An Easter in Calabria, Italy

What we ate, plus loads of updated posts.

Skyler and Giuseppe

Apr 20, 2023

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Easter in Calabria

It was a wet, rainy weekend but you wouldn’t know it standing in Lina’s lime green kitchen, which she painted because the color made her ‘happy’.

As I walked down the bend of the staircase I peered into the kitchen. An assembly line was set up on the counter and overflowed onto the stove. Mini meatballs, hardboiled eggs, sauteed eggplants, Calabrian ragu, and empty boxes of pasta.

Do I spy with my two brown eyes the beginning of pasta al forno?

“Skyler, hai portato il telefonino? Vieni a vedere cosa ho fatto.” / “Skyler did you bring your cellphone? Come see what I made.” - Lina

She led me into the kitchen and showed me everything she’d been working on that morning. Then she crouched down into her infamous squat to get eye level with the oven and cracked it open. There’s always an 80% chance the steam is going to fog her rimless eyeglasses, but this time it didn’t.

She looked up at me with a little twinkle and exhaled her signature “Ehhhh!”. Roast chicken thighs with potatoes.

Lastly, in the corner of the kitchen, I dialed in on what looked like large stacks of fried eggplants. Now that’s definitely something new. She lifted the tray with both arms.

“Erano anni che non li preparavo.” / “It’s been years since I made them.” - Lina

Fresh tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil, sandwiched between perfectly breaded fried slabs of eggplant. Two toothpicks to keep each stack together.

Anytime I eat food held together by a toothpick I’m teleported back to a staple of my childhood. The famous Fenton’s Creamery in Oakland, California where I used to go after every dance recital, graduation, and any other event I could beg my parents into celebrating there.
But not the ‘new’ Fenton’s, the original one before the fire. With the black and white linoleum peal and stick tile, jukebox in the corner, old school ice cream coolers, and the seats with the spiraling in the back that could possibly give you tetanus. That was my Fenton’s.

traditional italian food — Frissurata, a traditional Calabrian spiced pork

Lina pulled out a giant pan, it was time to make frissurata, a very traditional spicy Calabrian pork. And a recipe that Giuseppe and I have been trying to capture for a very long time.

We’d already made a trip to Zia’s house to get her version of the recipe, called a cousin to confirm, and now we were going to make it with the supervision of Lina.

As the pork made its way into the pan I counted down the minutes until Lina and Giuseppe disagreed on some key cooking point. At which time she excused herself from the kitchen because it was ‘crowded’…

By now I know better and sat quietly at the table sipping my cappuccino and typing out all the adjustments to the recipe. And yes, giggled because Calabrians are as stubborn as bulls and the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

Quietly, Giuseppe and his mom took alternating turns popping into the kitchen to stir the same pot. After three hours the pork was fall off the bone tender, spicy, and everything frissurata is supposed to be.

Frissurata recipe here (full disclosure it’s in the paid newsletter).

Also, a lot of folks on social asked for the pasta al forno recipe... TBD if we can capture all the measurements.

Olive oil smoke point

Let’s answer any of your burning questions about the smoke point of olive oil.

The smoke point of olive oil is the point at which the product begins to smoke.

The smoke point for extra virgin olive oil is 350 - 430F
The smoke point for regular olive oil is 390 - 470F

Generally speaking, home cooks don’t have to worry about it too much. You can cook your eggs, vegetables, sauces, and roasts in olive oil.

The issues around smoke point arise when oil is left in a pan on high heat for excessive amounts of time. But technically speaking, the smoke point can only be determined by a lab test.

If you have any specific questions leave a comment below!

New on the blog

Our olive oil blog is completely updated! We got a little behind on writing because we were so focused on our book The Olive Oil Enthusiast (August 2023). There are loads of new articles for you to explore. Think of it as the warm-up to our book : )

A few favorite reads:

Canola oil vs Olive oil

A guide to black olives

How to tell if your olive oil is fake