In Italy, every town has its own patron saint, complete with a feast day and particular dish.
It's why when Orazio D'Elia sees walnuts he thinks about spaghetti alle noci.
A plate of walnut spaghetti was eaten to celebrate the Madonna del Carpine, the protector of Visciano, a small town in the hills of Campania, about an hour east of Naples. "Visciano is an agricultural town known for its nuts and the famous dish of the town is spaghetti alle noci," D'Elia says. "It's eaten all year around but once a year when there is a festival in honour of the Madonna del Carpine, people cook this dish to have on their rooftops while watching the fireworks."
Visciano is known for its hazelnut trees. "They are everywhere," D'Elia says. "Every family owns a piece of land and they grow and sell hazelnuts as well as walnuts and chestnuts."
In Italy, it's only fitting that you celebrate the Madonna with a plate of spaghetti. Source: Da Orazio Pizza + Porchetta
D'Elia would spend his summers in the mountains with his grandparents and would be there for the week-long festival in July, which celebrates the local Madonna.
"On the last day, there's a big fireworks, and everyone goes to their roofs to watch them and everyone cooks this dish," D'Elia says.
Spaghetti alle noci's ingredients include garlic, oil, chilli, cheese and walnuts, which become a creamy, sticky and nutty sauce.
"The dish is inspired by the land they are from. The whole town is covered by nut trees and after the festa, that's when they start all the trees to come down. This is a thank you to the Madonna for providing these trees," he says.
This is a thank you to the Madonna for providing these trees.
When D'Elia was growing up, his family collected hazelnuts in August, walnuts in September and chestnuts in October.
"One after the other. You pick all these fruits, bring them home, put on the rooftop to dry from the sun and the next year you cook that as a thank you for what God has given you."
It's an example of 'cucina povera', which translates to the food of people living in poverty. D'Elia's grandparents didn't have much and they found ways to make simple ingredients as delicious as possible.
All those dishes started coming to me and I realise how important it was for my roots, for my family.
D'Elia now runs in Sydney's beachside suburb of Bondi, and during lockdown he found himself returning to these simple dishes of his childhood.
"During COVID, I was at home doing a lot of cooking and posting recipes on Instagram," he says. "Being at home in such an uncertain time of life, all of these memories came to me while cooking and I was using cooking to make me feel better. All those dishes started coming to me and I realise how important it was for my roots, for my family."
It gave him a new appreciation for dishes such as pasta e fagioli (beans), which he wasn't a big fan of growing up.
"It's pasta and you can put whatever legumes you like. It's just legumes, water, oil and a rind of parmigiano for flavour or pasta e patate (potatoes)."
D'Elia says to make it, put oil, pancetta and onion in the base, then water and potato. Let this cook, then add pasta and parmesan rind. Before you eat it, let it rest for 15 minutes so that the flavours can blend and relax.
When Orazio D'Elia sees walnuts he thinks about spaghetti alle noci. Source: Da Orazio Pizza + Porchetta
"I was not a big fan of eating this, my grandfather used to eat it. The women take pride in cooking those sort of simple, tasty dishes."
In keeping with cucina povera and using all parts of the animal, offal was a big part of his diet growing up. His family used to eat a dish called 'o pere e 'o musso, which is the head of the cattle and the feet of pig boiled, served with lemon, salt and a cold beer. It was usually sold from a little van in the street in Naples.
Meanwhile, his nonna would make a dish called 'o zuffritt, a ragu of pork meat and offal. "It's an amazing ragu of everything from the throat of the pig to the stomach, including the lungs, heart, liver and spleen. Blanch quickly, dice it all up and put them in a base of oil, garlic onion, bay leaves and lots of chilli," he says.
"You fry, fry, then add lots of tomato paste, add some water, [put the] lid on and cook slowly, slowly for three hours so when you lift the lid again, there's three inches of oil on top of the surface."
The bright red and spicy dish is served on top of stale bread. "It's a dish people from my town, Pomigliano, have in wintertime when you kill the pig. It's got a lot of flavour."
D'Elia has lived in Australia for 18 years, and while he's seen palates broaden, he doesn't think Bondi is quite ready for offal-centric dishes.
"Braciole is rolled pork skin, stuffed with spices and escarole, baby endive. You can cook it in the ragu or with a fagioli, a cannellini bean soup, like my nonna did. I doubt someone would eat that here, but I would take the challenge to make it for them," he says.
I doubt someone would eat that here, but I would take the challenge to make it for them.
"When I came here, lots of food that today people love was very cheap to buy and not many people like it. Octopus, they used to call it the cancer of the sea, now it's one of the best dishes that people love."
O brod e purp is popular in Naples' backstreets during winter. "There's a big pot the octopus is cooked in, you get a cappuccino mug with very boiling octopus stock, then they grab a little piece of octopus, chop it, give you toothpicks and add red spicy chilli oil.
"You see people gathering round a big bucket of fire and eating this before you go home after a night out."
Photographs by Da Orazio Pizza + Porchetta
Walnut spaghetti
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 500 g spaghetti, cooked
- 300 g walnuts
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 2 chillies, chopped
- 50 ml EVOO
- ½ bunch parsley, chopped
- 100 g grated pecorino dolce
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Method
- Toast walnuts for 15 minutes at 180°C. Let them cool then roughly chop them before setting them aside.
- Bring to boil a large pot of salted boiling water and put the spaghetti in this.
- In a large saucepan, gently start a soffritto with half of the oil, the sliced garlic and chopped chilli. Add 3 ladles of the water used to cook the pasta to prevent the garlic from burning.
- Before the spaghetti fully cooks, strain it and put it in the saucepan and let it finish cooking in there. Add more pasta water if needed.
- Once cooked, add ¾ of the walnuts, the parsley and pecorino and the rest of the oil. It should look both creamy and a bit sticky.
- Plate the spaghetti, garnish with the rest of the walnuts and some fresh pepper. Serve immediately and buon appetito.
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