My Italian food trail – the ancient Umbrian ‘pea’ Roveja

Pottage is a lovely word, summoning up a comfort dish to ward off the bleak  February chill. Maybe one caveat re this perennial thick stew comes from the Danish proverb: “One ill weed mars a whole pot of pottage.” Reassuringly, winter is not conducive to foraging, so usual suspects spinach, carrots and courgettes have been chosen to flesh out this Pottage of Roveja. Plus a Swiss-Italian buckwheat ribbon pasta called Pizzoccheri, which I first encountered last year on a visit to the Poschiavo Valley.

As I open my 250g pack of Roveja, an ancient pea variety, cultivated almost exclusively and on a tiny scale in the Umbrian mountains, south of Perugia, I am struck by its lentilness in the round. Dark green to brown, it fits that legume bill, but will need a lot longer soaking – 24 hours and more. Is it the ancestor of the modern pea or a separate species? The jury’s out. I just know that simmering if for a few hours produces a beguiling, earthy stock for the soup/stew.

It’s a debut in my kitchen for one of nature’s great survivors, brought back from near extinction after being spotted growing feral in a ditch. Imported from the Middle East in Neolithic times, Rovejab goes goes under varied names across Italy – notavly pisello selvatico or pisello dei campi o robiglio, roveggia, roveglia or corbello.  Its niche resurgence is down to being adopted in 2006 by the Slow Food Presidium, champions of small traditional producers.

They don’t come much more traditional than the good folk around Civita di Cascia  and Valnerina in the Sibillini Mountains.  All cultivating, weeding and harvesting is done by hand. Nutritional scientists laud it as a legume rich in fibre, proteins, phosphorus, potassium and vitamin B1, yet free from fats and gluten. 

Once it was a staple in the diet of herders and farmers. The beans are grown at altitudes between 600 and 1,200m, planted in March and harvested in the middle of the summer, to be dried out for all-year consumption. Harvesting is a laborious challenge. Combine harvesters can’t be used because the long stalks lie flat on the earth, so the plants must still be scythed manually. 

Besides soups, Roveja can make a fine side, flavoured with crisped guanciale and grated pecorino. Very Italian, then grains can also be ground into flour to make a polenta typically seasoned with anchovies, garlic and olive oil. 

I was happy with the pottage l made from the dried dried peas sourced from my favourite Italian supplier, the Ham and Cheese Company of Bermondsey.