There are traditional Italian dishes that are hard to find now, and this is one of them.
Yesterday, at the specific request of a customer, I had the pleasure of making Neapolitan-style pork chops, an exceptional second course but also the base ingredient for a wonderful ragout for fresh or artisanal pasta, especially if you use one from Gragnano.
Braziole di Cotica are pork rolls with garlic, parsley, raisins, pine nuts and pecorino cheese flakes, a simple tomato sauce and, if you like, chili pepper.
* required things:
– 4 slices of pork
– 3 cloves of garlic
– 2 sprigs of parsley
– 2 half-centimeter slices of Pecorino Romano cheese
– Grapes to taste
– Pine nuts to taste
– Pepper as required
*Ingredients for Gravy:
Peeled tomatoes -1 puree
– 1 onion
– Extra virgin olive oil to taste
– Salt to taste
– Basil to taste
– 1/2 glass of white wine
*Method:
Clean and wash the strips of fresh pork, boil them briefly, degrease them and stuff them with garlic, chopped parsley, raisins, pine nuts and pecorino flakes in the tomato sauce you have already prepared.
Cook everything on low heat for two and a half hours. You can also use them in pasta and beans if you like.
Alessandro Ziccarelli – Born in 1961, born in Cosenza, classical and then university studies in Naples, forcibly abandoned three-quarters of the way after a tragic family event.
A passion for cooking leads him, without necessity, to change direction and attend his first cooking class back in 1984 in Naples, where he immerses himself in fish cooking and traditional regional cuisine. Specific search for ancient recipes, authentic, niche products and flavors of the past. Always reluctant to compromise on basic classic Italian dishes. Special thanks to Prof. Renato Bedini, great expert on Neapolitan food and culture, and the recognized Neapolitan Playboy.
After various experiences in Italy, above all, apparently in Naples, he decides to go to North America and stops in Toronto, where over time he opens two businesses in the wholesale catering and pastry industry, as well as importing products from Italy. From Europe and South America.
Eight years later, he returned to the culinary profession, accepting various commitments at various popular restaurants in Toronto and Woodbridge. Spaccanapoli Restaurant in Woodbridge, owned by Tanya Levato and brothers Carmine and Marcello D’Alonzo, is the only restaurant serving traditional, popular Neapolitan cuisine and fish.
After various experiences at 8 other restaurants, he currently holds the position of head chef at La Bella Italia in Maple, north of Toronto.
A chef with various Italian and Canadian certificates and diplomas and a member of various Italian, Brazilian, American and Canadian trade associations, he currently holds the position of Vice-President of the Professional Association of Italian Chefs (APCI Canada).
From passion to passion, he is also a member of the American press agency USPA, participates every week in the radio broadcast (CHIN Radio TV International) with exquisite cooking interventions and personal articles and observation of various chefs. APCI (not only Italian, Canadian, American) is published weekly in Corriere Canada, Toronto, Fati Nostri, La Gazzetta Italobrasiliana, Rio de Janeiro, Italobloger, Zurich, Switzerland, Vos d’Italia, Argentina. In Montreal’s Corriere Italiano, Fornelli d’Italia and, occasionally, in other Italian food and wine magazines.
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