This is a very old and traditional pasta recipe from Naples area (or probably from Cilento, a near mountain area), which nowadays maybe has been a bit “lost”, because of the fact many people are looking for “light” food, but no one told us to eat this kind of dishes everyday, right? 😀 so why to give up to these good things? One or two times per year there is no problem…see it as a gift for your mouth 🙂 especially in a cooler day, better in winter…but today is rainy and there are less than 20 °C, so also in August can be ok sometimes 😀

This recipe probably originated between shepherds or peasants long ago, in a time where there was not much food, or at least not easily available as today, and like most of the Italian traditional recipes, it was born from the necessity to combine together few ingredients as best as possible.

Everyone had lardo at home, every shepherd had some Pecorino cheese or similar with them, everyone had flour and water to make a pasta, so that’s how this recipe was born probably 🙂 then sometimes there was some tomato, so that’s how it became even richer.

And like most of the traditional recipes, every family had their personal recipe 🙂 some with garlic, some with onion, some without garlic and without onion, some with tomato sauce some with fresh tomatoes, some with Pecorino some with Parmigiano, some with basil some with parsley, some also with a drop of oil some just with the lardo 🙂 it doesn’t matter, the main ingredient is one: the lardo 🙂

Let’s see the recipe now 🙂

INGREDIENTS (4 people)

• 400g of short pasta (mezzanelli, sedanini, rigatoni, penne, mezze penne…in this case I used maccheroni al ferretto, typical of Calabria region but they also fit perfectly with this sauce)
• 120g of lardo , not smoked (actually the most traditional recipes suggest a higher quantity 😀 usually 150 g )
• 350/400g of tomato sauce
• 1 glass of dry white wine (optional, but its acidity fits well with all the lardo in my opinion)
• 1 white onion
• 80g of Pecorino cheese (you grate it)
• 1 chili
• a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, about one table spoon (optional)
• 10/12 leaves of basil
• salt

1. First of all cut the lardo into small slices or cubes, and then with a big knife start to hit it, and keep going until it becomes like a cream.
2. Then cut the onion, very small, and add it to the lardo.
3. Take a large pan, heat a drizzle of oil and start to cook the chili. Then add the mix of lardo and onion, and let it go at low middle/flame until the onion gets soft, about 10 minutes. Then set add the wine andset the heat higher until the wine has reduced.
4. Then in another pot you put the pasta into boiling and salted water, and then add the tomato sauce in the pan, and remove the chili (or leave it if you want).
5. When the pasta is ready, drain it and put in the pan with the sauce. Mix it well, add the basil cut into pieces with your hands, and in the end add the Pecorino, and mix everything well again.
6. Serve it, add some more Pecorino if you would like, and enjoy it 🙂

Calories (average man): 55′ running / 1h10′ cycling / 2h wood cutting 😀

Calories (average woman): 1h15′ running / 1h35′ cycling / 2h40′ wood cutting 😀