The recipe for “o sicchio d’a munnezza”: the very good Neapolitan recovery dish

The salvage kitchen is part of italian tradition for centuries: we have always been a nation of resourceful, hungry people, people who could never afford to throw anything away. In this spirit he was born”or siccio d’a muenzza“, a typical dish of the Christmas in Naplesor it would be even better to say that it is a dish of fine of the Neapolitan Christmas period. We tell you right away that his Last name is not at all inviting: the literal translation is “the bin“, an ironic way to define this very simple starter made exclusively with ingredients that must be thrown away, with the exception of spaghetti.

Despite the not particularly gourmet name, in reality the dish is pleasant because leftovers are used Christmas dried fruits, mainly nuts, pine nuts and raisins. To enrich the set, we use i Piennolo cherry tomatoeskept just for the Christmas period, aromatic herbs and other items available at home. In fact, the recipe cannot be unique precisely because it is recycled: some add olives, pistachios, hazelnuts, all the so-called “balls“oh”siosciole“, the collective name for dried fruits that are crunched at the end of a meal. Walnuts, chestnuts, dates, peanuts, almonds, dried figs are part of this set, so you can use any of these ingredients to prepare the flat. grouping of products is also called “or waste of time“, mentioned in the famous Rumba de’ scugnizzi, because the sciociole are really used to pass the time after the festivities at the table. It is a delicious and quick dish, which has a very low food cost: you can also cook it during the year, bearing in mind that you can replace piennolo cherry tomatoes (hard to find outside Campania) with simple datterini tomatoes, especially in summer.

The recipe for ‘o sicchio d’a monnezza

The recipe we offer is slow food: the association which was chaired by Carlo Petrini went in search of the most common preparation of this grandmother’s dish but we repeat that everything is in your hands: there is no written “law”. According to “La pasta nelle osterie d’Italia”, the volume in which the recipe was published, the best way to prepare this delicious first recovery course consists of soaking raisins in hot water for 15 minutes, chopping walnuts, hazelnuts, pine nuts, parsley and raisins. If you wish, you can also add pitted black olives to this mixture. Then prepare a sauté of oil and garlic (shirt and crushed) but eliminate the latter once it has browned. Add the walnuts, pine nuts, hazelnuts, capers and raisins, but only as the last element; cook for a few minutes. You we suggest to use a large enough pan because you will have to skip the spaghetti. Meanwhile, cut the piennolo tomatoes and add them to the pan: after five minutes of cooking, add the olives, the parsley and, always according to your taste, even a little oregano. Sheets flavor all for a few minutes and turn off the heat, leaving the lid on.

Put water for the pasta and drain it when it is al dente, put the spaghetti in the pot or pan and, using a little cooking water, mix all the sauce well. Serve this delicious starter, taking care to recover all the sauce: it’s a recovery recipe, nothing is thrown away.