Thread: Peasant Dishes; Simple and Hearty

The Italian word paisan has come to mean friend or compatriot. It comes from the word peasant. Human beings typically are at their best when they at their worst. When we are faced with great challenges, we surprisingly muster up the kindness to help one another. It is that spirit that gives us some of the best food in any culture. Stew, soup, pot roast, cassolet, and many other wonderful recipes are considered peasant food. If you look at these very different meals you will find surprising similarities. They use ingredients that can often be found in the pantry when all other food has been devoured and they stretch the key ingredient to feed many without sacrificing quality. Some of my favorite Italian dishes originated as peasant chow but often have become very trendy grub for the nouveau riche. That is not me nor do I share my recipes with any pretense. I share what I eat. I hope that at least one of you will give it a try. I think you'll dig it and have fun cooking it!

There are many variations on this simple dish called pasta con aglia e olio di oliva. That's pasta with garlic and olive oil. You can make this hearty meal in the time it takes to boil the macaroni.

Bacon, cooked, drained and chopped; Olive oil; Garlic cloves, Anchovies (in a jar); Fresh cracked black pepper and fresh lemon juice.

This is very special oil. Notice the color and the cloudiness due to heavy sediment. This oil is so tasty it is better on bread than butter. A dish like the one we are making doesn't need fancy oil, in fact, it sort of defeats your purpose. You can use lesser olive oil and it will still be delightful. The anchovies on the other hand...

I never use anchovies in cans, ever. They are simply too salty. These are still salty but not brutally so. If you've never had the anchovies in jars, you really owe it to yourself to try them. In this dish and others that call for anchovy fillets like puttanesca, the quality of those little fish can make or break the meal.

Who says cooking isn't an art? After you cook the bacon and remove it to drain on a brown paper bag (infinitely better than paper towels), pour out the bacon fat (I save it in a mug in the fridge) and pour into the same pan the olive oil. Cook the anchovies over medium heat and smash them into the bottom of the pan with the flat bottom of a fork. Then add the crushed red and black peppers the garlic (crushed and chopped) and the drained, chopped bacon. Saute (stir while in hot oil) until the garlic just begins to brown and remove from the heat.

Mix all the "sauce" with all your pasta and plate from the bottom of the mix. Squeeze some lemon juice onto each serving and serve with either good Italian Parmigianno Reggiano or no cheese at all.

Have Fun!
Brad

That looks amazing! I'll share the recipe my mother gave me for her stew, although it's a very simple recipe, and amounts given won't be exact (she uses the measurements "a glug" a"a bit", "a splash" etc etc). The dumpling recipe is a very basic one, and one I got off the net - you might want to play around with extra herbs and spices to suit your taste for both stew and dumplings.

Stew:
Trim some shin beef (gravy beef is also acceptable, but shin beef produces a better gravy and breaks down better in the stew, I've found). You'll need around 150-200 grams per person. Trim off any large areas of fat and thick areas of tendon/cartilage etc. Cut the beef into chunks, around and inch each side or a little more.
Brown batches of the beef in the stew pot to seal in the juices. Brown it in batches - just enough beef at a time to form a single layer on the bottom of the stewpot. If it's more than a single layer the meat doesn't seal as well and you lose some of the juices.
Once the meat is browned, put it all in the pot and add enough water to almost cover the meat. If you're cooking dumplings as well, you'll need a little more water than that - cover the meat completely (but only just). Add around a tsp of mixed herbs, a chopped onion, and a couple of tbsp of vinegar.
Cover and simmer for an hour, stirring occasionally. After an hour, add whichever hard vegetables you wish to have in the stew (turnip, potato, kumara (sweet potato to you Yanks), carrots, etc etc). Simmer for a further 20min, then add soft veges, such as peas, corn etc. Season with worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper to taste (you may want to add a little powdered beef stock instead of some of the salt, if the flavour's not 'meaty' enough for you). If you're doing dumplings as well, drop them in at this cooking point.
Simmer for a further 20min, then thicken with flour and water (thickening is not always necessarily if dumplings are made as well - the dumplings absorb a lot of water so remove a lot of the gravy, hence why you need extra water at the start) - this is the point during which the stew is most likely to burn, so stir it well. If you're doing dumplings, remove them once cooked, put them somewhere they'll stay warm, then thicken the stew.
Serve with something to soak up the gravy like mashed potato.
In our family's opinion, stew tastes better if it's left in the fridge overnight, then reheated the next day for dinner. The stew can be put in the fridge at any point during the cooking process after adding water, but be careful if you reheat it after thickening, as the odds of it sticking and burning are very good.

Dumplings:
INGREDIENTS
2C flour
4 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
3/4C milk
2 Tbsp butter - a lot of recipes recommend lard or suet, but I've found butter easier and more reliable - you could try using half beef fat from a roast as well as some butter if you like, but I'm not sure how it'd turn out - if you do, please let me know
Mix the dry ingredients by sifting together. Rub in the butter. Add the milk till a stiff dough is formed.
Place the dough on a floured surface, pressing lightly together. Use a rolling pin to smooth the dough into a roll about 3 inches thick.
Use a spoon to make balls of dough around the size of a squash ball. With wet hands, roll them into balls, then drop them on top of beef stew that is simmering in a pot on the stove (make sure the stew's simmering properly (bubbling away, not just sitting and steaming, otherwise the dumplings go a bit soggy and stodgy). Cover the pot and steam for about 20 - 25 minutes. Be warned - these spread out a lot - if you need to stir the stew, cut them apart with a knife, and either remove them temporarily from the pot or gently stir it so you don't damage them.

Bravissimo Brad !!! That's tomorrow's dinner sorted.
Just what I needed & that oil looks amazing

Thank you much for the compliments and thanks Mosley for the Stew recipe. It sounds very good for a cold day. Perfect example of what I am calling peasant food.

I want to say, before someone else does, in the last photo (the finished dish) there is a very fine anchovy rib bone masquerading as a hair. While it doesn't fool me at all, I don't want anyone else to be put off by it.

Brad

Fantastic, Brad. I don't even like anchovies, and that looks awesome.

I'll get some Japanese "Peasant Food" recipes...surprisingly, no sushi!

Brad,

My family makes an Italian peasant dish called Minestra. There are many ways to make it, but here is one that I use all the time:

1 lb Ground Beef - browned and drained (you can use Italian Sausage, my family used the fatback and skin from a pig minced very fine)
1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive oil
1 chopped onion
2-3 cloves chopped garlic
1 can whole pealed tomatoes - coursely crushed, with juice
2 cups chicken broth
4-5 small zuchinni or 2-3 large zuchinni - split down the middle and cut in half
2 cans canollini beans
2 large potatoes pealed and chunked
2 large buches Swiss Chard - if it is the white kind use the stalks too, if it is the red kind, split the stalks away from the leaves (they will never get tender) and coarsely slice

Salt and Pepper.

In a large pot, after draining the beef, add the olive oil, onions, and garlic, cook on med low heat until onions are translucent. Add tomatoes and broth and let simmer about 45 minutes. Add remaining ingredients and let simmer about another 30 minutes or until the potatoes are fork tender.

Add salt and pepper to taste and serve with grated parmasean cheese and crusty bread. Mmmmmmmmm!

By the way. Remember in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly when Angel Eyes eats with the family at the beginning and has that vegatable stew and when he is in the prison camp and eating the same thing with Tuco? That was Minestra (spaghetti western - go figure).

Enjoy - David

Yesterday introduced my son to Vietnamese Pho beef and rice noodle soup with beef brisket, flank, beef tendon, tripe, and all the fixin's (been sprouts, sweet basil, limes, hoisin sauce, and red pepper sauce).

Very peasanty and delicious.

The garlic and oil is one of my favorite dishes, except that I am not as extravagant ( ) No fish or bacon in my recipe but I may try it some day. I'm not an anchovies lover at all.

Another one of my favorites is Shells and Peas. In a small sauce pan I add a bit of olive oil and saute yellow onions. When they are translucent I add a can of sweet peas, water and all until heat through. Meanwhile I am cooking the shells. When cooked to my liking I fill a bowl with the shells, add some grated Parmigianno cheese and top with the peas and liquid. Salt and pepper to taste. Yum!

Sounds good. I have noticed the unwanted "parts" are starting to become more popular in the states now.

We used to be able to buy tripe and other cheap meats for almost nothing.

Wife is Taiwanese, so we eat a lot of "peasant food". The bulk of chinese food would be considered peasant food.

Originally Posted by honedright

Yesterday introduced my son to Vietnamese Pho beef and rice noodle soup with beef brisket, flank, beef tendon, tripe, and all the fixin's (been sprouts, sweet basil, limes, hoisin sauce, and red pepper sauce).

Very peasanty and delicious.

Icedog,
I dont think i have seen the jarred anchovies at normal grocery stores. Is this something i probably need to go to a more specialty store or fish market to buy?