In the Roman dialect the word ‘magnaccioni’ means people who eat well to live well. In Magnaccioni poet and author Anne Pia departs from familiar forms, creating a book of recipes, philosophy and well-being that reflects the culture of her native Southern Italy. Get your mouth watering and your mind racing with her recipe for the Easter Frittata below.

Magnaccioni
By Anne Pia
Published by Luath Press

Music

La Societá Dei Magnaccioni by Lando Fiorini

(Souvenir da Roma; Cantaitalia)

Com’e faccette mammete by Massimo Ranieri

(‘O surdato ‘nnammurato (Live)

Lifestyle and philosophy

There is little more exciting for me than a market overflowing with aromas, purposeful people intent on getting the best cut for dinner, or a cheese that matches what is in the cellar; with newly pulled lettuces bristling with freshness, cauliflowers in magnificent bloom, onions ochred, yellow or pale and silky, garlic plump and purple (sometimes flamingo pink) trailing over benches, crowding and bulging from wicker baskets; and peppers, large and curvy, red as lanterns; all these make me giddy with excitement. And I see myself living another life in a small Roman kitchen, or a small French town, bustling about with gigantic stock pots, working dough and tending marjoram, oregano, mint and some rosemary perhaps, at my doorstep.

Food is my constant life adventure. Between lovers and within family, it is interplay, bonding, enjoying the sweetness of familiarity brought by years. Food is flighty, often capricious on the stove and flirtatious on the chopping board, sometimes promising little and then to everyone’s surprise, giving all and more, making you, the cook, proud. Food is also theatre, a song that reverberates around your walls, a beacon of hope and promise for a gathering, a common language with which we can connect. It is an aesthetic, and a wondrous example of the beauty within and around us in our world.

Recipe: The Easter Frittata (Frittata Pasqualina)

For a family with healthy appetites and enough to return to later

18 eggs
150g of Sicilian, Calabrian sausage from an Italian food outlet
or cured Italian sausage
150g of diced bacon
150g of provola cheese, caciocavallo or mozzarella

Beat all the eggs adding salt and pepper.

Squeeze the uncooked sausage from its skin, chop it into cubes and fry with the bacon cubes.

Alternatively fry the bacon cubes and add the cured meat when the bacon is cooked.

Add the cheese, cubed, to the egg mixture.

When the meats are cooked, add the egg and cheese mixture to the pan.

On a medium flame, keep lifting and moving the egg around until as much egg as possible is set.

At this stage you can either continue to cook on the stove or put the frittata in the oven.

If you continue to cook on the stove top:

Invert the pan and do the same on the other side.

Invert the pan again, cover completely and extinguish the flame on the cooker.

You can check whether it is thoroughly cooked by inserting a fork in the middle of the mixture.

When well cooked through turn the frittata out and serve in wedges or cut across it to create rectangles.

And to Drink

Corvo Bianco, Duca Di Salaparuta from Sicily is a lively straw yellow wine that is worth seeking out. It is crisp, light and with a satisfyingly rounded flavour.

Should you prefer a red, Corvo Rosso, is like a Nero d’Avola in style, and stands up well to the richness of this dish. Ruby-red, full-bodied with aromas of dark morello cherries. This would be an excellent choice and a wine that I have enjoyed for many years.

Magnaccioni by Anne Pia is published by Luath Press, priced £9.99.