TuscanCooking: Acqua Cotta from Maremma

Acqua cotta from Maremma is one of the few recipes that Pellegrino Artusi doesn‘t mention in his famous and unsurpassed work, „La scienza in cucina e l‘arte di mangiar bene“. This delicious dish did not escape the attention of another great interpreter of Tuscan cooking, Leo Codacci, who gives us an example of it in his beautiful book, „Civiltà della tavola contadina“. We have mentioned the two greatest experts in Tuscan cooking, but we should also recommend the book by Aldo Santini who, as far as Maremma cooking is concerned, gives us as many as thirty recipes for acqua cotta (that of the wood cutters, from Massa Marittima, Pianizzoli, Marsiliana, Pitigliano, Scansano, the Uccellina, and so on). These books should be accompanied by the „official“ recipe of the Tourist Promotion Board of the Province of Grosseto which underlines how the dish „is made with the poor fruits that the arid ground once gave us: onions, vegetables, oil, tomatoes, an egg, toasted bread and a little grated pecorino cheese“.

It ís difficult to chose between so many possibilities, but as we are used to the healthy and wholesome recipes of our forebears, we put away our books and cooked Grandma Giudittaís recipe (from Ribolla) as usual. It should be pointed out that this recipe is not as poor as it originally was. When the years of poverty had finished, grandma Giuditta added a few extra ingredients to make it even more appetising. This is how you make it. Heat up a good deal of extra virgin olive oil (obligatorily in an old, black, worn out iron pan) and fry a pair of nice onions cut into thin slices and the herbs that can be found in many classical recipes: celery, basil, calamint, and salt and pepper (or peperoncino) of course.

When it has browned, add two or three tomatoes, a good bunch of chard (you can use spinach or wild herbs if you want to) and sufficient water (our recipe also includes a sausage cut into pieces and a handful of dry pore mushrooms) and simmer for about half an hour. When cooked, stir in the beaten eggs and abundant grated parmesan (it
used to be seasoned pecorino) and pour the mixture into a soup tureen containing
some thin slices of stale or toasted homebaked bread. After a few minutes the acqua
cotta is ready to be served. There are an infinite number of variations though: there
are those who want their eggs whole, those who donít want mushrooms, those who
prefer dry meat instead of a sausage, those who want pecorino and not parmesan, but
everyone finishes off their portions!


(Portions of this article first appeared in "Toscana & Chianti News")
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