Prepared with cabbage and pork scraps, Cassoeula is one of the most famous dishes of Lombard cuisine. With very ancient origins it is particularly widespread in the winter season
Of the pig does not throw anything awayor rather, we make ourselves the Cassoeula. This typical Lombard dish of peasant origin its main ingredients are the wastes of pork processing such as: ears, tail, walking, rinds and ribs. The traditional preparation involves cooking with the cabbage. These vegetables, however, before being boiled in the pan with the pork must undergo the first winter frost, which shortens the cooking time and makes them more tender. Caloric dish is particularly suitable to face the cold in the early months of the year, the Cassoeula, in the past few centuries, was among the most common dishes among the farmers of the Po Valley. The latter made a virtue of necessity, making the most of those parts of the pig that gentlemen and nobles rejected on their tables.
The name
There is a bit 'of confusion about the origin of the name of this traditional dish. Probably derives from the kitchen utensils with which it was prepared. Some believe that Cassoeula derives from "cassoeu" ladle in Milanese dialect, for others the merit of the name would be ascribed to the casserole, or the pan in which the cabbage and pork were cooked. According to another tradition, more modern than the others, Cassoeula derives from "trowel", The typical tool of masons to spread the mortar between the bricks. This version wants the workers, once the construction of the building had reached the roof, using the trowel, in the absence of a real ladle, to mix the preparation during cooking. Another name with which the Cassoeula is known is "bottaggio". The term derives from "barrel" or more likely from the French "potage", soup.
The legend
La Cassoeula as it is prepared today born at the beginning of the twentieth century but the oldest recipes have an uncertain and rather controversial origin. There legend more widespread it binds to the Spanish domination of Milan end of the sixteenth century. According to this popular tradition, the dish would have been born thanks to a Spanish soldier that was hopelessly in love with a young Milanese. One day the girl, who was the cook of a noble family, had received the task of preparing a dinner for a great occasion but the pantry was empty. So the soldier ran to the young woman's help teaching her to do the Cassoeula with the few ingredients available. The dish was so successful that the cook decided to yield to the young officer's court.
Sant 'Antonio
Traditionally, however, the Cassouela is linked to a particular religious event: the feast of Saint Anthony the Abbot. The founder of Christian monasticism is considered the protector of domestic animals. In the iconography a pig is often shown with a bell around it. The anniversary falls January 17th, the day when the Church blesses the animals by placing them directly under the protection of the saint. The date, anciently, marked the end of the period of slaughter of pigs. For this reason, the Cassoeula was and still is still considered "the feast of the feast of Saint Anthony".
variants
The traditional recipe of Milanese Cassoeula includes plenty of savoy cabbage and pork parts such as verzini, cotenna, ribs and legs. The result can be considered satisfactory only if, at the end of cooking, the dish turns out to be greasy and tachénto, which in Milanese dialect means "sticky". Like all traditional dishes, the Cassoeula has also been handed down with slight modifications. So you can come across variants of the original recipe depending on the areas of Lombardy. In Brianzafor example, Cassoeula is drier than Milanese, it is more brothy. In the Como area do not put the feet but use the head of the pig, while in the province of Pavia only the pins are used. The most marked difference, however, is recorded in the Novara where pork can be substituted with goose meat.
