Pulled Pork inspired by Cif e Ciaf – “Travels” in Abruzzo

Although we still have several regions to “visit,” we are going back to Abruzzo first. When you search for Abruzzese food, one dish that always comes up is cif e ciaf. According to one article about cif e ciaf, it is not so much a dish as it is an approach. Typically, it involves tough bits and pieces of pork. The general concept of cif e ciaf, which always seems to involve a lot of rosemary, served as the inspiration for this pulled pork.

Abruzzo is one of the regions of Italy that I have not visited in person, yet. It is high on the list, though. I have a dear friend from Chieti, and one day I am going to show up at the door of her mom’s house – assuming her enormous dogs let me get to the door. A few years ago, I posted on social media about making a timballo for a holiday gathering, and my friend posted that her mom was also making timballo that day. So now I always think about timballo when thinking of Abruzzo.

If you saw the 1996 movie Big Night, then you are familiar with timballo (called timpano in the movie). I ran right out and bought the cookbook that features that recipe, and I’ve tried variations on timballo for years since.

“Timballo” and “timpano” are both words for drums, so I assume that the choice of word depends on region or family tradition. The dish is typically made in a large enamel bowl that reminds me of the type of thing that you would see as a wash basin in a picture of a rustic hotel before plumbing. These bowls are readily available, and are not very expensive. The pound of pasta is for scale in mine.

Timballo looks impressive, and it takes a lot of time, but it is not actually that hard to make. I do not have a recipe to share because I change it up each time, and even if I did have a recipe, I don’t have the patience to type up all of the steps. I generally include tiny little bite-sized meatballs, a slightly spicy tomato sauce (cooked down well because you don’t want a lot of extra moisture), sausage, cheeses, and, of course, pasta. This dish has to be made for a crowd – you are going to get a solid 20 servings. The underneath of mine is always sloppy because I worry about not having enough dough to fully seal it, and I cannot quite figure out how to pinch it all together neatly. Fortunately, the messy bottom doesn’t really matter once it is turned onto a platter for serving.

You can also do a smaller version of a timballo in a springform pan, and thin eggplant slices can be used instead of dough for the crust. One of my earliest efforts using this approach was for a dinner for a group of friends that has been cooking for each other for almost thirty years now. In those days, we took pictures of each other, not necessarily of food, and those pictures were’t digital, so please excuse my hands in this picture of a picture of timballo that I was holding in front of the table.

Back to the cif e ciaf inspired pulled pork. This is also a recipe that makes a lot of food. I suggest serving it as a main course to a crowd, then using leftovers on pasta or in sandwiches. The leftovers also freeze well without drying out, as long as you include a good amount of the cooking liquid with the meat when you freeze it. You want to use lots of aromatics in that liquid, and you want to deglaze the pan well before returning the meat so that you get all of that goodness from browning the meat.

This dish does not take a lot of active effort, but it does take a long time to cook. Also, it is a lot easier to skim the fat after the liquid has chilled, so you might want to make it ahead, chill the liquid, then skim fat before reducing the liquid when it comes time to serve. This also has the advantage of allowing you to have everything pretty much done long before guests arrive. You will want to serve this with something that counters the richness. It is pictured with a simple salad of radicchio, but would also go well with a vinegary coleslaw.