Frank Gerace
10+ Posts
Chef Ennio Occhio - Ferrarese Treasure
Some travelers seek out the culture of the lands visited, others enjoy the new friends made, others revel in the new tastes and flavors . In a recent trip, all these pleasures came together for me in the city of Ferrara in Italy, where I met a person who showed pride in his culture as presented in his food.
In the United States we think of pumpkins for pumpkin pie. But in Europe it is an important ingredient of many dishes. I still remember a pumpkin risotto I had in Paris several years ago.
My recent encounter with pumpkin was in the region of Emilia Romagna, Italy, in the city of Ferrara. I was fortunate enough to eat at the restaurant Cusina e Butega, where Chef Ennio Occhio shared with me his passion for the food of his region, emphasizing the signature dish of Ferrara, the cappellacci.
The cappellacci are “little hats” of dough which can be stuffed with many things: meat, cheese or vegetables. However, it is not any dough, nor any vegetable that drives Chef Occhio.
The dough has no water, no milk, only eggs. The vegetable is a special squash. But didn’t we say pumpkin? OK, botanically the pumpkin and the squash are all cultivars of the one genus, the cucurbita. The Italian word zucca covers both types and more; think zucchini - related word, related squash. Chef Occhio uses la zucca chitarra, a squash that get is name from its shape, that of a guitar, although I would call it the Mae West squash.
The chef showed us how he prepares the stuffing, with the pinch (pizzico) and eyeball measurement system, fruit of his thirty years in the Ferrarese kitchen: just the right amount of grana padano cheese, an appropriate amount of bread crumbs, and some nutmeg.
He next used his rolling pin to make a thin sheet of dough, thinner than for pasta so the resulting cappellacci are light and delicate after being filled and folded. After cutting the dough in squares, the folding is a kitchen finger ballet, in which the thin pieces are folded and overlapped just enough to enclose the filling with the lightest of embraces.
Chef Ennio then prepared the cappellacci for me two different ways, in a bolognese meat sauce, and in a light butter and sage sauce.
This was my adventure in a Ferrarese kitchen. Obviously, I have not written a recipe, but rather a hymn to Romagnola culture and kitchen, as represented by Chef Ennio Occhio of the Cusina e Butega restaurant Ferrara, Italy.
You can find the recipe at: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/f...ash-Cappellacci-with-Sage-Brown-Butter-241985
Some travelers seek out the culture of the lands visited, others enjoy the new friends made, others revel in the new tastes and flavors . In a recent trip, all these pleasures came together for me in the city of Ferrara in Italy, where I met a person who showed pride in his culture as presented in his food.
In the United States we think of pumpkins for pumpkin pie. But in Europe it is an important ingredient of many dishes. I still remember a pumpkin risotto I had in Paris several years ago.
My recent encounter with pumpkin was in the region of Emilia Romagna, Italy, in the city of Ferrara. I was fortunate enough to eat at the restaurant Cusina e Butega, where Chef Ennio Occhio shared with me his passion for the food of his region, emphasizing the signature dish of Ferrara, the cappellacci.
The cappellacci are “little hats” of dough which can be stuffed with many things: meat, cheese or vegetables. However, it is not any dough, nor any vegetable that drives Chef Occhio.
The dough has no water, no milk, only eggs. The vegetable is a special squash. But didn’t we say pumpkin? OK, botanically the pumpkin and the squash are all cultivars of the one genus, the cucurbita. The Italian word zucca covers both types and more; think zucchini - related word, related squash. Chef Occhio uses la zucca chitarra, a squash that get is name from its shape, that of a guitar, although I would call it the Mae West squash.
The chef showed us how he prepares the stuffing, with the pinch (pizzico) and eyeball measurement system, fruit of his thirty years in the Ferrarese kitchen: just the right amount of grana padano cheese, an appropriate amount of bread crumbs, and some nutmeg.
He next used his rolling pin to make a thin sheet of dough, thinner than for pasta so the resulting cappellacci are light and delicate after being filled and folded. After cutting the dough in squares, the folding is a kitchen finger ballet, in which the thin pieces are folded and overlapped just enough to enclose the filling with the lightest of embraces.
Chef Ennio then prepared the cappellacci for me two different ways, in a bolognese meat sauce, and in a light butter and sage sauce.
This was my adventure in a Ferrarese kitchen. Obviously, I have not written a recipe, but rather a hymn to Romagnola culture and kitchen, as represented by Chef Ennio Occhio of the Cusina e Butega restaurant Ferrara, Italy.
You can find the recipe at: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/f...ash-Cappellacci-with-Sage-Brown-Butter-241985
Last edited by a moderator:
