One of the traditional first courses of Piacenza cuisine are undoubtedly the Pisarei and Fasö, a term that translated into Italian from the Piacenza dialect simply means “pasta and beans”.

Background

The origin is uncertain, but very ancient: it dates back to the Middle Ages, when the pilgrims who traveled the Via Francigena to go to Rome found a soup made of bread dumplings and flour in the inns and convents of the Piacenza area. a sauce of beans, lard and pork rinds. At the time, the beans used were not borlotti beans, which arrived in Europe only after the discovery of America, but the so-called “eye beans”, the only ones known at the time. Over time, the recipe has undergone numerous variations, the most important being the addition of “cacio Piacentino” to the other ingredients, a cheese that in the mid-sixteenth century Count Giulio da Lando had exalted in the “Formaggiata di sere staccato”.
A particular curiosity is the one told by Anna Gosetti in “The Italian regional recipes” (published in 2003) where the author reports that once, when the future daughter-in-law was presented to the family, the mother-in-law checked the girl’s right thumb to make sure that there were the calli, unequivocal signs of his ability to cook Pisarei.

Recipe

The originality of this dish lies first and foremost in the dough with flour and breadcrumbs seared with boiling water to have a soft and homogeneous mixture, to be reduced into small snakes to be cut into pieces, each of which is pressed with the thumb to create a small concavity.
Secondly, it lies in the combination with the sauce of borlotti beans boiled and brought to the end of cooking in the tomato sauce, started with a sauté supported by pistè ‘d gras, that is the tasty pesto made with lard, parsley and garlic. The sauce must be soft to accommodate the Pisarei, which must be mixed with beans of the same size in a pleasant viscosity.

As you may have understood the preparation of this dish and in particular of the Pisarei, in the Piacenza area it is considered as a religious function. Precise movements must be repeated and ingredients used that for no reason in the world must be modified. Perhaps it is this ritual that makes this poor dish an absolute protagonist among piacentine first dishes.

The kit for the preparation

The dexterity in producing Pisarei, however, is not for everyone. It is handed down from generation to generation from mother to daughter, but it is not a problem for those approaching the Piacenza tradition for the first time.
On our site, in fact, you can find the Kit Pisarei e Fasö, which is designed for those who are curious to try the culinary delicacies of the Piacenza tradition but have little time to devote to cooking.
Inside you will find everything you need to cook Pisarei and Fasö independently: Pisarei, produced according to the traditional recipe and dried to guarantee long conservation, a jar of tomato and basil sauce, beans and also oil and coarse salt in order to have everything available for the preparation of the dish in less than 20 minutes.
This package is created and prepared by Tuttichef di Alessandro Biso who has thus succeeded in bringing the Piacenza culinary culture directly to your table!