tales from the "Bassa" (Flatland) (part III)

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Burn Magazine: Dhiraj Singh - My Name is Dechen

The online photography magazine Burn Magazine just published the last multimedia work by the indian photographer Dhiraj Singh, "My Name is Dechen, whose subject is a woman casually met in a monastery in Manali.

Dhiraj Singh is one of the best photojournalist of the latest years, his works has been published in Newsweek, Vanity Fair, Lens Blog, New York Times, Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, MSNBC, L’Espresso, Respekt, The Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times and others.

His black and white photos, with its very closed dark tones but still readable nonetheless, magnificently show tales and persons, still keeping an absolute respect for the latter, which is a characteristic pretty rare and hard to accomplish.

A master to admire and study.

References:

Burn Magazine
Il sito web di Dhiraj Singh

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Roast Pork Loin with Service Tree Pomes Sauce

How many times have you heard of fruits now forgotten but which were once so present in popular tradition to inspire many popular proverbs or even be mentioned in Dante's Divine Comedy?

	« Col tempo e con la paglia maturano le sorbe. » «Service tree pomes ripen with straw and time. »
	(italian traditional proverb)

	« ed è ragion, ché tra li lazzi sorbi si disconvien fruttare al dolce fico. »
	(Dante, Inferno, XV, 65-65)

 

The fruit of the service tree is one of them and now it's very difficult to find if not in some farmer markets which are periodically held in various town over the Apennine mountains.

It is harvested in autumn still immature, so to avoid to fall on the ground, and left to ripen, once spreaded on straw, until it becomes very mature and take on a purplish brown color.

When unripen its taste is bitter and astringent, absolutely not fit to be eaten, with the right ripeness it becomes sweet while keeping a very personal flavor with a hint of bitterness reminiscent of boiled wine.

It was used in the traditional popular cuisine, especially for the preparation of jams (along with sugar, vanilla and/or lemon zest), to prepare the Italian recipe of the famous mead, the drink derived from fermented honey water, or even a kind of cider by fermenting the pomes in some water.

The most common consumption of this fruit, however, was "direct", ie choosing the ripest ones in the attics where they were spread to mature and bringing them to the table during the winter days when other fruits were absent.

The recipe I am proposing is instead more "sophisticated", although also traditional and rather old, and sees the pomes used to prepare a sauce that can be served over red meat (as in this case) but also on turkey or guinea fowl, or even on freshwater seafood.

 

Ingredients (serves 4)

2 1/5 lb. boneless loin of pork

⅔ lb. very ripe service tree pomes

½ cup honey

3½ oz. bacon

2 quinces

2 teaspoons quince seed cloves

3 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon ginger

1 sprig of rosemary

2 cups white wine

salt

pepper

 

Preparation

Dress the meat with cloves and bacon. Sprinkle well with salt and pepper and place in a oven preheated at 350 F for about 45 minutes. Meanwhile peel the quinces, remove core and cut into rounds. Melt in a pan half honey along with two cups of wine and dip the quince rounds. Cook until soft. Remove the rounds and keep them aside, pour into the pan the service tree pomes, the other honey, cinnamon and ginger and a bit of water if needed. Cook until the pomes will be completely mushed. Pour through a sieve to remove skin and seeds and cook againthe sauce until it has the desired thickness while adding a pinch of salt. Arrange the roast on a bed made with quince rounds and cover with sauce. Put in the oven just enough to warm it whole and serve.

References:

La gastronomia dei frutti dimenticati: di Graziano Pozzetto - Sorba

Wikipedia: Sorbus

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November 2009 Desktop Calendar

With an unforgivable delay (but if you noticed how much the aspect of this blog changed in the latest days you can guess the reason of it) Food~0~grafia offers you the November desktop calendar, alas a wallpaper for your PC screen with a food photo and the calendar of the current month.
In the calendar for October I chose a shot of some "autumn" fruits but I already have in preparations a couple of posts on recipes and a broad reportage about landscapes and food.
To set the image as your desktop click on the link at the end of this post with the image dimensions that suit your PC screen and, after the image will load, right-click on it with your mouse (or press ctrl while clicking for some Mac users) and select "Set as Desktop Background..." (or something similar depending on the web browser you're using).

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Food~0~grafia 2.0: a new beginning

English readers please subscribe your new feed here.

This blog is now almost two years old and I must confess that, right from the beginning, I've felt the traditional blogging formula a bit tight. I don't have anything against blogs: the almost daily posts are perfect for nice recipes, basic level photographic tutorials or to show the shot I took, not by chance, but without a real project behind.

Behind the renewed aspect of this "virtual place" there was also the desire to propose articles and projects with a broader scope that, precisely for this feature, are not suitable to be produced, and also "consumed", in a timespan of one or two days.

This doesn't mean that there will be no other short and concise posts, quite the opposite really, but that the "core" of Food~0~grafia will be, at least every month, a pretty broad and extensive article, like the ones in real magazines. An article which will focus, as before, on photograph or on cuisine.

And everything that lies in between.

Another change is that both articles and posts will be no longer bilingual: English ones have now their own space (and their special RSS feed) so to allow readers to avoid to scroll rows by rows before they could find where to start reading.

So many new features indeed, and it's not quite finished yet!