Travels in Liguria

When I started this blog a little more than a year ago, I intended to “visit” every region of Italy through its food, ideally in a way that made sense geographically to fit with my sense of order. If you have been following from the beginning, you know I got distracted along the way. I also had no idea that my only travels would remain virtual for this long. As it turns out, I had planned to be in Italy again two weeks from now, but instead we are staying with the virtual for a while longer.

By my count, we have eight regions left after this post. Ideally, I would have a specific cookbook devoted to each region. I’m getting close.

You might have noticed a pattern in my titles. I tend to use “travels” in quotes when I have no actual travel stories to go with the food/region/country, and no quotes when I have been to the place. I spent three days in Liguria more than 30 years ago, and I am sure there would be pictures if there had been digital cameras at the time. But, of course, there weren’t. I do, however, have stories. I dug out my old travel notebook and found detailed notes about a couple day trips from Genoa during which various Italians tried to help two young American women find their way around. One story jumped out and sparked a vivid memory even after all this time. While waiting for a train, we sat in a café filled with older men who were playing cards, so we pulled out our travel cribbage board to fill the time. We had been practicing our Italian numbers by counting in Italian as we played, and the old men started to engage us in conversation – to the extent we could converse with our limited Italian. As we got up to get our train, one very small, very old man got up and tried to “help” us put our backpacks on, and there were “ciaos” all around as we left the café. My memory from that long ago trip is that this type of behavior was very typical. People were friendly and helpful everywhere we went.

Although I don’t have any photos, I do have a recently published cookbook devoted to Liguria. That cookbook and many of the others pictured above are from the wonderful Kitchen Arts & Letters. https://www.kitchenartsandletters.com/ I was also able to locate regional olive oil and wine.

I keep meaning to make the absolutely amazing looking focaccia Ligure that graces the cover of Laurel Evans’ beautiful cookbook, but somehow I haven’t done that yet. I started out with the sausage filled focaccia recipe. I should have let it brown a little bit more, and should have turned it while it was baking for a more even color, but for a first try with the recipe, I could not complain about the result.

For a main course, I followed the cookbook’s “Tócco” recipe. As the cookbook explains, “Tócco” means “chunk” or “piece” in the local dialect. The recipe is for a chuck roast slow-cooked in wine and aromatics. The roast is cooked until it is falling apart, and it is excellent. This all took place a few months ago, and I served the roast with a side of mashed potatoes and turnips topped with crispy shallots because all those things were in my fall CSA box that week.

Apparently Ligurian cooking is characterized by an endless variety of stuffed foods, and it was late fall, so I concluded the meal with baked apples stuffed with toasted hazelnuts and cranberries, served with pumpkin “leaves” and some whipped cream. I make no claim that the dessert was particularly Ligurian, other than that it was stuffed, but at least they are my own recipe.