"Pounded grain." A dish from Puglia. Whole grains of wheat are soaked and then pounded which results in them being husked. They are then steamed, often mixed with greens such as spinach or wild greens, and tomatoes.
Soft grain wheat, providing most flour used for baking in Italy. Grano durum, hard grain wheat, is used mainly for pasta-making. There are five classifications of grano tenero assessed from the amount of fibre in the flour. These are 00, the silkiest, whitest flour which has the least fibre; 0 is a little darker and contains 70% of the grain; 1 is darker and little coarser; 2 still darker and coarser and barely seen now; the last grade is integrale, wholewheat, containing the entire wheat grain.
"Turkish grain." Corn on the cob. Sweetcorn (US: corn). Maize. A tall grass native to America, misnamed as it was thought to come from Turkey. Available fresh, on the cob, or with the kernels stripped from the cob, tinned or frozen. Ground it is used in polenta, traditionally the food of the poor and to make dense, golden wheels of bread in Lombardy. It has no gluten so needs to be mixed with other grains if bread is to be raised.
"Pounded grain." A dish from Liguria. Whole grains of wheat are soaked and then pounded which results in them being husked. They are then steamed, often mixed with greens such as spinach or wild greens, and tomatoes.
A name in Sardinia for the spider crab. This is a crab with little meat but what it has is well-flavoured. It has a large, oval spiked body and long, thin spidery legs, hence its name.
"Spider crab in the style of Trieste." A dish from Trieste of spider crab meat baked with breadcrumbs, garlic and seasonings.
"Spider crab au gratin." A dish from the Veneto of spider crab meat chopped and mixed with béchamel sauce and grated cheese, perhaps with some brandy, stuffed back into the shell and baked au gratin.
