The legend says that spaghetti have been introduced by Marco Polo, coming back from China in 1295, even though in a book written by Idrisi in 1154 at the time of Ruggero II of Sicily he mentions Vermicelli, food made of wheat with the shape of thread produced in a city named Trabia near Palermo. Between these two dates many historians found other quotations which confirmed that pasta production was common in Italy. We have the official denomination “spaghetto” in 1819 in the first Italian dictionary: the name spaghetti come from spago (string) because of its shape.
INGREDIENTS (for 4 people):
Spaghetti Garofalo 400gr,
extra virgin olive oil 100 ml,
a clove of garlic,
cherry tomatoes 500gr,
shellfish 1 kg,
parsley,
salt and pepper.
PREPARATION:
Brown the garlic in a frying pan with oil, add shellfish (previously cleaned and washed) and cherry tomatoes.
Cook for about 10 minutes.In the meantime boil the Spaghetti GAROFALO in salted water, drain them al dente, put them in the pan with the shellfish and tomatoes and mix. Serve adding parsley and pepper.
Since the 19th century fishing of the shellfish was done from men who from their boats turned over the sand carrying in surface the shellfish.
The sell was done in Naples in the booth of the market in a place called Santa Lucia. In the period of the Gran Tour it was usual to the foreigners walking in Santa Lucia and look at the booths and eat the shellfish, especially in the evenings of increasing moon; still today, in fact, the popular culture believes that in that period the shellfish were bigger and very tasty.
Ingredients:
Linguine GAROFALO n. 12 400g
clams 300 g
mussels 300g
truffles of sea 300g
2 cloves of garlic
parsley
extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper.
Preparation:
Let open clams, mussels and truffles of sea separately in a covered frying pan, slip away the shellfish and take someone with the shell as garnishing and filter the liquid that they emitted.
Heat the olive oil in a pan, brown the minced garlic, unite the slipped away shellfish and briefly let flavour on a low flame adding part of filtered liquid. In this sauce on moderate flame flavour the linguine GAROFALO cooked in salted water and drained al dente.
Spread them of pepper and minced parsley and garnish them with the shellfish.
Vermicelli, well known in 1300, were shorter than now and handmade. Their name comes from their shape like vermetti (worm).
Ingredients:
For 5 persons
500 g. vermicelli Garofalo
60 g. fillets of anchovy
1 clove of garlic
red hot pepper
minced parsley
oil salt.
Preparation:
Brown the garlic in the oil, add the red hot pepper, the anchovy and the minced parsley.
Pound all the ingredients in the mortar doing a sauce.
Cook the vermicelli in salted water and drain al dente, flavour with the sauce and serve.
This is a new version of the old kitchen recipe “little spaghettini with pork fat, pepper and pecorino cheese”; for a long time butter has been a food for rich people and used by the people living in Naples only on special occasions.
Version: If you want a more tasty dish, instead of cooking capellini in salted water, cook them in a good meat broth or vegetable broth and then flavour how described in the recipe whit butter, basil, pepper and parmigiano.
Ingredients:
Capellini Garofalo n.2 400g, butter 100g
a spoon of extra virgin olive oil
a lot of fresh basil
parmigiano 100g
salt and pepper.
Preparation:
While capellini cook in salted water, melt the butter in a pan; then, lift them with a fork and pass them still dripping wet in the soup-tureen adding a spoon of oil and some leaves of basil.
Pour above the hot butter, basil, a generous handful of parmigiano and pepper, blend well and serve immediately.
In Naples this process is also said “tosciano and saporiglio”. It’s a dish for experts that sends mouth and stomach in flames and should be accompanied with a strong red wine.
Ingredients:
Bucatini GAROFALO n. 14 400g
500 g of pig entrails (lung, trachea, heart, liver, spleen)
red wine 150g
tomato sauce 250g
pork fat
red hot pepper
a bay leaf
a little branch of rosemary
extra virgin olive oil
salt.
Preparation:
Wash the pig entrails, cut them into small pieces and plunge them into fresh water for a couple of hours, changing the water until they have lost the blood.
Dry the small pieces of meat and fry them in a frying pan with pork fat and oil.
When all got brown, wet with the wine, add the tomato sauce, the bay, the rosemary, the red hot pepper and the salt.
Leave it to gain flavour for 5 minutes and blending, then simmer adding water.
In the meanwhile cook Bucatini GAROFALO in salted water, drain them al dente, pass them in a soup-tureen and flavour them with a part of the sauce and blend.
Serve bucatini boiling.
