With that name a bit like this, one could say, borrowing a famous song by Paolo Conte dedicated to Genoa, i Talk to him about Priverno they intrigue you at first glance. Difficult to understand what it is. Then go and see and a world of garden delicacies and old agricultural traditions opens up to you. Indeed, behind this abstruse name there is a particular quality of broccoletto characterized by the purple color and with a delicate flavour, which has been cultivated since time immemorial in that of Priverno.
We are at the center of Lepini mountains in the province of Latina, in southern Lazio, the old farmers, especially in the flat areas near the Amaseno river, have handed down the seeds of this particular variety of broccoli from the Brassica Oleracea family, with its extraordinary flavour, from father to son.
Every year in summer they sow in seedbeds and then transplant them into the field. Before Christmas, the first shoots appear, rich in purple flower buds, particular also because they are sparse and very branched. The harvest begins between the end of January and the beginning of February: first the central inflorescence is topped, then the plant emits lateral shoots which must be collected before flowering.
The shoots are harvested in stages until Easter: they must be detached as new ones form. It is an operation similar to the so-called "scacchiatura" of the vine: the cacchi or chiacchi are the shoots.
And finally here is explained the name for which Chiacchieteli would be a way endearment to define the chess of broccoli.
Tasty and fragrant, however, the Chiacchetegli were disappearing, just as the whole old world of peasant customs and beliefs is disappearing between industrialization and modernization.
And the Chiacchetegli were gradually walking towards the world of memories pressed by the introduction of varieties foreign to the territory - such as the Calabrian and Sicilian broccoli, more vigorous and productive and therefore profitable, but also due to the natural reduction of the elderly population linked to the old customs handed down from father to son
Fortunately, she intervened with her authoritative weight Slow Food which has included Chiacchiegli among its principals.
And in this case as in many others, fortunately, we can say that the danger has escaped. For the Chiacchetegli, a new season of life and valorisation is now expected even outside the local borders because new producers may be interested in resuming cultivation and promoting production in extra virgin olive oil.
But let's see them closely. The sprouts of the broccoli can be preserved, as has been said, in oil or they can be eaten fresh, spread on bread, in a sort of cream with extra virgin olive oil, garlic and chilli pepper, or cooked in many local dishes and, in particular, in the traditional soup as is the custom in these parts. To cook it, you use an earthenware pot (pignatta), you prepare a sauté with garlic and oil (until the end of the 50s many families used beaten lard instead of oil) and then add the private chiacchiegli of the base of the inflorescence, often coriaceous. When they are cooked, everything is poured onto slices of stale bread, accompanied by extra virgin olive oil from Itrana, a local cultivar.
One of the great supporters of Chiacchetegli is Luca Mastracci dynamic pizza chef from Priverno owner of Pizzeria Pupillo, an address where you can go without fail to eat pizza of an excellent gastronomic standard.
Mastracci, consolidated through important experiences in Ireland, in Italy in various pizzerias and above all, in Rome, at the Central Market, the gourmet citadel of Termini Station, together with Pier Daniele Seu, revelation of recent years, returning to Priverno has created the project of a Pizzeria that pays programmatic attention to the exaltation of the genuineness of the territory in all its conjugations: organic vegetables from a local producer, buffalo mozzarella from Amaseno, artichokes from Sezze, cured meats from lower Lazio from Amaseno to Latina, the DOP extra virgin olive oil from the Pontine Hills, Itrane olives, but also speck and buffalo ragù.
And obviously these days the Chiacchietelli become the protagonists of one of his most requested pizzas.
Not by chance Mastracci is part of the Slow Food Alliance. According to the Alliance Pizza Makers Manifesto, whoever joins this network must respect quality and tradition rules, use natural ingredients, high quality flours. Furthermore, the associates must have knowledge and transparency for the leavening and maturation of the doughs.
For all Pupillo signature pizzas, the leitmotiv has always been a faithful mapping of regional and local gastronomic specialities. The entry into the project, therefore, does nothing but keep alive and strengthen the pact of gratitude that Mastracci has with the territory. In fact, Pupillo Pura Pizza was born three years ago in Priverno (Lt) not as a simple pizzeria, but as a project on pizza and the surrounding area.
Pizza, for Mastracci and associates, is the right accompaniment to tell the very high quality of the raw material of Lower Lazio and beyond.
