Turnips with Apples and Salami
My nonna used to make this dish and it’s typical of the alpine Biellese region of Piedmont.
Turnips are not the most glamorous of vegetables but this is a surprisingly good dish. The
turnips were harvested with the apples after the pigs had been killed and salami and sausages
made. The sweetness of the apples balances the strong turnip flavour and like many peasant
dishes, it is simple, cheap and tasty. Serves 4
Ingredients:
150 g piece of salami
1 kg turnips, sliced
4 eating apples, peeled and sliced
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Dice the salami and fry it in a little oil. When cooked, remove it from the pan and add the
sliced turnips and apples to the same pan. Season. Cook slowly for at least 40 minutes then
return the salami to the pan. Either serve with polenta or put into preserving jars and boil the jars
for 10 minutes to hermetically seal them. This way, the contents will last for about a year in the
larder and, like a Christmas pudding, the flavour will improve with age.
*taken from the book ‘From Seed to plate’ by Paolo Arrigo, published by Simon and Schuster
