Traditional food and recipes of Molisan cuisine

Eating “Molisan style” is more than merely eating. The essence of the traditional food of Molise is simplicity: fresh seasonal ingredients cooked with basic techniques to simply enhance the natural flavor of the food. It offers different tastes, from the meat (lamb, pork), soups, cheeses, fish food and wild herbs. The traditional food has a great variety of recipes that are easy to do by yourself, here is some:

Torcinelli

A typical food of local festivals, the torcinelli are made of liver, lamb’s offal and tripe spiced with salt, pepper, parsley and paprika. They are grilled.

Ingredients:

• 500 gr Lamb’s offal (liver, spleen, lung, tripe)intestine
• parsley
• salt
• pepper
• paprika

Directions:

Wash the intestine with salt and lemon and let them strain.

Shred the offal and boil the tripe. When it is cooked spice with salt, pepper and paprika. Wrap the meat and tripe with the intestine tightly and grill for some minutes.

Brodetto di pesce

The Brodetto di pesce is the symbol of the marinara cousin of the Adriatic coast. It is made of different kind of fish cooked with a light tomato sauce.

Ingredients

• 1,500 kg of fish ( scorpion fishes, moorhens, squalls, prawn, small cods, calamaries, mullets, gilthead)
• 500 gr of shells
• 500 gr of mussels
• 800 gr of tomatoes
• garlic
• extra virgin olive oil
• parsley
• salt
• white wine
• green pepper

Directions:

Put in a terracotta pot the oil, the tomatoes, garlic, parsley and the green pepper and let them cook for around 15 minutes, add all the fishes and let them cook for other 30 minutes. When it’s ready, serve with fresh parsley and some toasted slices of bread.

Traditional food in Molise

Baccalà arracanato (stockfish au gratin)

The baccalà (stockfish) is very common in the molisan cuisine. This recipe is made typically during Christmas period.

Ingredients:

• 600 gr of baccalà
• 250 gr of crumb
• 200 gr of walnuts
• 50 gr currants
• 100 gr of black olives
• 10 tomatoes
• garlic
• parsley
• 1 glass of white wine

Directions:

Put the baccalà in a baking tin with the extra virgin olive oil. Soak the currants with some water, then squeeze and put together with the crumb, the parsley, the walnuts, the garlic and some oil. Finally add some salt and pepper. Put this crumb over the baccalà and add the tomatoes, the black olives and the white wine. Cook in the oven at 180° for about 35 minutes.

Pancotto (Panada) with vegetables

This is an old and traditional recipe usually prepared during winter. It’s very simple and tasty!

Ingredients:

• stale bread
• 800 gr of wild vegetables
• 1 slice of bacon
• garlilc
• parsley
• chilli pepper
• extra virgin olive oil

Clean and wash the vegetables, boil them in salt water and cook for about 1 hour. In the meantime in a pan fry oil, garlic, pepper, the parsley and the diced bacon. When it’s ready, add the vegetables and let them cook for few minutes. Finally add the stale bread.

Pallotte cacio e uova (Cheese and eggs balls)

Ingredients:

• 300 gr bread crumb
• 150 gr of grated pecorino cheese
• 6 eggs
• parsley
• red peppers
• 200 gr of tomatoes
• onion
• oil
• salt

Directions:

In a large pan let fry the onion with oil, the diced tomatoes and the red peppers and let them cook for 20 minutes. In the meantime in a bowl mix the bread crumb with the cheese and add the eggs and the parsley and obtain a solid dough. Make small balls and cook them in the tomato sauce for 15 minutes.