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THE ANNUNCIATED FEAST THE SEPULCHERS THE HOLY FRIDAY TYPICAL DISHES TYPICAL SWEETS

Typical Bronte dishes

Clear peasant tradition: genuineness and natural ingredients

The cooking in Bronte is traditionally poor, of clear peasant inspiration, made with ingredients simple and natural, but, because of this, results rich of ancient, genuine flavors and of dishes nowadays forgotten.

It is the expression of an ancient and original culture, certainly peasant culture, often dictated by the calendar (Saint Joseph, Saint Nicolas, Holy Friday, Thursday grass, …) or the seasons, fruit of a poor economy, based on the cultivation of cereals, on sheep farming and few other tree cultivations.

The essential ingredients of sweets and cooking come directly from the local territory: almonds, pistàchio, pulses, asparagus, prickly pears, mushrooms, vegetables, olive oil, milk.

The legumes (green or dried) represent the majority of first courses: broad beans, chickpeas, beans, peas and lentils are cooked and used in many ways (pasta with beans, lentils and chickpeas or with broccoli, porridge chickpeas' flour, …).

Up to few years ago, on Saint Nicolas holiday, even wheat, boiled and dressed with olive oil, was a traditional dish in the kitchens of the farmers of Bronte.

The peasant tradition has left also very many dishes based on wild vegetables as the minestra maritata (mixed vegetables picked in the fields and fried with garlic and chilly), fried cauricelli (wild, white mustard), or pasta with wild fennel.

Other common dishes are grilled mushroom of ferra (many varieties of mushrooms grow in the woods of Bronte), baked onions and grilled peppers.

Typical and traditional dishes present in the brontese cuisine are:

The pennette al pistacchio (the fruit is crushed and fried with onion, diced ham, cream, milk, butter and other ingredients).
During these last years the pistàchio has become nearly a protagonist of brontese cooking, above all in the preparation of first course dishes (besides the pennette, is also used with filled ravioli, the home made pasta with flour and crushed pistàchios ("tagghiarini" o tagliatelle) and the pesto).

The macaroni (maccarruni) sticks of about 20 cm. long, home made with pasta of hard wheat, rolled by hand over a board ("u scanaturi") with a reed and dressed wit wild sauce.

The frascàturi, porridge prepared with chickpeas flour and mixed vegetables (usually "bastarduni", cauliflower).

The "pasta ‘ncasciata", macaroni dressed con wild fennel, fried bread crumbs, sardines and tomato sauce.

The pasta with macco (dried broad beans) and wild fennel.

The spaghetti with sparacogni (a variety of wild asparagus) cooked with a little tomato sauce.

The second dishes

The second dishes, that the poor brontese peasant could not afford or maybe did not even know, are very poor and unrefined.

Besides those traditional and characteristic, all have a base of meat (the kid, the rabbit, the sausage with wild fennel, stewed or with tomato sauce, the lamb with pistàchio) are also to be taken into consideration the castrated lamb chops grilled over embers and the sumptuous Caponata (made with eggplant, green olives, celery, zucchini, onion, tomato and capers).

Finally, we do not want to forget the Stigghjori (long, thin rolls with the basic ingredient of bacon or, better yet, intestines, especially lamb intestines, seasoned and roasted on the grill twisted around a fresh onion), the Cadduni (still tender heads of basal leaves collected from the artichoke, deprived of thorns and lamina and cut into small pieces) breaded and fried and the delicious, fragrant pane di Bronte (Bronte bread) still cooked by some bakeries in traditional stone ovens.


Meat Rolls with Pistàchio	Frascàturi fritti	Stigghiori	I Cadduni friuti cull'ova (fried cardoons with eggs)

I frascaturi (polenta fatta con farina di ceci)

For those coming to Bronte, the mutton ('u crastagnellu) or the grilled "cunsata" sausage are not to be missed.
In the following photos, a tasty pan of "pasta 'ncasciata" (macaroni seasoned with wild fennel, fried breadcrumbs, sardines, tuma and tomato sauce), on the top right, a tasty plate of frascàturi (a polenta made with chickpea flour, vegetables and pieces of meat) and a bowl of large fresh Bronte broad beans, spunticati (trimmed) and ready to be thrown into the pot.
In the five photos above: a plate of spaghetti with sparacogni sauce, one of the classic ingredients of Bronte cuisine: the green Bronte pistàchio, used here on macaroni and involtini di carne (meat rolls), fried frascàturi and stigghiori.

50 recipes with Bronte pistàchio (Bronte's gold)

'A Finucchina

"A finucchina", a vegetable grown in the gardens of Adrano (it is still young fennel) almost unknown in the rest of Italy.
In the kitchens of Bronte it is transformed into a real delicacy.

It has a particular flavor and can be cooked in various ways but reaches its peak with the traditional "curalluzzu cca finucchina" (pasta with fennel); no Brontese gives up «o sucu cchì sparacògni» (cooked red sauce with sparacogni) or can forget it if they live outside Bronte but even this peasant dish, simple and delicious, is not easily forgotten.

I sparacogni

The "communis" but precious herb

Speaking of Bronte cuisine, the "sparacogni" (a kind of asparagus), a variety of wild herb similar to asparagus that grows spontaneously in the woods and in the sciare, deserve a special mention.

Its common name varies from Tamaro to Tanno, to Cerasiola or to Viticella; its scientific name is "Tamus communis L." but in the Bronte dialect it is simply called «sparacògna» (the plural, however, is masculine: Sparacògni) and is undoubtedly the most appreciated herb and a traditional, centuries-old, delicacy in Bronte gastronomy.

It is a perennial herbaceous plant of the Discoreaceae family, characterized by tuberous roots and thin and flexible climbing stems that twist in a clockwise direction as they grow.
The apical parts (shoots) of the shoots emitted at the vegetative recovery of the plant are collected.

These shoots, whose edible portion is quite long (15-20 cm), have dark green ribs tending towards brown and are covered with leaf buds.
It is not a typical product of our area, growing, perhaps unknown or not considered edible, among the scrub and hedges or in the clearings and undergrowth of almost all of Italy.

But the ancient and original culture, typically peasant, from which the local cuisine derives has used and transformed its characteristic slightly bitter flavor into original and tasty first courses and side dishes.

The apical parts are consumed even if covered with leaf buds and have a strong bitter-salty flavor.

The people of Bronte are literally crazy about this herb that grows spontaneously in spring (February-April) among the pistàchio groves ("i lochi", where the mègghju sparacògni grow) or in the clearings and undergrowth of the Nebrodi, but also in Ragusa or in Piedmont, Tuscany or Emilia where, having no competition, the people of Bronte and their friends who live there gorge on it.

In addition to the "personal" search and collection, in Bronte there is also a professional figure - "u sparacugnaru" - who earns a living by collecting this species of wild asparagus even in areas far from the city (even in Calabria) and then reselling it in the city streets always with reasonable success and excellent profits.

From the "sparacugnari" the precious herb is sold "in bunches", on the streets and in fruit and vegetable shops, at 4.00 - 10.00 euros each.

The unit of measurement is "u mazzu" (the bunch) which is generally equivalent to all the strands of sparacugna that the hand can hold.

For their bitterish flavor they are particularly appreciated by gourmets and preferred to those of the Spiny Asparagus and the Butcher's Broom; those collected in the Lochi (the pistàchio-covered sciarelle of the Bronte area) are then particularly sought after by lovers of good food for the marked intensity of the bitterish flavor and the consistency.

The Sparacogni are used particularly in the preparation of sauces for pasta or fried with egg or even as a side dish or in traditional omelettes.

Lightly blanched, they are also easily stored in the freezer.
They can be used in the kitchen, in various ways:

1) as a condiment, in white, for pasta; to this end, they are blanched in water, fried with a little onion, salt and oil, then added to the pasta.
This recipe is appreciated by those who do not like the characteristic flavor of Sparacogna (in the singular it becomes feminine) which is slightly attenuated by blanching;

2) as a "red" condiment for pasta; the sparacogni are cooked in their own juice with the addition of fresh tomato, oil and salt and, if you want to reach the peak, also pork "spuntagghj"; everything is mixed with the pasta, cooked separately.

The "Tamus communis" (commonly Tamaro, for the people of Bronte 'a sparacogna). Its shoots are clearly preferred to those of the Spiny Asparagus or the Butcher's Broom.
They are sold "a mazzo" (in bunches) which corresponds approximately to how much a fistful can contain. Only the apical portion of the new shoots emitted in spring is consumed which appear ribbed, dark green tending to brown, very pointed and covered with leaf buds. The sparacogni, for all the people of Bronte, are l'amaro amore (the bitter love), the main dish of their cuisine, so much so that many families always keep a good supply in the freezer for special occasions. Today they are also present as a specialty on the menus of all the restaurants and pizzerias in Bronte.

You may also like: Elogio della Sparacogna (in Praise of Sparacogna), Le doti nascoste della Sparacogna (The Hidden Qualities of SparacognaI

3) as a vegetable dish: cooked without water, with the addition of garlic, oil and chili pepper.

4) as a stuffed omelette, locally called ‘nfurrazzata; this is prepared by blanching the sparacogna in a little water and then frying them with the addition of chili pepper and garlic. Separately, with eggs, cheese and salt, an omelette is prepared and when the latter is cooked to the point of being very firm, on one half of it, the blanched vegetable is placed and the other half is turned over on top.

In short, unknown or snubbed in almost all of Italy, in Bronte 'a sparacogna (wild, proud, tapered, elegant, sinuous like a beautiful woman who captivates with her ivy leaves) reaches the pinnacle of taste and good cooking.
And the people of Bronte, silent to the max in recommending its use, thank Mother Nature for this free gift.

(Nino Liuzzo, May 2009)