The lentils of Santo Stefano del Sessanio, a high-altitude flavor

If there is one thing that from Northern to Southern Italy is not lacking on any table during the last supper of the year, it is lentils. Whether it's for good luck, for their protein content, for the fact that they are cheap, it doesn't matter, they remain one of the main dishes of the Italian tradition. They are born as a popular product, which was used to integrate small family subsistence economies on small farms, also because they are hardy and robust plants that are well suited to grow in marginal and less fertile lands, then they were celebrated on our tables as a wish for economic ease for the year to come.

traditions

The lentils were already used in 7000 BC. Their cultivation began in that happy region which were the lands of Ancient Egypt, made fertile by the Nile and its propitious floods which covered the desert with silt and in this way favored the development of agriculture and from the very beginning assumed a auspicious meaning.

They then spread throughout the Mediterranean basin they became staple food of the Greeks and Romans. It was Cato who dictated some rules to cook them in the best way; Galen, a famous doctor, underlined its therapeutic virtues, and even Esau, we read in the Bible, sold his birthright to his brother Jacob in exchange for a steaming plate of lentils.

Thanks to their low cost and easy availability, they were defined “The poor man's steak”: in fact they contain 25% of proteins, in addition to 53% of carbohydrates and, from a nutritional point of view, 100 grams of lentils are equivalent to 215 grams of meat.

Cultivated by the monks of an abbey since the XNUMXth century

Our peninsula is home to a large variety of lentils. One of the rarest and most valuable varieties – and little known to the general public – is the Lenticchia di Santo Stefano del Sessanio.

The lentil of Santo Stefano di Sessanio is a legume typical of the foothills of the Gran Sasso of Italy and in particular of the territory of Santo Stefano di Sessanio, in the province of L'Aquila. The biotype of the legume is linked to the climatic conditions of the area — characterized by long, harsh winters and short, cool springs — and to the properties of the soil, mainly calcareous in nature.

It is sown in spring, generally in March, and harvested during the summer, between July and August; the ripening of the lentil varies greatly according to the altitude of the land. Furthermore, to limit losses and due to the often inaccessible terrain, the harvest is almost exclusively manual, a feature which preserves the quality of the product. It grows over a thousand meters above sea level only on the slopes of the Gran Sasso, in the uncontaminated territories of the National Park. Some crops go up to 1600 meters, but it is around 1200 that they give the best results.

It is very small in size, generally between 2 and 5 millimeters in diameter, round and flattened and purplish-brown in colour, darker than that of other varieties. It is characterized by a low lipid content, balanced by a high protein content. Due to its small size and organoleptic characteristics, it does not need to be soaked before being consumed.

The lentil of Santo Stefano di Sessanio is recognized among the traditional agri-food products of Abruzzo and among the Slow Food presidia. These lentils are extraordinarily tasty and the best way to appreciate them is a simple soup: you have to cover them with water and add pinafore cloves of garlic, a few bay leaves, salt, extra virgin olive oil and then bring to a light boil in a closed pot.

The cultivation of legumes on the L'Aquila plateaus is a very ancient practice; in the case of the Santo Stefano di Sessanio lentil, it has been documented since the 1888th century, even before the foundation of the village itself, dated to the XNUMXth-XNUMXth century. At the time the territory was controlled by the abbey of San Vincenzo al Volturno and the first sources to mention the cultivation of lentils are precisely monastic documents such as the famous Chronicon Vulturnense. The cultivation was then carried on by the Barony of Carapelle and by the Signoria dei Medici who controlled the territory until the XNUMXth century; After the unification of Italy, the lentil of Santo Stefano di Sessanio appears as a typical product in some important sources such as The Ancient Industries of the Province of Aquila by Teodoro Bonanni d'Ocre (XNUMX).

Then, as is the common story of many other ancient crops, testimony to the biodiversity of the Bel Paese, precisely the onerousness of cultivation and the quantitative yield – these are lands from which young people flee to find employment and more advantageous living conditions – have prompted many to adopt other much more profitable and high-yielding varieties, condemning the precious and very tasty Lenticchia di Santo Stefano del Sessanio to oblivion.

There were only a few left to produce Lentils of Santo Stefano di Sassanio, mainly elderly people, who mostly cultivated a few lentils for family consumption. The quantities obtained were limited and decreased every year, all aggravated by the proliferation of a market for fake lentils from Santo Stefano di Sessanio, which demeaned local producers. Until fortunately in 2008 a group of local producers joined together in a consortium to preserve the typicality of the product.

And the entry of the small Gran Sasso lentil in the list of Slow Food presidia has acted as a sounding board, fueling the curiosity of the market and the Chefs. The Presidium, which has embraced a project already launched in the past years by the Gran Sasso National Park and the Arssa Region of Abruzzo, has also made it possible to arrive at labeling and control of the harvest, in order to guarantee the consumer from possible frauds . But above all by increasing crops, it can offer an opportunity for development and a possibility for young people to remain in an extraordinary territory.

Cultivation of Santo Stefano del Sassanio lentils

Luckily for lovers of soups, risottos, lentils stewed and with sauce and above all as an accompaniment to cotechino, Capodann, Italy can boast a wide variety of these extraordinary luguminous vegetables starting with the best known, the Lentils from Castelluccio di Norcia grown within the Monti Sibillini National Park, on the Castelluccio plateau, with a round and flattened shape, with an extremely thin, highly digestible skin.

No less known are the Altamura lentils grown in the Murge, large in size and greenish in colour. They need to be soaked the night before. From Puglia we move to Calabria where we find the Mormanno lentil, cultivated for centuries in the Pollino National Park, with a very small seed and a color that varies from pink to dark green. Also in this case we are faced with the recovery of a crop after several decades of abandonment.

Also much appreciated Lentil from Ustica one of the smallest in Italy of a dark brown color which takes on its flavor from being grown on lava soil and has a cooking time of about 40 minutes.

We remain in Sicily with the Villalba lentil which until the first half of the twentieth century was one of the main producers of lentils in Italy. It is a large-seeded variety with extraordinary nutritional qualities: just think that it can contain even more than 10 mg of iron per 100 grams of product. They are still to be mentioned Rascino lentil , Soleto lentil.

The first, small and brownish, is grown in a vast karst basin in the Cicolano area, in the province of Rieti, almost on the border with Abruzzo, between 900 and 1300 meters above sea level. Due to the scarcity of human settlements, it is an isolated and uncontaminated land, rich in wild plants (especially orchids) and numerous animal populations (including the wolf).

The only possible activities in this area have always been sheep farming and the cultivation of lentils, spelled and biancòla. Irrigated with the spring waters of the Peschiera park, this lentil has always been consumed by the shepherds of the area and cooked in milk and served to the sick. It is a small lentil that needs to be soaked and is excellent for preparing soups with local spelled or with the biancòla wheat typical of this area.

We close with the Soleto lentil grown in the heart of Grecìa Salentina where the descendants of Magna Graecia still speak a Doric dialect (griko). Its origin is very ancient, very similar to a lentil called vicia. Even if the black color and the wrinkled texture may suggest the opposite, it is an extremely digestible variety that needs to be cooked for about 45 minutes. It is usually used to prepare soups with extra virgin olive oil and local herbs.

Method

To prepare Santo Stefano di Sessanio lentils, wash the lentils and put them in an earthenware pan together with four tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, two cloves of red garlic from Sulmona, two bay leaves, two sticks of celery, a piece of dry chilli pepper, a spoonful of tomato sauce.

Then pour water up to four inches above the lentils and cook over a moderate flame for 25-30 minutes. When the water has almost completely evaporated, add salt and pepper, turn off the heat and leave to rest. Season with the fried pieces of bread, cut into cubes and sautéed in a non-stick pan with a drizzle of oil, until it becomes crunchy.

Lentils are also excellent with sagnarelle or with water and flour dumplings. But they are also superb to accompany sausages or zampone, for a typical New Year's Eve dish: in this case it will be sufficient to add two more tablespoons of tomato puree to the recipe and cover with two inches of water instead of four. The rest of the preparation remains unchanged.

The property

Rich in protein and high in fiber, lentils are the ideal legumes for improving heart health, aiding weight loss and lowering blood sugar. The properties of lentils are numerous and are given by the good content in protein, fiber, folate, potassium and phosphorus. Additionally, lentils also contain good amounts of calcium, iron, and zinc.

Research suggests that regular consumption of lentils can help in weight control thanks to the excellent sense of satiety they guarantee and this is due to the quantity of soluble fibers and proteins present in them.

The amount of fiber, folate, magnesium, potassium and low levels of sodium are the characteristics of lentils that guarantee a reduction in bad cholesterol and blood pressure. Above all, they are great for people with anemia who need to supplement