AS YOU WILL QUICKLY LEARN IN THIS BOOK, pork is the main meat in the South of Italy and the pig is highly valued and used in every way imaginable; no part of it is wasted. When I was growing up, manyfamilies, including my own, used to rear their own pigs so making sausages at home was an everyday task. In my family it was something my grandmother did. These days, although many southerners might buy their sausage meat from a butcher, in Calabria in particular, the tradition of making fresh sausages has lingered. However, before the sausage mix is stuffed into its casings there is the obligatory ‘provatura’ ritual. ‘Provatura’ means ‘to taste’ and at this point the cook will fry off a few pieces of the sausage mixture and place them in the middle of the table for everybody to try. Opinions are thrown out – ‘it’s too salty’, ‘too dry’, ‘needs more chilli’, ‘more fennel’ etc. The idea is that the majority wins and the cook then adds whatever is needed. The sausages are finished and of course everybody claims the credit or complains about what’s wrong with them.
SERVES 4
35ml extra virgin olive oil
50g griotte onions or spring onions, roughly chopped
120g soft, spicy fresh Calabrian sausage or a very soft cooking chorizo or Tuscan sausage (skin removed, meat crumbled)
50ml Marsala wine
120g broad beans (shelled)
120g peas (shelled)
handful of basil (roughly chopped)
handful of flat-leaf parsley (roughly chopped)
handful of mint leaves (roughly chopped)
30g Sardinian ricotta mustia (available from some Italian delicatessens) or a similar salted,
lightly smoked soft cheese or a soft goat’s cheese
handful of pea shoots
pinch of black fennel seeds
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
In a saucepan, heat 4 teaspoons of the olive oil and sweat the onion with a pinch of salt on a low heat until soft. Add the sausage, turn up the heat to high and cook until browned. Add the Marsala and let it evaporate.
In the meantime, blanch the broad beans and peas in salted boiling water for 30 seconds. Drain well and mix with the onion and sausages. Cover the pan with a lid and continue to cook over a medium heat for about 3 minutes until the sausage is cooked through.
Add all the chopped herbs and 1 tablespoon of olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
To serve, arrange the sausage mixture on a heated serving plate.
Crumble over the ricotta mustia and top with the pea shoots and a sprinkling of the fennel seeds.
