LUMACHE DI GRAGNANO AND FRIENDS

This is a lovely recipe, one that’s just so ideal to share with friends. I cook this in a large pan that goes from hob to oven, and straight onto table. Serve with a deep red wine or a crispy fresh white one in Summer, a couple of farmhouse cheese chunks for afters… Great company, and let the good times roll!

Serves 6
120g Pine Nuts
220g Pancetta Agl’Aromi di Falorni, in thin-ish slices
500g Pomodorini di Pachino [or any other cherry tomatoes, if the Pachino ones are not in season]
700g good quality Maltese Sausage [Naxxar's Victory Butcher has some really lean and well-seasoned Maltese sausage. I like to use the peppery pork ones for this dish.]
800g Lumache Pasta di Gragnano di Pastificio dei Campi
300g Taleggio cheese
200g Parmigiano di Montagna
Garlic
Olive oil
Salt, Pepper, Falorni’s Aroma Speciale per Arrosti

Roast pine nuts in dry pan until just golden. Set aside. Place pancetta slices in hot, dry pan and cook until coloured on both sides. Set aside on kitchen paper. Repeat with rest of pancetta slices. [Once pancetta cools, it should be crispy, brittle.] You are now left with lovely, melted pancetta fat in the pan. You’re using this fat to cook the rest of the dish in.

In the meantime, put a large pot of well-salted water on the fire. Cut the Maltese sausage in approx 2cm lengths, removing the skin in the process and rolling the sausage meat into balls, so that you end up with little sausage-meatballs. With a hand-blender, process around 6 or 8 garlic cloves with olive oil until smooth. Half the pomodorini.

Cook the sausage balls until browned all over. Add pomodorini. Season with salt, pepper and Falorni’s Aroma Speciale per Arrosti. Add garlic oil. Toss well until pomodorini are cooked through and slightly softened.

Pasta must be three-quarter’s of the way through its cooking time by now. Using slotted spoon, pick lumache straight from the pot into the pan and finish its cooking in the sausage and pomodorini mix, adding hot water from the pot as necessary. Add grated Parmigiano di Montagna. Toss and mix very well. You should have a smooth consistency, one that’s not too runny but neither dry.

Pan off the fire, top pasta mix with slices of taleggio, pine nuts and roughly-broken, crispy pancetta slices. Place under a hot grill, just until the taleggio melts. Place at table centre immediately, and let everyone serve themselves at leisure. Heavenly!

Know Your [Gragnano] Pasta

From as early as the 1500s, the comune di Gragnano, in the heart of Italy’s Campania region, has been considered home to the best air-dried pasta in Italy. Gragnano’s via Roma was even re-designed to maximise its sunny areas, which favoured the drying of the pasta. The art of making pasta from durum wheat was handed down from generation to generation for centuries, right up to the present day. Today, pasta di Gragnano is famous the world over and has an IGP recognition, which guarantees the origin and quality of the product, and, in the case of Gragnano Pasta, it also testifies a secular tradition.
For pasta di Gragnano to be IGP recognised it must be produced in the city of Gragnano and made solely from durum wheat and from water of the local water-bearing layer. The production process involves the extrusion through bronze frames. This process is synonymous with quality because it creates a roughness in the pasta that lets sauces adhere to the pasta better. Bronze frames, which give the pasta a whitish colour, are difficult to use and slow down the entire pasta production process. The next step of production is the drying process, at a temperature between 40 and 80°C for a period of between 6 and 60 hours, depending on the pasta shape, in static cells to drain or in tunnels where the hot air is circulated. Once dried, Gragnano Pasta is allowed to cool and is wrapped within 24 hours, without it being carried to allow a perfect preservation of the product.
Pasta di Gragnano IGP must be packed in cardboard boxes or transparent plastic bags, made of vegetable or other recyclable material, as allowed by EU rules.

SPAGHETTI ALLA BOTTARGA DI MUGGINE

This is a great recipe as told to us by Uncommon Malta + Gozo editor, Emma Mattei. Tried and tested, so quick and easy to make, you can literally rustle it up in just a few minutes, it will so remind you of long summer nights, dining out at the water’s edge.

For 4 people, you will need

6 tablespoons of olive oil

4 medium-sized, dry, local garlic, thinly sliced

1 small fresh chilli, finely chopped

Zest and juice of half a large lemon

50g Bottarga di Muggine – we carry a great fresh bottarga from Sardegna

Fresh breadcrumbs – just whizz some ‘dry-ish’ bread in a blender

500g Spaghetti Lunghi di Gragnano – we love the spaghetti lunghi, and the Gragnano ones from Pastificio dei Campi are the works

Get a large pot of salted water started on the fire. While that’s going, gently heat the olive oil in a large pan. Add garlic, chilli, lemon zest. Turn up the heat a notch. Add thinly sliced bottarga. Lower heat after a couple of minutes, just enough time for the bottarga to melt. Turn up the heat again and add the bread crumbs. Sizzle. Add lemon juice. Pasta must be three-quarter’s of the way through its cooking time by now. Using spaghetti tongs, pick spaghetti straight from the pot into the pan and finish its cooking in the bottarga mix, adding olive oil and hot water from the pot as necessary. Toss and mix well. Serve. Divine summer on a plate!

RISOTTO AL TARTUFO

It is the season for the Spring Bianchetto truffle [Tuber Borchii Vitt]. A less pungent one than its winter counterpart, the Bianchetto is equally tasty and provides a more affordable alternative for all truffle lovers. Needless to say, where 5g per person are enough when using the white winter truffle, in this case one should use at least 10g per person. This risotto is simple but delicious if you use good quality ingredients, which are really key to the success of this dish. The secret to a good risotto is the even and gentle boil at which it is cooked as well as the constant stirring, so that what you end up with is an unctuous, creamy consistency and not a sticky one. Always make a fresh stock, using a fresh cut of meat [beef in this case] and keep it warm while you’re cooking the risotto so that it doesn’t alter its temperature when you’re adding stock. All products used in this recipe are available at The White Sheep, of course .

Gently sweat down a finely chopped onion in butter or olive oil. Add Gli Aironi carnaroli or arborio rice [approx 1 cup p/person]. Heat through. Add a glass of white wine and let it evaporate. Stir constantly throughout the cooking process of the risotto. Add warm beef stock, a ladle at a time, letting each dose boil away before you add the next. When the risotto is nearly cooked, add grated Parmigiano Reggiano di Montagna [around 30g p/person]. You should end up with a creamy, fluid consistency. Plate and top with a drizzle of very good extra-virgin, cold-pressed olive oil [Seggiano's or Tenuta di Forci's are both fine examples of delicious olive oils] and shavings of fresh truffle [around 10g p/person]. Serve immediately.

‘TIS THE BLACK SUMMER TRUFFLE SEASON

The Black Summer Truffle season is back. We’re talking about the Italian truffle here. Though less pungent than the white winter one, [you will need around 10g per person as opposed to the 5g used with the winter one] it is equally nice shaved over your barbecued meats, in risottos, shaved over a quick plate of light, La Campofilone egg pasta… Or try this for a rather special, lazy, Sunday brunch.

Tuber Aestivum Egg Delight
In a large bowl crack two eggs per person.
Add a couple of spoonfuls, per serving, of crème fraiche.
Season with salt, pepper and some finely chopped sage. Beat.
Grease large ramekins with a little butter. Pour in mixture evenly.
Place on baking tray and pop into 180-degree pre-heated oven.
Check them after 5-7 minutes. Once set to your liking, take out of oven,
and shave around 5g of truffle over each ramekin.
Serve immediately with a simple, walnut, side salad,
a couple of thin slices of crispy grilled pancetta by Antica Macelleria Falorni,
and fresh Maltese bread.

Divine.