The Garnished Palate

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Calabrese Cuisine Is All For Peperoncino

I like the thought of eating spicy food, but I can only bear the heat so much. Thinking about pepperoncino brings me memories of Chinese dumplings dipped in chili oil. Nduja sausage is melted into candele pasta- a foot long pasta that's slightly larger than ziti- and served without cheese. You will not find spicy food eaten with cheese here, which I find very hard to understand! This is similar to how people here won't eat fish with cheese, unless your in Sicily of course. 

I could not wait to dig my fork into this meat and cheese pie. It's similar to pizza rustica, but instead Pizza con la Ricotta. It also has hard boiled eggs and sausage encased in this thick crust that was baked and flipped to crisp. There is lots of black pepper inside too. It reminds me of Easter time at home when my mothers family makes Easter Pie on Good Friday each year. The smells taunts us for hours until we are able to eat meat again at mid-night. 

"Love Is A Dream, Sweet As Milk And Liquorice."

You will find an interest for liquorice in this region as well, and some of the best know globally. The older I get the more I realize how picky I am ( at least I think) and the random things I do not like to eat. Liquorice is one of them. I never had the slightest lick of taste for licorice, it just makes me feel a bit upset. Liquorice root is quite different than the black processed kind you see in the candy aisle at Party City, but it's also much better for you too. Glycyrrhizin is a compound found in the wooden stick that is supposedly fifty times sweeter than sugar! It's supposed to aide you back to health from the common cold or liver disease.