Friuli Archives - Very EATalian

Creamy Polenta with Grana Padano Cheese Fondue

January 14, 2020 By very EATalian Leave a Comment

As strange as it may sound, my dad always says he grew up eating “polenta e latte” (polenta and milk). In the morning, he would break a slice of hardened polenta into his bowl of warm milk and call it a breakfast. Although I never had the pleasure to try it, my mom confirms it’s delicious!

WHAT’S POLENTA, ANYWAY?

Cheap and filling, polenta is the quintessential peasant food of Northern Italy; it’s coarsely ground cornmeal cooked in water for a long time. Polenta is very versatile. Do you remember that Forrest Gump’s scene where Bubba goes on and on about shrimp? Well, I could go on and on about all the different ways to eat polenta! It can be yellow, white or dark (polenta taragna, a blend of buckweat flour and cornmeal). When soft, it’s the perfect companion for stews or any dish that includes a little sauce. When hard, it turns into a loaf that can be easily sliced and then pan-seared, grilled or fried. Here are just a few examples of how people in Friuli and Veneto like to eat it: polenta with sauteed mushrooms, polenta with melted cheese, polenta with grilled meat, polenta e baccala’ (salt cod), polenta con polastro in tecia (stewed chicken), polenta e spezzatino (beef stew), polenta e osei (birds!), polenta with eggs, polenta with salami cooked in vinegar, polenta with fried sardines…and the list goes on and on!

Creamy Polenta with Grana Padano Cheese Fondue | Very EATalian

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Gnocchi di Susine: Plum-filled Gnocchi

September 8, 2016 By very EATalian 1 Comment

Gnocchi for dessert? It’s totally possible.

When I packed up all my things to come to the States this past June, I struggled in deciding what to bring and what to leave behind. Short of squeezing my family, cat, and dog into a shipping box, I managed to sort some of the things that would make me feel less homesick once overseas. Italian clothes, shoes, and purses were first on the list (duh!). Then came the “shippable” food ( i.e.: Carnaroli rice, yeast for pizza, Illy ground coffee, Modica chocolate, etc). Then, the fine tablecloth, handmade ceramic bowls and ramekins Tom and I bought during our trips to Tuscany and Sicily. At last, I packed the heaviest things of all….cookbooks! WHAT?? Who, in the Kindle era, needs books so much they ship them overseas?? Ironically, I’m one of the most digitally-adverse people I know, especially when it comes to reading….

Soft Frico

April 20, 2016 By very EATalian 3 Comments

If you’re a cheese lover and you want to take your cheese experience to a whole another level, you MUST try soft frico — the quintessential and most loved dish from Friuli Venezia Giulia.

Soft frico is basically a cheese & potato pie, crispy on the outside, and soft and gooey on the inside. Just like the people from Friuli, frico is a no-frill, essential, and straightforward dish. Created out of necessity, when people had few ingredients on hand, frico was made using the leftover scraps (strissulis) of Montasio, a cheese produced locally.

If you’d like to try this recipe and you want to keep it authentic, you definitely need to use Montasio cheese. Similar to Swiss and Asiago, fresh Montasio cheese has a mild, delicate, and somewhat fruity flavor. It comes at different aging stages, ranging from fresh (60 days-4 months), to slightly aged (5-12 months), to aged (over 12 months). As you can imagine, the flavor becomes more intense and sharp with time….

Fluffy Pumpkin Gnocchi with Smoked Ricotta

November 5, 2015 By very EATalian Leave a Comment

My birthday is coming up. May I make an early wish?

I want a little helper. Somebody who’s tech-savvy and patient enough to save my cell and computer’s memories from exploding on me – I’d like all files transferred & copied on multiple devices and not on a cloud, thankyouverymuch. That’s priority #1. THEN, it would be so darling if he/she could recover all my old photos from my crashed external hard drive – that’d be like a huge patch on my broken little heart. It definitely wouldn’t hurt if my little helper happened to be a web designer with great social media skills….

Old-fashioned Apple Strudel

October 30, 2015 By very EATalian Leave a Comment

I know apples are good for you, you should eat-an-apple-a-day-to-keep-the-doctor-away, yadda yadda yadda…but I gotta confess I’m not a big apple eater. My poor little jaws easily get tired at munching the quintessential healthy fruit. Crunch, cruuunch, cruuuuunch. Can I have a softer, juicier pear instead? [If you read me for the first time, I’d like to specify I’m not 80 years old and I have all my teeth in place.]

Anyways, I’m sure you figured I wouldn’t present you with a recipe I wouldn’t eat myself. That’s right – because I DO enjoy eating apples when they’re cooked and I love them in pretty much anything – filled pasta, meats (remember my Cjalsons and Pancetta-wrapped Pork Tenderloin with Apples?)… and, of course, desserts! …

Cjalsons: Sweet and Savory Dumplings from Friuli

April 30, 2015 By very EATalian 2 Comments

I’m back home! Alabama was nice–but 3 weeks in a hotel room with only a microwave was loooong. Our hotel quality-of-life was definitely improved by the espresso machine we brought from home. Although it’s highly probable the housekeeper thought we were a couple of cuckoos, we felt exceptionally proud of our survival forethought.

YAY for being back at having fun in the kitchen!

There’s nothing better than homemade “ravioli” to start cooking again. Well, these aren’t exactly ravioli per se…but kind of similar. These tasty dumplings are called cjalsons (or cjarsons) and they’re traditionally cooked for festivities in the mountains of Friuli (the most Northeastern Italian region and where I call home).

The dough is usually prepared with water, flour, salt and, sometimes, potatoes. The filling usually features a nice combination of sweet and salty ingredients like mashed potatoes, raisins, smoked ricotta cheese, cinnamon, cookies, herbs or chocolate. Like for many other Italian dishes, there are many versions of cjalsons. Back home, we use this recipe: we jazz up the traditional filling by using apple, pear, pancetta, and amaretti cookies. These ingredients give the filling a nice variety of textures and an intriguing flavor: they’re sweet with a nice kick of saltiness. The best part is the butter/parmesan/cinnamon finish. I used parmesan cheese (Parmigiano Reggiano!) because it’s hard to find smoked ricotta here. If you do find it, use it by all means. Just shave it on top. It’s absolutely the best way to serve this wonderful dish.

Expect more cjalsons recipes in the future. I looooove food from Friuli!

5.0 from 1 reviews

My family's Cjalsons (or Cjarsons)

Prep time

1 hour 15 mins

Cook time

6 mins

Total time

1 hour 21 mins

Recipe type: Entree

Serves: 2

Ingredients

75 g (1/2 cup) all-purpose flour
75 g (1/2 cup) whole wheat flour
40 gr (a bit less than 3 Tbsp) of butter, melted + 1 Tbsp for final seasoning
40 ml (1.3 oz or 2 Tbsp and 2 tsp) of water
1 yolk
55 g (about 2 oz) of pancetta, minced
½ apple
1 small pear
4 regular-sized (or 10 mini) amaretti cookies, crumbled
pepper
sugar
salt
cinnamon

Instructions

Mix flour, water, melted butter and yolk in a bowl. Once the ingredients are combined, transfer onto a clean surface and knead until dough becomes uniform and smooth. Cover with plastic film and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Cut the apple and the pear in small cubes (about ¼ inch or 6 mm).
Add minced pancetta to a medium-sized skillet and sauté over medium heat. Once pancetta changes color, add cubed apple and pear. Cook until pear is soft, but not too mushy. Add a sprinkle of sugar, salt, and pepper. Remove skillet from the heat, add crumble amaretti and transfer to a plate.
Take dough out of fridge and roll it with a rolling pin or a pasta machine until it becomes thin (see photos above), adding a bit of flour if necessary (not too much!). Cut rolled dough in 3.5 inch (9 cm) rounds.
With a teaspoon, place a small dose of filling in the center of each round. Brush some water on the outer part of the round. Fold round in half, forming a dumpling and making sure no air is trapped inside. Press the edges together to seal them tightly.
Bring a pot of salted water to a boil.
Melt butter in a large skillet and set aside.
Gently place the cjalsons in batches in boiling water. Remove them with a slotted spoon once they come to the surface and transfer them in a skillet with melted butter over low heat. Cook for about 2-3 min, turning them gently. Sprinkle with cinnamon, pepper and parmesan cheese.

Orzotto (Barley Risotto) with Dandelion Greens and Mascarpone Cheese

April 13, 2015 By very EATalian Leave a Comment

Have you ever foraged for wild greens? I know it may sound a bit hippy, but I have–several times, actually! In Italy during the springtime, I used to tag along with my mom and aunts as they went through the open fields behind the house, looking for wild greens such as poppy and dandelion leaves. If we were lucky, we also found hop shoots and nettles. We usually left in the mid-afternoon and came back at dusk with bags full of green goodies which inevitably ended up in a nice risotto or a tasty frittata.

It’s a very frugal and nature-friendly way of eating, but you have to be able to recognize edible plants otherwise you may end up eating greens that simply taste bad or, even worse, are poisonous. The good news is you can enjoy these flavorful wild greens without becoming a foraging expert. Certain grocery stores and farmers markets occasionally carry them. For example, I found these beautiful dandelion leaves at The Fresh Market!

Dandelion greens are super nutritious: they are rich in iron and calcium and loaded with vitamins A, C and K. They can be a tad bitter but, when cooked, their sharp flavor gets milder. In this springtime recipe, I added dandelion greens to an orzotto, which is barley (orzo, in Italian) cooked the exact same way as rice in a more traditional risotto–by toasting the grain with sautéed onion or shallot, and then adding wine, followed by broth. The mascarpone cheese is a last-minute addition I made to further mitigate the bitterness of the dandelion greens. The orzotto turned out perfect: creamy, fresh, and delicate.

ORZOTTO WITH DANDELION GREENS AND MASCARPONE CHEESE
Orzotto al tarassaco e mascarpone
Servings: 2 | Prep time: 10 min | Cook time: 30 min

INGREDIENTS
1 lt (32 oz) vegetable broth
a small bunch of dandelion greens, roughly chopped
a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp unsalted butter
¼ cup shallot, chopped
3/4 cup quick-cooking barley (I used Trader Joe’s 10-min barley)
(optional) ¼ cup dry white wine
¼ cup mascarpone cheese
a handful of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, grated
salt
freshly ground black pepper

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Bring vegetable broth to a boil in a saucepan. Add dandelion greens in it and cook for 3-4 minutes. Remove them from the saucepan with a strainer and set aside. Keep broth simmering throughout the recipe.
2. In a separate heavy-bottom saucepan, heat butter and extra-virgin olive oil over medium heat. Add chopped shallot, and sauté until translucent.
3. [Take note of the time, as I’ll use this exact moment as reference (*)] Turn the heat to medium-high, add the barley and toast it for a couple of minutes, stirring frequently. Pour in the wine (or ¼ cup of broth) and cook until absorbed.
4. Turn the heat to medium-low. Add a ladle of broth and let the barley absorb the liquid, stirring occasionally. Once the liquid is absorbed, add a ladle of broth again. [Repeat this step throughout the recipe, letting the barley absorb each addition of broth.]
5. 6-7 minutes in (*), add dandelion. Stir. Keep on adding broth as it gets absorbed by the barley.
6. 16-17 minutes in (*), stop adding broth. Let the barley absorb the last bit of liquid.
7. 20-25 minutes in (*), the barley should be creamy and al dente. Remove from heat and stir in mascarpone until melted. Add parmesan cheese and, only if necessary, a bit of salt. Stir vigorously for about a minute to make orzotto ever creamier. Let rest for 2-3 minutes.
8. Sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper. Serve hot.

Buon appetito!

Lisa