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Roman cuisine in a veg way: 5 tips – Italian Cuisine

Roman cuisine in a veg way: 5 tips


If there isn't a dish that hasn't been reworked, then Roman cuisine can also be done in a vegan key. And a place in Rome proves to have succeeded in the enterprise

When it comes to tradition, souls light up and tongues are on fire. Even if cooking has always been an evolving path. This is also true for Roman gastronomy, which still remains today a continuous operation of reinterpretation, exchange and improvement. As in the case of the carbonara itself, a recipe with a recent history, which in “La Cucina Italiana” of 1954 appeared with garlic, gruyere and pancetta.

We can therefore think of one Roman cuisine in a veg key? A local in Rome tried it, Romano Refuge, which since 2016 has decided to combine traditional Italian and Roman dishes with their vegan interpretations. In addition to offering contemporary vegan cuisine.

As the chef says Davide Leo, is a choice that arises from many assumptions. First of all for a form of curiosity and creativity. «There is carbonara di mare, there will also be veg. I am a big fan of garlic, oil and chilli. Do you know that even great chefs have revisited this dish? We just want to discover other ingredients, "he says, emphasizing the fun and inclusive aspect of his work.

Then there is the desire to fill the void in those who miss certain dishes, certain shapes and flavors. It's a way to practice known recipes, using only plant-based ingredients. And then there is also the attention to tourists, many, who travel to the capital. If they are vegan, will they have to give up on tasting a carbonara forever? According to the chef of the restaurant, no one should be deprived of a dish if there is an alternative. And in the case of desserts, for example, whose recipes have been refined over the years, the difference between one dessert and another is imperceptible.

To understand how to see Roman cuisine in this new light, we have collected five simple tips from Davide Leo, suitable for even the most skeptical, which take into account the flavors, aesthetics and also the nutritional values ​​of the ingredients.

The good alternative to bacon

The king of many Roman pastas, it can be easily replaced with seitan and tofu which, when processed and cooked in an intelligent way, can restore an equally structured flavor and which do not differ too much from the meat in consistency. Both tofu and seitan can be enriched with spices, for example with smoked salt or pepper, or with herbs, such as rosemary and fennel. The crunchiness is then served if you resort to frying.

How to replace the egg

Eggs can be replaced in various ways. It really depends on the destination recipe. With fruit in sweet preparations (such as bananas) with chickpea flour and other completely natural thickeners in savory preparations. There is no specific ingredient. Indeed, there is never a specific ingredient. So much so that it is not only the ingredient, but also its processing and cooking that restore a certain flavor.

There is a world for cheeses

Parmesan, pecorino, butter, milk: in Roman cuisine there are more cheeses, just think of cacio e pepe. Good news: replacing cheeses, or rather, as Leo specifies, milk and its derivatives is very easy and with a little patience you can also make it at home. Just use nuts like almonds, cashews and macadamia nuts. One of the most common vegan cheese and pepper recipes starts with cashews.

Escalopes, Saltimbocca and Scacciatora

Meat also has interesting alternatives, which can be processed with marinades, stocks and smokes. Here the reference ingredient is seitan, used for both scallops and saltimbocca with vegan sliced. And then the "Scacciatora" which makes fun of the world of hunting, and is a dish in which the seitan is worked like a braised meat and accompanied with a reduction of Montepulciano.

The pizza and the supplì

We are in Rome and the Roman pizza cannot be missing (even if that of Rifugio Romano is not a pure Roman one, but slightly more consistent). For mozzarella we always refer to the great world of milk and its derivatives. So you can use a veg mozzarella for the toppings and so also for the inside of the supplì, prepared with tomato and a vegetable sauté. For the breading, it can be done in two steps: one in a flour and water batter and the other in breadcrumbs.

The ancient Roman recipe for picchiapò – Italian Cuisine


The original recipe of a great classic of Roman cuisine, directly from the hands of the young chef Remo Fiscina

"He knocked. He tapped. Qu’est ce que c’est ça? "
"Beef with tomato and onion"
"I see tomatoes and onions, a little less beef"
«In Sor Maè there are 5,830 trattorias in Rome. You have ample hesitation "

Who does not remember that masterpiece of There were many loved ones of Ettore Scola, when the protagonists, three former partisan friends, find themselves conversing with the host of the King of the half portion, the tavern that often appears throughout the film. And in this scene they are eating the picchiapò, an ancient dish of the Roman tradition, the real one, at home, not iconographic, widespread in taverns especially in the early twentieth century. Today it is being done less and less, so much so that many do not even know it. But not Remo Fiscina, the young home chef we had already told you about about pasta alla gricia. Now it is also well known between Rome and its surroundings, especially in the Castelli Romani area, to prepare one of the most noteworthy beat-ups there is.

Discovering the beat

The picchiapò is one of those ingenious dishes of the recovery kitchen. This is why it is usually prepared on Mondays, starting with the meat of the broth consumed on Sunday together with pasta, almost always thin, like capellini. It is a boiled and not a boiled: remember, in fact, that the first differs from the second because the meat is thrown into cold water and then brought to a boil, as you will see in Remo's recipe, while in the second case the meat is placed directly in boiling water. Once cooked, the beef is sautéed in a sauce of stewed onions with tomato, which give the dish that savory taste and then strictly accompanied with baked potatoes. Picchiapò is a winter dish, which is eaten when it is cold, especially during the Christmas period, even if in reality, unfortunately, it is cooked less and less. But why is it called with this curious name?

We loved each other so much (1974).
We loved each other so much (1974).

The hypotheses on the origin of the name

Chef Remo Fiscina tells us that there are two hypotheses on the etymology of the name: according to the first, picchiapò was due to the act of beating the meat on the cutting board. Beat n'po! The second, on the other hand, the most certain and reliable for Remo, is linked to its spiciness, which in the Roman dialect is called picca or piccare "and the picchiapò is definitely a spicy dish". But picchiapò with "b" is also the name of the court dwarf protagonist of a 1927 fable by Trilussa, He hit, the moje der chamberlain: "Beaten, er buffoon de Corte, he was a little man accused little that one could put him in his pocket as the key to the house. When he walked he took three steps, a zompo, a piroletta and a roe deer because they are the biggest head of the body, every now and then he spiommava and je he loses his balance. What I can tell you is that he hit, by dint of roe deer and pirouettes, if he made his way and arrived as far as the Royal Palace, so he laughs at the King ". There is also a Roman mask with all the skin of the face frayed, just like the meat in the recipe that we give you. So, whatever the origin of the name, let's now see how to prepare this delicious dish of Roman cuisine, in order to prevent this delicacy from falling into oblivion.

The picchiapò recipe

Many of the ingredients used by Remo, such as tomatoes, spices and oil, are produced directly by him, in his garden in Rocca Priora. The following recipe is designed for about six people, but we assure you that the picchiapò never advances, especially with its indications.

Ingredients

1 kg of beef for boiled meat (muscle and belly)
200 g of cherry tomatoes
350 g borettana onion (the flat one)
1 white onion
1 stick of celery
1 carrot
1 potato
3 bay leaves
salt
Chili pepper
Extra virgin olive oil

Method

Put celery, carrot, onion and potatoes together with the meat in a large pot with cold water (hence the name boiled and not boiled).
Bring to a boil for ten minutes, then lower the heat and cook for about 4-5 hours.
Once this time has passed, keep the broth aside to make the egg capellini in broth that are usually eaten the day before, that is Sunday, and let the meat cool.
Meanwhile, cut the onions half into julienne strips, while leaving the other half whole.
Add oil, chilli pepper (remember that the picchiapò must be spicy) the sliced ​​and whole onions in a saucepan and caramelize them. Then add the tomatoes cut in half (if you want you can also use the peeled tomatoes in the same quantity).
Cook everything, in the meantime fray the meat and add it to the pan. Cook for twenty minutes with a glass of broth made previously.
Finally, serve and enjoy the beaten with baked potatoes.

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Farewell to Anna Dente, the ambassador of Roman cuisine to the world – Italian Cuisine

Farewell to Anna Dente, the ambassador of Roman cuisine to the world


Cook-farmer-butcher, or hostess or simply Sora Anna. With Anna Dente, who left us on the same day as Maradona, all the ancient wisdom of hands that have cooked thousands of carbonare, amatriciane, fettuccine alla Nonno Emilio, the real workhorse of the Osteria di San Cesario. And again tripe, pajata and the whole repertoire halfway between delicacies and poor recipes of Roman cuisine. Anna Dente was the undisputed heir of Sora Lella: televised like Aldo Fabrizi's sister (alongside Clerici at the Prova del Cuoco), with the same temperament as a woman of other times, a similar repertoire of recipes taken from the Lazio-Roman tradition, the same adversity to the so-called "micragnose portions".

On the site of the Osteria di San Cesario she presented herself as follows: "My name is Anna Dente and I was born on 25 December 1943 in the rural village of San Cesareo, in the province of Rome. The Americans were bombing the area south of the capital to prepare for the allied landing of Anzio and Nettuno, which is why my birth was officially registered on January 2, 1944 ”. Maybe she was born during the war, maybe she grew up in the countryside and it was formed between the family butchery-norcineria and the restaurant of Aunt Ada Dente, but for Anna Dente there was no need to get up from the table if you were not satisfied.

With his family opened Osteria di San Cesario in San Cesareo in 1995 with the intention of preserving the gastronomic tradition of the area and until recently she was in the kitchen. Then a bad illness drove her away from her kingdom, only a few days ago a moving post by her son Emilio celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Osteria, which opened on November 17, 1995, a Friday, in spite of all superstitions. "My mother, with a heap of flour and a little water, conquered the world. A farmer and butcher from a small town 29 kilometers south-east of Rome, relaunched Roman-Lazio cuisine and became ambassador of Roman cuisine in the world".

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