Calvari, four souls and a bell tower, in the immediate hinterland of Genoa and a view overlooking the valley Bisagno. Around, a dense vegetation and other small hamlets of the municipality of Davagna, an area from which a certain origin came Battino Maragliano: a first-class bandit who, in the 1600s, preferred war to prison by becoming captain of fortune and distinguishing himself for his courage.
Don't ask me if he was an ancestor of mine, I don't know, but I like to imagine an adventurous past. Here among chestnut woods, flourishing vegetable gardens, vines and fruit trees, I lived with my cousins part of themy summer holidays, in the house still belonging to the great-grandfather. To mark the days there were snacks, lunches is dinners who mixed Ligurian cuisine with that of Rome, where her grandmother had lived for years. The highlight was in the evening.
Sitting on a small bench next to a strategic window, from which you could observe who came from Genoa by bus, my cousin Simonetta and I spied on the pots, terrified of running into the "no" dinner: the evening "soup", which was not the trivial one with the nut, but what in Genoa is called "ruffiani", with eggs, parmesan and persa (marjoram), and in Rome stracciatella.
All the other dinners were "yes", from deviled chicken to stuffed vegetables, from trofie to pesto to amatriciana, even if the wait was for Genovese soup. A poem of aromas and flavors that grandmother knew how to orchestrate properly with the rules that this dish dictates. Because its characteristic is density and can only be reached with slow cooking: three, even four, hours.
Ancient recipes report that it cooked from morning to night, still resulting better if the pot was placed on a wood fire. Precisely for this reason the minestrone needs care, it can never be abandoned. It did not suffer from animal fat or fat, but according to the nineteenth-century tradition two parmesan crusts well scraped together with the vegetables as soon as the liquid boils (about two liters of water for a kilo and a half of diced vegetables).
Inevitable the pesto, but made on purpose, without pine nuts, and added at the end to release all the scent of the King's herb. Finally the pasta, 30 g per head, to be thrown when the minestrone is already creamy, excellent taggien (taglierini) even if tradition requires brichetti (i.e. matches), large spaghetti reduced to a height of 2 cm or scuccuzzu, semolina grains halfway between couscous and fregola.
Lukewarm minestrone is perfect, cold is great and the next day even better. It should be served in capable holsters xatte, where, the last rule says that, sinking the spoon, this must remain standing, because that's how you measure it consistency. For me and Simonetta the test of the spoon became a game and the grandmother laughed sly knowing already that he would remain perfectly upright.
Laura Maragliano
Salt & Pepper of August 2020
