“Paglione in Cucina”, tasting the Peeled Yellow Cherry Tomato

Italy is among the countries with the highest density of traditional recipes, a few kilometers are enough to find yourself immersed in entire gastronomic encyclopedias. Nomenclatures, ingredients, quantities, preparation or cooking methods, recipes that are always similar but never the same. The mambricole, or mambrikule, for example, are a type of fresh pasta typical of Lucera. Some people share them with couscous, others with grattini. The name, so particular, is very descriptive, it was born from the union of “hands” and “crumbs” and refers to the custom that mothers and children on Christmas morning worked together for the preparation of this pasta. In fact, once the dough was prepared, the children cut it into small pieces, in crumbs precisely. Also on the dough there are different versions. A common rule seems to have been the preparation of the broth, which was added to the dough in a small part and then, the remainder, used to cook the mambricole at lunch time. In the wealthiest families, turkey broth or capon was used, which was added to durum wheat semolina, parsley, eggs and parmesan. In the poorer houses, however, pecorino and colombo broth were used. The dough obtained had to be dry enough so that it could easily crumble. The recipe proposed by Paolo Laskavj, on firm maternal indication, includes Parmesan and pecorino cheese together and the addition of a very light vegetable broth. In this dish which is a riot of fresh vegetables and legumes, we find the colors and flavors of early spring. Broad beans, asparagus, wild thistles, peas, Peeled yellow cherry tomatoes, which together with the crispness of speck and the flakes of cacioricotta accompany the mambricole from the sweetest to the most salty notes, with the aromatic and slightly bitter finish of the Nasuta monocultivar olive oil.

Ingredients: Mambricole, Peeled yellow cherry tomatoes, speck, broad beans, peas, asparagus, wild thistles, ricotta cheese, Nasuta Evo Oil.

Recipe by Paolo Laskavj, Il Cortiletto Restaurant, Lucera