THE BOILED SEASON
With the first cold weather comes the season of boiled meats, a staple dish of Italian cuisine, especially popular in the northern regions, particularly in Piedmont (the famous Gran Bollito Misto alla Piemontese), Lombardy (where it is said to have been known as early as the Middle Ages) and Veneto (accompanied by pearà sauce, made from marrow).
Bollito is a dish of recovery par excellence, the child of a poor cuisine that used to use cuts of meat considered lesser for this type of preparation. In the pig, the most used parts are the shoulder, leg, rind, ears and legs, the most suitable for boiled meat because although they do not contain much meat, they are rich in connective tissue and collagen. Because of the presence of this protein in such large quantities, cooking times are longer, but this characteristic gives the broth unique density and flavour.
Boiled meat is also a ‘slow’ dish, where the long cooking time also often stems from the need to make the meat from cattle slaughtered after ‘having given it all up’, at too old an age, palatable and tender.
It is a preparation that is traditional but contemporary in its values, being waste-free and sustainable, and that knows how to reinvent itself: today boiled meat is also very popular in a street food version, to fill tasty sandwiches, revisited in delicious meatballs or even in ice lollies! One of the most refined ways to enjoy it is with Aspic. In this dish, typically Christmas and especially popular in the Lazio region, not only the boiled meat is enhanced but also the broth, which here is made into jelly.
A curiosity: boiled and boiled are not synonymous! There is a difference in the method of preparation because, in boiled meat, first the water is brought to the boil and then the meat is added. In lesso, on the other hand, the meat is placed in cold water and then brought to temperature.
