| Black pepper |
My family has been from the countryside of the Venetian province for generations.
The daily kitchen was made up of simple gestures, many vegetables grown by us, some aromatic to embellish the preparations in the oven, the inevitable parsley to keep company with garlic and oil.
When a few days ago I read that the Thursday challeng of italianvegantribe, the vegan tribe on Instagram, today was dedicated to aromatic herbs and spices, my creativity started flying happily.
If my roots have almost no trace of spices except in sweet preparations, or just for a light grating of nutmeg in mashed potatoes, my table today abounds in spices and aromatic herbs from all over the world, absorbed with greed over the course of many travels and a lot of curiosity.
There was therefore a sort of "leap" between what I came from and what I have become, at least as regards the choices between the stoves.
Then I stopped to think and ... no, I wasn't remembering well.
There is in fact a dish, only one, made of 2 ingredients: the "broeton".
So in the house of my maternal grandparents the cabbage soup was called, always served very hot (precisely "che broa" = "hot") sprinkled with a lot, really a lot of black pepper, which amplified the heat perceived from the first spoonful.
Here is the recipe, perfect for humid and cold climates.
METHOD
Wash the cabbage and peel the onion. Slice them both with a 1 cm thick slice. Pour the extra virgin olive oil into a saucepan (I used a Le creuset pan) and brown for 10 minutes. Add a pinch of salt and cover with hot water. Let it simmer for about 1 hour (if necessary by adding more hot water). A few minutes before turning off the heat, chop a handful of black peppercorns in a mortar and dry them in a non-stick pan.
Serve the steaming soup, sprinkled with plenty of pepper and a few slices of toasted bread.
My family has been from the countryside of the Venetian province for generations.
The daily kitchen was made up of simple gestures, many vegetables grown by us, some aromatic to embellish the preparations in the oven, the inevitable parsley to keep company with garlic and oil.
When a few days ago I read that the Thursday challeng of italianvegantribe, the vegan tribe on Instagram, today was dedicated to aromatic herbs and spices, my creativity started flying happily.
If my roots have almost no trace of spices except in sweet preparations, or just for a light grating of nutmeg in mashed potatoes, my table today abounds in spices and aromatic herbs from all over the world, absorbed with greed over the course of many travels and a lot of curiosity.
There was therefore a sort of "leap" between what I came from and what I have become, at least as regards the choices between the stoves.
Then I stopped to think and ... no, I wasn't remembering well.
There is in fact a dish, only one, made of 2 ingredients: the "broeton".
So in the house of my maternal grandparents the cabbage soup was called, always served very hot (precisely "che broa" = "hot") sprinkled with a lot, really a lot of black pepper, which amplified the heat perceived from the first spoonful.
Here is the recipe, perfect for humid and cold climates.
METHOD
Wash the cabbage and peel the onion. Slice them both with a 1 cm thick slice. Pour the extra virgin olive oil into a saucepan (I used a Le creuset pan) and brown for 10 minutes. Add a pinch of salt and cover with hot water. Let it simmer for about 1 hour (if necessary by adding more hot water). A few minutes before turning off the heat, chop a handful of black peppercorns in a mortar and dry them in a non-stick pan.
Serve the steaming soup, sprinkled with plenty of pepper and a few slices of toasted bread.
Preparation time
about 1 hour
