I was born in Leicester, my Father, Giandomenico was Italian and worked as a Chef for over 40 years in many regions of Italy, in cities such as Pistoia, Arezzo and Napoli, as well as in the UK.
He emigrated to the UK during the early 1960s, and was very passionate about true, authentic Italian food, his family recipes & childhood family memories, relations and friends in the Campania region, in Italy. He would often say “The secret of understanding good food is to watch and listen to grandparents & Mamma as children, and use seasonal produce, fresh herbs, quality olive oils and above all fresh plump “sun-kissed” tomatoes”.
My Grandfather Nicola-Antonio and Grandmother Maria-Teresa had four children, my Father Giandomenico was the eldest son of four, Mario, Guiseppina & Piriena made up La Familiga Vetere. However,as families grew by marriages, extended families also shared the passion for cooking. The Zambeilli, Brodella and Cocchirella families would pick & harvest wheat, press olives, bake bread and make wine together. An era when everybody helped one another expecting nothing in return...
As a child I’d spend Easter, summer school holidays, Christmas and New year at my Grandmothers farm, located between Molise and Campania. A lovely house, with olive groves, livestock and fruit orchards, it even had a dopey dog named "Lupo" that slept in the shade for most of the day. It was bliss, 8 weeks of helping around the farm, from picking apricots & cherries, feeding the pigs with left-over melon skins and watching Nonna make bread, ricotta cheese, sauces, passata & fresh pasta. We'd have the weekly trip to the local market, where Nonna would take me and my cousin Carmine. I don’t recall Nonna actually buying anything from the market , I'm sure she only went to chat for hours with her friends about the weather, the crops or the recent festa etc. I'd often listen for a short while and we'd go for gelato at the gelateria/bar in the piazza.
My day would begin with the cockrel sounding off the arrival morning sun-rise, which initiated the beginning of a new day. Nonna meanwhile had been busy collecting eggs, picking vegetables, feeding the farm animals and preparing the sugo (sauce) for pranzo (lunchtime). We’d all have breakfast together which consisted of a freshly layed egg (the yolks were orange in colour they were that fresh), warm milky coffee (similar to a Café Latte these-days), only we’d tear up left-over bread and submerge into the café latte… followed by apricots and grapes.
My Father’s Aunt, Zia Maddelena, lived a 5 minute walk away and was a daily visit, we’d take a narrow footpath that passed olive groves and vineyards to arrive at a small single story stone house. Zia would always be preparing food. My Father often told stories of hunting rabbits and taking them to his aunts to prepare. We often found her threading string through chillies and plum tomatoes ready for drying, or skinning rabbit, or making fresh pasta. The recipe that brings back fond memories of my Father and Zia Maddelena is Rabbit Pizzaiola (Rabbit Baked with Potatoes).
Many farmers in the Pesco Sannita area raised rabbits, including my paternal grandparents. As all meat was considered a delicacy back then, a stew made with rabbit would only be served on special occasions. This type of dish would be baked on the hearth in a special cookware called a "fornicella" that was covered in hot embers. In the 1930s meats were not grilled as the equipment needed for the grilling was not available. Most farmers did have thin grills that they toasted bread on, but they were not good enough for meats. Besides, most people didn't even like their bread toasted because it got burnt easily on the grill. So if bread got too dry, most people preferred to moisten it with water, rather than toast it. Generally speaking, most meats (except for sausages) were stewed or baked, they were not grilled, nor were they fried. Sausages were served fried or stewed after the pig killing, but most sausages were air-dried, and eaten as cold cuts.
Zia Maddelena told us this particular recipe was called "pizzaiola" because it used the same topping as pizza -- tomatoes, garlic and oregano.
Zia Maddelena’s Rabbit Pizzaiola
Ingredients
For the marinade:
1 cup dry white wine, 1/8 cup olive oil, about 2 tablespoons finely chopped Italian parsley, about 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh basil, about 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh oregano, about 4 chopped cloves garlic, about 2 teaspoons salt, 2 bay leaves
Other ingredients:
1 rabbit, cut into pieces, 8 ripe tomatoes, 3 potatoes cut into wedges, 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1 teaspoon salt.
Recipe:
Mix the marinade ingredients,place the rabbit in a container and cover it with the marinade. Put the lid on and place in the fridge for about 14 hours (or overnight). After the rabbit has been marinated, remove from fridge, drain from the marinade, getting rid of the liquid, but keeping the herbs, except for the bay leaf.
Cut tomatoes into small pieces, peel the potatoes and cut into wedges.
Spread some olive oil in a baking pan and place the pieces of rabbit, the tomatoes and potatoes in the pan. Add salt. Cover and bake in a pre-heated oven at 350 F for about 2 hours.
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