Roll me up please, delicious morsels for a gourmet evening

Today, I will present you with a dish of the local tradition, the so-called “cicchetto” (which means “morsel” in the Veneto dialect), an appetizer to be enjoyed as an aperitif, standing up with friends, made of local ingredients.

Don’t worry if the Paduan hen hasn’t arrived there yet and if the Pernumia asparagus doesn’t grow abundantly; you can replace them with similar ingredients from your land and wait to taste the original recipe as soon as we reopen!

Roll me up please.. Paduan chicken salad roll, Pernumia asparagus omelette and red onion jam

	Level of difficulty: low
	Preparation: 30 Minutes
	Cooking time: 15 Minutes
	Servings: 4
	Cost: about 10 €

Ingredients for 4 servings:

200 g of Paduan hen meat (alternatively common hen or chicken) boiled in regular vegetable broth
4 medium eggs
300 g of Pernumia asparagus (alternatively green asparagus)
1 jar (40 g) of red onion jam
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt and Pepper
1 clove of garlic

Preparation

To prepare your rolls, start by simmering the hen in plenty of water for about an hour and a half with celery, carrot, onion, black peppercorns and a bay leaf. As soon as the hen is ready, cut the meat into thin slices and keep it aside in a bowl.

Towards the end of the cooking time for the hen, peel the asparagus and cut them into strips (longwise). Generally, the new green asparagus is tender all the way through, but it depends on the period, so possibly cut away 5 cm from the bottom. Sauté the asparagus in a pan with a clove of garlic (don’t peel it and the flavor will be even more delicate) for a few minutes. Once ready, place the asparagus on a plate.

Beat the eggs in a bowl with a whisk and add some salt and pepper. Pour the eggs into a non-stick pan with a little extra virgin olive oil to form a layer of about 5mm and cook for four minutes.

roll me up frittatina con asparagi di pernumia e gallina padovana

Slide the omelette onto a cutting board and let it cool.
Fill the omelette with the cooked asparagus and the chicken, garnish with the onion jam; roll up the wrap and cut the portions with a knife, use bamboo sticks to hold them together and your recipe will be ready to be served!

Let me know how it was!
By Chef Marco Squizzato

Focus on Pernumia asparagus

In addition to the Paduan Hen, a slow food ingredient, asparagus is the key ingredient to this recipe. Asparagus probably originated in ancient Mesopotamia and the areas surrounding the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The Romans thought that it had beneficial healing properties capable of regenerating the human body and giving new energy.

Asparagus is a long-lasting multi-year plant, consisting of an underground stem that stretches in early summer and tends to move towards the surface of the ground. The stems, called shoots, are white until they sprout on the surface. In contact with the light, these shoots change color, passing from a pink and purple color to a more or less intense green.

In the pentagon of the province of Padua formed by the municipalities of Pernumia, Monselice, Due Carrare, Tribano and San Pietro Viminario, the members of the Terre Euganee cooperative grow white and green asparagus on 250 hectares of land. On average, the quantity produced per hectare is 70 quintals per production cycle.

Pernumia asparagus stands apart because is not very fibrous and that makes it more versatile in the kitchen.