Antipasti Da Pino: Cold Cuts & Cheeses

When she gets to antipasti in La Cucina Napoletana, Caròla Francesconi says that they weren't yet fashionable when she was a girl -- at the most, restaurants that served them would bring a platter with finely sliced salami, canned anchovies, butter, and olives. In other words, not much, and if diners wanted something else as well, the restaurant would bring dishes that can double as sides or entrees, with each diner taking a couple of spoonfuls.

Moreover, antipasti were only served at midday, never in the evening.

She also says that the situation has changed since she was a girl, with antipasti appearing on restaurant menus. However, if you go someplace traditional you are still likely to be served a platter with a few cold cuts, and several plates or bowls with other things for people to partake from as they see fit.

I took these shots at Da Pino, a Ristorante Pizzeria in Taurasi (Irpinia, the mountains inland of Naples) that Luciano Pignataro, a friend and colleague whose site is a reference for Campanian food & wine, took us to during the presentation of the 2008 Taurasi. Pino's card says "Cucina Tipica Tradizionale," Classic Traditional Food, and it certainly was.

Here we have the antipasto platter, with black olives in the middle on a lettuce leaf, capocollo in the foreground, a salamino to the right (and behind the capocollo to the left), and caciocavallo cheese, a firm fairly sharp gourd-shaped pulled-curd cheese that has nothing to do with horses despite the sandwiching together of cacio (cheese) and cavallo (horse) in its name.

Rather, caciocavallo refers to the aging technique: the cheesmaker takes two freshly made forms, ties them together with a length of string, and then sets them astride, or a cavallo, a pole. So the name means cheese astride a pole.

Pino's address:
Da Pino
Via G. Matteotti
Taurasi (AV)
Tel 328 599 69 69
Pinocamarro (at) alice (dot) it

Antipasti Campani Da Pino: Fried Bread Dough

Fried dough balls dusted with salt are common throughout Italy and for good reason: They are lightly salted, and very much like cherries in that when you have eaten one it's difficult not to eat another and another...

I don't have a recipe for these particular fried dough balls, but the Pettole they make in nearby Puglia are quite similar.

Pino's address:
Da Pino
Via G. Matteotti
Taurasi (AV)
Tel 328 599 69 69
Pinocamarro (at) alice (dot) it

Antipasti Campani Da Pino: Fresh Ricotta

Ricotta is, strictly speaking, not a cheese, because it's made not from milk, but from the whey left over from cheesemaking. While you will find little tubs of ricotta in the dairy section of Italian supermarkets, you will also find fresh (ideally made early in the morning) ricotta in the deli section -- both cow's milk, which is creamier and blander, and sheep's milk, which is a little firmer and with a little more flavor.

Here we have (I think) sheep's milk ricotta, lightly seasoned with olive oil, salt and pepper. Very simple, and quite tasty.

Pino's address:
Da Pino
Via G. Matteotti
Taurasi (AV)
Tel 328 599 69 69
Pinocamarro (at) alice (dot) it

Antipasti Campani Da Pino: Beans and sausages

These are beans, recooked in tomato sauce, with a little crumbled sausage and a dusting of parsley added. Quite simple, and since the sausage is crumbled into the beans everyone will get some sausage with their beans.

Pino's address:
Da Pino
Via G. Matteotti
Taurasi (AV)
Tel 328 599 69 69
Pinocamarro (at) alice (dot) it

Antipasti Campani Da Pino: Cime di Rapa

Cime di Rapa is the Italian term for broccoli raab, and it is one of the staple winter vegetables of the south. It's prepared quite simply, cooked with a pinch of salt and the water that remains on the leaves when it is washed. When it is thoroughly wilted the juices, which are quite bitter, are for the most part squeezed out, it's chopped, and then it's tossed over a brisk flame with olive oil, just a little garlic, and another pinch of salt.

One thing: Italian Cime di Rapa are bitterer and more pungent than what's sold in the US, and this is because the D'Arrigo brothers, who were the first to popularize broccoli raab in the US, decided that American consumers would want a sweeter milder tasting vegetable and selected the cultivars they grew accordingly.

Pino's address:
Da Pino
Via G. Matteotti
Taurasi (AV)
Tel 328 599 69 69
Pinocamarro (at) alice (dot) it

A caponatina is an eggplant-based Sicilian wonder, but it's so good that you will find it in other parts of Italy too, including Da Pino.

Pino's address:
Da Pino
Via G. Matteotti
Taurasi (AV)
Tel 328 599 69 69
Pinocamarro (at) alice (dot) it

After brining out everything else the folks in the kitchen asked if there was anything else we really wanted, and one of my fellow diners asked if they had, perchance, any Soffritto.

In Tuscany a soffritto is a finely chopped blend of herbs, onion, carrot, celery, and parsley usually, one sautés to provide the foundation for a stew or a hearty sauce along the lines of sugo alla Bolognese.

In Irpinia on the other hand it's short for Soffritto d'Agnello, and is a stewed mixture of organ meats including the lungs, heart, liver and spleen.

In other words, it's holdover from the days when any meat was much too precious to be discarded, but what a holdover! Extraordinarily tasty, and it went very fast.

And here you have it, the antipasti Pino served us in January; were you to visit at a different time of year you would be served other things, but eat just as well.

Pino's address:
Da Pino
Via G. Matteotti
Taurasi (AV)
Tel 328 599 69 69
Pinocamarro (at) alice (dot) it