ViLco > wrote:

> > Arneo Nizzoli, 76, who runs a renowned restaurant in northern Italy near
> > Mantua, said busloads of cookery students were now showing up to eat his
> > maialata meals, where he uses as much of the pig as possible, from pig's
> > lung soup to cotechino -- a type of sausage -- made with tongue, to
> > pig's lard set with garlic, parsley and onion and spread over browned
> > slices of polenta.
>
> I have been to three maialate (plural of maialata) at hsis restaurant, I
> still have the t-shirt with the smioing pig somewhere at my parents'
> home. Good kitchen, familiar environment and pork over all. I once asked
> about his "pork liver with his net" (the net around the intestines or
> stomach, IIRC) and he was happy to explain, showing an uncommon passion
> for his job.

If ever I am in those parts, I'll make sure to visit Nizzoli's
restaurant. That "net" has a very similar name in German, "Netz"; it is
"caul" in English and "crêpine" in French.

> > Horsemeat was once fed to children as a key source of iron by Italian
> > mothers but young customers were now reluctant to try his horse stew,
> > which is slow cooked for hours, said Nizzoli. "Horses were traditionally
> > eaten here when they died but kids today just aren't interested," he
> > said.
>
> And that's sad.

Horse meat is becoming rare in Germany, too. Still, traditional places
still serve it, especially here in the Rhineland, where Sauerbraten is
still often enough made with horse meat and is sometimes even sold
canned. I can buy horse meat at a stall at the main Carlspatz market
here in Düsseldorf.

> > Recipes from Il Ristorante Nizzoli
> >
> > Horse stew
>
> I'm susprised he didn't give the recipe sor somarina stew, made from a
> young female donkey, it's very famous both in his restaurant and in the
> nearby Cavaler Saltini in Pomponesco (MN). They're 10 minutes by car
> from one another, and both have much to give. Saltini is famous for his
> "loadél", a kind of mildly greasy baked bread, it's a recipe which is
> disappearing and there's no recipe around the internet. All the results
> from googl epoint to Saltini or Nizzoli or generally about the area, the
> southern part of the province of Mantua, along the river Po.

For some reason, Nizzoli does not list any horse or donkey dishes on his
current menu, either. A couple of donkey recipes are included in the
Riccette di Osterie d'Italia (where they say that most donkey meat comes
from Turkey or Albania nowadays) and in the Accademia Italiana della
Cucina compilations. I posted a couple of donkey recipes over the
years:

<http://groups.google.com/group/rec.food.cooking/msg/9683d422d5c14390>
<http://groups.google.com/group/rec.food.cooking/msg/82aee70087d7a612>

Victor