Typical recipes from Campania

One of the tastiest and most Mediterranean cuisines in Italy. There are so many typical recipes from every province in Campania that it is difficult to make a choice. Let's start, however, with the best-known appetiser, Impepata di cozze. It is a recipe that is really easy to prepare and sure to impress.

Peppered Mussels

What you need for the mussel stew

• 1 kg of mussels
• black pepper to taste
• chopped parsley to taste
• sliced lemon to taste

Preparation of the mussel peppé

The mussels used for this recipe must be very fresh. They must be washed very well under running water, discarding those already opened or broken, in which the mollusc has died. All encrustations must be removed with a toothbrush. When they are clean, put them in a pot with a lid on the stove and let them cook until the shells have all opened.

Serve hot with a sprinkling of finely chopped parsley, freshly ground black pepper and a slice of lemon, which will be used to bathe the mussels in its juice.

Pizza

We cannot talk about Campania and its typical dishes without mentioning pizza. A true delicacy known all over the world. Pizza was invented in Naples when a pizza maker made this in honour of Queen Margherita of Savoy, combining the 3 colours of the Italian flag, white red and green. White of the mozzarella, red of the tomato and green of the basil.

The queen liked the recipe so much that this pizza has been called pizza Margherita ever since. The recipe is very simple and the ingredients genuine. It should be baked in a wood-fired oven, but it is also good in a home oven.

What is needed for a Margherita pizza about 30 centimetres in diameter

• grams 250 of flour
• grams 1 of fresh brewer's yeast
• sea salt to taste
• water to taste
• grams 300 of tomato puree
• 300 grams of buffalo mozzarella
• a few basil leaves
• olive oil to taste
• oregano to taste

Preparation of pizza Margherita

Knead the flour with the salt and fresh yeast, add water until a firm, elastic dough is formed. This procedure will take about 10 minutes because the dough has to be kneaded a lot, kneading with the hands. When it is ready cover it with a damp cloth and place it in a closed, non-cold place for about 2 hours. The dough has now doubled in volume, so knead again with your hands and form a ball, which is then left to rise again covered with a damp cloth for about 6 hours.

The original recipe does not call for the use of a rolling pin to roll out the pizza, but it should be rolled out by hand, i.e. it should be rotated and rolled out slowly with the hands until a pizza with a diameter of about 30 centimetres is obtained, in which the central part should be about half a centimetre thick and the edges at least 1 centimetre.

Now prepare the tomato. Put the tomato puree in a bowl, season with a pinch of salt and a couple of teaspoons of olive oil. Put the passata on the pizza disc spreading it evenly. Also add the buffalo mozzarella cut into small pieces, a few basil leaves, a drizzle of oil spiralled over the whole pizza and to finish a pinch of oregano.

Bake in a very hot oven for 4 - 5 minutes, checking the degree of cooking often. This is talking about the classic oven in our kitchen. If, on the other hand, we have a wood-fired oven, the oven temperature should be much higher, around 450 - 480 degrees, and then the pizza cooks very quickly, one and a half to two minutes.

Pasta with beans and mussels

This is one of Campania's favourite pasta dishes, a recipe that combines the flavour of the sea with that of the land, creating a very special combination and intense taste.

Ingredients for pasta fagioli e cozze

• grams 500 of cannellini beans
• kilograms 1,800 of mussels
• grams 300 of peeled chopped tomatoes
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 small onion
• olive oil, chopped parsley, chilli pepper and salt to taste
• grams 500 of short pasta

Preparing pasta fagioli e cozze

First of all, if you use dried cannellini beans, these should be soaked in plenty of water and left for at least 12 hours. After this time they should be cooked in plenty of water for about 1 hour. Do not throw away the cooking water from the beans as it will be used in the preparation of the recipe.

In the meantime, prepare the mussels, which should be cleaned very well and placed in a very large pot with a lid and on the heat until the shells have all opened. Remove them from the heat, let them cool and discard the shells. The water that remains in the pot where the mussels were cooked is used later to flavour the beans during cooking.

In a large pot we put a little olive oil and after having chopped the onion very finely we add it to the oil together with the 2 cloves of peeled garlic. The garlic is left whole because it has to be removed after cooking.

Now add the chopped peeled tomatoes, season with salt and pepper and leave to cook with the lid on for about ten minutes. Add the beans and a ladleful of cooking water and leave to cook for about half an hour, adding the cooking water a little at a time to prevent the sauce from drying out too much. After this time, add the mussels and the cooking water from the mussels.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta very al dente. Once the water has been removed and drained, place the pasta in the pot where the beans and mussels are cooking. Allow to flavour for a couple of minutes, stirring well and often. Add a pinch of chopped parsley and remove from the heat. Tradition would have it that this pasta should be eaten the next day, putting it on the heat in a frying pan for a couple of minutes, but not letting it get too hot.

Octopus alla Luciana

A particular recipe that tradition says was created by humble fishermen from the suburb of Santa Lucia in Naples. It is a rather long recipe for cooking, but on the other hand, the sauce used to cook the octopus can be used to season pasta, which is why octopus alla Luciana is considered an excellent main course.

Ingredients for octopus alla Luciana

• 800 / 1000 grams of octopus or small octopuses
• half a glass of white wine
• 1 clove of garlic
• grams 130 of black olives
• grams 400 of peeled chopped tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon capers
• a few chopped parsley leaves
• chilli pepper, olive oil, black pepper and salt to taste

Preparation of octopus alla Luciana

Clean the octopus or small octopuses very well, which can be left whole. In a large pan, put a few tablespoons of olive oil and the whole clove of garlic to fry. When the clove turns golden, remove it. Once the garlic clove has been removed, add the chilli pepper, black olives and capers and after the ingredients have mixed, put in the octopus and cook it, turning it often until it turns red.

Now add the white wine and let it evaporate completely. Add the peeled chopped tomatoes and let everything cook for about an hour with the lid on. Check that everything does not become too dry, which it should not do as the octopus releases a lot of water during cooking. When cooked, put some chopped parsley on top before serving. Serve hot.

Neapolitan pastiera

Let's now move on to the desserts. The most famous and world-renowned is the Neapolitan pastiera, a dessert that is not easy to make, but the result is a real treat. But there are other desserts that are well known for their goodness, such as sfogliatelle, babà al rum and others.

Ingredients for the Neapolitan pastiera

for the shortcrust pastry

• grams 350 of 00 flour
• grams 150 of butter
• grams 130 of sugar
• 2 eggs
• the grated peel of a lemon
• 1 sachet of baking powder

for the filling

• grams 300 of sheep's milk ricotta
• grams 300 of pre-cooked wheat
• grams 220 sugar
• grams 200 milk
• 4 eggs
• the zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange
• 1 tablespoon of mille-feuille aroma
• a pinch of cinnamon

Preparation of the Neapolitan pastiera

First prepare the shortcrust pastry by working the butter with the sugar, the eggs and the grated lemon peel. Slowly add the flour and the sachet of baking powder until the mixture is firm and elastic. Set it aside and prepare the wheat. Pre-cooked wheat can be found ready-made in all supermarkets. It is more difficult to find whole wheat to prepare, also because then the preparation time is very long, so I recommend the ready-made wheat.

So in a saucepan put the pre-cooked wheat, milk, a teaspoon of cinnamon and the peel of a lemon. Let it cook until the wheat has absorbed all the milk, remove the lemon peel and remove from the heat.

Add the ricotta and sugar to the wheat, stirring well to mix all the components.

In another bowl, separate the yolks of 4 eggs from the egg whites. The beaten yolks should be added to the wheat, the egg whites should be beaten until stiff and added to the wheat, stirring gently so they don't come apart.

Now take the shortcrust pastry and after kneading it for a couple of minutes, roll out two-thirds of it with a rolling pin until a round pastry is obtained, which we will place in a cake tin with flared edges to completely cover both the top and the edges. The cake tin must first be buttered and floured.

With a knife, cut off the excess pastry that comes out of the edges and put the ricotta and wheat filling inside. With the remaining shortcrust pastry, after rolling it out with a rolling pin, cut many strips to be placed on top of the tart-like filling.

Place in a preheated oven for about 50 minutes at 170 degrees and then another 20 minutes at 150. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before serving. Tradition dictates that it should be made at least one day before eating it.

Rum baba

Ingredients for the rum baba

• grams 350 of flour
• 20 grams of sugar
• 15 grams of brewer's yeast
• 6 eggs
• salt to taste
• 120 grams of butter (this for the ingredients for the baba

• half a litre of water
• 200 grams of sugar
• 200 ml of rum
• the rind of one lemon (ingredients for the syrup)

Preparation of the rum baba

In a fairly large bowl beat the eggs with the sugar, salt, brewer's yeast and butter and with an electric beater beat everything together for a few minutes. Slowly add the flour until the dough is smooth and firm and does not stick to the bowl. Cover the bowl and leave it to rise for at least 3 hours.

To make the babas, special moulds are needed, or a single mould. For the moulds, first grease and flour the moulds, then take the mixture that has been left to rise and knead it a little with your hands, make many pieces and put them in the moulds, filling them two-thirds full.

Place the moulds filled in this way in a rather high baking tin covered with cling film and leave them until the mixture has risen outside the mould to form the classic mushroom shape. This will take about an hour, after which put them in a preheated oven at 200 degrees for about 30 minutes. Let them cool completely before removing them from the moulds.

Now prepare the syrup in which the cooked babas will be dipped. In a small saucepan, melt the sugar in the water adding a lemon peel. When the sugar has completely melted add the rum. Dip the babas in this water a couple of times, squeezing them gently to remove the excess water. To finish, brush the babas with apricot jelly and serve cold.