Recurring appellation for us Neapolitans is "magnamaccarune." Yet in the centuries that preceded the triumphant entry of pasta into our cuisine we were known as "mangiafoglie," in homage to our universally acknowledged skill in cooking vegetables.
A monumental dish of our most authentic gastronomy is, therefore, the "minestra maritata," descended from the Spanish "olla potrida," better known in the 1600s as "pignatto grasso" and magnified by Del Tufo, Corrado and Cavalcanti, that is, by our three great gastronomes.
This wonderful soup, in which vegetables are "marinated" with "salsiccione," is a unique, classically winter dish, not to be confused with the Easter soup, known as "de' carduncielli," which can be considered its twin.
It must be said that the pork must be the one preserved in salt, while the vegetables are the wild ones (chicory, escarole, lettuce, cardoncello, borage, black broccoli, cabbage, lactarola, wild fennel), harvested with great patience and dosed with equal wisdom.
Ingredients
3 cloves of garlic
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil DOP Colline Salernitane
50 g of lard
2 kg of wild vegetables including chicory, borage, wild chard, wild spinach, fennel, etc.
1 plain escarole
2 bundles of black broccoli
2 bundles of broccolini
2 cabbage
2 black soup
300 g of sausage
300 g of pork tracchie
200 g pork rind
Preparation
Wash, clean and boil all the vegetables separately and drain well. Chop the lard and garlic, put everything in a saucepan and brown in hot oil. After browning everything well, add the boiled vegetables and dilute with about 1 liter of broth or water. Let cook for at least 40 minutes on a very low flame, also adding parmesan rinds Meanwhile, boil all kinds of meat separately to remove excess fat. When finished cooking, cut them into small pieces and add them to the soup. Allow to season for at least 10 minutes. Arrange the minestra maritata on plates and accompany with wheat bread.
