We traveled to the Veneto region to listen to the culinary memories of Milena Cavaggioni, a beloved grandmother of 12 and great-grandmother of two.
Milena, now 88, has lived in Padua since her wedding, though she was raised in Verona, where she inherited her mother and grandmother’s passion for the city’s culinary traditions. For our visit, she prepared pearà, a traditional recipe from Verona. This “poor man’s gravy” was originally made from broth and breadcrumbs only. After cooking for a few hours, the two ingredients form a thick sauce that adds a softer touch to bollito (a traditional Northern Italian preparation for meat) — particularly meats that dry out when boiled. Over time, pearà’s humble ingredients were joined by pepper (from which it takes its name), beef marrow, and, in some recipes, grated Grana Padano cheese, which transforms it into an exquisite sauce.
“The secret is still the broth, which you need to cook with a bit of bone,” explains Milena, who can whip one together with her eyes closed. “If you use a good, hearty broth you don’t even need the marrow. I don’t use it, myself.”
As for the cake? It’s a family recipe, one that’s simple but scrumptious if you choose the right apples. “My mother would make a special trip to Zevio, where the area’s best orchards were, to buy Dezi. They were hard to find back then, grown by only a few farmers. So fragrant and sweet — I’ve never forgotten them.”
This type of apple, also known as Decio, Deso, and Dezo, is typical of the Veneto, where it has been known since Roman times.
Petronilla Cake
Ingredients for 1 cake
1 1/4 cups flour, 2/3 cup sugar, 3 apples, 2 eggs, 1 lemon, 1/2 cup milk, butter.
Break the eggs and mix them with the sugar until they become a bit fluffy. Add the flour a little at a time, then the milk. Add the grated rind of the lemon. Pour the mixture into a greased and floured cake pan. Peel the apples and slice them thinly. Arrange them on top of the mixture, add a sprinkling of sugar and bake at 350 °F for about 30 minutes.
Boiled beef and pearà
Ingredients for 6-8 people
2 1/4 lbs. beef, 2 carrots, 1 stalk celery, 1 onion, 1 bone, bread crumbs, Grana Padano cheese, extra-virgin olive oil, salt, pepper.
Place the meat in a pot full of cold water along with the bone, celery, halved carrots and the peeled onion. Cook for two hours. Once the meat is cooked, pour three ladles of broth in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, add 5 tablespoons of breadcrumbs and stir until you obtain a creamy consistency. Cook for about 20 minutes. Complete with 2 tablespoons of oil, salt, 1 1/2 teaspoons of pepper and grated Grana Padano cheese, if you like. Boil the sauce for 30 more minutes on low heat, then serve it with the meat.