March 2nd, 2009

sunday story: e vs lampascioni 7 days ‘war’ :)

I have been relaxing a lot today, and now, sitting in front of my old mac, with a cup of hot nepal antu valley tea, I want to share a little story about my ‘war’ with lampascioni a.k.a muscari racemosum, some sort of wild onion from Puglia. Now when I think of that week, I can really laugh at myself, but I really was almost frustrated :)

I encountered these lampascioni two weeks ago in tuesday market by chance, and I bought it for curiosity. I asked the seller how to cook them and he said, as they are so tipical Puglian vegs, and he did not know how to cook it, but and old lady gave me a quick shout of how to cook it: (more or less) peel it, wash it with cold water, boil it and drain and dress it with salt, vinegar and olive oil, and she warned me it would be abit bitter. Ok. I was so curious, I arrived home, and googled it, nothing much came out of my search, the longest explanation was from an article by Giorgio Locatelli but it was about the preserved ones. Va bene, I really want to try it myself, as it was described as a real Puglian delicacy, also it looked super cute after I peeled it, with pinkish colour and all, I did not see any harm to try it RAW…it was SO bitter!

It is ok, I am not giving up. Yet. I felt challenged :) So I decided to do what the old lady told me: peel-wash-boil, the thing is, she did not tell me how long I need to boil these. So, I thought I would just did and tried it. After 10 minutes boiling, the lampascioni looked soft, and I did not like to over boil my vegetables, so I drained it, and tried one: one minute chewing, it was okay, then the bitterness came, I could not believe it was STILL so bitter! Ok, may be it will taste better after I dress it with olive oil and sea salt. Try again: THE SAME. I asked Marco to try it too and the same: bitter. I started to feel desperate (they looked good though, soft pink, taupe colours), but not giving up. Yet. Again.

I decided to give it time, waiting one day and try it again before making s.o.s call to Mrs. F, my friend mom who is from Puglia. I almost tried it stright after my wonderful breakfast, but (fortunately) decided not to, better to wait abit. So, I waited abit, and IT.IS.STILL.SO.BITTER! No choice, I did not like to bother Mrs. F, I knew she was a busy woman. But I really now need to ‘conquer’ lampascioni. Mrs. F said she did not know how to cook it either, but her mom would know for sure, she promised to call me back with the how-to tomorrow.

Mrs. F called me at night, and gave me a big laugh over my story and she said I should wash it so much, and boil it for 1 1/2 hours and not 10 minutes. After they are cooked, I needed to wash them again with cold water several time. Then keep them in a container with cold water, and they would last for a week and I need to change the water everyday. I was happy. I could not wait till tomorrow, so I peeled all of them and washed them several times and thinking may be it is better that I soak them overnight to wash away the bitterness. Marco thought I was a bit nuts :)

The day after: After 1 1/2h boiling then washing and soaking: Everything looked good till I tried one: un-eat-ably-BITTER! I did not know what was wrong, so I change the water and tried again the day after and the day after. I am lost. Can’t eat these. Mrs. F also told me that I could make it alla pastella (Italian flour+egg+milk batter) but I was just so disappointed that I just threw all of them away. SadSadSad.

Then, I said this to my friend, who said it to him mom, who said this to her mom and this wonderful nonna (grandma) send a package for me, full of lampascioni alla pastella! I was abit reluctant in the beginning, but I must admit, I was delicious! I could not put it in words, of course there was still abit of bitter taste, but that bitter taste, make you could not stop eating it :) The power of lampascioni!

In the end, me+lampascioni made peace, but I think I before I go and visit my friend’s grandma, I better buy the preserved lampascioni :)

The.End. :)

Filed under: food, life