Neapolitan Scammaro Frittata
The scammaro frittata is a typical dish of humble Neapolitan cuisine, traditionally eaten during Lent, especially on “lean days“: Good Friday and Holy Saturday.
The humble version of the pasta frittata, “humble” because it is a pasta frittata, without eggs, yet it is so delicious and flavorful with its golden crust and the sauce of olives and capers that it’s eaten all year round and is also ideal to take on picnics at Easter Monday or to the beach.
It may not be the most beautiful in appearance because it’s eggless, BUT it’s really tasty!
In my family, the secret is to prepare the scammaro frittata not with regular vermicelli or spaghetti, but with “fidelini” (very thin spaghetti) to make the frittata well-seasoned, less dry, and more compact when cutting.
If you love pasta frittatas, try this delicious Summer Spaghetti Sandwich.
If you’re looking for more Easter or Easter Monday picnic recipes, save my Special “Easter Recipes“.
You might also be interested in:
- Light Lent Donuts with Anise, without butter and eggs and without frying.
- Light Oat and Chocolate Cake, without butter, eggs, and lactose
- Light Apple Cake by the Simili Sisters, without oil and without butter
- Vegan Chickpea Flour Roll with Tofu Cream and Zucchini. Light Recipe
- Light Tuna Meatloaf, without Potatoes. Easy Recipe.
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Very cheap
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 3
- Cooking methods: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients for Neapolitan Scammaro Frittata
- 12.3 oz thin spaghetti (I use the very thin ones, the "Fedelini")
- 4.2 oz Gaeta olives
- 1.75 oz capers
- 2 anchovies in oil (optional)
- 1.75 oz pine nuts
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 tbsp raisins (optional)
- 5 oz extra virgin olive oil
- 0.7 oz butter (optional)
- to taste parsley
- to taste fine salt
- to taste chili pepper (optional)
Tools
- Bowl
- Wooden fork
- Pan of Lyonnaise iron
- Cutting board with side trays
Preparation
Pit the olives and desalinate the capers in a cup with water.
This is a quick and easy recipe, the time it takes to prepare the olive and caper sauce while the pasta water is boiling.
Take a small pan, pour in the oil, heat it up, and add the garlic and chili pepper (optional), let the garlic brown, and then sauté the pine nuts.
Add the olives, raisins (optional), and capers to the pine nuts and let everything flavor for about ten minutes, then add the anchovies (optional) off the heat.
Drain the pasta very al dente and season it with the 20 g of butter and parsley, pour it into the pan with the olive and caper sauce and toss it for a few minutes, then flatten it and cook first on one side, and when it’s golden, flip it to the other.
Everything should cook for about ten minutes, then place the frittata on a serving plate and serve it lukewarm.
Shopping Tips!!!
To cook the Neapolitan scammaro frittata, an iron pan is ideal, at a special price on Amazon. The pure 99% iron of these pans allows them to reach high temperatures quickly and maintain them consistently. Iron is also suitable for induction cooktops. Wash it with very hot (if not boiling) water before seasoning it, dry it well in the oven or over the flame, and then proceed with seasoning: pour in a fat (better with seed oil) and let it reach the smoke point. The surface of the pan should be nice and black.
I also recommend this convenient cutting board with two practical side trays incorporated (one for collecting the cut foods, the other for collecting the waste scraps).
FAQ (Questions and Answers)
Scammaro Frittata, history and meaning?
The origin of this strange name “scammaro” comes precisely from eating lean during the forty days preceding Easter, in particular: it had to be done by the monks, who lived all together, and when someone among them, particularly old and weak, could not avoid consuming a little meat, he could do so in his own cell, to not arouse unhealthy cravings in his companions.
This explains the Neapolitan term scammaro: eating in the room, cammerare, implicitly meant “eating animal proteins”; on the contrary, eating outside the room, scammerare, by extension came to indicate “lean food” allowed during Lent, until it indicated Lent itself.
Ippolito Cavalcanti, Duke of Buonvicino and descendant of the famous Guido, friend of Dante, in 1837 included this recipe in his book Cucina Teorico Pratica, a true encyclopedia of Neapolitan cuisine; evident are the influences of French cuisine, but from the second edition, it is enriched with an appendix entirely dedicated to the cuisine of farmers and the less affluent classes (source here).
