IL CACCIATORE

Whilst Hunting......

2009-10-20T16:55:00.007+02:00

With the hunting season well under way it's often forgotten that many hunters whilst hunting game also search for other wild foods.

Take for example last Sunday I was hunting for Cinghiale on a very cold, wet and miserable morning. The skies were overcast and there wasn't a hint or a sniff of live game. I was in half a mind to pack it in until Domenico urshered me over to a small patch of woods. He said "look there," and from the corner of my eye I could see small Porcini mushrooms on the cold damp earth near to an old tree. Domenico had such glee he immediately went over to them little gold treasures and picked the lot. He kept saying "What a find." Later I learnt that the climate hadn't been the best recently for mushrooms. He offered me half of them which I declined as I like to find my own.

We continued hunting for the rest of the day, but luck wasn't with us. Besides it was a bitterly cold Sunday which was surprising for this time of year.

Anyway with Porcini Mushrooms in my mind here is a little recipe that I often use.

Tagliatelle con Fungi Porcini.

First take about 150g of dried wild Porcini mushrooms from last season. the longer you leave them the more intense the flavour. Put the mushrooms in a small bowl, add 200ml of warm water, leave to rest for about 2 hours.

Then in 2 hours chop about 200g of fresh champignon mushrooms and add to a meduim heat pan with a knob of butter and a tablespoon of olive oil. Fry until lightly browned, add the Porcini mushrooms, but not the liquor. After 5 minutes add one chopped onion and 4 chopped cloves of garlic cook for about 10 minutes. Add the liquor and leave to simmer for 30 minutes until sauce has reduced by 1/3.

Whilst sauce is reducing make the pasta. Take 300g of good wild wheet flour, place on work surface and add three eggs, pinch of salt and tablespoon of olive oil. Mix lightly together and run through pasta maker to number 3 grade pasta thickness. Cut then to Tagliatelle size and dust well with flour.

Bring salted water to the boil with tablespoon of olive oil.

Now with the sauce add 200ml of double cream or better Italian panna simmer for 5 to 10 minutes.

Add Pasta to boiling water for 3 minutes.

Then serve staight away with sauce tossed through the pasta.

I have 3 children aged 12, 9, 3 who love this recipe.

Hunting Season Opens Today

2009-09-02T19:57:00.006+02:00

Preparing the joints for roasting.

Tradational Italian "Spit Roasting."

Well after a year away today opens the new Italian hunting season and I am glad to be back.
After a few disappointments and family problems. I am returning for another season's hunting in Italian. As I have already said Hunting here in Italian is a World apart from the normal hunting and countrylife I learnt as a child in England. The traditionals here and the way that they cook the wild foods from the Boar to the Hare is simple and delicious.
It's no wonfer then that with over 800,000 members of the "FEDERCACCIA" including many of Italy's famous actors and actresses supporting the traditional ways of country life here that the organisation is one of the most powerful sporting groups in Europe today.
Being one of its only English member's is an indoctrination into an alternative lifestyle. To be part of this organisation has many advantages from learning new "old" italian recipes to having new friends.
Whether or not you agree with hunting this tradational organisation is much more and campains for many groups with protecting country life something I saw as a child in England disappear slowly over the last 30yrs.
Enjoying this experience as I have for the last 3 yrs I am offering this experiance to others wishing to experiance something more than the usual. This is truely a fanastic experience over a long weekend seeing the hunting of the famous Italian "Wild Boar." Then seeing the hunters first hand and getting to try a true Italian hunter's feast.
I will give more details as I continue informing you of Italian hunting life and new "Old" Italian recipes in the future.

"Chiodino" or "Honey Mushrooms"

2008-10-24T15:36:00.005+02:00

Chiodino Mushrooms lightly fried with garlic.

Chiodino Mushroom Risotto.

Cooking Chiodino Mushrooms.

Wild Chiodino Mushrooms.

One of the benefits of living in this part of Italy is the wide variety of wild foods. Being near to the Sibillini mountains we have the advantage of not only wildlife, but also woodland foods. With trees comes mushrooms, now of course when ever someone mentions mushrooms and Italy most people instantly think of the famous "Porcini" mushrooms world renown or truffles either white of black that grow abundantly in this area of Le Marche, in fact not far from me is the famous white truffle woodlands of this region.

I know that this is what most people assiocate with Italy and mushrooms, but once you live there its easy to find that there are many other types of mushrooms growing freely in or near woodlands. Also if like me you live in woodlands you have them growing on your doorstep making it a simple to collect them.

Now there are many varties of mushrooms here just like most parts of Europe. The most common are Porcini Mushrooms, Ovuli (these are very dangerous as the edible variety is very similar to the poisonous one and can be easily mistaken) Prataioli, Spugnole, Chiodini, Finferli, Prugnoli, Pioppini, Sfiandrine.

My favorite has be the "Chiodino" of Honey mushroom, mainly because of their delicious taste and they grow abundantly around where I live. They tend to grow at the base of large trees in large groups. They are best allow to grow for a week then collect over a period of time to allow for plenty of regrowth. I like to pick them when the tops have opened fully and can easily be cut off the stork.

These "Chiodino" mushrooms have a very good flavour its slightly sweet, but also strong and aromatic. I like to eat them freshly cut dusted with a soft brush to remove any dirt or insects, then chopped placed in a heated pan with olive oil and garlic and fried until slightly caramelised.

They are great served as an antipasta with cheeses and Salamis or served by themselves as a "Contorno" side dish.

My recipe today is for Chiodino Fungi con Risotto.

Firstly take the Chiodino mushrooms and fry them with some olive oil and garlic until slightly caramelised, then set aside.

Heat a large pan with 3 tablespoons of Olive oil and add your risotto rice and cook for about five minutes until the Olive oil is absorbed into the rice then add alittle good fresh chicken stock every couple of minutes or until stock is absorbed for time taken to cook the rice. I prefer to slightly under cook risotto as it tends to continue cooking in the pan.

Add the Chiodino mushrooms to the rice with a good handful of Parmesan cheese and some more olive oil.

Serve hot onto plate and then dust with more Parmesan cheese, olive oil and a few twists of coarse pepper. Finish with a little chopped parsley.

Cinghiale Hunting.

2008-10-20T17:13:00.002+02:00

First Day's Hunting For Cinghiale.
Morning Gathering Of the Local Hunter's
The Results Of A Successful Days Hunting.
Cinghiale Ribs In Sauce With Pasta.

On A very damp and cold morning I was collected by my friend "Domenico" for the first day's hunting for Cinghiale. This has been a tradition in Italy for a very long time and deeply in bedded in countryside life. There are many misconception's about hunting the famous "Cinghiale," but many of them are purely false.
After being collected all loaded up with equipment and "colazione" mainly local bread, salumi and cheeses for breakfast we head off for the early morning tracking. This entails tramping about for 3 hours looking for fresh tracks of the Cinghiale or Wild Boar. There are another further ten to twenty pairs of hunters doing the same. We communicate by radio and once a good few fresh tracks all the hunters meet for the breakfast "colazione" at alittle "Fontana".
There are usually between 30 to 50 hunters many of them like me collect Wild foods on a daily basis. This day's hunt with more than 15 hunter's is called a "Battuta." and the typical type of hunting for Cinghiale in Italy.
Once we have all gathered at the local Fontana we all bring a mixture of local bread's "panino" salumi's and cheeses "formaggio"to share. Whilst there everyone completes the necessary paperwork. It's a good time to talk to many of them and share stories of their previous hunting successes and often failures. I mainly use this time to ask questions and gather information on other wild foods and where they can be gathered as many of them are truffle and mushrooms hunter's as well.
After we are all stuffed full with the local cheeses and meat's and the decision has been made of where the day's hunt is to take place off we go. Safety is always first and we don our bright orange jacket's. I find it quite a strange sight of about 50 hunters all wearing bright orange jacket's heading off in a convoy of 4x4 vehicle's.
I am paired with Domenico who is also the Squad's "Pista" he's the one charge of cleaning and butchering the day's catch. He's also extremely excited and keeps telling how today's going to be a good day.
Once we arrive about mid day we are divided into larger groups and head out into the woodlands. It's very damp and there mist in the air. the hunters form a large horse shoe shape spread over a couple of kilometre's. Once we are all in place and everyone in given their fields of fire the dog's are released and the hunt begins.
For the next 3 to 4 hour's all I hear is the long howl's of dog's on the scent of the Cinghiale and then the occasion shot from one of our group. I neither see or fire a shot, but that's not the point as all the day's catch will be divided equally amongst the hunter's. That to me is the communal part of hunting in Italy and far better than buying my meat.
By early evening I am damp, wet and tired we all meet at a nearby farmer's house. The has been good the squad has caught 5 Cinghiale all of a good size between 50 and 130 kilo's. The ""pista's" then set about dividing the Cinghiale whilst the rest of us open a couple of bottle's of red wine and share the day's stories.
I talk to a middle age chap named "Paolo" he show's me proudly 3 very large white truffle's he collected today. I must admit I am every envious of him and seek to learn where they were found, but to no avail. They are probably worth about 500 euros, but he has intention of selling them and will use them to cook with.
Once the meat has been divided and the wine has been finished we all head for home. Domenico drives me home and to be honest I am looking forward to cooking the day's catch. We share idea's of what will will cook his wife will roast the Cinghiale over an open fire slowly. I decided to cook the ribs in sauce or in Italian "Costole Di Cinghiale In Ragu Con Pasta Penne" quite a mouthful. Anyway here's the recipe.

Take 8 to 12 Cinghiale ribs and brown in a large saucepan for about 10 minute's.
Whilst the rib's are browning add 2 white onion's, half a fresh wild fennel, 6 cloves of garlic, sage, rosemary, oregano and place into a processor. Then blitz's into a pulp.
Add to the browned rib's and cook for 5 to 10 minute's.
Then add 2 kilo's of tinned skinned tomato's, 2 glasses of red wine and 2 bay's leaves.
Season with salt and pepper. Add 1 tablespoon of sugar or I like to use wild honey.
Cook on a slow to medium heat for 2 to 3 hour's and serve with the pasta penne.

Castagne Picking In Woodlands.

2008-10-06T22:28:00.005+02:00

Today after finishing some jobs around the house I went chestnut picking with a friend of mind. An elderly gentleman who spends alot of his time collecting local wild foods and his knowledge is very extensive.
Apparently chestnut picking here in the Sibillini mountains is very popular with Italians. Many who drive from as far as Rome to collect the first fallen.
We tramped into a little woodland near to us and as you can see from the picture above the chestnuts were many.
Whilst collecting the chestnuts my elderly friend told me that during the 2ND world war when the Germans were controlling this area foods such as bread and meat were in very short supply, so many of the locals would collect the chestnuts as one of their basic food groups. Often they would go at night to avoid the German patrols who would regular confiscate the chestnuts from them.
They would use the chestnuts either on their own with pasta or with mushrooms that had been picked secretly and spirited away from the Germans.
Nowadays they are mostly roasted either on a open grill by fire or in an wood oven.
Its best once picked to leave the chestnuts for more than a week to allow for the chestnuts to sweeten.
Bearing in mind the way the locals use to eat the chestnuts during the 2ND world war there is a recipe based on those ingredients.
First heat alittle olive oil in a large pan.
Then add a few porcini mushrooms and then grate about 200g of chestnuts into the pan and cook slowly for about 10 minutes.
Whilst then chestnuts are cooking boil some water and then add 500g of handmade papeadelle stlye pasta.
Then drain the pasta and add the chestnuts and porcini mushrooms, add salt and pepper. Then add 100g of good pecorino cheese grated.
Serve immediately.

Alittle trout when the weathers bad.

2008-10-05T18:33:00.004+02:00

Its a popular misconception here in Italy that the
best fish comes from the sea and the best meat
comes from the mountains.
You only have to look at the number of fish speciality restaurants that line the coastal roads of
any seaside town to know that most people go to the "spiaggia" or beach when they want to eat fish.
Well the mountains do contain numerous "lagos" or lakes and streams that have a very bountiful supply of fresh fish. As you can see from the picture. These "trota" were caught on Friday by me at a local river. Mainly due in part the the very poor weather we have been having recently.
Fishing here in Italy is quite popular and its free for sea fishing and not that expensive to fish the local rivers. You can see why when the fish is this good.
Its also been a tradition still kept today in many parts of Italy that Fridays you always eat fish.
Here what I did with the the trout and tasted delicious.
Take the four trout, gut and clean well.
Then place each trout onto its own piece of aluminum foil.
Dress each with fresh rosemary and a few pieces of garlic.
Wrap a good length of "pancetta affumicato" or smoked bacon round each one.
Lightly salt and pepper, then add long the length a few good drops of olive oil.
Close each of the foil wraps well and place onto a oven tray.
Put into the oven at 180 for about 25 to 30 minutes.
Mouth watering.

To catch a Pheasant.

2008-09-21T17:21:00.005+02:00

Open season for pheasant, hare and other species here in Italy and it was quite a day. Having dragged myself out of bed at 530am this morning in the hope that I would be the first out I found its seems the other "Cacciatore's" had the same idea.
Also the weather wasn't playing ball either.
By 730am it looked like I had been surrounded by ten's of 80+ old hunter's chasing the same pheasant as myself, but as I know its all about the time and patience. Most of them had left the area by 11am and that was when I managed to catch my first pheasant of the season.
Mind you it was quite interesting as I was stopped by one of the hunter's and asked where was my dog's. When I replied I didn't use them he almost laughed which seems very common here. It left me thinking about how much hunting experience some of the local hunter's have and their persistent use of dog's to hunt for them.
I myself have a great belief in giving game as much of a chance as possible.
After catching the pheasant I returned home, skinned and gutted within half an hour. I know in England you might hang the pheasant for a few days, but with the weather here it's best to either freeze or cook straight away.
On this occasion I froze the pheasant for Christmas.
Now I know most pheasant recipes involve roasting, but I had an excellent meal at a hunter's house earlier this year. Franco's wife Paula cooked pheasant another way and it was truly mouth watering. Here's the recipe below:
Take four pheasant's and take as much meat off the bone as possible. Discard the skin and cut the meat into strips. Then cover the meat with well seasoned flour and leave to thoroughly dry out for about half an hour. Then place a fry pan or skillet onto the stove and melt 50g of butter. Once the butter is melted place the floured pheasant meat into the fry pan and cook for about 8 to 10 minutes. Then add two tablespoons of cognac and then "flambe" until the cognac is adsorbed. Serve immediately onto a bed of plain cooked risotto.

First day's hunting.

2008-09-04T14:58:00.005+02:00

Well after a very disappointing first day's hunting for the "Tortora," I decided to head for home. On my way I stopped at an old ruin and collected some wild herbs and then at a local farmers where I collected a bottle of home made red wine for a recipe I call "Cinghiale ragu con spaghetti". This is a good family meal for all generations and with Boar meat easily available at most butchers a great choice for good meal.

As with most wild foods all you need is "T and P" Time and Patience. Time to catch, collect or hunt for your food, then alittle patience to cook that wild food.

With this anyone can produce a healthy natural meal.

Firstly I have my own free range pigs that live naturally in woods I once or twice a year kill humanely what I need to feed my family. I also have ready frozen Cinghiale meat which is good as freezing tends to soften the meat.

So heat a large heavy gauge pan with some olive oil and add 200gs of pork mince and half a kilo of Cinghiale mince, cook until meat has browned.

Then add 2 white onion, 5 cloves of garlic and 1 bulb of fennel that has been blitzed in the processor until almost a puree, continue cooking for another 5 minutes.

Then add those wild herds of rosemary, sage, oregano and bay leaves with two kilo's of tomatoes I use the ones from my own "Orto," kitchen garden.

Then add some fresh red chilli's, 6 juniper berries and some Cinnamon, continue cooking for another 10 minutes.

Add 200g of tomato concentrate, I make my own from my tomatoes and salt and pepper with one tablespoon of honey.

Finally add that local farmers red wine about 2 glasses and half litre of water then cook slowly for 3 hours.

Although my first day's hunting didn't go to plan I certainly enjoyed that evenings meal.

Start to the Season.

2008-09-02T18:00:00.000+02:00

"The Tortora"

After moving from the countryside in England nearly five years ago to live in Italy. I had been always avid hunter of wild foods in England. It was always my passion when I arrived in Italy to become one of the "Cacciatore," the Italian traditional huntsman.

Several years later and after passing various exams I achieved my wish and have now become one of the "Cacciatore."

With the forthcoming season about to start I thought I would do this blog to give in insight to local Italian life in the countryside. Mainly about hunting like Italians have done for centuries before, from catching "Cinghaile" or Wild Boar to hunting for mushrooms such as truffles in local woodlands.

Furthermore since being married to an Italian I have been cooking Italian culinary delights for years. I thought that as I will be hunting in Italy I will of course be cooking these wild foods. So why not include the recipes I use for these foods.

Most of the recipes come from Italian hunts men's grandmothers. Whereas they spend their time enjoying the food I am normally in their kitchen's learning "Nonna's" special recipes.

Hopefully this season I will go through all the stages of hunting different Italian wild foods as they come into season and then the eventual typically Italian countryside meal.

Also I will include Salami making with Cinghaile to fresh "Capri" goats cheese being made with truffles.

Back to the start of the season being September hunting in the region of Italy is limited, but firstly the "Tortora" or turtle dove is now able to be caught. (see picture above) The below recipe is one I got from my friend Giovanni's Nonna. It's a simple recipe using few ingredients, but tastes fantastic.

Heat four tablespoons of olive oil (not extra virgine) in a flameproof casserole dish, add 100g of local pancetta (smoked bacon), one onion, one carrot, one celery stick, three cloves of garlic and fry for 5 to 10 minutes slowly. Then add four Tortora and brown on all sides. Add a couple of glasses of white wine (a good prosecco) and simmer until wine has evaporated. Then add cinnamon, salt, pepper and half litre of real home made chicken stock. Cover and simmer for further 30 to 40 minutes until tender. Serve with Potatoes from the garden.

Well I hope this has tickle your Italian taste buds.