Orechiette con ‘Nduja

Last night at my Italian class at the Museo ItaloAmericano (which is currently studying the Italian region of Basilicata), I gave a short talk about Peperoni di Senise, a red pepper that is grown in and around the town of Senise in the southeastern area of Basilicata. See this link for an interesting story about a chili fan’s visit to Senise.

In order to provide a bit more “flavor” for my presentation, I stopped by Barbacco on my way to class and picked up an order of their ‘nduja. ‘Nduja is a spreadable sausage with origins in Calabria, the region bordering Basilicata to the south, and which, at least in the Italian original, often incorporates Peperoni di Senise.

Rosetta Costantino, who teaches Calabrian cooking in Emeryville, and who last year came out with the wonderful cookbook, “My Calabria,” has done this blog post about ‘ndjua. I have borrowed a couple of Rosetta’s photos from that blog to show just how much red pepper the real Calabrian ‘ndjua contains!

I am afraid that Barbacco’s ‘nduja may not measure up to Calabrian standards of spiciness, but it is spicy enough for me and is a wonderful dish.

After last night’s class there was a bit of ‘nduja left over. Barbacco only serves its ‘nduja as an appetizer with some toasted bread, and I had always wanted to try it as a pasta topping as Rosetta shows in her blog – mixed just with a bit of tomato paste. I did just that this evening with some orechiette (sorry, it’s a Pugliese pasta, but at least Puglia also borders on Basilicata). It could not have been easier, and the result was fantastic.

I highly recommend giving that a try!

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Tasting Calabria with Rosetta Costantino

A couple of years ago while surfing the net I came across an article – “Calabria from Scratch” – by Janet Fletcher that had appeared a few years earlier in the San Francisco Chronicle in September 2004. We had taken some classes from Janet at the Cheese School of San Francisco and I have always been a fan of her style in her regular articles in the Chron’s “The Cheese Course”. I always enjoy knowing where things come from and Janet has a wonderful knack of explaining about food products in their geographical and historic context.

Janet’s article told the story of a woman living in the East Bay named Rosetta Costantino who had come to the Bay Area with her parents, Vincenzo and Maria Dito, from the southern Italian region of Calabria when she was a teenager. The article went on to describe the massive quantity of typical Calabrian vegetables the Ditos managed to grow in their modest back yard and some of the Calabrian dishes made by Rosetta and her mother.

The article concluded with some wonderful Calabrian recipes and a mention of a couple of cooking classes Rosetta was going to be giving in Emeryville.

After I read the article I Googled Rosetta’s name and found that she had a website - Cooking with Rosetta. There I learned that those initial cooking classes mentioned in Janet's article had been very successful and had, over the intervening years, given rise to regular classes focusing on dishes from Calabria and elsewhere in Southern Italy (Rosetta’s husband, Lino, is from Palermo on Sicilia so she has some direct experience with Sicilian cuisine as well). Unfortunately the classes seemed to sell out almost as soon as they came on line.

At the end of last year I decided that the only way to have a chance to take one of Rosetta’s classes was to plan well in advance, so when I saw a few months ago that she has posted a new class entitled “A Taste of Calabria” that was going to be held last Friday night, I immediately signed up together with Alex and Cassie.

Calabria is the Italian region that is furthest south on the Italian peninsula – it is the toe of the Italian boot, just across the Straits of Messina from Sicilia (I have marked on the following map the approximate location of the town of Verbicaro from which the Dito family came).

One of the primary characteristics of Calabrian cuisine that sets it apart from that of other Italian regions – even those which border it – is that it is SPICY – a result of liberal use of the Italian chili pepper – pepperoncino – which is celebrated throughout the region.

My friend Antonio, who comes from Salerno not far north of Calabria in Campania, tells the story of a Calabrian girlfriend he had who used to invite him home for meals which he often found too spicy to eat.

I had not known much about Calabria until recently when I became interested in the Calabrian salumi called ‘nduja, a specialty of the town of Spilinga in the province of Vibo Valentia, which hosts an annual festival to celebrate the salume. Rosetta has a very good post on her blog that describes ‘nduja. The version now offered at Barbacco in San Francisco has become a favorite of ours, although we brought some along to the class and Rosetta advised that while it was quite good, it was not the same as the Calabrian original.

So on Friday evening, Alex, Cass and I met in the city and drove over to Emeryville where Rosetta gives her classes at the Paulding & Company facilities. When we arrived we found that not only was Rosetta there, but also her mother, Maria Dito, her husband, Lino, and their son, Adrian. So it was very much a family affair.

Here was our line up for our class:

Bruschetta con Fagioli and Rapini (Bruschetta with Beans and Broccoli Rabe)

This was a fairly easy dish to make. Both this dish and the separate Broccoli Rape Strascinati served with the sausage as a main course used the same Broccoli Rape preparation.






Gnocchi di Patate con Sugo di Pomodoro (Potato Gnocchi with Tomato Sauce)

For this dish we rolled gnocchi using ridged, wooden gnocchi paddles. I am afraid our gnocchi were not very uniform and neither Rosetta nor Maria was very impressed. Still, they certainly tasted good! Of course, the really critical work is the preparation of the dough, and we were not entrusted with that task.




Salsiccia Calabrese Arrostita (Grilled Homemade Calabrian sausage)

Rosetta had ground the pork for this dish in advance and all that we needed to do was add the spices, clean the hog casings and stuff them with the ground pork, before tying them up and putting them in the oven to cook (the kitchen did not have a grill). Rosetta has a very good description of this on her blog.






Broccoli Rape Strascinati (Broccoli Rabe sautéed in olive oil with garlic)

As noted, this was the same preparation that was used for the bruschette. Very easy to make and very tasty. For the preparation at class we blanched the Broccoli Rabe in boiling water to remove some of the bitterness, although I personally prefer to have it slightly bitter.

Torta di Noci con Crema di Nocino (Flourless Walnut Cake with Nocino liqueur sauce)

This was a very good light dessert. I had never heard of Nocino liqueur before (it is made from green walnuts, and hence can only be made in the Spring) but found a couple of recipes for it on line – see here and here. It seems to be a particular specialty of Modena in Emilia-Romagna, although there is now even a version - Nocino della Cristina - being produced in Napa.



Rosetta is also coming out at the end of this year with a cookbook entitled “My Calabria” which, just to show how things come full circle, she wrote with Janet Fletcher, who had encouraged her to start her cooking classes in the first place. The cover is below (peppers – what else!).

The photography in the book was done by a Bay Area photographer named Sara Remington who does beautiful work. Sara also has a blog with a post with photos from a trip she made to Calabria last year with Rosetta (check out the color of the 'nduja at the bottom of the below photo!).

It was a wonderful class and Alex, Cass and I had a great time.

If you note that Maria appears in many of the above photos it is because I have never seen anyone work so hard. She was all over the room during the class helping everyone and doing most of the hard work - both preparation and cleaning up. It was a pleasure (as well as being a life saver!) to have her there.

Rosetta may be taking some time off from her classes towards the end of the year for promotion of her cookbook, but we certainly look forward to taking another class from her in the future. Incidentally, we also learned at the class that one of Vincenzo Dito's secrets to creating the virtual forest of San Marzano tomatoes you can see in the photo at the start of this article is -- goat manure. We will have to keep this in mind on our next visit to Harley Farms!

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Back to Barbacco – Twice More!!

To paraphrase Stuart Mackenzie's comment about Colonel Sanders in “So I Married an Axe Murderer,” the folks at Barbacco Eno Trattoria must be putting a addictive chemical of some sort in their ‘nduja Calabrian salume because I am definitely craving it – and more often than fortnightly!

After sampling Barbacco’s ‘nduja for the first time on my first visit on their opening day the week before last, I was back again twice last week, once for lunch with Jeff and the second time for a glass of wine (hurray – the got their liquor license!) and some snacks with Antonio. We had it both times and it is excellent – just a tad spicy and with a wonderful smoked flavor. Plus the toasted bread that they serve with it is just right.

At lunch with Jeff we also tried a couple of Barbacco’s soups – a borlotti bean minestra and a broccoli rabe with farro, both of which were very good. During my visit with Antonio we also tried their arancini (fried rice balls stuffed with mozzarella and peas) and their ascolane (a dish of fried green olives stuffed with a pork mixture that originated from Ascoli Piceno in Le Marche) - I believe both dishes are only found on their evening menu.

Both were superb and paired perfectly with the Il Mio Malvasia from Camillo Donati in Emilia-Romagna that Mauro Cirilli, the Wine Director of Perbacco/Barbacco, recommended. Orange-hued wine? -- why not if it tastes that good!

Seeing the selection of food and wine offered at Barbacco makes me think of a kid with a brand new toy. Having refined their presentation of Piemontese and Northern Italian cuisine at Perbacco, the Perbacco/Barbacco management seems to be having a great time at their new restaurant exploring the cuisine of the rest of the Italian peninsula as suggested on the following map by the origins of the three dishes Antonio and I enjoyed.

We also went to Perbacco last night for dinner with some friends and found that with the opening of Barbacco, the Perbacco salumi misti platter has become both more Piemontese-focused and more extensive. One one hand, it appears that some non-Piemontese selections formerly on that platter (for example the Mortadella and Finocchiona) have moved on to Barbacco, while, on the other hand, the number of products with Piemontese roots has expanded. Here is the impressive lineup we enjoyed:

~ Coppa al Barbera
~ Lardo di Cavour
~ Salam d’la Duja
~ Salame Cotto d’Asti
~ Salame Cuneese
~ Salame della Valle Tortonese
~ Salame di Capra
~ Salciccia di Bra
~ Testa in Casseta di Gavi

I have to do more background research on those, but one real standout for me was the Salciccia di Bra, which I had never heard of before, but is veal-based and similar to a steak tartare. It was really exceptional (in fact I found that it has its own promotional organization and Facebook page!), in particular paired with the wonderful Domenico Clerico Trevigne Barbera d’Alba suggested by Mauro. Bravo!

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First Perbacco – Now BARBACCO!

I have been going to Perbacco with our family and friends since it first opened next door to Tadich Grill on California Street in October 2006. Since then it has become our favorite Italian restaurant in San Francisco, and its management and staff have become good friends.

Last week Perbacco’s “little sister” – Barbacco Eno Trattoria - opened right next door to Perbacco on California Street, and my friend, Yutaka, and I were there on Monday for “opening day.”

I have to admit that when I heard that Umberto Gibin and Staffan Terje (Perbacco’s owners) were opening a new Italian restaurant right next to Perbacco, I had doubts as to whether they could pull it off without drawing customers away from Perbacco. However, I am happy to be able to report that I feel they have done a great job of both creating another first rate dining experience, while positioning the two restaurants to complement each other without competing.

As both the “bar” in Barbacco and the “eno” (short for the Italian regional wine shop called an “enoteca”) in the establishment’s name suggest, an important focus of Barbacco Eno Trattoria will be the exploration of Italian wines. In addition, as “trattoria” indicates, Barbacco will be less formal than the classic Italian “ristorante” – of which Perbacco is an obvious good example - with lower prices and a more casual menu and service. Here is a video which provides a very good overview of the restaurant (by the way, I tracked down the lively background music on the video - "The Disco Song" by Au Revoir Simone).

That more relaxed atmosphere was evident when Yutaka and I arrived on Monday of last week. The only disappointment was that due to the vagaries of the San Francisco city administration, the issuance of Barbacco’s liquor license had been delayed so the enoteca experience was on hold (happily I learned that Barbacco's license was issued last Friday!). However, while Barbacco is a certainly a different experience than Perbacco from the standpoint of overall atmosphere, culinary focus (Perbacco emphasizes primarily northern Italian – primarily Piemontese - cuisine while Barbacco focuses on more rustic and somewhat spicier foods from the central and southern regions of Italy) and price, on two critical factors – quality of the food and service – it is in my view the equal of Perbacco (even on opening day!). Of course, this should not be a surprise given the common ownership, the investment that has been made in the training of the staff, and the fact that two of the key positions – General Manager and Executive Chef – are held by Maria Eugenia Armando and Sarah Burchard, two women who are Perbacco veterans. Needless to say, Umberto and Staffan, as well as Mauro Cirilli, the Wine Director of both Perbacco and Barbacco, are also very much in evidence to ensure a first rate dining experience.

The specific items on Barbacco’s menu will change with the seasons and availability of ingredients, but I believe the basic categories found on Monday’s menu will remain fairly constant – i.e.:

~ inizio (at the start)
~ bruschette (grilled bread with toppings)
~ foglie e radici (greens and roots – i.e. salad)
~ nella ciotola (in the bowl – i.e. soup)
~ tra fette (between the slices – i.e. sandwiches)
~ dal grano (from grain – i.e. pasta, polenta, etc.)
~ piedi-ali-pinne (legs-wings-fins – i.e. meat)
~ a lato (on the side)
~ latte stagionato (aged milk – i.e. cheese)
~ zucchero (sugar – i.e. dessert)

Yutaka and I were hungry on Monday and in the mood to try a number of items. With the help of our waiter, Michael, our selections were:

~ inizio: quick braised squid/ tomato/ chili/ garlic/ spicy pan grattato
~ bruschette: broccoli rabe/ chili/ bellwether farm crescenza cheese and duck liver pate/ basalmico/ onion marmellata
~ foglie e radici: butcher’s salad – house made salumi/ lettuce heart/ olives/ pickled peppers
~ dal grano: penne/ tomato sugo/ barbacco pancetta/ onion/ chili pepper
~ a lato: soft polenta/ parmigiano reggiano/ extra virgin olive oil
~ zucchero: vanilla panna cotta/ citrus curd

Absolutely everything was excellent. The squid was tender, the pasta al dente and with a bright flavor, the polenta creamy, and the panna cotta with just the right sweet/tart balance. However, the single most impressive item for me was a dollop of the Calabrian salame called ‘nduja made there at Barbacco that was included in the Butcher’s Salad (it is also offered separately in the inizio section of the menu). The only ‘nduja (pronounced “en-DOO-yah) that I have ever had is that offered by Boccalone in the Ferry Building, which was the subject of a recent New York Times article, but I have to say there is just no comparison between Barbacco’s version and that of Boccalone from either the basis of flavor or texture. You really need to try it.

I am looking forward to getting back to Barbacco to further explore their menu and to learn more about their wine program which should now be up and running.

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