Ancient recipes from Lanuvio resurface thanks to the love that the people of Lanuvio nurture every day with a thousand initiatives, to rediscover and cement a feeling that unites, to strengthen their sense of belonging. The history of a community is also made at the table, And in Italy, it's probably celebrated primarily around a smoked dish. The greatness of a people is seen in the respect they have for the dead, and it's a Lanuvina tradition to prepare special dishes for November 2nd.
Polenta pizza
La Team Building Polenta, a feast celebrated for the dead, has relatively recent origins, as the people of Lanuvio link it to World War II. Unfortunately, the town was literally destroyed by bombings, and the poverty and famine that gripped the population were truly difficult to cope with. Polenta pizza It is therefore a very poor dish, but in those very hard months it helped Lanuvio not to succumb completely to hunger. Italian women can make soup even with stones, and so the housewives of Lanuvio did not give up. This recipe is based on cornmeal, which was cooked under the ashes, as firewood was also scarce and had to be rationed. Polenta pizza is a "savory" product, but a sweet version also exists, with added sugar, a rare commodity at the time. Today, this pizza is baked in the oven, but some women fry it.
Polenta pizza recipe
For the polenta pizza, you'll need about 300 grams of corn flour, a liter of water, and 250 grams of raisins. Add a pinch of salt and about three tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. Place a tall pot of water on the stove, but don't let it boil. Gradually pour in the flour, stirring gently to avoid lumps. Turn off the heat and add the raisins, which you've previously soaked in water and squeezed dry. The dough should be smooth and can then be poured into a pizza pan, making sure to smooth it out evenly. After sprinkling with extra virgin olive oil, preferably local, the pan is baked for about forty-five minutes at one hundred and eighty degrees. Keep in mind that every oven is different, so you need to monitor the cooking process to get the best results. This polenta pizza is a humble tradition, but one that is deeply felt.
The Callalesi
Polenta pizza is not the only Lanuvina tradition, in fact some ladies remember the “callalesi”. Sir like grandmother Adalberta, they remember perfectly that during the dead there was never a shortage of "callalesi". That day, full of emotions, melancholy, but also sweet memories linked to those who are not among us, all of Lanuvio went to visit the cemeteryAfter the traditional visit to the deceased, The whole village gathered around some barrels, where the freshly picked chestnuts were put to boil. This large quantity of chestnuts was boiling among fragrant laurel leaves and in the meantime, people would gather around, telling each other anecdotes of the good old days. Finally, when the chestnuts were ready, a person in charge would drain them with a large ladle and distribute them in traditional paper bags.
That tradition was very unifying and these chestnut bags were actually “a poor man's food”, the memory of which, steeped in melancholy, evokes the feeling of being truly happy with very little.
The beans of the dead they are another very ancient tradition that comes to us directly from the Romans, of which Lanuvio is a fundamental, proud and ancient partThe ancients believed that souls resided in bean pods. It was from the Romans that we inherited the cult of the dead, and preparing these simple sweets means commemorating them in a special way.
The basic ingredients are almonds, flour, sugar, and butter, creating baked sweets. In Lanuvio, "the broad beans of the dead" are served with sweets. Chardonnay wine, obtained from the vineyards that start from Ponte Loreto and reach all the way down to Malcavallo.
