In Italian cuisine, extra virgin olive oil is generally used as a condiment or as a base for fried foods. However, there are some regional dishes in which oil plays a really relevant role, becoming one of the main ingredients.

In Liguria, a region known for its abundance of olive oil, among the recipes that pay tribute to our “liquid gold”, there is the famous “Brandacujun”. It is a preparation very similar to mashed potatoes, where potatoes and boiled stockfish are crushed together and dutifully, generously, seasoned with extra virgin olive oil of the highest quality.

The curious name of the recipe probably comes from the Provençal verb “brandare”, which means “shake”, since the essential procedure for mixing fish and potatoes consisted, and still consists if you want to have fun, in grabbing by the handles and vigorously shake the pot in which the ingredients are closed (see video below).

The Brandacujun can be enjoyed as a single dish, perhaps accompanied by a fresh salad, or for a delicious summer aperitif as I propose here: spread on bread croutons with the addition of a local Taggiasca olive!
You can find below the video that I shot in collaboration with the oil mill Novella & Vignolo, a small oil mill in business for more than 150 years in Recco, in the Paradise Gulf with an equally ancient olive just grove overlooking the sea!

Below you can find the recipe of Brandacujun as I prepare it. A couple of tips before leaving you to the recipe:

• Just the fun shaking of the pot may not be enough to mix the ingredients well, especially if it is hot and you lack the strength. You can very well mix vigorously with a wooden spoon. The optimal result is a consistent mash where you find it hard to figure out where the potato ends and the fish begins. Refrain blender.
• Add the oil first before mixing the ingredients, the vigorous “scramble” will facilitate the creaming of the potatoes.
• The other flavors – parsley, crushed garlic and lemon juice – add them before stirring, but Tienine always a little aside to adjust the recipe to your taste: each garlic tastes different, each lemon has a different acidity, each parsley has its own intensity. Taste, fix, try, fix… until your palate tells you it works. Even with salt, put it at the end and adjust it to your taste! Have fun!

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Are you looking for fresh and light recipes for a summer aperitif? You can take a look at the recipe of stuffed zucchini flowers baked in the oven, or polpettone: the potato and green beans tart, which can prepared the day before and can be served at room temperature cut in bite cubes. Also eggplant patties, they are not bad!!

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All you need is a fresh fish and a handful of flavors that speak of Liguria: tomatoes, olives, oregano and an excellent extra virgin olive oil like that of the Frantoio Novella & Vignolo, an mill that for more than 160 years processes olives in Recco, almost on the sea side (as you can see in the picture above!).

Did you notice the oil bottle? Yes, it is beautiful and special and she also talks about Liguria: it is in fact handmade in porcelain by the Mazzotti ceramics factory in Albisola, one of the most famous ceramics hub in Italy since centuries!

Here below you can find the video recipe of this amazingly easy and tasty Ligurian dish! Enjoy the sound, the music and imagine the flavours!

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They migrate in schools, in front of the Ligurian coasts from spring to autumn but are also found in winter, even if at greater depths.

In particular, they are the traditional dish of all the Cinque Terre. Here they are fished from the month of June (historically from June 29, Saint Peter’s Day) with  traditional methods.

Those of Monterosso, then, are the most famous. Both because they are particularly hard and tasty thanks to the special salinity and temperature of the seawater, and because Monterosso since the Middle Ages was known throughout northern Italy for its rich production and trade of salted anchovies.

In this village, in fact, in honor of anchovies, every year in the months of June and September two typical festivals take place: the fried anchovy festival (3rd Saturday in June) and the salted anchovy festival (3rd Saturday in September). If you are in the area at this time of summer don’t miss them!

Here you will find a collection of my Ligurian recipes with anchovies. You will see that there is also the Vernazza anchovy tart (“Tian”), which is one of the five villages in the Cinque Terre.

If you try any these recipes let me know what you think!

Lemon marinated anchovies

Fried anchovies

Anchovy tart

Vernazza anchovy tart

Stuffed fried anchovies

Stuffed baked anchovies

Anchovies cacciatore

Bagnun – anchovies soup

Pasta with salted anchovies

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They are a “flavor booster“ and the reason – Liguria old cook knew without knowing – is that they bring umami to any dish. Umami, what? Umami is the 5th sense of taste (jointly with sweet, salty, sour and bitter) discovered at the beginning of 1900 by a Japanese scientist. It simply brings savoriness to the dishes. For more info on the fascinating word of Umami check the official Umami website.

In Ligurian cuisine we add them as a base to many sauces, stews, soffritto, just because it enhances the flavors of dishes without living any fish taste.

But, they are also a great ingredient on their own, especially when you are in a rush and you want to prepare a very last minute pasta.

This is my dinner saving recipe. I make it in 10 minutes when I have an empty fridge or an empty mind.

Enjoy!

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In Liguria we have a couple of salats that with their ingredients represent our region, a land made of strong contrasts, long distances and people always in balance between the mountains and the sea.

One is the tomato salad called Condigiun, which I told you a few summers ago, the other is Capponada (or Capponadda), the one I’m talking about today.

Surely this dish has nothing to do with the Sicilian “Caponata”, the salad made with fried summer veggie.

Some believes the name comes from the term “caupona“, meaning “tavern”. For others, instead, it would be the abbreviation of “Capun de Galera”, a poor version of the noble “Cappon Magro” destined to the daily meals on board the sailing boats (called “Galere”).

What seems most likely is that this recipe was originally born to meet the needs of sailors who had to face long sea trips without touching land for many days.

The main ingredient of Capponada in fact are the sailor’s crackers called “Gallette del Marinaio”:  a thin and round bread “bis- cotto” (baked twice) that remains crispy for at least a whole year.

If you don’t have them at your disposal you can easily replace them with toasted bruschetta bread.

Stuffed aboard ships to survive during long journeys, Gallette del Marinaio were so hard that they were usually soak in seawater before eating. In the recipes prepared ashore – and which is reported in some ancient cookbooks (including “La vera cuciniera Genovese” by Rossi and  “Cucina di strettissimo magro” by Padre Delle Piane) – the Sailors’ crackers instead are softened in water and vinegar.

The second ingredient is preserved fish, in particular salted anchovies and mosciamme (from the Arabic mosammed, meaning dry), i.e. sun dried fish fillet. In the past mosciamme was produced by drying the fillet of dolphins, now fortunately replaced with tuna fillet.

 This is also a food easy to store during long sea voyages. Nowadays though mosciamme (rare and valuable product) is often replaced with canned tuna (only of the highest quality and sustainable, please!)

Perhaps to comfort the spirit and console the homesickness, these two ingredients were then seasoned with flavors that reminded sailors of the smell of their land far away: olives, capers and olive oil.

Today it is easy to find in Capponada also fresh tomatoes, basil leaves, and hard-boiled eggs, products however that on board the small boats of the past were very rare.

The origins of this dish are attributed by some to Camogli, the sailors’ village on the coast near Genova.

In fact, on its heights, in San Rocco di Camogli, there is the only bakery that still bakes since 1885 sailor’s crackers according to the traditional recipe. It’s the Maccarini bakery located in a little street just below the church square. If you pass by, buy them in bulk, they will last in your pantry as long as in the holds of ship!

In addition ,along the coast of Camogli there is the famous Tonnarella di Camogli (Slow Food Presidia of Liguria), an ancient seasonal fixed fishing system for catching tunas and blue fishes. This place produces for centuries salted anchovies, mosciamme and canned tuna.

Finally, right on the heights of Camogli, in the wonderful road overlooking the sea and surrounded by trees that leads from San Rocco di Camogli to Punta Chiappa, stands the Church of San Nicolò di Capodimonte. Here Father Gaspare delle Piane, a friar of San Francesco da Paola,  stayed and wrote in the mid-nineteenth century one of the first and main books of Ligurian cuisine “La cucina di strettissimo magro” containing only meatless dishes.

In the book there is obviously the recipe for this salad, called “Capun de Galera”. Padre delle Piane recipe includes, in addition to the sailors’ crackers soaked in water and vinegar, only capers, tuna mosciamme in thin slices and salted anchovies.

Capponada, to be honest, is also a typical preparation of La Spezia (Easter side of the Italian Riviera, close Cinqueterre) , where thyme takes the place of basil and where boiled eggs are often chopped over the salad.

I love the Camogli version of Padre delle Piane, softened by ripe tomatoes and some smelling basil leaves. Here it is!

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They are often prepared for family lunches, they are invariably found among the “mixed appetizers” of Trattorias that offer typical cuisine.

The secret for a success: just really fresh and seasonal anchovies !

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Summer equals vacation, friends, simplicity, slowness.

Instead of the usual dinner, an aperitif in the garden or on the terrace with chilly wine, perhaps sparkling, and a few good things to nibble. Children running around and it doesn’t matter if for once they won’t eat as much or they will do it with their hands.

Time passes and it doesn’t matter. It will be the moonlight to remind you that it’s time to say goodbye.

Today I share a recipe suitable for those evenings, when you want to prepare just one good thing and  buy the rest (or ask friends to bring something). When you want to complete your dish, pull behind the kitchen door, join the others and forget about everything else.

A couple of tips:

If you want to serve a perfect aperitivo Italian Riviera style and prepare Cod fritters (frisceu di baccalà) your beverages must be a chilly Italian Riviera white wine. You can opt for a Vermentino or for a Pigato. If you live in Genoa or in the nearby you can also try an historic local wine such as Bianchetta Genovese.

Cod fritters, or friscéu di baccalà, are a great classic of Genoese street food. My recipe is designed to be served in small bites, which you can easily eat with your hands, even as an aperitif. In the fried food shops and typical restaurants of the city, on the other hand, you will find cod fritters in king size version that are worth a portion of fish (see picture below).

If you want to try them to take away in Genoa, I suggest you go and buy them from Friggitoria Carega, in Sottoripa, one of the oldest fryers in the city.

For a brief history on the use of cod fish in the Italian Riviera cuisine you can have a look at my post with the recipe of “Ligurian stockfish stew”.

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Last summer at a small restaurant on the beach of Bogliasco (tables straight on the beach, noise of the waves as background music and feet in the sand) a friend of mine, regular at that place, ordered for me.

What arrived on the table, to my great surprise, was a steamy plate of linguini with mussel ragù! This is not a common dish, and it reminded me that recipe I had read just few days before in an ancient and famous Ligurian cookbook “La cucina di strettissimo magro” (literally : cuisine for the sacrifice days). It was written by a priest, Father Gaspare delle Piane, in the middle of the 19^th century, to help housewives  preparing tasting dishes also during sacrifice days, when according to Catholic Church eating meat and any animal derivate was strictly forbidden.

The recipe had impressed me because it made me smile. Among the possible “basic” ingredients of this pasta sauce there are in fact also 50 oysters (yes!), to be cooked in a pan and then pass through a sieve! But after all this is one of the funniest features of the book, which is studded with recipes that provide for the use in abundance of expensive or very rare ingredients for us, such as the recipe for  the Turtle Salami (“add a kilogram of turtle of sea or land … “), that of the turtle egg omelette (turtle eggs: 20) that of the pasta with roasted truffles (truffles gr. 90), or the sea otter pudding (however it does not say how much the sea otter must weigh !).

Last year, after having really enjoyed the dish, I promised myself to make the mussel ragù with the recipe from Father Dellepiane shortly. Instead, also thanks to the fact that the recipe was permanently associated with a summer evening by the sea, I let a year go by.

The original recipe provides for cockles, clams and oyster as main hero, because those were the molluscs available at the time. The cultivation of mussels is in fact was introduced in Liguria (and become very popular) only in a later period. To know more see the paragraph after the recipe.

I am sure, however, that if Father Dellepiane had mussels available he would certainly have included them in the recipe because the sense of this recipe is to prepare a pasta with an intense sea flavor.

The unusual and surprising ingredient of this sauce, which is also very common along the cookbook are pine nuts. Crushed roughly in the mortar and diluted with cold water, in fact, they create a cream similar to milk – called precisely “pine nut milk” – which gives the sauce creaminess (pine nuts are rich in fats) and crunchiness (due to the  remaining pieces of pine nuts) .

In the photos above you find the original recipe. Here below the one I have rewritten and slightly modified to adapt it to today’s cuisine. I hope the result honor the undisputed genius of its original author. I loved it so much. The doses are for 4 people.

The tradition of mussel farming in Liguria

In Liguria mussels  have been successfully cultivated in the Gulf of La Spezia since the end of the 19th century thanks to the favorable morphology and environmental conditions: depth of the seabed, underground currents of fresh water and above all lack of storms.

[Quick Italian language note: in Liguria mussels are called “muscoli” (from the latin musculos , same root of the English language), in the rest of Italy they are called “cozze”, which is the southern Italy term, more common nowadays].

Mussels are bred in nurseries consisting of poles planted on the seabed or floats connected together by nylon ropes, stretched below the level of the wave motion, to which the so-called “pergolas” or “reste” on which mussels grow are knotted.

During the breeding cycle (varying from thirteen to fifteen months) the nets are replaced several times, using increasingly larger meshes suitably growing.

After three months from the insemination and then, every forty-five days, the nets are hoisted and left under the light for twenty-four hours, in order to block the formation of parasites or algae, and dead or smaller mussels are eliminated.

At the time of harvest, the mussel farmers, on board their boat called “schio”, grab and hoist the ropes with clinging mussels and choose the larger ones.

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Anchovy tart is the perfect example.

Breadcrumbs, parsley, and some parmesan cheese will be enough to create a top class restaurant dish in less than half an hour. Just try and tell me!

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The recipe of sea bream parchment baked is an example of how genuine, simple, easy and tasty the Italian Riviera cuisine can be. Rosemary, sage, pine-nuts, olives, cappers and garlic are the sparring partners of sea bream in this recipes. All of them are small pieces of a mosaic that represent perfectly the Italian Riviera flavors.

I love recipes where you infuse all your love and passion investing time and efforts, you know. But I really appreciate as well those recipe where the main ingredient is consumed in the simplest way. Those preparations where its freshness and essential flavors are just slightly enhanced by few ancillary ingredients. If the recipe is effortless even better!

Since the COVID quarantine began I started planning my weekly menu more wisely and organizing my pantry, fridge and freezer more efficiently. We started having our food delivered at home, not from the biggest supermarkets but from the small local shops in the area, the very same where I used to buy daily before Covid. I also planned to eat fish at least four times a week and one of these time is baked fish, so I’m cooking different recipes every week.

Fish is not the ingredient I cook better, probably this is why we were not eating it so often. In particular I always had problems with the cooking timing of baked fish until I discovered the cooking thermometer, a game changer! So now baked fish is in my weekly menu, on Tuesday night. And sea bream parchment bakes is one of the must go recipes!

Parchment baked sea bream

What you need:

• 2 fresh sea breams of ab. 400 g each
• 2 cloves of garlic, cut in halves
• 2 springs of rosemary
• some leaves of fresh sage
• 1 tablespoon of salted cappers, soaked in fresh water and drained
• 1 tablespoon of black olives, pit removed
• 1 tablespoon of pine-nuts
• 2 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil

How to cook it:

1. Preheat the oven at 200°C/390°F.
2. Clean the fishes removing the entrails and the scales. Cover a pan sheet with parchment paper leaving some exceeding from the borders. Lay the fishes. Fill the belly of each fish with half clove of garlic, some rosemary leaves, some sage leaves and few cappers. Sprinkle the remaining ingredients over the fishes, including the pine-nuts. Gently pour the extra-virgin olive oil.
3. Cover the fishes with another layer of parchment paper and seal rolling and bending the borders of the paper below the first layer.
4. Bake for ab 25 minutes (remember fish generally bake 15 minutes every 500 grams) or if you have a thermometer until it reaches 67°C/152°F.

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This came with Peter and Concetta, a happy retired Australian couple who attended one of my last cooking classes. She, originally from Caserta (close to Naples), emigrated to Australia when she was 12 years old. There she met Peter with whom today, after many years together, she shares 14 grandchildren. During the cooking class she spoke tirelessly, sometimes in English with a strong southern Italy accent, others in Italian with a strong Australian accent. Peter on the contrary most of the time was silent and concentrated to cook following my directions.

Cooking classes are now a constant commitment, to the detriment of my little blog which is updated more and more occasionally, but they are a wonderful opportunity to meet extraordinary people from all over the world and to cook traditional dishes.

Indeed, at home with the kids I seldom have time to pour all my heart and soul in cooking traditional dishes taking care of the smallest details. On the contrary, during cooking classes, I do, because cooking is the heart of the experience and I‘m all in it. From the choice of the raw material, to the careful preparation of the dish, to the history of the origins of the recipe.

Often I vary my class menu to include the traditional dishes I love most. So doing I must develop the recipe in writing, to translate it into English for my guests (to whom I always give a booklet with the recipes we have prepared together) and to deepen the history of those dishes. One of the fundamental ingredients of my classes, indeed, are the stories and traditions that each dish brings with it.

So, a couple of weeks ago, during the cooking class with Concetta and Peter I decided to cook as a main course the Ligurian stoccafisso accomodato, literally stockfish stew. The recipe didn’t need testing, it’s the one I’ve always prepared at home. I just had to write it down and translate it into English. While on the history of stockfish I had fun doing some research. So today’s post got together: history and recipe of stewed stockfish.

Brief history of stockfish in Ligurian cuisine.

Stockfish is nothing but dried cod fish. The name could derive from the Norwegian stokkfisk or from the ancient Dutch stocvisch, that is “stick fish”. In italian it is stoccafisso.

Norway produces it since ancient times. The best is the one from the Lofoten islands. Here the cod is captured, beheaded, opened along the backbone, leaving the halves joined by the tail and left to dry in the open air on wooden racks, from February to May. The climate of the area, dry and cold, just above zero and without rain, allows perfect drying. After months outdoors, the stockfish matures for another 2-3 months indoors. At the end of the process the fish will have lost about 70% of its original water while maintaining all its nutrients. Soaked for at least three days in running water to soften it, it is then pounded and cleaned, so it can be prepared in many ways.

Be careful not to confuse stockfish with baccalà, or baccalao, which is always cod but salted. Using salt is another very ancient way of preserving fish. Also in this case the fish need to be soaked in running water for two days for letting salt go.

In Italy the stockfish seems to have arrived around 1450 through the Venetians (by accident shipwrecked in the Lofoten and saved there by the local populations). In Liguria, however, it spread around 1600 thanks to trade with the Portuguese.

Its great diffusion in our cuisine is due to a series of different contributing factors. First, stockfish is a product that can be kept for a long time, which made it suitable for being stowed on board ships, on the one hand to feed sailors during long journeys in the open sea and on the other hand to be marketed in the Mediterranean (let’s not forget that the Genoese were skilled merchants).Furthermore, according to the Catholic Church faith had to observe dozens of “sacrifice days” during the year (consumption of animal products is prohibited, except for fish). This observance therefore led to the development of a fish-based cuisine and cod, for its low cost and ease of conservation, became very popular among the less wealthy Catholic families

Thanks to its popularity Liguria included stockfish in the list of its traditional agri-food products.

Among the best-known dishes there are “stoccafisso alla badalucchese”, from the municipality of Badalucco, located in the Argentina Valley, in the Ligurian hinterland, which is a stew made of stockfish, dried mushrooms, nuts and olives.

Then we have brandacujun, a typical dish of the West Riviera based on potatoes, stockfish and a lot of extra virgin olive oil. 

While in Genoa two are the most traditional recipes. One is “stocche e bacilli”: a stew of stockfish and dried fava beans (of Tunisian origin) typical of the day of the dead. 

The other is “stoccafisso accomodato”, my recipe of this post, a stockfish stew with potatoes that brings all the flavor of our region:  pine nuts, olives and tomatoes. 

To close, I would like to mention a beautiful book (in Italian and English) photographed by my friend Francesco Zoppi : “The Codfish Tale”. Inside, the in-depth history of stockfish and the link between Genoa and the Lofoten islands combined with a selection of recipes prepared by top-level Chefs, all tied together by Francesco’s breathtaking photographs. Like the one of the stockfish fields under the northern lights that you have seen above and with which in 2019 he arrived in the final at the “Pink Lady Food Photographer of the year” photo competition. For more information, you can contact the author directly here: info@francescozoppi.com

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Whilst baked stuffed anchovies are a traditional Genoese recipe, anchovies stuffed with chards, breaded and fried for me are a family recipe. My grandmother prepared them in the summer, my mom still prepares them when she feels like doing something that reminds her of summer.

The most boring part is to clean the anchovies but at home they are always cleaned socially. The is who bent over the sink, with the water running, cleans a fish after the other trying every time to refine the technique to be faster. And who is sitting at the table, having breakfast, leafing through a newspaper, shelling peas or peeling potatoes, in any case making that light conversation that season the mornings spent in the kitchen.

The funniest part, on the other hand, is breading. A delicate job but always reserved for children, if there are around the house. It must be the high risk of dirt and mess that the passages in the eggs and breadcrumbs create that instinctively lead to think that it is a very fun and harmless game to offer to the little ones. Or to enjoy in peace.

Stuffed anchovies should not be fried too long because anchovies cook very quickly, the risk being that of making them dry. About a minute per side, the time the coatings get colored. Then they must be sprinkled with salt, I love to season Maldon salt, and served both hot and at room temperature, when all tastes have had time to get to know each other and mix well.

In the same way also sardines can be cooked. They will be slightly fatter … but remember that sardines are much easier to clean!

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Anchovies, a small fish, extremely easy to prepare. If you love this fish and its convenience in the kitchen, you can also try to cook Bagnun d’acciughe, and anchovies soup with fresh tomato and herbs, and Anchovies Cacciatore, where the fish is quickly stewed with rosemary and garlic.

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Stuffed anchovies baked or stuffed anchovies fried ? Two recipes, tied for first as goodness. One belongs to the Genoese tradition, the other to our family tradition. Two way of cooking: one light, the other rich. Two fillings: one full-bodied, the other full-green. In the uncertainty which to post, since this is the season and anchovies must be eaten, I put both of them together, one by one.

Let’s start with the first one: the stuffed anchovies baked . They are those of the Genoese tradition: two barbed anchovies open like a book that contain a filling based on bread soaked in milk, chopped anchovies and parsley. They are cooked in the oven after being sprinkled with oil and breadcrumbs, quickly because the anchovy cooks in a moment otherwise they dry.

I know that outside the Mediterranean Sea it is quite difficult to find fresh anchovies. Usually anchovies can be found in jars, preserved under oil or salt. But this recipe is very good also made with sardines. They are a fatter fish, so I suggest to limit the oil on top before baking. But the result will be incredibly good as well. By the way also here in the Riviera in the absence of anchovies sardines is a common substitution.

LINK LOVE:

Anchovies, a small fish, extremely easy to prepare. If you love this fish and its convenience in the kitchen, you can also try to cook Bagnun d’acciughe, and anchovies soup with fresh tomato and herbs, and Anchovies Cacciatore , where the fish is quickly stewed with rosemary and garlic.

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Ligurian fishermen, coming back home at night after an hard fishing day, often brought some anchovies for the family dinner.

Forget about opening them as a butterfly, soak in eggs and then coat with bread crumbs. Fishermen’s wives with a quick unique gesture removed head and entrails, dusted them with some flour and then fried in hot olive oil.

To increase the plaasure, sprinkle with salt, serve with lemon wedges and accompany with a fresh Ligurian white wine.

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