How To Make Crispeddi Cu Brocculu (Cauliflower Fritters)

When most Americans think of Italian cuisine, the idea of family-style pasta dishes set around a dinner table come to mind. While this scene is born mostly from our stereotype of Italian-American migrant families in the early 1900s, there is so much more to the daily cuisine options from Italy. One of the lesser known comes from Southern Italy called crispeddi cu brocculu.

Photo: Mangia Bedda

Crispeddi Cu Brocculu Recipe

This street-style favorite is sure to become a favorite as either a starter for your next family meal or as a side dish to the main course. We’ve dropped our favorite variation on the recipe courtesy of Mangia Bedda.

First, You’ll Need These Ingredients:

• 1 small cauliflower head about 3 cups

• 2 large eggs

• 1 cup all-purpose flour

• 1/2 tsp baking powder

• 3/4 cup water

• 1 tsp salt

• vegetable or canola oil for frying

Photo: Mangia Bedda

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How to Prepare

• Separate the cauliflower into bite size florets and boil in salted water until tender, about 8 minutes. Drain, and set aside.

• In a large bowl, beat the eggs. Add the water, flour, baking powder, and salt and stir until well combined. You are looking for the consistency of a pancake batter. Stir in the cauliflower chunks and toss to coat in the batter.

• Cover the bottom of a large, wide skillet with enough oil to reach the depth of 1 cm (about 1/2 inch). When the oil is hot, drop heaping spoonfuls of batter into the pan. I fry six crispeddi at a time. You can place them close together as they will not stick together.

• Fry until golden and crisp, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate covered in paper towels to soak up excess oil.

• Serve hot.

• These fritters are best eaten hot right out of the pan. However, if you have leftovers you can enjoy the next day by warming them in a 350F oven for about ten minutes. They will crisp up again.

Photo: Mangia Bedda

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Starting Out With Italian Soda

Starting Out With Italian Soda

Italian sodas have become increasingly popular around the world with one in particular gaining national notoriety in the U.S. Italian-based Stappi has captured the hearts of food bloggers around the world for good reason. The flavor catalogue is full of variety and has been used both as a refreshing summer drink as well as a favorite alcoholic mixer.  This does beg to questions however, where Italian sodas come from. It may surprise you that Italy isn’t the answer. Despite its name, Italian soda originated in the United States.

One claimant to the introduction and increased popularity of Italian sodas is Torani. Rinaldo and Ezilda Torre brought recipes for flavored syrups from Lucca, Italy, and in 1925 introduced what become known as an Italian soda to the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco, California. The Italian-American association with Italian sodas has been reinforced by various ready-made brands of Italian sodas, such as the 2005 creation of Romano's Italian Soda Company (named after the Italian-American grandfather of the company's founder) and the 2007 introduction of "The Sopranos Old Fashioned Italian Sodas" which come in three flavors: limoncello, amaretto, and Chianti. Additionally, unlike American sodas, they typically do not contain any caffeine.

According to Le Cordon Bleu, Italian sodas are actually “scoffed at by most full-blooded Italians.” However, Italians do enjoy a similar beverage made with myrtifolia juice, a native-Italian citrus fruit.

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The Likely Origins of Torrone

The Likely Origins of Torrone

Italy has its fair share of legendary desserts, however one stands above them all around the holiday season: the Torrone. All over Italy, The candy known as Torrone is a southern European nougat confection, typically made of honey, sugar, and egg white, with toasted almonds or other nuts, and usually shaped into either a rectangular tablet or a round cake. As popular as this delectable treat is, its origins are heavily disputed amongst the Italian community.

The city of Cremona in Lombardy has long proclaimed itself as the home of classical Torrone and swears that the sweet was served there for the first time after the marriage of the Tuscan-born mercenary Francesco Sforz, to Bianca Maria Visconti on October 2, 1441. 

It has also been rumored that Torrone arrived in Cremona long before the marriage of Sforza and Bianca in the 1200’s when the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II, visited the city along with his many gourmet chefs. There is strong evidence to suggest that he is responsible for why it is served during Christmas time since he had a tradition of eating an exotic candy on his birthday (which happens to fall on December 26th).

There is further evidence that the Torrone in Italy has an even longer past as historians have noted that Romans were introduced to the sweet treat by the Samnites during the years of the wars between them in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE.

Whatever the final verdict you come to on the origin of the Torrone, its place in Italian Christmas culinary rolodex has been cemented.

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A Brief History of Pasta

A Brief History of Pasta

As the cold season continues to roll in, we wanted to highlight a favorite comfort food that has spanned internationally for hundreds of years: Pasta.

If you somehow have not ever heard of this decadent entree, ”pasta" is Italian for paste, referring to the combination of flour and water that form over 600 different edible shapes worldwide and is usually eaten with different types of sauces or tossed with oil, herbs and spices (the exception being layered flat sheets like lasagna, which is baked and tubes and pillows which are stuffed).

It is a matter of much controversy with regards to the origin of this well-loved comfort food. One theory is that Marco Polo brought pasta back to Italy on his return from travels in China. This theory is however rejected by nationalistic Italians who claim that Marco Polo returned in 1295 but in 1279, a Genoese soldier listed in the inventory of his estate a basket of dried pasta. Another theory is that the origin of pasta dates back to an archeological find of Etruscan tombs. Carvings on some of the stucco reliefs in the tombs depicted a knife, board, flour sack and an iron pin which was interpreted that these instruments were used to make pasta.

In Naples, commercial pasta making took off when King Ferdinand II hired an engineer who devised a system of using a machine to knead and cut the dough. Naples soon became Italy's center of pasta. Macaroni and cheese was a popular dish in America during the Civil War, but it wasn't until the large scale Italian migration to America that pasta as we know it today became widespread.  The history of ravioli may be the most interesting of the bunch. The earliest records of ravioli appear in the preserved letters of Francesco di Marco in the 14th century. The city of Cremona claims to have created ravioli, but Genoa insists that the word ravioli comes from their dialect word for pasta, rabiole, which means "something of little value" and referred to the practice of poor sailors who suffered leftovers into pasta to be eaten for another meal.

So the heated debate continues down the ages paralleling pasta's continued development. Regardless, though, as to who did what and when, more importantly the world now enjoys pasta, and it has evolved without a doubt through the creativity and inventiveness of many including Italians who have embraced it as their own with the creation of shapes, sauces and processes.

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Exploring Eataly

Exploring Eataly

Ever dreamed of what it would look like if the folks at the Food Network were given a theme park? If so, you are in luck.

Located a half hour outside of Bologna, Italy  FICO Eataly World is open to the public and is dubbed by many in the media as the “Disney World of food.” 

There’s a dairy plant and outdoor livestock stalls along with a mini-plot of forest land that’s home to truffle dogs who show guests how they can sniff out truffles. There are also department store-like fixtures selling state-of-the-art kitchenware, an indoor sports area, a kids playground, an interactive hydroponics plant and 34 factories (including an Italian craft brewery and a flour and rice mill).

Photo: LIfeGate

On top of all of this, of course, is the food! The cuisine at FICO Italy World is dedicated to the best of what Italy has to offer. Some of the courses include a mortadella panini featuring ham made on-site, speared chunks of Parmigiano cheese aged up to 72 months, aged balsamic vinegar from Modena and Reggio Emilia. In addition to the main offerings in the food court, smaller stands offer less known delicacies like lampredotto (cow stomach stuffed in a panino) and gelato machine manufacturer, Carpigiani, offers tastes of the decadent Italian treat. 

The Italian food theme park was first envisioned in 2012 by the Agri-Food Center of Bologna and in 2014, they partnered with the founder of Eataly, Oscar Farinetti, to create FICO Eataly World. 

FICO — meaning “fig” and slang for “cool” in Italian — technically stands for Fabbrica Italiana Contadina (Italian Farming Factory), and the project is the culmination of efforts by private investors ranging from industrial producers, frozen food companies, milk producers, and government regulated agri-food consortiums.

The complex spans nearly 25 acres (you can even rent a bike to get around) where, In addition to all the food, drink, and spectacle, six educational rides called “carousels” can be enjoyed. These rides show the human relationship with agriculture by the themes of fire, earth, sea, animals, soil to bottle, and the future of food. For Eataly World , the main goal is to serve as a crossroads of food and sustainability that illustrates how Italian products known the world-over are made.

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Creating Ciabatta

Creating Ciabatta

Ciabatta is arguably the most famous of Italian breads and has continued to gain popularity over the last few decades. While some of this fame can be attributed to the fact that it has become a “trendy” food, the crux of what has so many people fawning over the Italian relative of the French baguette is the soft, long dough process and the use of a pre-dough.

In Italy, ciabatta is eaten in many ways, though the most popular is with a sprinkle of olive oil or as a panini filled with salami, mozzarella or Parma ham. It also has a versatility that many other breads do not as day old ciabatta loaves can be toasted or grilled and served with tomatoes, Parmesan cheese and basil as a juicy bruschetta or panzanella (bread salad). Ciabatta has found its way into many supermarkets in Latin America, Asia and Africa as well as the international bread industry offers ciabatta in a multitude of different forms.

A Sample Recipe for Ciabatta Includes:

Although details of the origins of ciabatta are not known for certain, the history of the Italian speciality is linked with the name Arnaldo Cavallari who was determined to develop an Italian counterpart to the French baguette together with Francesco Favaron. After many experiments, they created a coarse-textured bread made from high-mineral flour, eventually resulting in what we now know as ciabatta. Cavallari, who died in 2016, has become a legendary figure in Italian culture as ciabatta is now one of the best-known bread specialities worldwide and is no less popular than the French baguette.

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