Archived Article By Tom Fitzmorris Originally published March 14, 2007 The Food Of St. Joseph's Day Every city in America with a large Sicilian-heritage population marks March 19, the feast day of the patron saint of that island. In New Orleans, we (whether Italian or not) celebrate the father of Jesus with what we do best: cooking and eating. A lot of the food winds up on St. Joseph altars. These are traditionally set up by individuals in their homes. But over the years they also became a fixture in Italian restaurants. To such an extent that an Italian restaurant without a St. Joseph altar is looked upon by some with suspicion of not being really Italian. That tradition was made famous by Montalbano's muffuletta shop in the French Quarter. Its St. Joseph altars set the standard in the early years of the century, and continued until the place shut down in the 1960s. Fortunately, we've not heard anyone complain that restaurant involvement commercializes St. Joseph. You have a problem with New Orleans Italians marking a special day with food? You must not understand much of anything. The St. Joseph's Day menu hews strongly to tradition. Certain items must be part of it. New dishes are not strongly encouraged. Here are the classics: Cardoni or cardoons. This looks like rhubarb, or giant celery with a reddish color. It is actually the plant on which artichokes grow. It's served as a vegetable antipasto. The hard part is getting the strings out. If you don't do this, you will have a very high-fiber dish. Fava beans. These are the "lucky beans" that are passed around at St. Joseph altars and thrown at St. Joseph parades. They can be cooked, but unless they're available fresh (as they are only very rarely this time of year), they're a tremendous amount of work and have a bitter taste. (Penance?) Pasta Milanese. This is the most interesting dish of the St. Joseph's menu. It's always made with a variety of pasta called perciatelli or bucatini. Depending on how you look at it, this is either the fattest spaghetti or the thinnest macaroni. It has a small hole through it, and kids learn early in life that if you suck through it it whistles. The sauce for Milanese is a very thick tomato sauce--it almost tastes like leftover sauce to me--with bread crumbs in lieu of Parmesan cheese. Also in there is fennel (finocchio--rhymes with Pinocchio), giving the dish a distinctive anise-like flavor. The most unusual ingredient in pasta Milanese is a powerfully-flavored fish. Anchovies are most commonly used in New Orleans. A few (too few) restaurants use Mediterranean sardines. (More on those below.) Two more essential ingredients in Milanese: pignolia (pine nuts) and passolina (dried currants, although raisins are substituted more often than not). The last two ingredients, with their Middle Eastern flavor, are remnants of the Moorish occupation of Sicily centuries ago. Pasta con Sardi. This is the same as pasta Milanese, but with real sardines. Not the little anonymous fish from flat cans, but fresh whole fish about six inches long, broiled or fried and served whole with olive oil, white wine, and bread crumbs. The pasta is tossed with a light red sauce and also topped with bread crumbs, which is supposed to recall the sawdust of Joseph, the carpenter. The only thing wrong with pasta con sardi is that we only eat it in Lent. These fish are delicious. At other times of year they're almost impossible to find in markets. They have an assertive flavor, and come out with a crispy skin that makes the eating even more exciting. A typical serving is about three or four of the fish. While you have to be a little careful about the bones, they're so small that they're unlikely to harm you if one happens to go down. (In fact, small fish bones are as good a source of calcium as you can eat.) Andrea's usually has real sardines around St. Joseph's Day. When Rene Bistrot was still around, Chef Rene Bajeux often served sardines as an appetizer. They were great. A lot better than that other St. Joseph's Day fish. . . Bacala. Throughout Europe dried, salted codfish is held in reverence. Chefs who would not dream of cooking with anything but the freshest ingredients still make an exception for this nasty product, which dates back to the time when salting and drying was the only way fish could be preserved for more than a few days. Before it can be cooked, bacala has to be cut (the typical tools are vise and a hacksaw--I'm not kidding) and then soaked in water for at least a day, with the water being changed every few hours. Then you bake it in tomato sauce and discover that it tastes like nothing. This is very definitely a penitential dish. Desserts. Most St. Joseph altars hold more desserts than anything else. They're the kinds of things you find in the glass-front cases and jars at Angelo Brocato's. Sesame seed cookies, anise cookies, fig cookies, and many kinds of little hard cakes. St. Joseph's Day is this coming Monday. If you're thinking of eating Italian that night, get ready to find this menu, and perhaps nothing else. Some restaurants just set up the altar and don't serve normally. Most of them donate the proceeds to charity. So enjoy and be generous. I'll publish all my best St. Joseph's Day recipes in the Recipes department daily till the day itself. © 2007 Tom Fitzmorris. All rights reserved. news@nomenu.com