Recipe
for :
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Faggots
forgotten, Fegatelli remembered
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When
I recently posted the Faggotts recipe to one of the
Newsgroups I received an interesting response telling
me about Fegatelli. This is it.
What
memories!
I
used to eat faggots at my Nan's house too. My father
was Welsh and I spent the first four years of my life
in Caernafonshire. I never knew they were made of pig's
livers! Nan and Tad died when I was very young, so I
couldn't ask them, my mother didn't know (she is a Londoner
of Spanish and German descent). Then we moved to Italy
and I forgot about faggots!
Pigs
liver is a popular Italian winter dish. It's called
Fegatelli (from the word fegato meaning liver).
We
cut the liver into 3 to 4 inch strips, salt and pepper
it, then on each strip we put a bay leaf and a sliver
of garlic,some sprinkle aniseed on it too, but I don't.
The strips are separately wrapped up in a piece of
"rete" (netting), this is the membrane which
holds the pigs intestines (known as cawl in the UK).
Now don't say "ugh", it's not yucky! It
is washed and dried before you buy it and is nice
and white and dry to the touch, it also is very tasty!
We
brown the strips on both sides in good olive oil and
then add a glass of white wine and simmer for about
20 minutes. We serve it with grilled slices of polenta
(corn mash). Pigs liver is a lot stronger than cows
liver, so it is not something you would eat every
day. But on a cold, wet day it is the right thing
to eat in front of a blazing fire accompanied by a
robust glass of red wine (Barolo is ideal or Lambrusco
if you like sparkling red wine).
Thanks
for the memories!
Myra
from the Roman countryside
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