“Me encantan las gambas a la plancha…”, she was tweeting like a swallow while withdrawing  its plate. I was distant and didn’t know why I was there. Where exactly? “Mercado de San Miguel” was the name. I arrived there by chance, just following a dream. ( Gi.Co.)

Let’s start in order. I came upon Madrid on a spring day: the sun was high, there was a sweet breeze, and in my heart I had the hostile desire to visit Velàzquez, the great Baroque portrait painter.

I didn’t queue to get inside the Prado museum. Quick I dove into those rooms, to find again the peace of tradition. I was longing to see those clowns and dwarfs: Pablo de Valladolid, or the Taliban and disarming eyes of the Don Cristobal de Castañeda y Pernía portrait, named the Barbarossa. Or how to hold a proud paintbrush and together the unbearable upset that Infanta Margarita expresses in the great masterpiece “Las meninas”?

Yes, tradition can upset. Stop, I decide to go out. While thinking I walk along the Paseo of El Prado. Insolent enough I get into the CaixaForum, a post-modern art gallery, free just like all modern things which are vile and miserable. What I find is an unexpected exhibition: shots of a century by Jacques Henri Lartigue, a master of photography, a genius of the fleeting moments.

Looking that world that does not change, but that is not anachronistic, pierce my heart and catch the sight of a mysterious woman: she has a nice hat, a pale and lightweight dress. She looks at those pictures with existential melancholy, which I am so in love with. Does she know about me? No, at all; cold, unapprochable and for this reason even more desirable. I will call her Florette, like the young wife of my photographer Cupid. By this time subjugated, I only take care of her. Suddenly, she decides to go out. She crosses the big street, with her long naked legs. I follow her like a thief. She gets into the Royal Botanic garden and stops enchanted by a meadow of Red Matador tulips, straight like Don Quixote’s mills.

I have just read the label of a Chinese palm, which is adorable like my mysterious lady: trachycarpus fortunei. I remember the words of the apocryphal Gospel of the kind of Matthew: “I would love, if it would be possible, to collect the fruits of this palm”. My lurin woman attracts me like a moth in the heart of the ancient Madrid.

She turns towards a square and stops in front of a building made of wrought iron and glass, a monument of modernism and new ideas of almost a century ago, reminiscence of the Les Halles market in Paris.

There is a sign, Mercado de San Miguel, and the bottom floor has a large window full of fruits, vegetables, fish, bread. A place to get together and walk, first of all. Here it looks like you can go shopping every day and taste something in the several shops and store houses.

Florette gets inside, among the crowd that let her pass through, caressed by a golden light, that crosses the high aisles. She stops at a desk and tastes some olive skewers and boquerones en vinagre, fresh anchovies marinaded in white vinegar.

Standing, in front of another “bodega”, she whispers something, she drinks a cold Manzanilla on tap, a sherry with something a bit salty that is irresistible. Chased by my look, has the ritual of tapas: sips and smiles. The party carries on, Florette takes off her hat and loose her brown hair. Then, it looks like she claims something to a huge and smiling chef, who disappears behind a desk of fresh fish. Cooking straight away, he brings Florette a dish of grilled prawns, hot and seasoned with salt and some parsley. “Me encantan las gambas a la plancha …”, were her words, while she turned and looked at me smiling, with her dark eyes. She really stared at me. And I thought about what Ernest Hemingway wrote once during a hot Summer in 1929, here in Madrid: “There isn’t any cure for anything in life”.

Giorgio Contino

Mercado de San Miguel

Plaza Oriente, 3 – 28013 Madrid, Spagna

It’s a heart beating with memories, emotions, the centre of a city whose streets and ravines hidden to the eyes of the passer-bys are steeped in history. Walking across the “Capo” means going through the artery of a market whose roots dip into the substratum of Palermo made of “abbanniaturi” (sellers of fruit, vegetables, meat and various stuff), of stalls “cunzate” (which literally means seasoned, i.e. made ready), “riffaturi” (sellers of raffle tickets), of  “fimmini massari” (women devoted to housework – housewives), “picciriddi ri nutricari” (babies to bring up) and dogs “lagnusi” (moaning, sluggard) which idle about waiting for the leftovers from the shops. It’s a street rich of colours, life, style all referring to a past that has never been betrayed, while our steps lead us towards a labyrinth of emotions which start from the Courthouse and reach the Cathedral.

The entrance to the “Capo” is really  suggestive, as it is contained in one of the most ancient doors of the city, Porta Carini: built in 1310, it was a simple arch of stone which, through the fields, opened the way from the city towards the town of Carini: this explains its name. The door was entirely rebuilt in 1782, it was bought by the nuns of the Conception and used as viewpoint. Today it is a door which has retired, it doesn’t have any more its original function and has become a stately matron greeting the tourists, the customers of the market, making a fine show and allowing everyone to take photographs. The journey from via Porta Carini to via Beati Paoli is full of reminders, the thought goes to the passages written by Luigi Natoli in his novel outlining the feature of a mysterious sect of hooded men that at the end of XVII century, according to stories which have become legendary, used to meet in a cavern in the neighbourhood. The aim of the sect was to punish the wrong, through evil, with the will to make good prevail, to demolish abuses and injustice, to seek vengeance for the helpless.

The Market lives inside a popular quarter, called of “Seralcadio”, know today precisely as “Capo”, and has always been the market of the people since its foundation in the age of the Muslim domination. It slightly resembles a souk, an oriental bazaar, a feeling which is confirmed more than ever once standing before the “Antica Drogheria di Dainotti”. In fifty years this historical grocery store has seen many many visitors, local customers and tourists, all of them buying the most refined spices, since the grocery stocks up on them from all over the World.

Antonio Orlando, the nephew of the first owner, proudly shows Pimento, Marjoram, Cumin, Coriander, Capers and other various spices, a stock which has nothing to envy from the Egyptian nor the Moroccan sellers. Perfumes and promises of flavours mix in a game of cheerful rituals: the merchandise is “abbanniata” (shouted), weighted, smelled and then bought. All around the Grocery, quarters of beef hanging, bakeries, vegetables exposed to the sun and to adventure, and all this tells of those ancient forms of barter which lead to today’s sale, in a context which is still the same. The street goes on with bottlenecks and new things to look at, “putìe” (shops) and “putiari” (dealers) tiding up their merchandise, and one would never imagine to find a colossus of pure magnificence in the middle of all this. Immersed in this colourful and grotesque context, the church of the Immacolata Concezione rises above the swaying crowd. A flower which blossoms to the night, in a flourishing of stucco works and of pure, beautiful baroque.

Polychrome marbles tell of the typical taste of XVII century of a Palermo under the Spanish domination. Towards the end of XVI century the nuns of the Benedictine order decided, under the helping hand of Jesuit Giacomo Sardo, to move from the Cathedral to the popular quarter of Seralcadio, founding the convent in the following years. The sacred room originally was much smaller, the first decoration are believed to have been only paintings, but today one can admire a church literally covered with ornaments, from the ceiling to the floor. Each centimetre is made of marbles, angels announcing the Gospel and putti dancing motionless in a blaze of opulence. The nave has been defined as “garden of stone” and the whole structure is a pearl contained in a shell, the market which deserves to be safeguarded. The church of the “Concezione al Capo” is the sacred mixing with profane in an endless, balanced and careful game. Getting out of the sacred room and finding oneself in the street, to abandon the devoted silence and give again space to the colourful hubbub, leaves one bewildered for the fraction of time the greengrocer needs to attract the attention on his merchandise.

And while one is intent on choosing between asparagus (“sparaci” on the price sign) and medlar, the great humanity of Capo reveals: a woman crosses the street, shaking on thin legs, with an uncertain landingplace. She’s pregnant and she carries an infant clinging to her neck. She looks tired, hungry and she has got only a coin in her hand. She goes to the greengrocer and asks “how much for a lettuce?”, then her glance is attracted by the big aubergines, which look nice. So she plucks up courage and opens her hand, she shows the coin and asks “can you give me one?”. He doesn’t stagger, while dignity wavers, opens a bag and starts filling it up. He puts vegetables and stops that hunger, hands the shopping towards those two Euros and that woman, smiling with her small blackened teeth, says “and what about the change?”. He turns back to his customers while telling her “the change is in the bag”. If these scenes of hunger, misery and rediscovered humanity still happen in 2011, this makes one think that everything turns, fortune and cards, but sometimes it’s a bad turn.

Antonio Fiasconaro

The Chef Max Mangano reveals us the recipes of the traditional cuisine in “Palermo style”.

Carefully clean the sardines and remove the head. Place them on a dishcloth or kitchen paper to dry out. In a frying pan sautèe the white onion, add some water and let it cook for a while, then add some breadcrumb flavoring with saffron, salt, pepper and sugar. In the end also pour some vinegar which will bring out the smell of golden brown breadcrumb.

Mix also pine nuts and raisins previously soaked in warm water and drained, add parsley and grate some orange and lemon zest, also squeezing in some lemon juice.

Roll carefully the sardines with the mix of breadcrumb and place them in an oiled baking tin. The pecularity of this dish is that the tail of the sardines has to remain on top.

Alternate the sardine rolls with leaves of bay and slices of oranges. Pour a drizzle of olive oil and sprinkle with sugar. Cooking time is about 6-7 minutes in the oven at a temperature of 140°-160° degrees.

The sardines “a beccafico” can be eaten either hot or warm, as a starter or a second dish. In the picture they are served with a sweet and sour pumpkin soup and decorated with a thin veil of rice starch pastry.

Max Mangano – Chef

Ferriero Corbucci (who passed away some years ago) was one of the symbolic Partisan of the Resistence fighting in our province. In his book: I maltagliati (Ed. Arti Grafiche Della Torre, 2008), tells about the getaway in 1944 from the barracks Paolini of Fano to reach the hills of Schieti, where after some days escaping from the Nazi-fascists and hiding himself among blackberry bushes and woods, was found, by then worn out by tiredness and hunger, from a countryman of the area, that helped him while he was almost unconscious and took him at his house.

There the wife of the farmer fed him with a dish of maltagliati with beans, a fresh pasta cut into irregular shapes, and since then – he writes in his book – got well and re-started his fight with the Resistance, joining the other Partisans of the Garibaldi Brigade on the mountains.

So the maltagliati always remained for him a dish that, not only saved his life, but also gave him strenght to fight against the Nazi-fascists for freedom and democracy. He also writes that periodically, when everything was almost over, was asking his wife to prepare the maltagliati with beans, evoking every time those sad moments, full of passion and human sympathy.

Ingredients: flour 300 gr., corn flour (200 gr.), 2 eggs, salt

Ingredients for the sauce: beans (borlotti type), 1 onion, 1 clove of garlic, e.v. olive oil, tomato, celery, pork rind, salt and pepper.

Process: put both the flours on a surface to make a well, add the eggs and a pinch of salt with a bit of water.  Mix in the flour with a fork, knead for 20 minutes, then let it rest for about 30 minutes.
Roll out the pasta dough with a rolling pin, flouring the surface. Cut the dough irregularly, then let dry for a while (better if it’s prepared the night before the use).

Process for the sauce: soak the beans for the whole night. Prepare a meat broth (1/2 liter). Thinly chop onion, garlic, celery and a carrot. Put them in a sauce pan with a drizzle of oil until they become slightly brown. Add the tomatoes in small pieces (previously peeled and the  seeds taken out), and after they are cooked, add a dipper of broth.

In another sauce pan put some olive oil and cook the boiled pork rind, cut in small pieces as well. Add the beans, 2 dippers of broth and the pieces of pork rind. In the meantime cook the maltagliati and once they are ready sautee the pasta in a pan all together with beans and pork rind. They can also be served with an addition of broth if preferred.

 by Paolo Pagnoni

Taboulè di Verdure – Vegetables cous cous

Summer is coming and people look forward to leaving behind the consistent winter dishes like soups and get in with the freshness of grilled vegetables and season herbs like mint and basil. In this situation the cous cous is definetely the right Sicilian dish.

Inherited by the Arabs and re-invented by the sailors that were cooking it with the soup putting fish that could not sell, it’s a dish based on poor elements: hard wheat semolina, vegetables, and in the famous version of the soup the typical fish like rockfish or mullet or any other suitable for soups.

The globalization and the review of traditional dishes created new versions, sometimes lighter and even sweet. This is the classic recipe of the Taboulè, also called cous cous salads; you must use the pre-cooked semolina, if you don’t have experience of preparing the cous cous in the traditional ways with the appropriate instruments and pans for cooking it.

If you put the semolina directly inside the juice obtained by the sweet peppers and tomatoes the dish will be tastier. Grilled vegetables and fresh herbs will do the rest: you just have to try!

RECIPE

500g Precooked semolina

1,5Kg Ripe tomatoes 5 red and yellow sweet peppers

2 Aubergine or eggplants

2 cougettes or zucchini

Capers as you like

2 cloves of garlic

salt

pepper

olive oil

water

mint

basil

Grill the eggplants, the zucchini and all the sweet peppers. In the latter you have to remove the external skin once they are cooked. Peel the tomatoes and remove the seeds from the inside. In a blunder put some of the peppers, all the tomatoes, garlic, fresh mint and basil. Mix all together, adding olive oil and adjusting with salt and pepper. The liquid must be at a volume of 500 ml with the water.

Put the semolina in a large bowl that you can place later in the fridge, but first wet it with the obtained mix, add the grilled vegetables cut in small pieces and the capers rinsed to eliminate the salt. Cover with cellophane and place in the fridge.

After three hours or more check to see that the liquid has been enough, if the cous cous, now swollen, seems dry you have to add some more water or some more mix of tomatoes. Let it in the fridge until the following day. If a hotter version is preferred you can add some red pepper oil or some harissa to the mix. With the same process you can also prepare the cous cous with fish, replacing the vegetables with the suitable fish, even if it’s better to cook the fish and use it straight away instead of leaving it in the fridge for an entire night.

Sardines meatballs

One of our readers Floriana Sergio, works as a pharmacist  but is also a food blogger and has sent us a recipe of the “poor” Sicilian tradition. It is not only easy to make but also scrumptuous to taste.

Ingredients:

For 6 people

1 kg fresh sardines

100 gr. breadcrumb

2 eggs

30 gr. raisins

30 gr. pine nuts

30 gr. grated pecorino cheese

1 lemon

chopped parsley

hard wheat flour

Balck pepper, salt, olive oil

Preparation

Clean and bone the sardines, removing the head, then chop them with a sharp knife.

In a little bowl soak the raisins in warm water. Grate half of a lemon zest and squeese also the juice. In a larger bowl mix the sardines with all the other ingredients. Adjust the stiffness of the mix with the breadcrumb, then prepare the rounded sardines meatballs and fry them in hot olive oil.

You can either serve the dish as a starter of a meal, or instead cook the meatballs in tomato sauce and have a main course dish. In this case, you can make the meatballs a bit bigger in shape.