This Traditional Italian Dish is CRAZY... let me explain why I love it.

hey guys so my wife Ava and I have been visiting her hometown in Italy we're about to head back to the States but before we left I wanted to share with you one of the strangest and yet most beautiful experiences I've ever had here it's the story of a feast a feast unlike any of the other many many many many many many many many many many many many many many many many many many many many many many other feasts that I've experienced here but in order to tell this story I first need to explain a little bit about my daily routine here so I'm usually the first person to wake up after heavily caffeinating myself I walk up the street to the gym well it's not really a gym dasada doesn't have a gym my gym is a house sort of [Music] so this house has belonged to the family of Ava's Dad aka Salvatore AKA papatuity AKA El profesore for Untold Generations I hate to use the word abandoned to describe it but no one has lived here for a very long time the house mostly serves two functions now first of all it's where I work out in the morning and secondly it's where puppetori conducts his culinary experiments in the basement papaturi has his food Workshop where he makes all kinds of amazing stuff he has equipment for bottling tomato sauce giant Vats of olive oil and his Precious Precious pecorino cheese more on that later there's one other thing in the basement that I've always wondered about for a really long time so long in fact that you can check out the story I published on Instagram on March 13 of 2021 and then lastly there are these rather giant um pots and burners and everything and I've been told that soon I will see what those are for uh but I don't really know yet so stay tuned I never got my answer as to what the big pot is for now I've seen similar pots used here for things like making ricotta making tomato sauce even making enormous quantities of pasta but Ava always insisted that this pot was for something else I hadn't thought about the pot in a really long time until one day my morning routine was suddenly interrupted by the appearance of papaturi himself [Music] said he was going to go to the gym with me I had no idea why but I was right when I guess that he wasn't looking to work out turns out he had been up already for quite some time assembling an enormous quantity of meat my ability to speak Italian is definitely improving but I have to be honest that before the coffee kicks in I'm pretty much useless I didn't understand a word he was saying when you watch this next clip imagine my face just being like foreign that's when we heard the sound of a vehicle approaching bonjourno Johnny good morning how do I describe the kind of person Johnny is this is oh I quickly need to explain that when I'm in the saw my name is in Harper it's Giuseppe or Pepe for short that's a whole other story for another time but just know that in the rest of the video I'm Pepe foreign [Music] I had no idea what was happening all I knew was that a gas burner had been set up on the balcony and then Johnny went back downstairs to get the pot [Music] about the time perpetuity was filling the pot up with water Ava finally showed up oh maybe you can help me understand what's going on no Ava didn't at all help me understand what was going on she just rolled up her sleeves and got to work this is a fat it's all fat and now it needs to be washed though and who will wash [Music] [Music] Johnny started urgently looking for something I didn't know what until I was asked to fetch it because Frank can go and get some soap well Franco yeah obesity [Music] oh Franco is Johnny's brother [Music] well [Music] the soccer yes it is okay by the time I got back the water was hot enough to add the pork fat into the pot [Music] so what can you just sort of what what happens what's happening it's happening the the first thing first step is to put the fat that we washed in the hot water the size start to boil and then create the soles for our meat now I have a little disclaimer to make the food you're about to see is not for the faint of heart it is not made to be pretty for a Food Network segment it also might not look like much but in the words of Johnny okay [Music] ah so stick with me it's worth it now we've went back inside to keep washing meat this time pork skin we have all we know also we it's big we are going to eat the name of this is wait like Frito Lays no Frito Lays ribs are we basically just going to cook an entire Pig today mindless this is the way in which in calabra we use part of the pork big they usually lose to waste but because we don't like to waste anything we cook them I see so this is like these are like the rib bones but stripped of meat yeah so with just a little bit of meat because things that this should be the leftover of a pig after you made this and all the rest Johnny then told me that what I was seeing was actually a very scaled down version of whatever this was then Ava's mom AKA Mama Rosa showed up Jose fun okay she quickly left again muttering something about needing more bread the only thing that's in here is fat and water and it already smells really amazing it's hard to describe the smell it's quite enchanting though [Music] [Applause] [Music] is this a specifically calabrian tradition or is this done in other parts of Italy as long as I know it's just a crazy Calamine tradition well maybe there are other crazy Italians that they do the same Johnny started cutting up bigger chunks of meat for Ava to add into the pot I think these are ham hocks is that right ham hocks that seems right seems like the kind of thing you add into a brewing cauldron this is the smell of a pasta it just kept calming more and more ham hocks and ribs never-ending meat I started to wonder if the pot was actually big enough to hold all the meat we had the salt I got was finally put to use [Music] I started to worry that I hadn't bought enough though [Music] Mama Rosa showed up again and sure enough with more bread oh he said the mice meanwhile Johnny was prepping the pork skin oh my gosh [Music] this went into the mix tied up on string so it could be pulled out easily again later on now Ava Johnny and papatuity started setting up tables you know because I told you at the beginning that this is a story about a feast but remember I didn't know at all what was happening I didn't even know a feast was in the works but I started to get a clue when not only the quantity of tables but the size of those tables started to increase uh how many people are coming over 20. I really shouldn't have been too surprised because big feasts tend to happen at least once a week usually for the holy Sunday lunch you can see why I work out every day here speaking of which before we kick off the feast a quick word from today's video sponsor when it comes to sticking to our fitness goals we all want to be disciplined and motivated all the time that's hard particularly when you have things in your life going on out of the ordinary like maybe you're traveling and you have a very in ideal place to work out makes it hard to keep going that's why Ava and I love future future is a new fitness app that pairs you with your very own highly credentialed Fitness coach depending on your individual goals and needs they'll come up with an entire custom workout plan for you they'll monitor your progress they'll make sure it fits with your schedule and most importantly they'll keep you accounted and motivated I've never given up on a workout since signing up I've already talked on the channel about my trainer Tyler and I told him look I'm going to be in Italy for a little while I don't have a good space to work out in I have very rudimentary equipment I'm also going to be living with mamarosa whose entire goal in life is to fatten me up what can you do he came up with a special plan tailored just for my needs here it's all centered around being able to use very limited equipment no matter what kind of equipment you have access to whether it's an entire fully stocked gym or absolutely nothing at all Futures coaches can work with you and make sure that you meet your goals Avon I can't recommend future enough we're both paying customers we love it if you want to give it a shot totally risk-free you can get your first month for free by going to try future.co pasta grammar first month for free I promise you'll love it a big thank you to future for sponsoring today's video with the table set up for 20 Italians we mostly just waited around for the meat to cook to pass the time papaturity decided it was time for an aperitivo of his beloved beloved cheese you need to understand that this cheese is his pride and joy he buys these wheels of fresh pecorino cheese from the local cheese maker and he Seasons outside himself with pepperoncino and olive oil and then he ages them until they become insanely strong it's like the jet fuel moonshine of cheese he only makes a few Wheels every year so it's only on very special occasions that he breaks some out yeah um [Music] you have to make a mouse it is quite simply the best cheese I've ever had in my life as we all know an aperitivo isn't complete without a drink [Music] although it needed to cook longer it was finally time to start tasting the meat [Music] the only thing that was added was a little bit of lemon juice [Music] it's amazing with just some water some salt and some lemon does and some pork fat also some pork fat finally people started showing up [Music] most of the guests brought either more food or alcohol or some combination of both foreign [Laughter] and hardly any of them could wait to start eating [Music] started serving out the first course pasta alforno you know because a giant cauldron of meat isn't enough food speaking of that giant cauldron I finally learned with this bizarre calabrian dish is called so this is what we call in the saprupuna which means that it's all the leftover you kill a pig and then we boil them for a long time and just with a drop of lemon with the egg and this is a traditional dish that we make every time that we kill a pig the meat was served just as it was no sauce no condiments just meat and lemon juice I know that probably a lot of you are scoffing it's such a simple dish I would have too until I smelled and tasted it ah propuna turns out to be more than just boiled meat which is what it looks like it's kind of like certain types of Mexican Carnitas that begin with the meat boiling but then actually as the water evaporates it ends up kind of just cooking in its own fat the fat thickens and coats the meat it's almost like a sauce it's not diet food to be sure but it is delicious food it's always the simple food that tastes the best and trust me there was a reason why these 20 calabrians were so excited about this one dish the feast wasn't over with the propuna though you can't have a calabrian party without copious amounts of sugar there were Madeleine nakatole which are these fried calabrian cookies there was some kind of shoe that was stuffed with like a lemon cream really delicious a pistachio panettone for good measure and my personal favorite cannoli [Music] there was barely room on the tables for everything [Music] now some attentive viewers might have noticed that despite the fact that this whole propuna dish is meant to use leftovers there's still quite a bit of stuff in that pot after everyone ate the second round of cooking began under the careful supervision of Zia Maria all of the excess water was boiled off and then all the like the fat and the little bits of meat that were left were all skimmed off and put into containers and then left to like you know coagulate and cool until they became it's not really lard it's called salimuri one of the best ways to eat it is you spread it on a loaf of calabrian uh pita bread and then bake it in the oven until it's just steaming hot and the fat all melts my doctor might not be thrilled about the cholesterol but it was so delicious and absolutely worth dying a year early for in the very end every single drop every morsel from that pot was you used remember this tradition began as a way to extract every last possible bite of food out of a precious animal but what's incredible is that the people here learned not to treat this as a subsistence measure or a grim necessity but as a joyous occasion they've taken the poorest simplest food you can possibly imagine turned it into a delicious dish and a party at the same time Ava's family lives with the rest of us in the 21st century they don't need to save every molecule of meat from pork bones in order to survive anymore but they still keep this tradition alive because it's fun and yummy I think that's cool and I think it's a philosophy of eating that a lot of us would benefit from trying again it's how all of our ancestors ate it's how an enormous number of people around the globe still have to eat and even though it might be great that we have the luxury of not needing to eat this way anymore maybe we're missing out on something by not voluntarily doing it I hope you guys enjoy taking a look at this strange but very very fun collaborian tradition more importantly I hope it inspires you to gather up some people and cook something together speaking of which a quick shout out to aposta grammarian in action or I should say pestogramarians in action Jackie sent us this picture of her family these are her kids they're making ravioli together nothing makes us happier than seeing families cook together if you enjoyed the video please give it a thumbs up hit that subscribe button follow us on social media at pasta grammar you might catch little story updates like the one from March 13 2021 and you can follow along as Mysteries develop and progress it happens all the time alright we'll see you guys next time ciao

Channel: Pasta Grammar

Views: 255,555

Keywords: pruppuna, italian feast, italian meal, italian food, calabria, calabrian food, traditional italian food, authentic italian food, feast, meal, one pot, pork, meat, fat, eva, harper, family

Id: j0Aw9jBw870

Length: 20min 52sec (1252 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 22 2023