Nervetti Salad is a typical appetizer of Milanese cuisine, a dish from the popular and tavern cuisine of Milan. Perfect if we want to serve a tasty and versatile meat appetizer.
Tasty and to be served strictly at room temperature, nervetti salad can be defined as the quintessence of “zero waste” recipes, as we would say today, since the main ingredient is the less noble part of the calf.
The base of the dish preparation is composed of the cartilage from the knee and calf foot. After a long boil in a broth of onion, carrots, and celery, until they become tender, they are cut into strips and seasoned with spring onions, salt, pepper, oil, and vinegar, or with lemon.
You can quickly prepare it by buying a package of precooked nervetti, easily available on the market.
A tasty appetizer, ideal for brunch or an aperitif, accompanied by a fresh white or rosé wine.
Besides the traditional version, there are “richer” variations, with the addition of white beans and parsley, or with pickled onions instead of spring onion.
I added corona beans soaked for 12 hours then cooked in a pressure cooker “but canned ones are also fine” and I must say they go well and served as a single dish, and it was successful and liked by everyone. If you don’t like beans, don’t add them.
The Tropea onion soaked in vinegar did its job, making it more digestible and less aggressive in taste, making all the flavors delicious.
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Very cheap
- Rest time: 30 Minutes
- Preparation time: 20 Minutes
- Portions: 4/6
- Cooking methods: Pressure Cooker, Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients for Nervetti Salad
- 1.5 cups dried beans (corona or Spanish, or canned pre-cooked)
- 1.3 lbs nervetti (pre-cooked)
- 1 package pickled peppers (medium)
- 1 red Tropea onion
- to taste extra virgin olive oil
- chopped parsley (as needed)
- lemon (optional juice)
- salt
- pepper
Tools
- Pressure Cookers
Steps for Nervetti Salad
After rinsing them under cold running water to remove all impurities, place the beans in a large bowl and cover them with room temperature water.
It is recommended to soak the beans for at least 12 hours, making sure to change the water at least twice during this time.
The ratio is 1:4, so 1,200 ml of water for 300 grams of beans.
To ease the softening process of the beans, you can add a pinch of baking soda to the water, which helps break down the fibers present in legumes.
Once the soaking is finished, rinse and drain the beans; they are ready to be cooked.
Place the necessary amount of beans in the pressure cooker and cover with clean water.
After 30 minutes of cooking, remove from heat.
Wait for the steam to completely escape from the pot before opening the lid.
At that point, and only when there is no more air inside the pot, remove the lid.
The corona beans are ready to be used as you wish.
(If you don’t have a pressure cooker, use a regular pot, but the cooking times will be much longer).
“If you don’t have time, canned ones are fine; just drain them from their brine.”
Prepare the onion: Peel the onions (red or white). In my opinion, Tropea is much sweeter and less strong.
Cut it into rings, not too thick.
Place the onion in a dish and cover it with red or white wine vinegar. Balsamic is also good, but it’s less strong than the first two.
Let the onion marinate in the vinegar for about 15-20 minutes.
In the meantime….
Cut the pre-cooked nervetti into small pieces and place them in a bowl.
Do the same with the pickled peppers and add them to the nervetti, along with the drained and cooled corona beans.
After the time has passed, drain the onion and add it to the salad.
With this simple trick, the onion will be more digestible and will remain crunchy.
Season with parsley, oil, salt, and pepper. Mix the nervetti salad.
If you like, add more vinegar or a nice squeeze of lemon.
Enjoy your meal.
Tips
If you can’t find pre-cooked nervetti, do this: The recipe is very simple. You need to boil the meat, debone it, cut it into pieces, and season it as desired. The most important thing is to figure out how to cook the nervetti to cook them perfectly and flavor them.
They should be boiled for two hours together with an onion, a carrot, a stalk of celery, and a bit of salt, a procedure common in many recipes.
For the seasoning, however, there are many variations, and we can use the ingredients we love most.
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FAQ (Questions and Answers)
I don’t like beans?
Alternatively, we can use sweet cherry tomatoes, in addition or substitution. Let your imagination run wild!
