Share

The recipe for Saffron Tortelli with cod filling on red bean cream written by Pantano: with Tiziana Lopardo the Lucanian tradition becomes fine dining

Rediscovering popular cuisine is a cultural fact but at the same time it attests to a sustainable diet, respectful of the environment and health and offers authentic and genuine flavors. The protagonist of the recipe is the Fagiolo rosso scritto del Pantano, there are also - says the chef - all the products that we used at home, I put them together and this dish with a simple but refined taste was born.

The recipe for Saffron Tortelli with cod filling on red bean cream written by Pantano: with Tiziana Lopardo the Lucanian tradition becomes fine dining

Popular cuisine is an invaluable treasure of our country that deserves to be valued and rediscovered. Starting from its cultural roots. Each region, each country preserves in its cuisine, a reflection of the traditions, territory and eating habits of those populations. A link with the past, which passes on original stories and flavors so that the cuisine becomes an integral part of the identity of a people as through typical dishes are expressed values, customs and festivities that have historically contributed to creating an identity community also because preparing and sharing a typical dish is an opportunity to gather, create bonds and transmit knowledge. The pandemic with its tragic toll has brought out with strong determination the attention that we all owe to sustainability and popular cuisine based on seasonal and local ingredients, is an example of sustainable nutrition, respectful of the environment and health and offers genuine authentic flavors, prepared with care and simplicity far from elaborate and industrial dishes.

Potentina Doc Tiziana Lopardo, cook and sommelier, has always been strongly tied to her land: “since I was little, when on Sundays I would get up early to help my mother prepare fresh pasta: strascinati, orecchiette, manate. These are traditional dishes tied to our land, still rich in unique and genuine products, aromas and flavors”.

In her work as a cook, catering organizer, and collective catering expert, she has always made it her mission - resisting the fashions of the moment - to spread the typical products of her land, dedicating a lot of time to the manufacturing companies to follow the different phases of their work: from production to the distribution of their products. "This - she says - has allowed me to come into contact with their stories and their secrets that I transfer to the table where I like to contaminate ancient and modern flavors: from peasant dishes to molecular cuisine. In my Basilicata, a land so rich in biodiversity, I have always tried - she adds - to prepare recipes with Lucanian products, even the lesser-known ones, which I have revisited in a modern way without altering the ancient traditions, preserving authenticity and wholesomeness". An inclusive, healthy cuisine with organic and Lucanian products, where no one should feel different. And it has even challenged the world of fast food with the Lucanian hamburger: the strazzata (a dialect term that means "torn by hand"), the focaccia of the rural world of Avigliano, which dates back to the beginning of the 1800th century and is distinguished by the small quantity of black pepper in its dough, stuffed with minced Podolica, green salad, aubergines in oil, dried Tolve tomatoes, Ferrandina olives and stracciatella.

The recipe that Tiziana Lopardo proposes this week to readers of Mondo Food with the “Fagioli rosso scritto del Pantano di Pignola”, “was born precisely remembering my mother. There are all the products that we used at home, I put them together and this dish with a simple but refined taste was born: tortelli allo “zafarano” di Senise, stuffed with cod on a cream of beans rosso scritto del Pantano and pistachios from Sigliano.

The recipe for Senise saffron tortelli with cod filling on a cream of red beans written in Pantano and Stigliano pistachios

Ingredients for people 4

For pasta

200 g of 00 flour

80 grams of durum wheat semolina

two eggs

40 grams of Senise saffron

For the stuffing

150 g of cod

Extra virgin olive oil at the head

For the bean cream

160 g of red beans written from the marsh

Extra virgin olive oil

Rosemary

A clove of garlic

10 grams of Stigliano pistachios in grains

Method

First, we cook the beans that we will need for the sauce in boiling water. The versatility of the Red bean allows for direct cooking without soaking. The cooking time is about 90 minutes, but tasting is the best way to check that the right consistency has been achieved.

In the meantime, let's proceed with the preparation of the dough: sift the flour together with the Senise dried pepper powder, add the eggs to the saffron and knead until you get a smooth mixture, let the dough rest for about 30 minutes in a cool, dry place. In the meantime, clean the previously soaked cod, remove any bones and cut it into cubes, browning it in a pan greased with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Prepare a base with oil, rosemary and garlic, add the beans after boiling them and let them flavour. Season with salt, remove the garlic and rosemary, blend with a hand blender and keep the bean cream warm. Make the pastry at least 3 mm thick, use a 7 cm diameter pastry cutter to make circles, place the ricotta filling in the centre and close them to form a tortello. Cook in plenty of salted water until cooked.

Plate finish

Pour the bean cream onto the plate, place the tortelli on top and sprinkle with pistachios

comments