or meat stock—if needed
Courgette—1
Garlic—1 clove
Black olives—350g of pitted ones
Macaroni—1kg of the smallest macaroni you can find
Butter—a knob
Hotel Ristorante Giardino
After a long day house-hunting, we had been chuffed to find a restaurant with nothing less than a vegetarian tasting menu. It had got even better when we found out that owner and chef Massimo Biagiali prided himself in using only ingredients which grew within throwing distance of his hotel. And then it really got better when Massimo insisted that we drink a different glass of wine with each course. There were a lot of courses. At the end of the evening, rather tired and emotional, we made Massimo promise to give us recipes for our favourite dishes.
We’ve discovered that in Le Marche rabbit is a standard dish in your everyday trattoria. Usually it’s grilled, alla brace, over an open flame. In this dish the boned rabbit is cooked in tomatoes, allowing its aromatic flavour to come through in every tender bite.
Method overleaf
First of all get the parmesan wafers out of the way. Preheat the oven to 200°C / gas mark 6. Thinly slice the cheese and then arrange it into rough circles with a diameter of about 20cm on a Teflon baking sheet (we also use a non-stick cooking liner called ‘Bake-O-Glide’). Make sure that the pieces are overlapping. You may have to make a few batches but they don’t take long. Whack it in the oven for 5 minutes or until the cheese has fused, then remove and put each circle on top of an upside-down tumbler so it takes the shape of a basket. When it’s rehardened set aside for later. Make a basket per person.
Now for the sauce. First put some olive oil in a deep, heavy-bottomed pan over a low heat and brown the finely chopped carrot, onion, celery and leek. Then add the roughly chopped tomatoes to the pan and cook for another 10 minutes. You can then add the minced meats. While this is cooking cut the boned rabbit into 0.7-0.8cm cubes and then add them to the pan. Also add the chopped rosemary leaves and season with salt and pepper. Cook for a further 10 minutes before you add the white wine and stock, if you need it, to cover. Slowly cook it down.
Cut the skin off the courgette and slice it in batons, julienne style, then sauté them with olive oil and the peeled garlic clove. Once they have a bit of colour, remove and chuck away your garlic clove and add the courgettes to the ragĒ. Also add the black olives. Let this cook while you prepare the macaroni according to the instructions on the packet (Massimo assured us that they make their pasta fresh each day, of course).When it is cooked drain and turn it into a frying pan with the grated parmesan and a knob of butter.
Put a big serving spoonful of the macaroni in each parmesan wafer, then a spoonful of the ragĒ and serve immediately. Eat with a fruity and mature glass of ’99 Il Cupo from Le Marche’s Ester Hauser.
Aubergine involtini with sapa sauce
Involtini di melanzane con salsa di zabaione di sapa
Ingredients for 4
For the aubergine rolls:
Aubergines—2 fairly large ones
Salt—2 tablespoons
Olive oil—4 teaspoons
For the filling:
Ricotta—150g
Pecorino—400g cut into small cubes
Salt and pepper
For the sauce:
Egg yolks—2
Salt and pepper
Sapa—100ml
Vegetable stock—50ml
Balsamic vinegar—10ml
This recipe uses sapa, which is a popular condiment in Le Marche, but not well known outside of Italy. It’s like a sweet, rich, almost toffee-flavoured balsamic vinegar. According to our friend Massimo, sapa was used by the Romans before sugar was introduced to Italy. It’s also known as saba and we’ve found it on the shelves of a couple of delis. If you’re not so lucky, use a good balsamic instead. This particular recipe may seem a bit precious, but it’s not difficult and is an amazing combination of flavours.
Cut the aubergines lengthways into thin slices of 0.5 to 0.8cm. Cover them with plenty of salt and a bit of water and leave for at least 15 minutes. Rinse them and then pat dry. Lightly brush each side with olive oil and brown them a bit in a non-stick frying pan for about 5 minutes.
In a mixing bowl, combine the ricotta and the pecorino. Add a little salt and pepper. Then take one aubergine slice at a time and put a teaspoonful of the cheese mixture at the thin end. Roll up the aubergine all the way to the other end, like a Swiss roll. Put the roll onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. Do this with all the aubergine slices. You’ll want about 4 rolls per person.
For the sauce, beat the egg yolks with salt and pepper, add the sapa, the stock and the balsamic vinegar and mix well. Put the mixture in a Bain Marie (a heatproof mixing bowl on top of a saucepan of boiling water) and carry on stirring at a high heat for a few minutes. Now cook the involtini (rolls) at 220°C / gas mark 7 for about 5 minutes. Take them out, lay them on plates and pour the sauce over the top. Garnish with a bit of parsley and some chopped tomatoes. According to Chef Biagiali it should be enjoyed with a very cold glass of white wine, such as a Falerio from Vigna Solaria.
This time we were taking no chances—we were going to come back with our future home. We had arranged three separate days with three different estate agents and had told them to fit in as many houses as it was feasible to see in a day. By the end of this trip we’d have seen about seventy houses in all.
This time around, we had hooked up, for no particular reason, with property places further south in Le Marche. It’s funny how quickly one develops fixed ideas. We had one that leaving Ancona airport, we had to go north. We were smitten with Urbino and San Leo and Serra de Conti and the valleys around Corinaldo—and all of these were to the northwest. But now we found ourselves heading south to poorer (or so we thought, Italy tending to get more so as you go south) and uncharted lands.
First stop was Gualdo, located in a place we have since discovered is nicknamed ‘Gualdoshire’ for its prevalence of English expats. It certainly seemed
