Pancotto con Cicorie

Name: Pancotto con Cicorie
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Lucana
Ingredients: 400 g pane di matera; 600 g wild chicory; 300 g Potatoes; 4 whole peperoni cruschi; 60 ml Extra virgin olive oil; 2 cloves Garlic; 10 g Fine sea salt; 1.5 l Water

A rustic Lucanian dish of stale durum wheat bread simmered with bitter wild chicory and potatoes, dressed with garlic oil and crisp peperoni cruschi.

🇮🇹Italy· Basilicata

Prep: 15 min
Cook: 30 min
Total: 45 min
Servings: 4
Difficulty: Easy
Calories: 410 kcal

Ingredients

0 of 8 gathered

Servings

400 g pane di matera — stale durum wheat sourdough, cut into thick chunks
600 g wild chicory — washed and roughly chopped
300 g Potatoes — peeled and cut into 2 cm cubes
4 whole peperoni cruschi — dried sweet Senise peppers, wiped clean and deseeded
60 ml Extra virgin olive oil — high quality Lucanian oil preferred
2 cloves Garlic — peeled and lightly crushed
10 g Fine sea salt — to taste for boiling water
1½ l Water — for boiling vegetables and bread

Equipment

•Large saucepan
•Small frying pan
•Slotted spoon
•Tongs
•Soup ladle

Nutrition

Per serving, approximate

Calories: 410 kcal
fat: 14 g
carbs: 64 g
fibre: 7 g
protein: 9 g
calories: 410 kcal

Instructions

1
Bring a large pot of salted water to a gentle boil over medium heat.
2
Add the cubed potatoes and simmer for ten minutes until slightly tender when pierced with a fork.
3
Add the chopped chicory to the pot with the potatoes and cook for eight minutes.
4
Press the chunks of stale bread gently into the boiling greens and potatoes to submerge them completely.
5
Turn off the heat and leave the pot covered for three minutes so the bread absorbs the broth.
6
Heat the olive oil in a small frying pan over medium heat.
7
Add the crushed garlic and whole dried peppers, frying for barely ten seconds until the peppers puff up.
8
Remove the peppers immediately with tongs onto a plate so they cool crisp without burning.
9
Ladle the moist bread, potatoes, chicory, and a little cooking broth into warm bowls.
10
Drizzle the hot garlic-infused oil over each serving and crush the brittle peppers over the top.

Chef's tips

Watch the peppers constantly while frying because they burn and turn bitter in seconds. Let the fried peppers cool completely on a dry plate for two minutes so they turn glassy and crunchy.

Ingredient substitutions

Pane di Matera → Pane di Altamura or any dense crusty durum wheat sourdough
peperoni cruschi → mild dried sweet paprika peppers fried briefly in olive oil
wild chicory → catalogna chicory, dandelion greens, or curly endive

Storage

Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two days.

Reheating

Reheat gently in a saucepan over low heat with two tablespoons of warm water until heated through.

Common mistakes to avoid

•Overcooking the peppers in oil until blackened, which ruins their sweet aromatic flavour.
•Using light sandwich bread that turns into mush instead of holding its shape like traditional sourdough.
•Draining the vegetables completely dry, which prevents the bread from soaking up the savoury broth.