Sausage and friarielli... it almost seems like a single word.
You can try playing with combinations as much as you want, but the perfect matching that friarielli has with sausage is truly inseparable. They are in season from November to March, and it marks one of the most awaited moments in Campania to get busy at the stove... and at the table!
Also called broccoli in some areas of Salerno (to bear in mind for future gastronomic trips), friarielli are among the most used vegetables in Neapolitan cuisine, winning over everyone with their slightly bitter but extremely appetizing taste. As they say in dialect, the friarielli must be scuppettiatiati, that means they must crackle during cooking. This is in fact exactly what happens if you prepare them as tradition dictates, by sautéing them in a pan with generous amounts of boiling oil, a few garlic cloves and the inevitable chili pepper. So let's move on to the perfect recipe for making sasicc' and friariell' as it should be made.
Sausage and friarielli… the Neapolitan recipe
To prepare the perfect sausage and friarielli dish, it is essential you use the Neapolitan sausage cut with the tip of the knife, characterized by a thicker die and the presence of aromas and spices, such as fennel.
Ingredients
4 bundles of friarielli
4 sausages
2 garlic cloves
extra virgin olive oil
chili pepper
salt
white wine
Method
First clean the friarielli, removing the stems and the hardest leaves. Wash them thoroughly and dry any excess water. Heat the oil together with the garlic and chili pepper in a saucepan, add the friarielli and cook over high heat, covering with the lid for a few minutes, until they have softened, and then without the lid for another 10 minutes, stirring from time to time and adjusting with salt.
In another pan, start cooking the sausages for about ten minutes, adding a little water. Poke them with a fork, remove excess water and add a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. After a few minutes blend with white wine and brown for another 10-15 minutes. At the end of cooking, add the sausages to the friarielli and cook for a couple of minutes to mix the flavors together nicely.
Tip: If you don’t like the bitter taste of friarielli, you can blanch them in boiling water for two minutes and then sauté them in a pan. This will make them softer and they will lose some of their bitter taste.
Sausage and friarielli: pizza, pasta, and sandwiches
To complete the sonnet, all that remains is to equip yourself with the so-called cuzzetiello, or the outstanding bread loaf (strictly cafone) and use it to accompany the dish. But the tasty combination between sausage and friarielli is not only ideal as a main course, but it can also be the heart of many recipes, from pizza and sandwiches, to rustic cakes and pasta.
Following the same friarielli preparation process illustrated above, you can also prepare an unforgettable pasta dish. Crumble the sausage and sauté it in a pan, blend with white wine and cook for about 10 minutes. Add the friarielli you already prepared, then drain and add the pasta al dente to the pan with a little cooking water, stirring until cooked.
Finally, beyond being one of the most popular Neapolitan pizza toppings, sausage and friarielli can also be used as a filling for a savory pastry, easily filling a puff pastry, brisée or pizza dough. Another perfectly matched ingredient is provola cheese, of course! Bite into a nice sausage, friarielli and stringy provola cheese sandwich to make you teleport directly to the best festival in Campania.