Neapolitan lard ziti
Among my TOP dishes of Neapolitan cuisine are certainly the ziti lardiati (or “allardiati“) made with “lardo,” which is the main ingredient of this typical dish from the historic poor cuisine of Naples.
A dish belonging to the old peasant tradition of Campania from a time when olive oil wasn’t commonly used and everything was cooked with pork fat. In fact, there is a saying: “you never throw anything away from the pig.”
A first course — as I said — very simple from the ancient peasant tradition, but which, even today, is able to satisfy even the most refined palates.
The “allardiati” ziti are a true delicacy of the Neapolitan tradition — don’t miss this tasty and substantial recipe!
For those who don’t know, Ziti are a long pasta shape from Naples. The name comes from the Neapolitan dialect and means “zite” (a bride — unmarried woman). They were called this because they were a type of pasta that the “zita” (the future bride) would normally cook for her husband on the wedding day.
The ziti must be the long format. You can also find pre-broken ziti in stores, but they are not suitable for this recipe, because this dish must be prepared with the ziti broken into 4 pieces by hand, so that the crumbs created capture all the sauce well.
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- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Inexpensive
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Cooking time: 40 Minutes
- Portions: 4 people
- Cooking methods: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian Regional
- Region: Campania
- Seasonality: All seasons, Spring, Summer and Autumn
Ingredients for Neapolitan lard ziti
- 18 oz ziti (long)
- 7 oz Colonnata lardo
- 1/4 cup lard (strutto) (optional)
- 1 garlic (whole)
- 1 ramata onion (whole)
- 5 tbsp tomato paste (I use double-concentrated paste (about 80 g))
- 1 bouillon cube (beef (even better: beef extract))
- 3.5 tbsp dry white wine (about 1.7 fl oz (50 ml))
- to taste chili pepper
- to taste black pepper
- 1 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
- 1/3 cup grated pecorino (grated)
- to taste basil
Tools for Neapolitan lard ziti
- Bowls various sizes
- Cutting board with two side trays for scraps
- Mezzaluna sharp, double-bladed
- Set nonstick frying pans set
Steps for Neapolitan lard ziti
Take a bowl and break the long ziti by hand into 4 pieces, collecting also all the pasta crumbs that form.
Put 3 1/2 tbsp (about 50 ml) of water in a small saucepan over the heat and dissolve the beef extract (or the bouillon cube) in it.
Chop the lardo several times (together with the garlic and chili) with a sharp knife (or a mezzaluna) until it becomes a pomade-like cream. In Naples they use the term “allacciare”, meaning to reduce the lardo to a pomade, as shown in the photo below.
Choose the softest and whitest part of the lardo (I used Colonnata lardo; if you don’t have it you can use chunked ham fat doubled over) to make the operation easier. It helps to heat the knife you use to “allacciare” the lardo.
In a pan, gently melt the cooking lard and the lardo cream with the garlic and chili, then add the onion finely chopped, black pepper and deglaze with the white wine, letting the onion turn golden for about 7 minutes.
Take the tomato paste, put it in a cup and dissolve it well with 2 1/2 tbsp (about 40 ml) of hot broth, then add it to the lardo-and-onion mixture and reduce the heat to the minimum.
Let everything cook for about 30 minutes (if the sauce tends to stick to the bottom of the pan, add a little more hot beef broth) and finally add basil.
When the sauce is ready, cook the ziti al dente in salted boiling water.
Then add the al dente ziti to the sauce, adding a little cooking water as well to properly emulsify and coat the pasta.
Off the heat, add grated Parmigiano, grated pecorino, black pepper and basil (if you like, also chopped parsley) to the ziti lardiati and serve the pasta hot.
Shopping tips!!!
To prepare this dish, I recommend this set of frying pans in various sizes — they offer exceptional value for money.
If you can’t find long ziti to break by hand, you can also use short ziti, such as Garofalo ziti, which hold up exceptionally well in cooking.
This is the beef extract that I use.
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