Gray Day Cooking in Umbria: a Recipe as Coronavirus Diversion

There’s a wise old assisano adage, “quando Subasio mette il cappello, porta l’ombrello” (“when Subasio wears a hat, take your umbrella”) which unfailingly predicts a rainy day ahead.

And today, our Mount Subasio is veiled in a low-lying soft gray cloud: his hat is on.

But gray skies or not, the morning started with a walk up to see the donkeys ……

….and then to our goats as Pino was feeding them.

Over six weeks into full lockdown now, we’re grateful for such a pleasant “imprisonment.”

But a variety of diversions is always needed to ward off a possible CPA (Coronavirus Panic Attack). Trying out new recipes and sharing the goodness is a front-runner.

For today’s lunch, our main course was straccetti di tacchino ai peperoni – turkey breast strips with bell peppers.

Facile, buonissimo e veloce. Si, very easy, delicious and quick.

If you wish to try it, here’s what you’ll need for this dish:

about a pound of turkey breasts (or chicken breasts, if preferred)
a few tablespoons of flour
4 bell peppers (yellow or red preferred, as skin thicker than green ones)
garlic (a clove)
black olives, about 10 (pitted, preferably)
capers (under salt, preferred) -1/4 c
olive oil (extra-virgin only, per favore!), q.b. (“quanto basta” – “as much as you need”)
salt, pepper, q.b.
oregano, q. b.
white wine, a splash

Slice the turkey breast into strips….

…..and wash, then slice peppers into strips, removing filaments and seeds:

Cover non-stick frying pan with about 3 T of olive oil…..

…….and slide in the sliced peppers and a garlic clove:

Rinse salted capers (ours from the outdoor markets in Palermo) in water….

…… and then add to peppers, along with salt and pepper, q.b.

Cover pan and simmer on low heat for about thirty minutes:

While peppers are simmering, gently roll turkey breast straccetti (“strips” – literally, “tattered strips of rags”) in flour….

…….shaking off excess flour as you do this:

When peppers are soft, remove from pan ……

…..and adding a bit more olive oil, use the same pan for cooking the turkey straccetti for just a couple minutes:

Add a splash of dry white wine to the meat, raising the heat a bit so that the wine evaporates:

Join the peppers to the stracetti, adding a handful of olives and a generous sprinkling of oregano (we have bunches of oregano from the mountains of Sicily):