We’ve probably all heard of prata, which is sometimes called a fool, but we could not have imagined what it is. So: this is a famous dish, especially popular at Easter. It is a mixture of dried meat and stale bread that binds to beaten eggs. Prata, although rich in taste, is an economical dish in its own way, as to use the remnants of yesterday’s bread. A similar dish is known in different parts of Slovenia, especially in the Gorenjska region.
Prato can be eaten hot or cold. Cut into thinner pieces and place, like a slice of sausage or cheese, on top of the bread. However, you can cut a thicker slice and heat it, similar to meat cheese or barbecue cheese, and serve it with a bowl of seasonal salad for lunch. Some even swear at Easter that the only real way to eat prata is to serve it as a separate dish with potica and horseradish!
When the idea arose in the newsroom to write about Easter prata, we thought for a second Spelo Schaws. Is there anyone else in Slovenia who prepares prato or budl every week and bakes an incredible 200 pounds for Easter? She herself is a really interesting mix – she performs a variety of tasks in the family butcher, while in her spare time she runs hundreds of kilometers and likes to spice up her passion with a charity note.
What is a stitch?
But let’s go to the bathroom first. How do you prepare at Butcher Šavs every week? “What do I know… Since we also sell bread, it has always remained. “So, as soon as I got married and got involved in the family business, I decided to offer prata to the butcher from old bread and dried meat, which we always have in stock,” Špela explains. She prepares it according to a recipe entrusted to her by her grandmother: “It was from Shençuri and this dish is called fool. When she made it to Easter, all our grandchildren came to her and prato, still hot, ate immediately. How good it was! ”
The recipe he uses is family-friendly, but we can also prepare prato, says our interlocutor, “with ribs, neck, bacon or honey, some even add sliced sausage. “It’s important that the dried meat is cooked and cooled before we cut it.” The essential ingredient is bread (one or two days old), which is tossed on top either with a mixture of milk and butter, as our interlocutor does, or with water in which. cooked cooked meat, which will also take care of the liquidity of the old bread. “We can also use buns instead of bread,” says Špela Šavs.
She has a lot of work to do these days, as she has to make about two hundred pounds of this generous mix. “Then, after Easter, the interest calms down a bit, but some want the white Sunday, which follows Easter,” adds the interlocutor, who has been baking prato every quarter of a century.
Pure pleasure: morning jogging
Even further, somewhat from her late teens, she runs: “Fifteen years ago, I started running every day and also over long distances. I wake up at 3.30 every day and just after 4am I am already running. I run from Preddvor, where I’m home, to Bashelj, back home and back to Bashelj. After thirty miles, I go to work and feel really good because I have a daily dose of morning jogging. “Running in the morning is pure pleasure.”
When we talk about prata (and running) like this, we find that he sees them both in big bangs – a dish so famous, which he prepares in incredible quantities, like running, as it is not uncommon for him to have a distance of several. hundreds of kilometers. Because: she ran a search Spartathlon (246.8 kilometers), left behind the UltraBalaton (221 kilometers), ran sleeplessly from the Tatras to Vienna (345 kilometers) and last September, after a thorough planning, with the help of coach Rajko. Podgornik, also went on a charity run through Slovenia.
When everything matches…
When we write “about Slovenia”, we mean literally: Špela Šavs ran 1,125 kilometers along the Slovenian border between 3 and 16 September last year. She added a charity note to the venture as she raised money for Heroes of the 3rd Floor Society. She has already met the heroes and what has been the motivation for these children? “They are very inspiring and I was proud to be able to run for them. I go on any long term with someone in mind who can not do that. And I’m really proud that I was able to run for them this time. I have not met them yet, but I will meet them exactly these days, when the six-kilometer “Hop na Grad” run is in Ljubljana. See you also in May at the Crystal Palace Staircase. I do not know exactly how this will go and what it is like to run up the stairs, but I can hardly wait for the challenge, as I will also meet the children for whom I ran there in September. “This is going to be something special,” said Špela Šavs.
She started the race on September 3 last year, when it was the 30th anniversary of independent Slovenia, on her nephew’s 10th birthday. “All the numbers were captured, it was just amazing. And one more thing – when we were planning a run through Slovenia, they asked me if I would be able to. This question was not in my head because I knew I would do it. “After all, I had a great team with me, which allows me to do that, and the most important things in it are my family and my husband Jure, who supports me every step of the way.”
Our interlocutor said a great truth in her own words. The importance of the support we have in the family. Easter is a time when we try not to rush, to calm down and spend time, which is the most precious unit of our lives, with those we love the most – with family! “I have a lot of respect for this holiday – and for Christmas – that’s how I grew up. Easter means meeting my family. Easter is a tradition, it’s potica, prata, pirhi… ”We think it is possible that Špela savs will run on this holiday as well – but it will not come to life.
Prata
- 800 g per day or two old loaves
- 500 g of dried meat
- 6 eggs (one more if needed)
- 1 onion
- 3 tablespoons chopped parsley (greens)
- 2 dl milk
- spoons of butter
- 2 tablespoons fat
- salt, pepper
Preparation
1. Heat the milk and butter until the butter is melted. Cool the mass and toss over the diced bread.
2. Then beat the eggs and add to the wet bread.
3. Add the cooked and cooled dried meat cut into cubes and salt and pepper. Mix.
4. Finally add the minced onion which is fried in fat and cooled and the minced parsley. Mix again and leave for half an hour or an hour to combine and soak.
We fill the cleaned calf gut with the mixture, but since most of them do not have it, we help ourselves by simply wrapping it in baking paper, or even pork net, and roasting it. If you do not have any of the above, place the strudel mass in a baking dish.
Bake for about an hour in the preheated oven at 160 degrees. Turn the praton once during baking so that it bakes nicely on all sides.
Tip: “It depends on how dry the bread was and how many large eggs we used, if we were to add another one,” says Špela Šavs.
Our interlocutor adds: “If we use beef intestine, be careful not to overdo it or the mixture fills the intestine up to three quarters, as during roasting due to eggs, prata grows. It is also important to pierce it several times with a toothpick before baking so that the gut does not explode. ”
We also recommend: The recipe for a wonderful Easter bread is a little different
Photo: Dejan Javornik
