“Travels” in Basilicata

Basilicata, the instep of the boot, includes the extinct volcano Mount Vulture and is the home of one of my go-to wine varietals, Aglianico del Vulture, particularly the one from the Paternoster vineyards. For a white wine, I like Falanghina from Basilicata. Although I had some general familiarity with the wine, I had to hit the recipe books for the food of this montainous Southern region.

Curiously, one of the recipes that is from Rotonda, Basilicata is a bit like a spicy, Southern Italian colcannon. I’ve now made this potato and cabbage stew twice, and both times I have failed to get it to “the consistency of think mashed potatoes” as the recipe states it should be. I seem to leave too much liquid and not cook the cabbage and potatoes to sufficiently falling apart. Mine looked much more like a soup than the recipe said it would, but at least the flavor was good. As so many things do, this starts with onions and garlic in olive oil, with a good bit of crushed red pepper tossed in after the onions become translucent.

From there, finely chopped cabbage (it calls for savoy, I had Napa available) and Yukon gold potatoes are added and cooked until they begin to soften but not brown. The vegetables are cover with vegetable broth and the whole thing is simmered uncovered. This is where I keep going wrong as I have not yet cooked the vegetables to the point that I end up with most of the liquid evaporated and something that I can mash to the consistency of mashed potatoes.

The first time I made this was in December of 2020. That week between Christmas 2020 and the start of 2021 was when I started to try to cook my way through Italy. While I was in the middle of my madness, dear friends suggested a pandemic-safe food exchange (since we couldn’t get together for obvious reasons). Unfortunately for them, they got my first attempt at this potato-cabbage stew. I got incredible groundnut soup from Sierra Leone. Even though this soup is lovely on a winter day, I definitely got the better deal.

Getting back to Basilicata, I’ve also made the Minestra di Zucchine from the Food of the Italian South cookbook. The recipe is simple, and seems like it would be a great use for zucchini when everyone starts having too much from the garden. I am a bit curious about the recipe, though. My first attempt generally looked like the photo in the cookbook, except that the cookbook photo looks a whole lot like they used broth, even though the recipe calls for water. I will be giving this another try with chicken broth when the CSA boxes start arriving with zucchini.