Grandma Menna’s Kitchen: pork liver
Here we are again. After tripe, spleen crostini and chicken 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 what 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.
Pork liver
Print Recipe Pin Recipe Share by EmailIngredients
- 500 g pork liver
- 100 g pork lace fat
- 100 g breadcrumbs
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
- 1 tablespoon crushed fennel seeds
- 3 slices stale Tuscan bread
- Sage leaves
- Extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Soak the lace fat in hot water, then drain it and open it on a cutting board. Cut the pork liver into 12 pieces. Mix in a small bowl bread crumbs, salt, pepper and fennel seeds.
- Season generously every piece of pork liver with the flavoured breadcrumbs, then wrap it in lace fat.
- Preheat oven to 190°C.
- Make a skewer alternating a cube of stale Tuscan bread, a sage leaf and a piece of pork liver wrapped in lace fat. You will obtain four skewers.
- Lay the skewers in a greased pan and roast them for about 35 minutes.
The pork liver can also be cooked in a pan, as my grandfather Remigio loved. Pierce each piece of liver through with a toothpick, then lay them in a pan greased with come extra virgin olive oil and cook them on low heat, turning them often as they become golden brown. They should be ready in about 20 minutes, golden brown and crisp on the outside and slightly pink and moist inside.
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!
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