This quintessentially Istrian Pesto, is a paste like mixture, made with cured pork fat or pancetta, garlic, fresh flat leaf parsley, and sea salt, it is used for adding extra flavour and aroma to the dishes, but equally delicious spread on a slice of fresh or toasted bread.
Istrian food and dishes are quite poor, born out of necessity, and were made from what was available and seasonal.
In the past, people of this land had to be very resourceful and creative with the ingredients they had, and think of ways to enrich poor peasant food, and they came up with ways to flavour what could potentially be bland tasting stews and soups. So, a taca or pest, as locals call it in dialect, was created.
Istrian pesto has very little in common with the Italian styles of pesto sauces used as condiments for pasta, except for the name pesto, which originates from the Italian word pestare (to pound or to crush).
My nona told me that taca (as she refers to it) was used instead of precious cuts of various meats, that would otherwise give the most wonderful taste, but was reserved for special occasions and most certainly not added to everyday meals.
She went on to tell me that this Istrian paste was exclusively made in the households, done by hand using a very sharp knife with which you could cut this fairly soft cured slab of fat, made from the back fat of the pigs. These delicate slabs of fat were then cured in sea salt for a few months, and the fully cured piece of fat, which is predominantly whitish in colour has a hint of pink, and is rather “sweet” in flavour since fresh pig meat does not absorb salt.
There always has been a strong connection in the region, reminiscent in this country, to the rural life described in many of Thomas Hardy’s novels, to the kind of local culture that comes with a life of hard labour on the farms and fields. Farmers would eat the cured fat either for lunch or as a snack, it would be very thinly sliced on a piece of rustic bread and accompanied by fresh tomatoes, and by a bicerin (a dialect word of Italian origin, indicating a small glass) of red wine. This type of eating kept them strong and fit.My nona also explain to me that there have been times when families kept their own pigs, and nearly everyone in the region was curing the fat in their typical Istrian cellars, which provided the right temperature, and the level of the humidity for the optimum results of the curing process. I very clearly remember my grandfather (nono as I used to call him), curing the fat and hanging it on big metal hooks to dry.
This Istrain taca is not available in the food stores to buy, and these days it is very rarely made with home cured fat. This is why I am sharing here the family recipe for pešt, made with pancetta (as alternative to cured fat) to enrich your stews and soups.
Make sure you always add this flavoursome mixture into cold water at the very beginning of cooking, as the fat will gradually dissolve into the dish (without making it fat or greasy!) and it will eventually completely disappear.
When you add the paste to the cold water it will at first most probably float, do not worry since this is quite normal. You can just take a fork and break the lump of paste pressing it against the wall of the pan until you break it completely and give a good stir.
Recipe
Ingredients
100g pancetta or cured lard in one piece (can use already sliced pancetta)
2-3 cloves of garlic, peeled and pressed
a handful of fresh flat leaf parsley (about 7g), finely chopped
sea salt
black pepper
Method
Cut the pancetta into small pieces.
Transfer into a small food processor, add crushed garlic, finely chopped fresh flat leaf parsley, and a pinch of sea salt.
Blitz all the ingredients together until you obtain a paste like consistency.
Enjoy spread on a slice of fresh or toasted bread, or add to dishes to enrich the flavour.
