Le Virtù – the recipe

Gabriella shares with me her recipe for Le Virtù Teramane. It is neatly handwritten but I think I spot a mistake. It says the recipe serves 50.

I’m assured it’s correct. Fifty, it seems, is a normal May Day lunch gathering around these parts. Several women take part in the preparation of a meal that will satisfy several families and a multitude of friends and hangers-on.

Gabriella suggests I get in touch before making Le Virtù so she can give me some extra tips. I don’t tell her that the chances of me ever producing Le Virtù for 50 people are just marginally stronger than me winning the Eurovision Song Contest.

Even if I had the skills, this is a dish that requires stamina and patience, not to mention an intimate familiarity with the region’s produce and cooking traditions.

Below, for all those more ambitious than myself, is Gabriella’s recipe for Le Virtù. There are simpler, shorter recipes around, but this one is traditional, handed down through generations. I have copied and translated it faithfully, doing battle with names of ingredients in the Teramano dialect that change just a few kilometres down the road.

Reduce quantities for a more manageable number of guests.

Le Virtù Teramane

(serves about 50)

Ingredients

Herbs/flavouring for the soffritto (mirepoix):  large bunch of parsley; large bunch of dill, roughly chopped*; small bunches of thyme leaves and marjoram leaves; 4 spring onions, diced; 4 celery stalks, diced; 3 carrots, diced.

* Note from Gabriella: dill is the essential ingredient, giving the dish a particular flavour.

Vegetables: 1.5kg borage, roughly chopped; 1.2kg sow thistle; 11 artichokes, boiled and sliced; 700g raw spinach, chopped; 1kg chard, chopped; 600g cress; 500g green beans, cut into small cubes; 4kg fava beans; 1kg peas; 400g endives, cleaned chopped and boiled; 2 small lettuces, chopped; 4 zucchine, diced.

Dried pulses, (soaked the night before and boiled, separately, al dente, conserving the cooking water):  800/1000g pinto beans; 250g black-eyed peas; 300g haricot beans; 400g cannellini beans; 500g brown lentils; 200g runner beans; 500g chickpeas, (runner beans and chickpeas should be soaked for 24 hours).

Meat and bones:  1kg prosciutto cut into small cubes; 4/6 ham bones soaked for several hours before boiling; 800g small meatballs, without garlic or parsley, cooked in a non-stick pan with a little oil; 800g pork rind, boiled for half an hour, then cut into cubes and cooked for another hour;

Pasta:  50g fresh pasta or 10g dried pasta per person

To prepare the stock 

Boil the bones the day before, changing the water four times. Remove the bones; cool overnight then filter and reheat, adding water from the boiled legumes.

Method 

(If eating at lunchtime, begin cooking at 6am; if at dinner at noon).

Cook the herbs in oil (or lard) and add the prosciutto, then add the legumes, and pork rind. Add the liquid a little at a time. Cook for 1 hour and then add the fava beans, and later the other vegetables, meatballs, peas, and towards the end, the zucchine, spinach and lettuce; add salt.  Keep stirring and adding the liquid. Cook the pasta al dente and add to the mixture.  Season to taste.

Serve and enjoy. Bon Appetito!