A journey to discover the Lucanian trousers, trying to discover the mystery that settles on the tongue when trying to investigate the origins of pastiche
«Everyone now calls him Pastizz, That perfume that invades the narrow streets in chiocchiola and reaches the top to dive from Balcony of the Ionian Sea in a sea of taste. I get lost in the horizon to try to investigate the gluttonous mystery of pastizz r’tunnar: the crescent filled with meat that gives flavor to Rotondella. A PAT (Traditional Agri-food Product) of Basilicata which has marked the history of the town so deeply that it defines its inhabitants: pasteizzar.
If you get into Lucanian trouble …
«When you are in a mess, you might as well enjoy the flavor, Confucius recommends, and all the more so if there are so many 'messes'. In Basilicata, in fact, this ancient form of cutting food into small pieces and making fillings wrapped in a layer of "pasta" seems to be a whole exquisite linguistic question to be discussed. I get mixed up just thinking of getting into this all-Lucan mixture of languages, in which the Greeks, Romans and Barbarians alternate at the table.
The Lucanian pies are all divided into falahòni, in Italian "falagoni" and present in the north-west of Basilicata and on the Ionian coast, e pastizz, in Italian "pasticcio", present only in Rotondella. There vexata quaestio gets complicated if we talk about cauzon, the Italian "calzone", a traditional sweet or savory dish, which is prepared at Easter and Christmas throughout the region which, from the table to the borders, seems so obsessed with names that it has two: the ancient Lucania, from which the 'adjective, and the most recent and common Basilicata.
In this babel of taste I would need Don Ciccio di Gadda to investigate "quer mess … " in which I slipped, but, since I do not have the wit or the mastery of the case, I am content to "question" some witnesses.
The version of Simona, from Locanda Pane e Lavoro in Rotondella, states that I have to knead together 1 kilo of re-milled semolina, 1 and a half liters of water, 1 tablespoon of salt and 1 glass of extra virgin olive oil. Although he confesses that the original version would like 100 grams of lard. I have to get a hard and smooth ball, let it rest for 25-20 minutes and cut it into pieces "as big as a palm of your hand", work them until you get 10 balls to let rest for 30 minutes. And it is from this moment on that it is decided whether to create a Pastizz or a Falagone, a PAT of Rotondella or a PAT of Basilicata.
From "mess" what it is, what characterizes u ’pastizz r’tunnar’ is the filling: small pieces of meat cut with a knife. It is called pastizz if it is stuffed with meat, otherwise it is a falagone. And Simona is very fond of words, so much so that the name of her restaurant, as well as the filling of the pastizz, has a story: her husband Mimmo's grandparents participated in the struggle movement for the occupation of the lands that led to the agrarian reform in Basilicata in 1950. Those peasants just wanted "Bread and work". But this is another story … The history of Pastizz is much further away, the origin is unknown. It has always been known that it is made with pieces of lamb at Easter – what better symbolic animal? – and with pieces of pork at Christmas, a festival that is always close to the rite of killing the pig, as testified Anna of the Bontà nostrane bakery in Marina di Nova Siri. Since the availability of meat has become more common, there is no day of celebration or important date that is not celebrated with one's own pastizz.
The filling of Simona, as well as of all the women of Rotondella from whom she learned to make the special calzone, is made from a kilo of meat (the ideal cut would be the pork capocollo) seasoned with hard and fairly seasoned cheese, such as Canestrato di Moliterno, extra virgin olive oil, coarsely chopped parsley. All mixed with 3-4 eggs and spiced with salt and pepper.
If, on the other hand, you want to create a falahòne, you have to fill it with chard, potatoes, eggs, peppers and onion. Always extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper to taste. It would seem the veg and light version of the pastizz. It is no coincidence that Anna from Nova Siri, a disciple of her mother in the preparation of pastizzas and falagoni, says that the vegetable filling was used during Lent, on lean days. And importantly, there is also a traditional sweet variant, another PAT which is called Pastzzott by Nova Siri, with a filling of chickpeas, almonds, honey and bitter cocoa. Strictly Christmas sweets. Anna also claims that the falagone can be found in Policoro, Nova Siri, Tursi, Colobraro, Scanzano and, of course, in Rotondella. A street food that you can nibble on the sea, along the whole Ionian coast, and which once served the shepherds, always on the way with the flock, to have a comfortable and well-preserved snack. Fortunately, the investigation does not shift to the falagoni of the north-west of Basilicata, those stuffed with sweet ricotta and made with leavened dough, otherwise we would never get out of pies!
The mystery deepens because both pastizz and falagone close in the same way, leaving their filling hidden.
I was left with 10 balls of dough left to rest. After 30 minutes, I roll out each ball until a disc is formed, cover half of it with the mixture made and close in a crescent, "like a panzerotto, come on!", Explains Simona. I cut out the excess part with the washer and squeeze the edges to prevent everything from coming out. Prick the back with a fork, brush with egg yolk and bake at 180 degrees for about 30 minutes. And finally I eat, strictly hot!
If the pastizz is not steaming it could lose its characteristic external crispness and internal softness and, above all, that sense of toasted that accentuates its specific flavor. Precisely to avoid this crime, Locanda Pane e Lavoro has created a food delivery box for all the specialized delis in Italy: the pastizz arrives ready and frozen, you just have to put it in the oven, cook it and eat it.
I finally reached the top of the ancient Rotunda Maris and with my steaming pastizz I look out from the balcony. Everything is clear from up here, the breeze whispers a pacification to me like William of Baskerville, the master of that "primeval rose of which only the name exists". What if the secret of the pastizz was its name? The Name of The rose? So I get lost in hypothetical etymologies that start from the pita dei Greci up to the Romans first and then to the "barbarians" peoples of the north, becoming pasticium to then decline into mess, pastiche, pate And pate, pie… How many centuries of history, peoples and tastes in this pastizz! … And shipwreck is sweet to me in this sea, but, since I am a great bungler, I leave it to you to come and taste all the pastizzes and falagoni from Basilicata to solve this tasty pie of Basilicata with "your" language.
This recipe has already been read 1951 times!