Posted in Mary Contini recipes on Wednesday, 11 January 2023
Bisnonna Annunziata (c66), her eldest son, Vincenzo (c31), and Filippo (Philip Contini, c15) are sitting at the table in Vincenzo’s flat in Mondragone, a seaside village 15 miles North of Naples, famous for production of
Buffalo Mozzarella.
Philip, the son of Vincenzo’s brother, Carlo, has been visiting Mondragone for extended holidays sine he was a toddler. When he is there he is completely absorbed in the Neapolitan way of life. Early mornings, helping his uncle in his carpenter’s workshop behind the flat or hanging out with his cousins at the beach. Everything stops for lunch, a feast of the poor cooked by Bisnonna from what she can gather on the day. All the family congregate at her table.
Today, a neighbour had brought a large bag stuffed with
firarille, or cime di rape, a wild broccoli, long straggling stalks with papery dark green leaves and tight buds, packed with iron, potassium and magnesium, and glucosinolates, sulphur containing compounds typical of foods grown in the Neapolitan volcanic soil.
These details don’t cross bisnonna’s mind as she strips the leaves from the stems, boils the stems and adds the greens. She boils a large pot of water and as soon as she adds a handful of
salt, she adds a packet of
orecchiette and stirs to loosen the pasta in the water.
In her largest
padella she adds a generous covering of
Extra Virgin Olive Oil. She peels a couple of cloves of
garlic, and deftly slices them into the oil, adding 3-4 dried pepperoncini she has hanging at the cooker. She pulls a few
anchovies in oil from a jar at her side, then drains and adds the friarille to the oil.
As soon as the pasta is cooked, confirmed by Filippo who is watching at her side, she drains the pasta into a colander in the sink, shakes it to remove some of the cooking water, not all, and tosses the pasta into the greens. Tossing everything together she calls out ‘
a tavola!’ to the family and serves them all, first Filippo, her cherished nipote, then Vincenzo, her ‘
favorito’ and breadwinner of the family, and then the others, oldest to youngest.
She serves herself last, mopping the juicy oil form the bottom of the padella with a crust of old bread, laughing as she sucks the juices into her mouth.
And after their lunch why are they so conspiratorial?
Filippo is due to go home to Edinburgh and bisnonna is going to travel with him to visit her son and his wife...
She doesn’t need much space in the battered suitcase she owns. She has only two black dresses and a cardigan to pack...
The rest of the suitcase can be packed with carrier bags full of friarille and watery pouches of Mozzarella di Buffala. They’ll smuggle it through customs and, when Carlo collects them from the airport at Turnberry, he will be ecstatic when he finds out that they have managed to bring him his favourite lunch… all the way from Naples!