FAVE E CICORIE

FAVE E CICORIE. BROAD BEANS AND CHICORY. Ferrara Aurora , Dell’Orco Giusy, Verdano Martina..

ORIGINS. Broad beans and chicory it comes to a dish that is part of our tradition, due to the bond with our land and family, in an intertwining of public and private stories that is impossible to untangle and that makes it a real e own monument of the gastronomy of Puglia. Aristophanes in the play The Frogs, written around 450 BC. C., tells that Ercole, the son of Jupiter after having had a proper meal with his favorite dish, beans and leaves, made him change been to more than ten thousand virgins. For the avoidance of doubt, the quote only serves to indicate the antiquity of this dish, a dish already known in ancient Greece and later spread to Southern Italy to become one of the main courses of the Apulian peasant tradition: the merit of its diffusion is linked also to the fame of its properties, nourishing and invigorating at the same time. In some areas of Puglia this dish is called 'ncapriata, with a term that of new denounces its antiquity: the word derives, in fact, from the Latin caporidia, in turn adaptation of the Greek kapyridia, a kind of polenta made with crushed wheat. The bean puree it would be an evolution of this distant dish born from man's first culinary 'experiments' . The broad beans were cooked in the "pignata", a pot-bellied terracotta pot used to cook legumes, and chicory, cooked in another pot in smaller terracotta. Both were put on the fire in the "kitchen", a large fireplace around which you could also sit, basking in the heat of the flame while the pots rumbled softly: cooking was very slow, marked by periodicals stir..

Once cooked the chicory was put aside, while the broad beans were placed in a large bowl: at that point with a large wooden spoon, they are stirred until they become an exquisite purée. The broad beans were cooked in pignata, while today they are cooked on a gas stove and this has meant that the taste has changed; however even today there are some people who cook them with pignate. In any case, despite the passing of the years, the fashions and, above all, the ways of cooking, broad beans and chicory is still a very popular dish in Puglia. Even today, in the summer, on the terraces of the houses in the various villages you can still see the expanses of new fava beans left to dry, which housewives stock up for the winter. However, they remain a dish of great impact, thanks also to some home tricks, such as the addition of a white potato that allows for a creamier purée, with a lighter color..

INGREDIENTS: 500 g of peeled broad beans ; 1 medium potato (about 150 g) 500 g of chicory (in the absence of wild chicory we use cultivated ones) extra virgin olive oil Salt to taste.

METHOD: Put the broad beans in water for twelve hours. After the indicated time, wash the broad beans under running water and put them in a pot high edges. Cut the potato into slices and arrange them on the broad beans inside the pot, in this way you will have a much thicker and creamier puree. Cover everything with water and cook over high heat. Close the pot with a lid and boil at this point the fave beans by removing the foam that forms when they start to boil. Once all the foam is removed, lower the heat to low and cook for at least three hours, they will be ready when they start to flake. Once ready, turn the beans with a wooden spoon until they form one puree. Add the salt While the broad beans are cooking, prepare the boiled chicory. Clean the chicory by removing the root part and the most bruised leaves. Fill a saucepan with plenty of salted water and when it reaches the boiling point cook the chicory, they will be cooked when the leaves wrap around the fork. When the broad beans are ready, place them both on a serving dish, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and serve with slices of Apulian bread. Note: broad beans should never be mixed with chicory, they should be eaten alternately others to enhance the characteristics of the two elements thus creating a union perfect..

MEDICAL PROPERTIES. Wild chicory, or "chicory", in the past were highly appreciated for their medicinal properties, just think that Pliny the Elder in his "Natural History" enhances their antineuralgic, diuretic, stomachic and cholagogue properties. Only later were they used for food, due to their important presence in the Murgese territory, in uncultivated and uncultivable land.