Comenius cookbook

1. Comenius cookbook Recipes from Benevento, Sannio (Italy) Classes: III E, Teachers:Maria Antonietta Sessa, Angela Feleppa Music by Pino Daniele

2. Buns with walnuts Lasagne Saint Joseph’s zeppole Migliaccio Ricotta-cheese sweet bombs Castagnaccio Ppanzerotti sanniti Strufoli Sbriciolata San Lorenzo’s taralli Amorosi’s tortano Gnocchi with mushrooms gravy Country-like lasagna from San Lorenzo Cardone soup Cicatielli with pork chops sauce Scarpariello Minestra maritata Campolattaro filled pie Frittelle with pumpkin flowers from Pietralcina Tagliatelle al tartufo Orecchiette with vegetables How to make orecchiette!!! Gnocchi in a paper bag Fried mozzarella-cheese Pizzo panaro Stuffed calzoni with scarola of Rocca D’Aspide Troccoli with peppers Country-like cotognata Torrone Noodles with meat and vegetable sauce Index

3. Buns with walnuts • 6 eggs • 350 gr of flour • 400g of sugar • 1 glass of milk • 1 cup of “Strega” liqueur (or rum) • 250 gr of walnuts • 1 cup of olive oil • a dose of baking powder Beat the eggs and add the sugar, the olive oil, the walnuts, the milk and the liqueur. Mix it well, add the flour to the mixture and mix it all again; finally add a dose of baking powder. Spread some butter on a pan for buns and bake it in the oven at 200°C for one hour. Don’t open the oven until the bun is brown. Class III E: Rosario Calabrese

4. Lasagne Ingredients: • 400 gr beef rolls • 250 gr minced beef • 250 gr fresh lasagne • 80 gr parmesan-cheese • 500 gr mozzarella cheese of buffalo-caw • A jar of tomatoes • Laurel • Onions • Carrots • Pepper, salt and olive oil Class III E: Rosa Molinaro

5. Lasagne Fry the beef rolls in some oil, then add the bacon, the minced carrots and the onions, a leaf of laurel, salt and pepper. Add the tomatoes, cover the pot and cook the sauce for about 30 minutes. Mix the meat with eggs, salt and pepper; from the mixture make small meat balls which you will fry in a saucepan with plenty of oil. Keep the meatballs apart. Cut the mozzarella into thin slices. Cook the lasagne in salt water. In a frying pan, put a layer of lasagne, on this you will put some sauce and meat. Cover this layer with more lasagne, parmesan and slices of mozzarella. You will continue until the ingredients are finished. Cook it in the oven at 180° for about 20 minutes. The the lasagne will be ready to eat. Class III E: Rosa Molinaro

6. Saint Joseph’s zeppole Ingredients : • 500 gr honey • 400 gr flour • 150 gr toasted almonds • Candied orange peel • 600 ml water Class III E: Fabrizio Bianco

7. Saint Joseph’s zeppole • Put a pot on the stove and pour little more than ¾ of the honey into it, then add the water and stir to mix it well. Continue stirring at low heat, and add the flour little by little, until you obtain a dough of the same consistency of bread dough. Remove the pot from the fire and let it cool. • In the meantime, heat some olive oil in a high pot, and when it is hot, fry the dough in teaspoon-sized balls • Remove them as they become “golden” and drain them on some paper before arranging on a serving plate. • Pour the remaining honey over them, diluting it with just a little water if it necessary, and sprinkle the “zeppole” with the candied orange peel and almonds. Class III E: Fabrizio Bianco

8. MIGLIACCIO 750 gr soft fresh cheese, 150 gr corn of flour, ½ milk, 10 eggs, 40 gr butter, 50 gr sugar, 1 lemon peel, 1 dose of vanilla, 1 cup of Strega liqueur, a pinch of salt. Class III E: Rosario Calabrese

9. MIGLIACCIO Put the milk the butter and the salt in a pot and bring it to boil. While they are boiling pour the flour into the mixture, and keep on stirring it. Let it boil for about 15 minutes and, when the mixture begins to detach from the walls of the pot, take it off from the stove. When it is cool add the eggs. While the mixture is getting cold, in a large bowl mix and melt the soft cheese with the sugar, the bark of lemon and the liqueur with a whip. Add this to the mixture of flour and eggs and mix the ingredients well. Pour the dough into a baking-pot of about 24 cm of diameter and spread with butter. Let it bake at 200° for about 30 minutes until it detaches from the walls of the baking-pot. Serve it cold. Class III E: Rosario Calabrese

10. Ingredients: • 500 gr of potatoes • 250 gr of fresh cheese • 2 eggs • 150 gr of flour • 80 gr of sugar • 80 gr of raisins • Lemon peel • Cinnamon • Rum and oil Ricotta-cheese sweet “bombs” Boil the potatoes and mash them; add the fresh cheese and mix the whole mixture in a bowl. Add the sugar, cinnamon, eggs, the raisins soaked in rum and the fried lemon peel. Shape the mixture into little balls and spread them with flour. Fry the balls in the oil and sprinkle some sugar on them before serving. Class III E: Gianluca De Cianni

11. Castagnaccio Ingredients: • 1 kg chestnuts • 2 spoonfuls of sugar • 1 pinch of vanillin • a pinch of salt • 100 gr of butter • 2 spoonfuls of pure cacao • 1/2 glass of rum and ½ of Strega liqueur. Class III E: Vincenzo Iannace

12. Castagnaccio • Boil the chestnuts into salted water and when they are cooked peel them • In the meantime whip the butter with the beater until it gets foamy. • Mash the chestnuts with the potato masher. Add the butter, the sugar with cacao, the vanillin and liqueurs. • Stir the mixture until it becomes like a thick cream. • Pour it in a glass bowl, level the surface and place it in the refrigerator for about six hours • Before serving garnish it with whipped cream and spread it with cacao. Class III E: Vincenzo Iannace

13. Panzerotti sanniti Ingredients: • 400 gr flour • 150 gr pork • 150 gr ham • 2 eggs • 200gr cheese • 150gr parmesan • 2 parsley • Salt and pepper. Class III E: Nardone - Angiolelli

14. Panzerotti sanniti Pour the flour, the pork fat and a pinch of salt in a bowl, mix everything carefully and let it rest for 30 minutes. Prepare the filling: mix the cheese, the grated parmesan, the parsley and the pepper. Work the dough again by pressing it on a table with a “matterello” (a wooden round stick used to work the dough for pasta) until it becomes a thin layer of dough. Cut out many round pieces from it by using a glass. Fill the discs of dough with the filling and close them carefully by overlapping a slip of dough on the opposite side. Fry the panzerotti in hot boiling oil, then dry them on a paper and serve them immediately. Class III E: Nardone - Angiolelli

15. Strufoli Ingredients: • 1 kg of flour • 1 glass of olive oil • 6 spoons of honey • one pinch of salt • 1 a small spoon of baking powder • 100 gr of sugar • some sugared fruit Pour the flour on a table, add eggs, oil, salt, honey and mix everything until it is soft and smooth. Slice the dough into thin strips, work them to shape them like rolls. Then slice them into pieces and make small balls; fry the balls in a lot of hot boiling oil. In the meanwhile in a bowl melt the honey and the sugar, dip the strufoli into this sauce and put them on a plate. Spread the strufoli with sugared fruit. Class III E: Giovanni D'Aniello

16. Sbriciolata Ingredients: • 400 gr flour • 1 egg • 150 gr sugar • 125 gr butter • 1 cap of “Strega” liqueur • a pinch of baking powder • For filling: 500 gr fresh cheese; sugar, 1 cup of Strega, 1 pinch of vanilla • drops of chocolate. Class III E: Clara Prete - Orsola De Simone

17. Sbriciolata • In a bowl mix the fresh cheese, the sugar, the Strega and the vanilla. Then add the drops of chocolate and let it stay for some minutes. • Meanwhile, pour the flour on a table and shape it like a fountain; add the sugar. Work the dough until it is looks dry and crumbly; add the butter and work it again. Spread with butter and sprinkle with flour the inner sides of an average-sized saucepan. Spread half dough into it without pressing, add the ricotta filling and pour the rest on top of it. Class III E: Clara Prete - Orsola De Simone

18. St. Lorenzo’s taralli Ingredients: 400gr. of flour 35gr. of yeast, kitchen salt, fennel seeds, pepper. PROCEDURE: Melt the yeast in warm water, add it to the flour with some salt and then knead the mixture until until it gets supple. Add the fennel seeds and pepper. Make a stick about 10 cm long and overlap one extreme of the stick to the other and press. Let the “taralli” rest on a table-cloth for an hour and sprinkle them with flour. Fill a pot with water and bring it to boil. When it is boiling put the taralli into it, after a few minutes draw them out and put them in a pan in the hot oven. Cook them in the oven at high temperature for about one hour.

19. Amorosi’s tortano Ingredients: 400 gr. flour, 30 gr. yeast, sugna 150 gr. (soft pork fat), 150 gr. Cicoli (pieces of hard pork fat), 50 gr. Parmesan cheese, 150 gr. of spicy provolone, 150 gr. salami, kitchen salt and pepper. Melt the yeast in waterwater, add the flour and knead till the mixture gets supple. Let it rise. Take the flour, the sugna, salt, pepper, yeast and the mixture you have prepared before. Knead the mixture a lot while adding some warm water. Also add the parmesan, the cicoli cut into small chops and salami. When it has risen rise spread it with the sugna. Put the mixture in a round well oiled pan. Let it rise for the third time. Finally put it in a hot oven for 1 hour.

20. Gnocchi with mushroom gravy Ingredients for 4 people 350g of “porcini” mushroom, 4 spoons of “extravergine”i olive oil, 1 clove of garlic, 1 bunch of parsley, 3 spoonfuls of some grated Grana Padano cheese, salt and pepper. Clean the porcini mushrooms and free them of earthy and hard parts, quickly, wash them in warm water, drain them, delicately wipe them with a dish-cloth and cut them into slices. Pour some extravergine olive oil in a frying- pan and add the garlic; add the mushrooms after cutting them into slices and let them fry for 2-3 minutes ; season them with a little of salt and pepper and sprinkle them with minced parsley. Boil abundant water in a pot, salt the water and cook the “gnocchi”; drain them when they are floating and cover them with mushroom gravy and with the grated Grana Padano cheese. Serve them hot.

21. Countrylike lasagna from San Lorenzo Ingredients: 500 gr noodles 300 gr mozzarella 300 gr sausage 3 fresh big eggs 150 gr grated parmesan Basil Prepare a sauce with peeled tomatoes in a casserole. Boil the noodles in salted water.Then put in a pan some sauce and form a layer with the noodles. Cover them with sauce, mozzarella, eggs, pieces of sausage, parmesan and sauce again. Make more layers of sauce and the other ingredients. Put in the oven and let it stay for half an hour.

22. Cardone: a sort of artichoke. Cardonesoup Ingredients: 2 litres of chicken soup, 2 thistles, 500gr. of minced meat, 5 eggs, 1 piece of the soft part of the bread bought the day before, grated cheese, pine seeds and salt.

23. Cardonesoup Take the thistles, cut the tops and outer leaves. Cut them in small pieces and put them in a bowl with water and lemon. Let it boil for about 2 hours. Prepare a good broth with a yard chicken. Put the chicken in a pot and let it get cold (it can be prepared the day before). In the meantime, mix the minced meat with 2 eggs, the bread made into crumbs, the cheese and make some small meat balls out of the mixture. Boil the thistles after throwing the water where they cooked and adding new water. After 12 minutes add the pieces of chicken and meat balls to the broth and go on cooking. When it is ready add 3 eggs beaten with salt. At the end put some slices of bread in the pot and pour the broth with thistles and meat on them.

24. Cicatielli con ragù di tracchiole.(Cicatielli with pork chops sauce) Ingredients: 500gr. cicatielli , 2 litres of sauce, 4 chops, sausages, 1 cotica (pig-skin), olive oil, ½ onion, garlic, parsley, spicy pepper, ricotta (soft fresh cheese) or pecorino (sheep cheese). Cicatielli: a type of pasta prepared with flour, water and salt. Ragù: sauce made with meat.

25. Cicatielli with pork chops sauce. Clean the “cotica” and put it in boiling water until the greasy skin becomes dry. On the white part put some salt, parsley, ½ clove of garlic, spicy pepper and some cheese and roll it up. Put the oil and the onion in a frying-pan. When it is half cooked take it out of the pan and put in it the chops, the sausages and the pig-skin. Let it cook at high heat, next pour the sauce and boil for about 2 hours until the sauce is ready and the meat is cooked. Put the pasta in the boiling water and, when it is cooked, drain it, put in a soup-tureen mixing it with some sauce. Mix the pasta with the sauce and put it in the plates. Add some sauce and the pasta and some ricotta or pecorino cheese. The meat chops, the sausages and the cotica are served on a different dish and eaten with the pasta also dipping slices of bread into the sauce.

26. Troccoli: a sort of pasta similar to the spaghetti. Scarpariello Ingredients: 600gr. of troccoli, 400gr. of fresh tomatoes, olive oil, salt, fresh basil, spicy pepper, and grated parmigiano cheese. Procedure: In a frying-pan, fry garlic and spicy pepper in some olive oil, then put the tomatoes without seeds, the salt and make it cook for half one hour. Meantime boil some water and cook the spaghetti, when they are ready take then out of the water and mix sauce, cheese and fresh basil.

27. Minestra maritata. Ingredients: 1 kg of cicory, 500gr. of country vegetables, 1 snout, 1 ear, 1 tail, 1 foot and 2 pieces of skin of a pork, 1 sausage made with pig-skin, a ham bone, 1 lung sausage, and some spicy pepper. Cut off the hairs on the pork pieces and let them stay in some water for one day. The next day wash and boil the vegetables, and put them in a salad bowl after having added some salt. Boil the pieces of pork for some minutes to free them from the fat , then put them in boiling wateragain and let them cook. Finally clean the ham bone, take off the bone and chop the meat and mix it with the vegetables and the soup. Add the spicy pepper and keep it cooking for about half on hour.

28. Campolattaro filled pie Ingredients: 500 gr flour, 100 gr pork fat, 30 gryeast, 200 gr caciotta (Italian cheese), 150 gr ham, 150 gr hot sausage, 5 eggs, 100 gr Parmesan cheese, salt . Procedure: Prepare the dough for the pizza. Separately prepare a mixture with the eggs, the ham, the hot sausages, some small pieces of caciotta , grated Parmesan cheese and 2 hard boiled eggs cut in two parts. Cover a baking pan with the dough and fill it with the mixture. Cover it with the rest of the dough. Spread it with oil and put everything in an oven and let it bake for about one hour. Often check it by pinching it with a fork.

29. Frittelle of pumpkin flowers from Pietrelcina Ingredients: 250 gr flour, 20 gr yeast; 1 spoon of oil; 1 beaten egg; salt. Beat the yeast melt with some warm water in a bowl with the eggs and oil and add the flour little by little. Make a oft mixture and salt it as usual. Put the bowl in a warm place and let it rise for aboyut two hours. Dip the cleaned and dried pumpkin flowers into the mixture. Fry them one by one in hot boiling oil and, as they are cooked, let them dry on a piece of paper. Serve them hot.

30. Tagliatelle al tartufo Ingredients: black truffle; “extra vergine” olive oil; salt. Melt the black truffle sauce in plenty of “extra vergine” oil of olive with some cleaves of garlic (if you want you can add some cream of sardines). When the mixture is ready you can dress the noodles, let them absorb the sauce and serve them hot. If you want like you can top them with small slices of truffle and grated cheese.

31. Orecchiette with vegetables Ingredients: 2 gourgettes, 1 tomato, 1 pepper, 1 aubergine, half onion, a bunch of parsley, 40 gr. olive oil, salt. Procedure: slice the onion into thin pieces and cut the tomato, the gourgettes and the pepper in small pieces. Cook all the vegetables in a frying pan with some water and salt for 30 minutes. When the vegetables are ready, add the olive oil and the mince parsley. Cook the “orecchiette” in abundant boiling salted water and, when they are cooked, drain them. Cover the “orecchiette” with the vegetables sauce and now you can serve them.

32. How to make orecchiette!!!

33. “Gnocchi in a paper bag” with mushrooms Ingredients: 4 rations of gnocchi, 80 gr. of black quality truffle or summer truffle called “scorzone”) or 50 gr. of white truffle named “marzuolo” if the period is from January to April, 25 gr. of black or white truffle cream, 50 gr. of salted butter, 30 gr. of “extra vergine” olive oil Cook the gnocchi in boiling water and drain them. Put them in an aluminium casserole, add the cream and same slices of truffle. Put it in the oven and let it cook for 5 – 10 minutes at low heat

34. Fried mozzarella cheese Ingredients: one-day old bread, two eggs, flour, mozzarella-cheese Procedure: Cut the bread in slices taking off the crust. Wet the slices with milk. Slice the mozzarella cheese (bought the day before) and put each slice between two slices of bread. Dip the bread in the flour and then in the beaten egg; fry it in abundant and hot oil.

35. Pizzopanaro Ingredients: 50 gr. sugar, 50 gr. Flour, 3 eggs 1 spoonful of thin sugar, 1 spoonful of lemon juice, butter For the icing: 250 gr. Sugar, ½ glass of water, a handful of coloured candies Procedure: in a bowl whip the egg whites with the thin sugar and the lemon juice. Pour 3 eggs yolks with the sugar into a large saucepan and mix everything. With an electric beater beat the mixture and put the bowl in hot water until the mixture gets warm. Remove the bowl from heat and beat the mixture again until it gets foamy. Sprinkle the flour on the egg whites and mix delicately without beating. Pour the mixture in the buttered and floured baking pan. Cook at 180° for about 30 minutes. Meanwhile in a casserole pour the sugar with half glass of water. First keep the heat low to melt the sugar, then, raise the flame heat until the mixture gets foamy. Remove the casserole from heat and, with a wood spoon, let the syrup fall on the cake forming a thick layer. Finally sprinkle the pie with candies.

36. Stuffed “calzoni” with scarola of Rocca d’Aspide Ingredients: 2 bunches of scarola (a local vegetable), oil, 1 garlic, 80 gr. of olives, 30 gr. of capers, 3 anchovies in oil. Procedure: Clean and wash the scarola, cut it into small pieces and cook them in a frying-pan with oil and the crushed anchovies. When the vegetable is half cooked, add olives, capers, and anchovies in oil. Stuff the pizza dough you have previously prepared with the scarola. Let it rise and fry the “calzoni” in hot boiling oil. Serve them hot.

37. Troccoli (a typical type of pasta) with peppers Ingredients: 550 gr. di troccoli, 300 gr. tomatoes, 250 gr. red peppers, onion, 70 gr. black olives, olive oil. Procedure: grill peppers and then peel them. Cut them in small pieces. Cut an onion and cook it in a frying pan with a spoonful of oil. Put the cut peppers in the saucepan. Salt and add the tomatoes and black olives. When the troccoli are cooked, drain them and cover them with the sauce. Servethem as soon as they are ready with grated pecorino sprinkled on top.

38. Countrylike “cotognata” (apple jam) Ingredients: 1 Kg of “mele cotogne” (cooking apples), 500 gr. sugar Procedure: Melt the sugar in a little water, let it simmer and then rest for a while. Peel the apples and cut them into thin slices; pour a glass of water into a saucepan and put it on the gas ring. Put a lid on the saucepan, but stir often and crush the apples. When they are tender, pour the sugar syrup and let them simmer in the saucepan with no lid until the liquid dries up. Let it get cool before serving.

39. Torrone Ingredients:400 gr. almonds, 200 gr. peeled and toasted nuts, 300 gr. honey, 300 gr. honey, 100 gr. sugar, 100 gr. water, 1 packet of vanilla, 3 eggs, 2 lemons, thin and large wafers. Procedure: Cover a rectangular baking tin with wafers, after wetting it with water. Beat the egg whites. Pour the honey in a pot and place the saucepan in another pan filled with hot water; keep on stirring continuously. Before the honey becomes too dense, pour the water and the sugar in a pot and stir it until the syrup gets think. Add the egg whites to the honey and whip everything until the mixture becomes foamy. Keep on mixing with care and pour the mixture into the baking tin. Pour the mixture on a cutting board and level the surface until it is flat. Place a weight on it so that the torrone can settle. Remove the weight after about half an hour and turn the hardened mixture upside down on a cutting board. Cut it into pieces. To preserve it longer, wrap it in an oven paper and keep it in a cool place.

40. Noodles with vegetable and meat sauce Ingredients: • 100 gr sausage made in strips • 1dl and ½ of fresh milk cream • 1 gourgette • red pepper • yellow pepper • 1 onion • 1 carrot • 1 celery • 30 gr grated cheese • 2 spoonfuls of olive oil • 20 gr butter • salt and pepper.

41. Noodles with meat and vegetables sauce Slice all the vegetables, remove the peel from the sausage and put the meat in a frying pan; after some minutes, take off the fat and add oil and butter; when the oil is hot add the onion, the celery and the minced carrot. After some minutes add the peppers and the gourgette. Cook the vegetables, add salt and peppery, the milk cream and let it get brownish. Cook the pasta in abundant boiling salted water. Serve the noodles with the vegetable and meat sauce.