Tag: Ligurian

33-layer Ligurian cake: the origin of the name – Italian Cuisine


A very famous cake whose original recipe is reported in the oldest recipe books of Ligurian cuisine. Pasqualina cake or Ligurian cake 33 layers? Let's find out together

We are faced with what is probably one of the oldest recipes from the Ligurian cuisine. It is a tasty one savoury cake, also known as Pasqualina cake, which is cooked and served as starter on the occasion of Easter holidays.

33-layer Ligurian cake: origin of the name

There 33-layer Ligurian cake it is immediately recognized by the presence of egg in the filling and the scent of marjoram. In the original version from the recipe (which you find below), is composed of a pasta made with 33 very thin sheets superimposed representing the years of Christ and it is precisely for this reason that it is also known as 33-layer Ligurian cake.
In addition to the name, linked to this cake, there are traditions and uses that are being lost. For example, it seems that in ancient times the initials, made with a string of dough, of the head of the family to whom the Ligurian 33-layer cake was intended were affixed to the most superficial layer.

33-layer Ligurian cake.

33-layer Ligurian cake or pasqualina cake: traditional recipe

In the recipe that we report the layers are 33, as required by the tradition.
The execution of the dough is not simple and for this reason over the years, as is the case with almost all traditional recipes, the original recipe of the Ligurian 33-layer cake has been modified and simplified. But if you want to try that one authentic follow ours recipe!

Ingredients for a cake pan ø 24 cm

For the dough
1 kg of flour 00
450 g (approximately) of warm water
4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons of fine salt

For the stuffing
800 g of chard
600 g of fresh ricotta (or 600 g of curd)
100 g of grated Parmesan cheese
50 g of butter
8 fresh eggs
fresh marjoram leaves to taste
extra virgin olive oil to taste
Salt to taste
black pepper to taste

Method

Sift the flour on a wooden pastry board, make a hole in the center and pour in the water, salt and two tablespoons of oil. Knead vigorously for about ten minutes or until you get a soft and elastic dough. Divide the dough into 33 pieces of the same weight, about the size of a mandarin and place them spaced apart on the surface previously dusted with flour. Cover them with a damp cotton cloth or with cling film and leave to rest for an hour.

In the meantime, clean the beets depriving them of the central coast and wash them thoroughly. Cut them into thin strips and leave them in boiling salted water for a few minutes. Drain and squeeze them very well, then arrange them on a plate, spreading them out and salt them again. Add 50 g of grated Parmesan cheese, the chopped marjoram leaves and mix.

Put the ricotta cheese inside a colander placed on a bowl and compress it well so that all the serum comes out. Transfer the ricotta to a clean bowl and add 2 eggs, 50 g of grated Parmesan, salt and pepper. Mix well in order to obtain a homogeneous mixture.

Pick up the first of the 33 pieces of dough And roll it out very thinly with a rolling pin. You will have to get a thin sheet like a veil and for a satisfactory result you can help yourself by lifting the dough and spreading it even with the back of your fists as pizza chefs do with pizza dough.

Grease the bottom of the cake pan and settle inwardly the first veil of dough so that it overflows. Brush the surface of the dough with a little oil then continue to roll out another ten sheets and place them one on top of the other inside the pan, always greasing them except the last one. On this place the mixture based on beets spreading it well with the back of the spoon and season with a drizzle of oil. Continue by placing the mixture based on over the layer of chard ricotta cheese and butter flakes.
Using a spoon, make the filling 6 dimples regularly spaced and positioned inside each one raw whole egg, without the shell, taking care not to break the yolk. Season each egg with a pinch of salt and pepper.

Roll out the additional 22 sheets and place them on top of each other on the filling anointing them with oil on the surface and placing small pieces of butter on the edges of each sheet. Turn the dough that comes out of the pan inwards, pressing it as if to form a cord along the edge. Brush the surface of the cake with a little oil. Take a straw and cut it obliquely in one of the two ends, thus creating a tip.

Slightly engrave the surface of the cake with a pointed knife, insert the straw inside the hole e blow to make the cake swell. Place in the oven and cook for about an hour in a preheated oven at 180 ° C in static mode. When the cake is well colored, take it out of the oven and let it cool before turning it out of the mold and serving it cut into slices.

Browse the gallery for photos and further tips

Incoming search terms:

wine, aromatic herbs, oil and hospitality in the Ligurian hinterland – Italian Cuisine


They produce Pigato, have a widespread farmhouse with apartments in the village of Bastia and soon a restaurant. To discover Liguria, and meet a family with 4C.

The history of the Vio family is the history of many Italian peasant families, but theirs has a happy ending. The Vio family has been cultivating for three generations in the Albenga plain, an area with an excellent microclimate and fertile soil, where the first fruits were once grown and then arrived in the stalls of the northern gardeners. Then Italy changed, the small shops were replaced by supermarkets and fruit and vegetables began to travel for thousands of kilometers, crossing national borders. But while many chased higher yields and safer harvests, looking for answers in foreign pesticides and crops, they went the other way. Today they cultivate aromatic herbs and produce olive oil and wine, all strictly organic. "The use of pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers is not part of the local tradition and we have done nothing but continue with the habits of the past. Cultivating organic is not a technical or economic choice: it is simply cultural ", explains Aimone Giobatta who, together with his wife Chiara, has always believed in organic, obtaining certification in 1989 and the land since 1999. Today together with his daughters Caterina, Camilla and Carolina manage theBioVio company, from the harvest to the daily packaging of aromatic herbs, the vineyard and cellar, from the welcome in the farmhouse to the future restaurant that is about to be born.

The intuition of aromatic herbs

Starting from Bastia, the headquarters of the company, aromatic herbs are grown in the ingauna plain while going up the valley that follows the Arroscia course to reach Ranzo and the high lands of the province of Imperia, vineyards and olive groves have always been worked on. «Wild thyme, sage, rosemary grow spontaneously here. The Ligurian climate and land are perfect for herbs, they have a more intense aroma and flavor. These are aromas that once the gardener gave you, but when supermarkets were born my father began to convert the company from horticultural to aromatic herbs and to pack them to sell them in large distribution: sage, rosemary, thyme, mixed bunches, dowry for the broth … , says Camilla, who today takes care of the administration. "My father was a visionary: herbs are the backbone that allowed us to dream, to plant new vineyards, to create our own label, to preserve the olive grove. While everyone was leaving the hills towards the sea, we invested here .

The award-winning Pigato

«We make wine in the vineyard, not in the cellar. We have taken up vines such as pigato, which were vinified at home for family consumption and not much appreciated , says Caterina, the eldest of the sisters and winemaker. "Here wine was not a product to be sold, people lived on oil and vegetables and therefore grapes were only for self-consumption. We, on the other hand, believed in local varieties, in the typical characteristics of the vine and in the territory . Quality wine in Liguria is a concept of the last twenty years and Vio is one of those labels that has contributed to this rebirth, with bottles that have earned great recognition thanks to the integration with tourist hospitality. Aimone Vio was awarded Winemaker of the year 2017 from Gambero Rosso guide and their Bon in da Bon 2017, a Pigato Doc, he earned three glasses according to the Gambero Rosso Wine Guide 2019. The Grand Père certainly deserves a mention, a Pigato Doc processed according to the old vinification that was made on white wines by fermenting the wine in contact with the skins without adding selected yeasts, with 10 months of aging in tonneaux. And then there is the 4C, named after the four women of the house, who share the initial of the name – a 100% Rossese di Campochiesa rosé. “We work as natural as possible and have just launched an organic Pigato without sulphites,” explains Caterina. During the visit to the cellar you can also taste and buy theTaggiasca monocultivar extra virgin olive oil, collected in the centuries-old olive groves of the lands of Ranzo in the Arroscia valley, 350 m above sea level.

The widespread agritourism

In 40 years in Bastia, every time the town became depopulated, they bought abandoned houses to make them a widespread agritourism, where they could feel at home. Where to feel in the Liguria of the past. Or perhaps that of the future. At guests' disposal there are eight delightful apartments furnished with old grandmother's furniture. They can be rented for a couple of nights or the whole week and, if desired, with the addition of a breakfast Ligurian style prepared by mother Chiara together with Carolina, who takes care of the farm and who is working on the family's latest project: the opening of a real restaurant with which to rediscover Ligurian cuisine; that we actually know very little. «Ligurian cuisine is little known beyond the stereotype of pesto and focaccia, but which has many influences: sea, land, France, Sardinia, and the trade route that passed from Genoa to Piedmont. Stay tune.

Browse the gallery

Ligurian cuisine becomes contemporary – Italian Cuisine

Ligurian cuisine becomes contemporary


Nothing against tradition. Indeed: it is the basis for Marco Visciola. At Marin di Eataly, this young cook who loves his land is rewriting one of the most underrated kitchens in Italy, with lots of sea on his plate. And pleasant designer touches: here they are

Making one contemporary regional cuisine in addition to technical skill and knowledge of history, it requires a fair dose of madness. The custodians of the (often fake) truth are ready to impale progressives, always citing Tradition. This happens mostly in those regions where there are no flagship restaurants that even if they focus on creativity, at least manage to move the system. There Liguria it is one of these, poor in starred places for a long time, and substantially little suited to changes, not only in terms of cuisine. A shame considering the validity of the products (fish, oil, vegetables are the first that come to mind), the historicity of some recipes – the focaccia and the savory pies are there to confirm it – and the pleasant contrast between seafood and land cuisine, which is the most interesting. This is why what a young chef – from Liguria, this is important – is doing, does not go unnoticed Marco Visciola at the Marin, Eataly's restaurant on the Porto Antico. Curiosity: the sign bears the name of the breeze that crosses the Maritime Alps and reaches the Langhe, the beloved land of the Farinetti family.

He worked in Korea

Son of Bogliasco, 35 years old, Visciola entered the Eataly world at just 22 years old. He worked with Fabrizio Tesse and Enrico Crippa, moved to Korea to open and manage the Seoul office (an experience which he considers essential) and returned to Italy. A couple of years in Turin and in 2011 here he is at the Marin, first alongside Enrico Panero and autonomously since 2016. Little by little he built his vision of cooking, linked to tradition, but with a new gear. "I love this land and its products, and I am lucky enough to work with a lot of instinct and intuition thanks to the experience that, from an early age, I was able to live following the teachings of my grandfather cook: he transmitted to me a memory of the ingredients that is very important for my work explains Visciola, whose family continues to produce oil. The place is in tune with the idea: the light enters through the huge windows from which you can see the Porto Antico, the large ships and Renzo Piano's bigo that seems close at hand. The beautiful tables, the essential and refined mise en place, the hospitality make you forget in a few minutes that you enter through the shelves. Eataly's shops and restaurants. It's not a drama, sure that a direct entrance from the port would be the final touch of class …

Great reinterpretation

Visciola interprets the culinary symbols of the territory very well. Ultimately, only the focaccia (round in any case and not rectangular) is faithful in taste. Instead, a good part of the card hides behind familiar names the pleasure of a light, precise reinterpretation, without prejudices. We mention only a few dishes, so as not to spoil the surprise: Tortelli stuffed with pesto, creamy potatoes and green beans; Capponmagro 2.0 (complex, with many innovations starting with vegetables that are not pickled, but fermented, in the Korean way); Finanziera from the sea where the fifth quarter of fish that remains in the kitchen is used, with separate cooking and a substantial addition of snails. But the chef also knows how to paint on white canvas, separating himself from tradition, as in the case of Sepia (marinated as lard and accompanied by fennel) or Spaghetti Martini where the olive and the Taggiasco gin interact perfectly with the caviar. Fantasy and technique, with an oriental rigor as found in Fried in two servings (one part in flour and the other in tempura) that immediately wins over.

Local winery

Two tasting: eight freehand proposals (80 euros) and Fuoco (minus Liguria and flavors of embers mostly at 65 euros) with the possibility of choosing three or four dishes from the menu. All accompanied by a cellar where along with the Pigato and Vermentino series labels, there are also surprises from Levante and Ponente. Trust the good sommelier. Moral: hats off to the Farinetti family who chose this guy for the restaurant in the Porto Antico. The Gran Mercante Oscar, famously, considers Ligurian cuisine as one of the best ("if not the best") in Italy, so he couldn't go wrong. And they say the quotations on Genoa and Liguria by Fossati, De André and so on, over the open kitchen, let it be his sack flour. Very credible.

Proudly powered by WordPress

By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. Click here to read more information about data collection for ads personalisation

The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this.

Read more about data collection for ads personalisation our in our Cookies Policy page

Close