A spoon dips into the broth and finds leaves, meat, a piece of sausage. Part of the pleasure of minestra maritata lies in wondering which combination the next spoonful will bring. The Neapolitan account in Touring Club Italiano, Guida gastronomica d'Italia (1931), brings chicory and cabbages together with different cuts of pork, pezzentella sausage and a ham bone. It places the soup in winter. This generous, very tangible historical table is our way into Campanian cooking.
The filling is the surprise
Pizza di scarola changes the search. Its filling waits beneath the dough: the same guide describes escarole cooked with oil, anchovies, capers and black Gaeta olives, enclosed in a pizza that is baked or fried. The greens are not a side dish waiting at the edge. They occupy the centre, surrounded by those invitingly salty flavours.
The first cut
Sartù saves its surprise for the first cut. In the timbale described in 1931, tomato-coloured rice encloses meatballs, sausages, mozzarella, giblets and mushrooms. All three names — sartù, pizza di scarola and ’a maritata — also appear in MASAF’s PAT list; the preparations told here remain those of the historical guide. Three dishes offer three small invitations: dip the spoon, break the dough, open the rice. Where would you begin?