“Good June has ripened/with its rays of pure gold/all the cherries red/among the dark green foliage/Now they peep out among the branches/and attract inviting/little boys and girls/Red, black, morettine/cherries and cherries/ With a couple of beautiful fruits / I'll make you earrings / sparkling, red and beautiful, / as if they were rubies. / Beautiful children, dear children / with brown and blonde hair / you are even more joyful / Redheads, blacks, brunettes / cherry, cherries". Thus recited an old rhyme that children, when the time of mobile phones, video games, various digital gadgets had not yet intervened, sang in front of a beautiful basket of cherries on the table.
Appreciated since Roman times for their beneficial health properties, protagonists of still lifes and scenes of nobility dinners in painting, base for syrups and liqueurs, cherries have always exerted a particular charm on children but also on adults, linked as they are to the holiday season for the former and to the mating season for the latter.
Their use in the kitchen has very ancient origins and is common to all countries of the old and new continent.
Given their presence on the market stalls, even if sometimes these days, to tell the truth, we find disproportionate prices, it is worth taking advantage of the moment when the trees are overloaded with this delicious and cheerful fruit, to cook a sweet very popular in France, easy to make, the Clafoutis aux cerises.
An oven-baked dessert consisting of black cherries drowned in a paste similar to that of crepes. The sweet originates from Limousin, a historic region in south-central France crossed by the rugged mountains of the Massif Central. Agricultural and sparsely populated, the Region is known for the breeding of cattle of the characteristic Limousine breed and for the refined porcelain of its main city, Limoges. But it is also known for the quality of its cherries, the sour cherries, black and acidic cherries from the maraschino family, the most beautiful and juicy in all of France, highly sought after by gourmets.
And it is in this region that Clafoutis spread in the XNUMXth century. According to current vulgate, this tasty dessert was prepared to be taken to the fields and enjoyed during a break from hard work. The name derives from the Occitan clafotis, from the verb “clafir” which means to fill, implied “with cherries. According to Alain Rey, the name of clafoutis comes from the intersection of the Latin verb "clavum figere" which means "to drive a nail" in the sense of filling, and a derivative in "eiz" of the verb "fuck“, “put, poke”.
Curnonsky, a XNUMXth century French food critic, said that to achieve absolute perfection in making a real cherry clafoutis, you need to have Limousin blood in your veins like the black cherries of this beautiful region beyond the Alps.
The traditional Clafoutis, the real one, is rigorously made with cherries which must be whole and not pitted. The detail is not of second order because according to the purists the juices of the cherries must not disperse coloring the dough and, moreover, the cherry stone must bring a woody aromatic note to the dessert.
Still in terms of French culinary chauvinism, it must be said that after the period of cherries, with the same procedure as the Clafoutis, a dessert of apples, pears, apricots or plums is made, but woe to use the same name, in this case it is called Flaugnarde.
Another variant involves the use of stale bread without a crust, dipped in milk or fruit juice, instead of flour. It's a stylish way to recycle leftovers. Affectionately, the ladies who often cook clafoutis are called "clafouteuses".
And to stay on the subject we should mention an amusing episode that speaks volumes about the character of the Limousin Montagnards. In the 60s the Academy of the French language speaking of the Clafoutis expressed itself defining it as a «sort of cherry flan». All hell broke loose, the Limousin people rose up against the academics ready to march on Paris. Remedial measures were taken immediately and the Academy corrected the shot defining it a «black cherry cake».
With these historical premises having to propose a recipe, First&Food decided to contact Livia Coarelli of the Il Moderno restaurant in Perugia, a slow restaurant that pursues the philosophy of a world where food can be good and healthy for those who consume it and for those who produce it .
The philosophy of the Modern is not only food but also a place to have tea and read a book, for literary events, a shop to buy objects created by artisans.
In the kitchen dominates Livia Coarelli, of a French mother, with a boulanger-patissier grandfather in Paris. Thus her childhood was impregnated with the scents of butter, sugar and vanilla: at the age of three her grandfather put a large white apron on her and made her shape the croissants.
The recipe for Clafoutis by Livia Coarelli
Ingredients (For 8 people)
500 g of unpitted black cherries
100 g of sugar
100 g flour
1 pinch of salt
4 eggs
50cl of milk.
Butter for the pan
Preparation
1. While the oven is heating up to 180°C, remove the stalk from the cherries, wash them carefully and dry them
2. Butter a cake mold and place the cherries directly on it
3. Mix the eggs and sugar and gradually incorporate the flour
4. Add the milk to obtain a smooth batter
5. Pour the batter over the cherries previously placed in the mold and bake for about 40 minutes
Cherry Clafoutis can be enjoyed both hot and cold: personally I prefer it cold, sprinkled with icing sugar and accompanied with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!
The Modern Restaurant
Via Del Carmine, 1
06122, Perugia
Email: reservations@ristoranteilmoderno.com
Telephone: 075/94 71 930
