"Uccellini Scappati" - or better known in dialect as
"Osèi Scapàcc"



This recipe (I've translated it here) is from a group of recipes produced some years ago by some old ladies living in an Italian nursing home. All are part of their memories and some are still around today in some places. But for me these are the 'genuine article' - cooking as it should be...plain, simple and above all wholesome. Well worth a try. I'll post some others, but this is one of my favourites.

Ingredients:
For 4 people.

8 slices of pork loin
8 slices of pancetta (bacon)
60g butter
Sage leaves
salt and pepper

Preparation:
Bear the pork loin with a meat beater

add salt and pepper while doing so.

On top of each slice of pork place one slice of bacon, a sage leaf and after rolling them up very carefully push a toothpick through each one.

Brown them in the melted butter on a high gas (heat and serve with polenta or creamed potatoes.

This recipe - the old ladies said - is called Osèi Scapàcc because, as you can see the birds aren't here - they've escaped!

Molto bene, Calimero, so good ! After work on friday I don't want to cook but I saw your recipe and had too ! So very good. I used a low sodium bacon because the pancetta I bought at costco just wasn't so good. (I'm not in Italy Thank you for this recipe do you have more from this collection ? Thanks for the reminder as to why I want to everything Italian !

Glad you enjoyed it Nora... I love them too - they're so quick and so tasty.

Yes I have several other recipes trom them that I have tried and several very tasty, but not too well known, Alpine recipes too...

Perhaps I could start a "Calimero's Cucina" thread. I could post old recipes like these and others that I have collected over time. Many, of course, have modern equivalents and can be found on the net - but sometimes the older 'handed down' recipes have that tiny difference that makes the seem tastier.

Si Calimero, for me it was adding the salt/pepper while beating the pork thin. A little thing made the difference in flavor. Italy has taught more about cooking foods then any other mother ! Molto bene !

When I was young my grandmother and my father where used to cook Polenta e osei, wich is about the same recipe as the above from Calimero, just with small birds. ( Polenta and Birds ) - I was born in the north and there it was a popular dish. Now selling of small birds is illegal so my father is cooking too uccellini scappati.

Yes I can remember seeing strings of thrush, blackbird and pidgeons hanging outside the butchers and grocers for sale too. I hated seeing that - but the (then) EEC law stepped in and outlawed such practices:

Council Directive 79/409/EEC on the conservation of wild birds, commonly referred to as the Birds Directive,

The Birds Directive bans activities that directly threaten birds, such as the deliberate killing or capture of birds, the destruction of their nests and taking of their eggs, and associated activities such as trading in live or dead birds, with a few exceptions.
The Directive recognises hunting as a legitimate activity and provides a comprehensive system for the management of hunting to ensure that this practice is sustainable. This includes a requirement to ensure that birds are not hunted during the periods of their greatest vulnerability, such as the return migration to the nesting areas, reproduction and the raising of chicks. It requires Member States to outlaw all forms of non-selective and large scale killing of birds.

'Thank goodness' is all I can say.

Of course quail which are, I believe classified as 'poultry' are still available and a nice risotto with quail takes a lot of beating!

Yes I never thought it was too great to kill little birds but I liked to eat polenta e uccelli. Anyway for example here in the US there is a problem of too many starlings ( which can cause airplanes to crash ) and they are being killed by the millions just to keep the starling number under control.

Wow! This is really interesting! I will have to try it sometime.

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Dimmi con chi vai e ti dirò chi sei.