Cicerchia

Swiss chard

Dried cicerchie, potatoes, carrot, garlic, olive oil, rosemary

green salad

NOT SURE WHERE WE GOT THEM, maybe at the Salone del Gusto a couple of years ago, maybe up in Portland from Provvista. I see you can order it online, but I know we didn't do that. Further on line I see that cicerchia translates out of Italian into English as "chickling vetch" or "Indian vetch" or "grass pea" (I wonder if it was served on the Graf Spee) and that it is, in fact, Lathyrus sativus; Wikipedia suggests that if you eat too much of it you could wind up with the disease "neurolathyrism, a neurodegenerative disease that causes paralysis of the lower body: emaciation of Gluteal muscle (buttocks)." That would be unfortunate; I'm glad I declined a second helping.

They took a long time simmering to become tender, but they made a delicious soup; really in fact a pottage. I would probably have ruined the dish by adding some meat of some kind and perhaps an onion or two; Lindsey wisely stuck to a recipe, and the result was oddly both delicate and substantial. The trick, I think, apart from the pleasant nuttiness of the cicerchie themselves, the rosemary. I wouldn't have thought of rosemary in a hundred years. Thyme, yes; celery and bay leaf, of course. But this had only a sprig or two of rosemary for aromatic (along with a bit of carrot), and it was all that was needed. Rosemary is a wonderful thing. And on top, of course, a slice of toasted bread, and some delicious olive oil.

Before the cicerchie, Swiss chard with a bit of garlic and salt; afterward, green salad.

Nero d'Avila 2005