Here we are again. After tripe, spleen crostini and chiken liver crostini my true and genuine Tuscan blood comes out again to reveal a deep love for offals! This is the turn of pork liver. It is such a simple and true dish, perfect for upcoming winter months since it is flavourful and nourishing. The first time I found pork liver into my dish I was quite astonished, because I couldn’t understand waht I was going to eat and it was difficult as well to give a name to that meat wrapped into a strange ‘net’. Once you overtake the initial distrust, you discover a rich and unique taste.
Pork liver was one of Grandad Remigio’s favourite dishes. He used to fry them up, filling the house with smoke and smell! You could understand which was today’s dish coming form outside!

We wrap pork liver pieces into the ratta, also known as net, that is a fat tissue that wraps pork intestines. Here in Tuscany you can find this ‘net’ together with pork liver at butcher’s counter. You wrap pork liver pieces into this fat net so that, while cooking, it will release its fat and make them softer and more tasteful.

Ingredients:

• pork liver
  
• pork ‘net’
  
• Tuscan bread slices
  
• sage
• salt&pepper
• wild fennel
  
• extra virgin olive oil
  

Cut pork liver into chunks of the same size, wrap each piece into the fat net and stick them into a skewer, alternating a piece of liver, a leaf of save and a slice of bread. Put the skewers into a large oven-proof dish and season them with salt, pepper and a few drops of extra virgin olive oil. If you like it – I love it, but mum doesn’t – add also wild fennel: it suits perfectly pork meat in general.

Bake in preheated oven to 180°C for about 30 minutes, turning them once in a while. You can cook them in a pat as well, but you must cover it, otherwise your kitchen would be full of smoke!

P.S. Have a look at my table! yes, that one in the first picture! It used to be my gran grandad working table, where he made bee houses, when we still used to produce honey.

Then it became grandad Biagio working table, where every day he used to work and make his arts and crafts masterpieces. Notwithstanding the fact that he was working with glue, wood and iron, he used to wear every day a suite, with a neat shirt and a waistcoat.

After my grandad Biagio, it became my dad working table, and it saw hifi systems, bow and arrows. Now it is in a small storeroom, waiting to be restored by dad’s expert and competent hands: it will be my future house kitchen table, as soon as I’ll have my own house!

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Grandma Menna’s Kitchen: pork liver

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Do you remember the crostini neri? The ones made with chicken liver?
Well, today I’ll show you another version: these are made only with spleen.
Obviously you can make Tuscan crostini with chicken livers and spleen together, to soften the strong and intense taste of spleen.
These crostini are typical of my area, we made often them , especially since my aunt Teresa gave us an infallible and reviewed recipe. It is today’s recipe!

I know, I know you’re used to my Wednesday’s pastoral stories, grandma’s childhood, relatives and ancestors, traditional sayings and Tuscan countryside… but if I had to describe this recipe through some shots, I would run the risk to repeat Tarantino’s Kill Bill as regards colours and style!
Clean the spleen in my kitchen is the most similar thing to O-ren Ishii’s band bloodbath committed by the Bride, really!
Mum with a spoon in her hands, a huge white apron and latex gloves is Dario Argento’s worth!
But let’s hit the recipe.

Ingredients:

• beef spleen, 300 gr
• medium onion, 1
• carrot, 1
• celery, 1 stalk
• parsley, 1 tuft
• garlic, 1 clove
• vinegard capers, 1 large tablespoon
• red wine, 1 glass
• tomato sauce, qb
• anchovy paste, qb
• (salt)
• extra virgin olive oil

First and foremost, the spleen. Wear latex gloves if you don’t want to resemble a country vet up to a calf birth. Extract the pulp from the spleen by scraping it with a largo tablespoon so that the pulp meat comes out.
Mince  carrot, celery, parsley, garlic and onion.
Warm a large tablespoon of olive oil in a non stick pan and sauté all the minced vegetables.
When they are soft and well sauté, add spleen pulp and stir until it gets brown and it’s cooked through.
This is the moment to add a glass of red wine: let it reduce and add a bit of tomato sauce to redden the sauce. Now, remove from the heat and add the minced capers.
What about tastiness? Don’t dare adding salt! As for the other Tuscan crostini, we’ll reach the right tastiness adding anchovy paste.
So, add little by little some anchovy paste and whip the sauce, tasting each time to find the right tastiness. It is delicious spread on a slice of Tuscan bread: add some boiled egg slice, to give a cool color contrast and soften the strong flavour of beef spleen.

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Grandma Menna’s Kitchen: spleen crostini

You should be interested also in:

1. Grandma Menna’s Kitchen: i crostini neri
2. Grandma Menna’s Kitchen: Florentine tripe
3. Grandma Menna’s Kitchen: pork liver

Granny belives to be an Etruscan woman, with her roots firmly planted in her country.
Granny knows how things are supposed to be done, because that is the way they’re written in Pellegrino Artusi cook book. Aunt Pasquina gifted granny with this book when she got married: now it is yellowed with age, with some pages missing and old pictures as bookmarks.
Granny loves cooking and trying new recipes, but don’t tell her she’s good in cooking because she will shield herself saying that nothing comes as it should be when she cooks!
And yet, thanks to her delicious lunches, made for me when I came back home from school, now I am what I am, not skinny and thin, but curious about new flavours and willing to try new things.
Yes, then there is me… keen on oriental cooking, british lover, fond of spices and far away flavours. But it’s time to give a chance to my tuscan cooking, trying to understand better those recipes that made me what I am, with the help of Granny and old uncle Pellegrino Artusi, a lively old man who will speak through the pages of an ancient book. So, let’s start with thew firts recipe.

These are the appetizers that should be done for great occasions and holidays.
When granny was a child, these crostini were made during threshing days, when the farmyard was crowded with people, men were working in the fields and women were cooking for them.
Since I was born, these crostini have always been present for christenings, weddings, birthdays and Christmas days. This is the reason I have chose to start with appetizers – principii, according to old Pellegrino Artusi.
This is the way granny and mum make crostini neri, in a simple way. The smell of butter mingled with livers smell reminds me of early Christmas mornings. It cuddles you and brings you in the middle of Tuscan countryside.
Once you have made it, you should resist the temptation to eat spoonfuls of it! It is delicious spread on a toasted slice of tuscan bread: you can soak the slices of bread with chicken broth (as my Aunt Silvana does), butter them (as granny does) or use them as they are (as my mum does)… the point is to use the patè still hot and steaming.

Ingredients:

• chicken livers, 400 gr
• red onion, 1/2
• carrot, 1/2
• celery, 1/2 stalk
• capers, 3 tablespoons
• leek, 1/2, just the white part
• sage, 5 leaves
• rosemary, 1 spring
• bay leaves, 1
• butter, 50 gr
• water, 50 cl
• anchovy paste
• salt

Directions:
Rinse chicken livers and put them in a saucepan with the other ingredients (onion, carrot, celery, cappers, leek, sage, rosmary, bay leave, butter), coarsely chopped.
Don’t forget to use a red onion, not white.
Why granny? Because with dark things you should use a red onion!

Season livers with salt: use a very tiny pinch of salt, because the tastiness is due to anchovy paste, that you are going to add at the very end.
Stir frequently and let cook for about 35 minutes, adding once in a while some tablespoon of water: livers should remain soft and wet. When livers are done, put all the ingredients in a food processor or use a mill to have a patè.
This sauce is good when it remains rough, not too velvety: it should keep its rustic caracter! At the very end, add little by little some anchovy paste and whip with some butter, tasting each time to find the right tastiness.
You can made it the previuos day: when it’s time to serve it, heat the sauce, adding some butter or chicken broth.

Post di: Juls' Kitchen

Grandma Menna’s Kitchen: i crostini neri

You should be interested also in:

1. Grandma Menna’s Kitchen: spleen crostini
2. Grandma Menna’s Kitchen: Florentine tripe
3. Grandma Menna’s Kitchen: pork liver