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Press review and awards

Beggar’s Cavatelli

Ingredients for 4 people:
• 400 gr. cavatelli
• 250 gr. tomato puree
• 200 gr. of Pezzente della Montagna Materana
• Onion - bay - grated cheese, to taste
• Extra virgin olive oil - salt - pepper, to taste

Time required: about 30 min.

Proceedings:
Peel the Pezzente and cut into small cubes.
Lightly fry the cubes of Pezzente in an earthenware dish with a drizzle of olive oil, chopped onion and a bay leaf. After 5 min. add the tomato puree, salt, pepper and cook for 5 minutes. Together with the cavatelli sauce boiled, drained al dente who complete cooking in the sauce. At the end, add grated cheese and bring to the table, piping hot, accompanied by more grated cheese.

Stewed Beans with “Pezzente della Montagna Materana” and Rabbit

Ingredients for 2 people
• 400 gr. of boiled haricot beans
• 200 gr. of Pezzente della Montagna Materana
• a boned saddle of rabbit
• an onion
• slices of toasted homemade bread
• thyme - olive oil - vegetable broth
• salt - pepe- dry white wine

Time required: about 60 min.

Proceedings:
After boned the saddle, rolled and tied the rabbit fillets obtained, then brown them in a pan with a fried oil, chopped onion and the skinned Pezzente.
Pour a little dry white wine, add the beans, two tablespoons of cooking water (or vegetable broth), salt and pepper. Cook partially covered for 40 min. about. Slice the rabbit and the Pezzente and arrange on plates. Add the beans, slices of toast and then garnish with a sprig of thyme.

Pezzente della Montagna Materana with Eggs and Onions

Ingredients for 2 people
• 2 eggs
• 200 g of Pezzente della Montagna Materana
• 1 finely chopped onion (quantity according to
your personal taste)
• 2 tablespoons grated Pamigiano
• extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper

Time required: about 15 min.

Proceedings:
Open the eggs in a bowl, beat them with a whip and salt. Add the grated cheese and whisk. Peeled and chopped the Pezzente della Montagna Materana. In a skillet, heat extra virgin olive oil, add the onion and let them brown. United, then, the Pezzente and, when they are golden, pour the eggs that have previously beaten. Turn continuously, just like when you have to make scrambled eggs. Pepper to taste.

Stuffed Zucchini Pezzente della Montagna Materana

Ingredients:
• 4 long zucchini
• 400 g of Pezzente della Montagna Materana
• 1 boiled potato
• 50 g grated Parmesan
• 2 tablespoons bread crumbs
• salt, extra virgin

Time required: about 15 min.

Proceedings:
Halve zucchini lengthwise. Carved the flesh, keeping the walls intact. Saute the chopped zucchini and mix it together with the Pezzente peeled and chopped, cheese, boiled potato and bread crumbs crushed. Put the filling in the zucchini and cook in oven at 180 degrees for at least 15-20 minutes. Serve hot.

Flaky Pastry Strudel with Pezzente della Montagna Materana

Ingredients for 4 people
• 1 roll of flaky pastry
• 250 g of the Pezzente della Montagna Materana
• 250 g of Mozzarella cheese (or Scamorza cheese)
• Extra virgin q.s.
• 1 egg white
• Sesame seeds (or other seeds to taste)

Proceedings:
Peeled and chopped the Pezzente and brown it in a pan with a little oil. Cut the Mozzarella into small cubes. Roll out the puff pastry roll and spread on the surface of the Pezzente. Add the diced mozzarella and roll the dough over itself to form a roll. Slit the roll surface with the miter, then brush it with beaten egg white and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake in oven at 180° for about 30 minutes.

Potato Gnocchi with Asparagus and Pezzente della Montagna Materana

Ingredients for 4 people
• 500 g of potato gnocchi
• 150 g of green asparagus
• 200 g of the Pezzente della Montagna Materana
• 2 tablespoons grated Parmigiano
• extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper

Proceedings:
Peeled and chopped the Pezzente della Montagna Materana and brown for a few minutes in a little oil with asparagus tips previously boiled. Add salt and pepper.
Bring to boiling salted water, dip the dumplings a few at a time. When they come up to the surface, drain and add the asparagus and the Pezzente. Stir gently with the Parmigiano cheese and serve hot.

Risotto with Horse Beans and Pezzente della Montagna Materana

Ingredients for 4 people
• 300 g Carnaroli rice
• 250 g of the Pezzente della Montagna Materana
• 250 g of fresh peeled beans
• 1.5 liters of vegetable broth
• ½ onion, chopped
• ½ cup dry white wine
• 50 g of butter
• 50 g Parmigiano cheese
• 50 g of extra virgin olive oil
• salt, pepper

Proceedings:
Peeled and chopped the Pezzente della Montagna Materana,  brown it in a pan with a little oil. Prepare the bottom of the rice with a little oil and half the butter, brown the onion and add the rice. Toast the rice and deglaze with white wine, let it evaporate and add the broth a little at a time. Halfway through cooking, add the Pezzente and field beans fresh and, if necessary, add a little ‘salt. When cooked, stir in the remaining butter and Parmigiano cheese. Serve hot.

Country Cicory Soup and Pezzente della Montagna Materana

Ingredients for 4 people
• 1 kg of country chicory
• 250 g of the Pezzente della Montagna Materana
• 250 ml of vegetable broth
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 peeled tomatoes
• 100 grams of Caciocavallo or Pecorino chunks
• extra virgin olive oil
• salt

Proceedings:
Clean the chicory, wash and boil in salted boiling water. Meanwhile sauté a clove of garlic in olive oil and add the tomatoes after the Pezzente and cut into large pieces, without removing the natural casing that covers it. Add salt and cook for a few minutes.
When the chicory is cooked, drain and add to the tomato sauce and Pezzente. Continue cooking for a few minutes so as to flavor the vegetables in tomato  sauce, add a little salt if necessary. A few minutes before you bring to the table, add the cubes of caciocavallo or pecorino cheese, letting them melt in the vegetable broth.

The Pizza of Pezzente (Beggar)

Ingredients for the dough:
• 1 liter of water about
• 1.5 kg of 00 flour for pizza
• 50 g salt
• 1.5 g of compressed yeast

Ingredients for the topping:
• peeled and sliced
• Mozzarella cheese
• slivers of caciocavallo Ragusa
• extra virgin olive oil

Tips and Tricks
If you have a wood oven make sure to bake the pizza like a pizza, when the oven is hot. Who instead makes use of a household baking oven must be careful to take him to the maximum temperature, with the foresight to add the mozzarella only in the last minutes of cooking.
Remember that the dough is very delicate and very undergo the influence of the outdoor temperature and humidity so take care to follow the recipe to use cold water in the refrigerator if mixed with the very hot weather while at other times of the year will be fine ‘water at ambient temperature, then making the dough to rise in a warm place.

Proceedings:
Pour water into a large bowl, add yeast and let it melt; add a couple of handfuls abundant flour and stir gently, only then add the salt and allow complete dissolution. Knead gently by hand adding the remaining flour a little at a time. When all the flour has been absorbed by the water, mix for fifteen minutes, taking care to stop occasionally to help relax the dough. At the end of this procedure you will get a soft dough, not too elastic and that sticks slightly
to the fingers. Let stand for four hours and half covered by a damp cloth or film and then form small balls of dough, taking care to work the dough slightly. Let rest the dough balls for another five hours.
Take a ball of dough, roll out the dough in the shape of disc, distributed on the dough the Pezzente, Mozzarella, a drizzle of olive oil and bake in a hot oven immediately. On leaving the oven add the flakes of Caciocavallo cheese.
Thank you for this recipe Francesco and Salvatore Salvo, pizza makers for three generations