Growing up in the US, my Italian grandmother (from Veneto) made a basic greens dish with spinach, swiss chard, maybe chicory, braised for a long time until it took on a very dark green colour. It looked a lot like this photo, without the chili peppers: https://imgur.com/a/nTWcowe . The taste was a bit bitter. I don't know how to spell this but in Italian I would say she called it "pastis". Trying to write this phonetically in English I would try "pasteece", "eece" like in "fleece".
Is anyone here familiar with this? I have tried google but have never found any info. I know it's a super simple dish, but I’d love to read about it or hear from anyone else who grew up with something similar.
by Antique-Manana
7 Comments
In France pastis pronounced pastees is an anise flavored liquor
Maybe “Pasticcio”?
Maybe cicoria ripassata?
Maybe like this? [https://italianfoodforever.com/2009/03/wild-sauteed-greens/](https://italianfoodforever.com/2009/03/wild-sauteed-greens/)
Ripassata?
as a native italian speaker, can’t say, really — *pastis/pastizz* in veneto dialect recalls italian *pasticcio* (latin *pastitium*) which is a generic term indicating a baked dish with a dough shell and whatever ingredients inside.
(So all savory pies are, essentially, technically, a *”pasticcio”*).
Now since the word indicates something rather random, the other meaning for *pasticcio* is, literally, a mess of something (“hai fatto un p.” –> “you’ve made a mess”). And by being a random stew of mixed vegetables – according to season and availability – I think this is the origin of the name.
Verdure in tecia? But it doesn’t sound like “pastiss”…