The Triestine jota is a warm soup, a perfect comfort food for the coldest season. Based on sauerkraut and beans, the Triestine jota is an extraordinary first course. We tried it at Mara, a family-style restaurant in Trieste, during our short stay, and we liked it so much that I’ve already replicated it several times. This is an event at my house because we never eat the same dish twice. My husband tried it on the spot. I didn’t. I had another dish. At home, I wanted to recreate the jota adapting it to my intolerance to cooked oil. I can use very little and only raw. The Triestine jota is prepared with a special sauté, and for me, it would be impossible to eat it. When a traditional recipe is slightly adapted, it’s rightly pointed out that it’s not done that way, that it’s not the original recipe. So I remade it following the recipe from the book “Trieste in cucina” by Rita Mazzoli and Marina Raccar, but I didn’t eat it. Try it too. I’m sure it will win you over!
Not to be missed
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Economical
- Rest time: 1 Day
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Portions: 4 servings
- Cooking methods: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian Regional
- Region: Friuli-Venezia Giulia
- Seasonality: Autumn, Winter
Ingredients
- 13.6 oz pre-cooked sauerkraut
- 1.5 cups dried borlotti beans
- 10.6 oz potatoes
- 10.6 oz smoked pork ribs or bacon (I used smoked bacon)
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 leaf bay
- 1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds (caraway cumin)
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 12 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- to taste salt
- to taste pepper
Tools
- 1 High-sided saucepan
- 1 Cast iron casserole
- 1 Cutting board
- 1 Vegetable knife
- 1 Peeler
- 1 Kenwood immersion blender
Steps
The night before, soak the beans with half a teaspoon of baking soda.
Once the soaking time is over, rinse them and cook them in cold water with the peeled and chopped potatoes. When the beans and potatoes are ready, drain them, keeping the cooking liquid aside. In a separate saucepan, simmer the sauerkraut covered with the reserved cooking liquid, with the bay leaf and caraway seeds (I couldn’t find them here in Tuscany, so I used powder). If the added liquid is not enough, top up with more water and cook until the liquid is absorbed. This step is necessary if using loose sauerkraut; canned ones are already cooked and just need to be heated and flavored.
Prepare a brown sauté with the oil, garlic, and flour: as soon as it darkens, add the sauerkraut, mixing, then add the potatoes, beans, and smoked pork or smoked bacon, or a ham bone or scraps. Adjust the salt and let it cook gently for 40 minutes.
To fully enjoy it, it’s best to let the jota rest. It should be prepared in the morning to enjoy it in the evening, allowing the flavors to meld and the consistency to bind. Serve the jota with a drizzle of raw extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle with a pinch of pepper.
Curiosity
Jota is an ancient recipe, and like most traditional recipes, it was created to fulfill the need to prepare a hearty and nutritious dish with simple products available in the garden and pantry. The name is curious, jota, which apparently derives from the Latin jutta, meaning broth. And honestly, it fits a bit. Because when it was served to us, the impression was just that, but don’t be fooled by the appearance because the jota is truly delicious. There are different versions of this soup: in Trieste, sauerkraut is called capuzi garbi, strips of fermented white cabbage, and there is also pork (the typical Slovenian kranjska sausage, smoked with beech wood, pork ribs, or ham bone). Other versions use canned sauerkraut, sometimes much easier to find and convenient because they are already cooked. And then there’s the vegetarian version with only beans, potatoes, and white cabbage. But as always happens with traditional recipes, every family preserves and hands down its unique and original version. As I say, what matters is the final result: an extraordinary dish.
Notes
A reader specifies (I report her clarifications as a Triestine native): an essential element of jota, as in Triestine pasta and beans, is “el disfrito,” which is a flour sauté in oil until it becomes hazelnut-colored, stirring to prevent it from burning at the edges of the pan. Let it cool slightly and pour it into the cooking jota. The potatoes are also boiled whole and coarsely mashed. Borlotti or dark beans are used. Jota should be brownish and dense. Vegetable broth is not used. It’s better to use smoked bacon or pork ribs rather than the common sausage found in supermarkets or butcher shops if the kranjska sausage is not available.
When it comes to preparing traditional dishes, I always do research. There’s no inventing with typical dishes. The recipe is what it is. However, different versions can be found. As I always say, and as I specified here, every family, every restaurant, has its recipe. Even online, searching on Friulian specialty sites, I encountered different versions. The same jota we ordered in the restaurant was anything but dense, to the point that I truly thought it was a “broth”: a lot of broth and few ingredients. After studying and buying a book of Triestine recipes, I decided to modify the initial version adapted to my intolerances and offer you one that closely resembles the original recipe. I was very sorry not to be able to taste it, but the brown sauté is too much for me.
