"U PITIRRI" how to prepare it

"U pitirri", perhaps a legacy of ancient dominations, nostalgia for a lost taste of childhood, is a tasty and substantial chickpea flour food that could, today, tantalize the most refined palates, as happens to polenta of corn that occupies an important place in Italian cuisine and in the native cuisine of Lombardy and Veneto.

"U pitirri", unfortunately, hardly survives in the local cuisine and some nostalgic villagers, knowing that returning to a strict and genuine diet, as well as benefiting our health, means saving a tradition, recovering a history and a way to eat simple and healthy. "U pitirri", as has been said, belongs to the good times past and was the main dish of the Aliesi, indeed unique, because the meat today snubbed by many and formerly appetizing, was the luxury of Sunday. Among the poor dishes of that time made of creativity and ingenuity, there was also "u pitirri" which spread a good scent in the clear air and above all satiated, relaxed and brought a sense of general well-being. Today, when almost all of us cheer for peasant cuisine, made of rural flavors, do we want to re-evaluate "u pitirri", this good rustic dish, rich in nutritional elements and tasty?

"U pitirri" is prepared with chickpea flour, water, salt, oil and can be enriched with cabbage or fennel if you want a nuance of taste. When the water in the pot, formerly in the "quarara", hints at a slight fervor, the cabbage or fennel into small pieces are "dropped", adding salt and oil. The mastery of the good housewife consisted in dosing carefully in order not to run the risk of having a polenta that was either too hard or too tender. The flour is gradually poured into the water and with a wooden spoon it is stirred for a long time and continuously in a rotating direction, lifting the mass from the bottom, until the mixture is well cooked. Finally hot, hot, it is poured into the dishes. "U pitirri", whose cooking method evokes very ancient civilizations, is ready, with the hope that this specialty born from the needs of poverty can enter among the delights of Italian gastronomy.