Special emphasis on Sicilian recipes within Italian regional cuisine in an Australian context
Made in 10 minutes – dead easy. Not a bad antipasto…or after dinner as it is a mixture of fresh fruit and cheese.
Looks good, tastes good.
Compliments…. Plenty.
INGREDIENTS:
Fresh, good quality figs
Stuffing: feta cheese, or drained ricotta, bocconcini or pecorino fresco.
Optional- walnut pieces.
Decoration and for fresh taste: Fresh mint leaves
PROCESSES
See the photo above.
This squash, the green leaves and magnificent sprigs of basil were a gift from a Sicilian friend: her father grew them in his garden. I feel very privileged to be given these precious vegetables. They are not a vegetable that can be easily sourced; I have seen them only once at a market in Melbourne.
in Sicilian this squash is called a cucuzza and in Italian I will call it a zucca lunga – long squash or zucca serpente – which is what it is, a long serpent like squash. The tender leaves and tendrils of this plant are called tenerumi and I have written about these previously because both are typically loved by Sicilians and commonly used to make a refreshing summer soup (it could also be classified as a wet pasta dish).
MINESTRA ESTIVA CON ZUCCA LUNGA SICILIANA, Sicilian Summer soup made with the long, green variety of squash
This time I cooked the soup differently than usual. There was more zucca – I used the produce I was given and I also made it in the same pot (in the other recipe which contains more tenerumi and less zucca, two pans are used).
The next day, we ate the leftovers as a cold soup; it was just as good….and as traditional. It is summer after all.
I appreciate this soup’s fresh taste and I sprinkled only a few chilli flakes on top (or use black pepper.)
Most of the time when I marinate quail for a BBQ I either use the traditional Greek /Italian mixture of oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper and oregano, or if I particularly crave for the middle eastern flavours, I may use preserved lemons, cumin, pomegranate molasses; sometimes I may add walnuts, red onions and parsley.
I have always liked to include sage when I braise quail with white wine and particularly if I present them with polenta, so this time, I used sage in the marinade for the quails, which I later grilled.
I must admit, I did crave a bit of grilled polenta to accompany the quail, but on this occasion I accompanied them with a quinoa salad (See Middle- Eastern flavours above and add tomatoes, cucumber).
Because I had some pork sausages to BBQ I decided to push a sprig of fresh rosemary into each sausage before I cooked them. They tasted great. I do like herbs!
MA2SBAE8REVW
This is a small pasticceria in Polozzi Generosa, in the Madonie Mountains, not that far from Palermo. I have misplaced the photos of the pascal lambs I found in this shop, but they were beautiful.
These are Pascal lambs from Dolcetti. It will give you an idea of what I mean.
In Sicily, the traditional pascal lambs (agnellini pasquali) are made with marzipan, however I have found a recipe for making the lamb out of pasta garofolata (dough flavoured with cloves/ cloves are chiodi di garofano in Italian). This same dough is used to make ossa dei morti (bones of the dead, customary Nov1st/ 2nd, the day of the Dead/ All saints Day).
Here is another version from a different Pasticceria in Sicily.
For those of you who may wish to try making a pascal lamb (could be fun to make with children), here is the recipe from: Culinaria Italy, Claudia Piras, 2004:
NB. There are many recipes for making ossa dei morti; many use almond meal and egg white.
In Sicily, the dessert has to be cassata – not the Neapolitan one made with ice cream, but with ricotta, and Sicilians use sheep’s milk ricotta because they can.
Each time I make a cassata it always looks different, but they always taste good. on occasions I have even made made marzipan with pistachio nuts – a long process peeling off their skins!
To make cassata, see 2 different posts:
Cassata
Cassata 2
I always cover the cassata with marzipan.
MARZAPANE also called Pasta Reale (Marzipan)
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| A slice of cassata |
In pastry shops many cassate are covered with glassa (fondant):
There are many recipes where icing sugar is melted in water over a stove and then poured over the cassata – I find this too hard to work with and far too sweet. The following fondant is much easier to work with:
Fondant:
Beat 1 egg white till stiff, add 350 g of icing sugar (which has been infused with a vanilla bean). Add juice of one lemon and a few drops of green colouring. Beat till smooth. Spread over cassata. Many pasticcerie use white and green fondant.
Buona Pasqua.
MA2SBAE8REVW
This morning I had the fantastic opportunity of being interviewed by Fran Kelly on ABC Radio National’s Breakfast program.
Fran asked me about how Sicilians traditionally celebrate Christmas and to suggest different menus featuring seafood and accompaniments that Australians could prepare as alternatives to the traditional turkey, chicken and ham, which are being replaced on our Christmas dinner plates.
The terms lobster and crayfish are often used interchangeably, but the marine
species are lobsters and the freshwater species are crayfish. There are many
types of lobsters known by a variety of local names.
Lobsters (aragoste) are popular around Trapani, although they are
expensive. When making pasta with aragosta, I often buy spiders (the legs) –
they can be quite meaty and very suitable for a pasta dish that requires cooked
lobster. When buying lobster, select a heavy specimen with a good strong
shell. They molt several times in their life cycle and, if they are pale with a
thin shell, they are not likely to have much flesh. As for size, anything less than
1.5 kg (3lb 5oz) is not worth buying – a lobster under that size doesn’t have
enough meat, especially from the spiders.
There is no comparison between the taste of a freshly cooked lobster and
one purchased already cooked.
This dish requires cooked lobster and it is added last. The other ingredients
are raw and pounded in a mortar and pestle (or pulsed in a food processor).
The raw ingredients can also be finely chopped and mixed together. Use fresh
ripe tomatoes.
Although this recipe is especially suited for lobsters, other crustaceans
can be used.
This pasta dish is fantastic for the hot weather and it could be part of a
celebratory lunch (such as Christmas in the Southern Hemisphere).
BUON NATALE A TUTTI , Marisa
MA2SBAE8REVW
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| In Melbourne (Queen Victoria Market Stall no 61-63) |
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| Photo by Patrick Varney, Raglan Images for Italianicious ( magazine) Nov- Dec 2010 |
It is said that the early version of pane ttone (bread big) was not the light textured, yeast perfumed, fruit bread we are familiar with, before it was made common by industrial production. It was a type of heavy, enriched, Milanese fruit bread baked at home and not just eaten at Christmas time. Panettone was made famous and affordable when it was commercially produced (from the 1920’s) and railed all over Italy. As a child growing up in Trieste the most famous panettone was the Motta brand (and still a well known brand in Italy) and part of the charm was opening the box and releasing the fragrance.
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| Popular brand of Panforte |
Pizzaiola, my mother called it, no need to use the term bistecca or fettine alla pizzaiola because experienced, Italian cooks all knew, that this traditional dish was only made with yearling or beef steak.
My son visited me last weekend and I cooked pizzaiola for him – it was one of his favourites as a child, either cooked by his grandmother or me.
Pizzaiola is a classic and very simple Neapolitan dish: young beef, ripe tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil, oregano, garlic, seasoning and parsley. These are the simple flavours of Naples (Campania region of Italy), the home of pizza. There may be some simple and complimentary variations when i napoletani make this dish, for example the addition of basil or some finely chopped anchovies – and even a food purist like me could tolerate a little of these ingredients. If you want the real thing, pizzaiola is cooked on the stove, no mushrooms, bacon, cheese slices, capers, olives or any other embellishment.
I had not cooked this dish for a long time so I thought that I would consult some of my books about Regional Italian cuisine. Because it is a Neapolitan dish, it is not represented by all of the classic cooks, (not even Pellegrino Artusi (1820–1911), author of La scienza in cucina e l’arte di mangiare bene – The Science of Cooking and the Art of Eating Well.) But some of the old, celebrity lions and lionesses (e.g. Waverly Root, Ada Boni, Elizabeth David, Anna Gosetti della Salda) include the recipe in their collections and know how it is traditionally cooked. Do not look for a recipe on the web, you may be grossly misinformed.
In some of the recipes, the steak is sealed quickly in hot oil before it is added to the sauce. My mother never did this (and in fact some of the older recipes do not do this either); the steak is put into the sauce raw, this results in a much lighter tasting dish.
I like to add potatoes to pizzaiola and cook the potatoes with the meat at the same time; patate all pizzaiola is also a classic Neapolitan dish and often the two are combined.
Usually in Italian cuisine dry oregano is preferred (because it is stronger tasting), but for pizzaiola the fresh oregano is also well-liked – use a generous amount of fresh oregano and cut it finely.
You need lean, young beef, sliced very thinly. On this occasion I used a girello which I sliced myself, but in the past I have used thinly sliced topside. If I use rump or sirloin which require less cooking time, I do not add potatoes, reduce the amount of cooking time and only use half of the amounts of tomatoes. I am unsure of what cuts of meat to use in other countries – I have many readers in the USA or UK.
This dish is assembled in layers and then cooked.
INGREDIENTS
1. young beef/yearling steaks, very thinly sliced, trimmed of all fat and beaten with a meat mallet to about 5mm thick, 6 (one per person)
2. tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped, 800g (2 tins x 400g each)
3. potatoes, peeled, then cut into thick slices, estimate how many you would like for each guest
4. extra virgin olive oil ¾ cup, garlic 4-5 cloves cut finely, salt and pepper to taste, fresh parsley cut finely, ½ cup, oregano, fresh ½ cup (or dried, 2 teaspoons).
PROCESSES
Begin with a dribble of oil, herbs and garlic etc (See 4 above).
Next, add some tomatoes (See 2 above).
The next layer is steak, (continue with 4 and 2)
Then a layer of slices of potatoes (see 3 above).
Continue with the layers and ensure that the ingredients are just covered with some tomato. Cover and simmer for 20-30 minutes until the potatoes are cooked and the meat is tender.
As my son said at the end of the meal: “Just like nonna used to make it”.
Why are grandmothers more important?
These beautiful chickens (and dogs) belong to friends. The chicken with the speckled feathers around her neck (in the front of the top photo/ and in the second photo at the bottom) won 1st prize at the Royal Melbourne show in 2009.
My friends would not dream of eating their chickens.
In the hot weather, I sometimes prepare a chicken salad, adapted from a Bugialli recipe called Insalata di cappone. I have made this salad over many years – the book was published in 1984 and Bugialli says that his recipe comes from a restaurant in Mantova (Mantua) and is the typical sweet and sour dish from the Renaissance period. In his recipe the capon is poached in broth and then pickled in the marinade for at least twelve hours. It is served cold.
Several years ago I found a very similar recipe in a book about Southern Italian cooking. The writer had eaten Piperata chicken in Trapani (Sicily) and acknowledges that it was probably not a traditional recipe. It contains chicken breasts and along with other things – zest and juice from a lemon, pine nuts and currants – the same flavours used in Bugialli’s recipe.
Making the Sicilian dish with chicken breasts indicates that it is a modern recipe, but most of the flavours could be Sicilian – the agrodolce (sweet and sour) taste and flavourings, the lemon juice, the peel, the currants, the pine nuts. The agrodolce and use of spices is attributed to the Arabs, but also to the Romans, and both of these peoples were in Sicily. Strong sauces were often used to disguise spoiled food, especially meat, and vinegar and sugar have been used throughout time as a preservative (Caponata contains vinegar and sugar and in ancient times was a useful dish to take to sea by fishermen because of its long lasting properties).
Could the recipe be Sicilian?I began to investigate the origins of the recipes.
I began my research with pipirata. From this, to piperatum, and in ancient Rome this was the “peppered broth” or “the water in which beef has been cooked in”. The broth contained garum and pepper.
Garum was made through the crushing and fermentation in brine of the innards of fish. It originally came from the Greeks and was very popular with the ancient Romans. Garum was a seasoning preferred to salt and when added to other ingredients like vinegar, wine, oil and pepper it became a condiment used for meat, fish and vegetables – a type of fish sauce similar to the Asian fish sauces of countries like Thailand and Vietnam.
Pevere in the Veneto (dialect spoken in the region of Northern Italy) means ‘pepper’ and peverada is a sauce used as a common condiment in modern, Italian cooking (mostly northern Italian). It is a sauce for game, excellent with duck or poultry and roasted meats. The most well-known peverada originated in the Veneto area and it usually contains garlic, oil, pepper, parsley, lemon juice, vinegar, livers (from the fowl being cooked), soppressa (salame), anchovies and pomegranate juice. The ingredients are minced and then sautéed adding the liver last. These ingredients are gently poached in broth. Lastly lemon juice, pomegranate juice and wine vinegar are added, and the sauce is reduced.
The sweet and sour types of sauces were also popular with the French.
In Mediavel times, especially in the cooking of France most kitchens would have used vinegar or verjuice, lemon juice, or the juice of sour oranges, or pomegranate to add acidity to sauces. This would have been balanced with sweet ingredients, sugar or honey, dried fruit or concentrated grape juice or sweet wine. Meat was also preserved in a mixture of stock and vinegar. The sweet and sour taste and the use of strong spices were also popular in Renaissance times. Chicken and the prized spices used in both recipes were once rare and expensive and the dish is not likely to be considered a poor person’s dish. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the nobility of southern Italy and Sicily employed a monsu’ – a monsieur or French-trained cook who could have used elaborate sauces to dress game or roast fowl.
I also found a recipe for Chicken in pomegranate juice in Barbara Santich’s book: The original Mediterranean Cuisine, medieval recipes for today.
In the recipe, the chicken is simmered in pomegranate juice and almond milk (made from blanched almonds) and flavoured with cinnamon and sugar. In the accompanying text Santich states that Maxine Robinson has traced the origins of this dish to an Arab dish, the recipe probably arriving in western Europe through early translations of Arab dietetic writing and appearing in most early Mediterranean collections and also early thirteenth century Andalusian text.
Bugialli does not use pomegranate in his recipe, but I have sometimes decorated the dish with pomegranate seeds. I have also used anchovies and both of these ingredients are popular in Sicilian cooking.
And just when I thought that the chicken salad dish could be Sicilian after all, I found one recipe called Jadduzzedi e Puddastri ca sarsa pipirata in Pino Correnti’s book: Il libro d’oro della cucina e dei vini di Sicilia.
Correnti describes the dish as young chickens and roosters, pot roasted in oil, butter, bay leaves, rosemary, salt and pepper and deglazed with a little marsala (the dry variety). These were then served with a reduced salsa pipirata consisting of the following ingredients: vin cotto, broth flavoured with cinnamon, cloves, ginger and rosemary, grated lemon peel and pomegranate juice. Apparently this particular dish was appreciated by a noble in Palermo in the eighteenth century. Unfortunately then Correnti goes on to say that this dish was revealed to him by a medium, and that he has never found any basis or documentation for this recipe.
I could not come to any definite conclusion – this dish does not seem to be clearly Sicilian or Montuan. All cuisines have cultural origins, but the cooking methods and flavours have altered and evolved throughout history to become what they are today.
Here is my version of Puddastri ca pipirata.
INGREDIENTS
chicken fillets, skinless or with skin. I use organic and depending on how large they are, estimate 1 per person.
The following recipe is sufficient for 6 people.
For the poaching liquid:
chicken stock, sufficient to cover the fillets (made beforehand)
celery, 2 stalks left whole
carrots, 3 young, scraped and left whole
onion,1 sliced into thick slices
spices, 5 whole cloves, 1 cinnamon stick, 6 pepper corns
bay leaves, 3
parsley, 4 sprigs
rosemary, 1sprig
For the marinade:
extra virgin olive oil, 1 cup
spices, 1/2 teaspoon of each, ground cloves and cinnamon (I used whole cloves once and watched my friends picking them out from their mouths – not a good feel),
bay leaves, 3- 4 (fresh leaves look great as well as doing their job)
chilly flakes or black pepper, to taste (I use plentyt)
sugar, a small teaspoon
salt, to taste
red wine vinegar 1/3 cup
lemon, the juice of 1, and the peel , peeled with a potato peeler and kept in strips so it can easily be removed.
For the salad:
celery, 2 of the tender stalks sliced thinly, and some of the light green leaves, chopped
cooked chicken and carrots
spring onions, 3 chopped or cut lengthwise into thin , short pieces
pine nuts, 3/4 cup
seedless muscatels (or raisins or currants), 3/4 cup previously soaked in a little wine or marsala
PROCESSES
Prepare this dish at least the day before you serve it – this allows the flavours in the marinade to achieve the required results.(I have learned through experience that this dish tastes even better if left to marinade for at least 24 hours).
Use a wide, shallow sauce pan which allows the fillets to be placed in a single layer (if possible). If the chicken is in a double layer, ensure that during the poaching process you swap the ones on top with the ones in the bottom layer to allow even cooking.
Prepare the poaching liquid – I really like to make this strongly flavoured.
Use sufficient chicken stock to cover the chicken fillets. (I usually have some stock in the fridge or stored in the freezer made with chicken with bones, carrot, onion and celery stick, a little salt, boiled and then reduced – see BRODO earlier post).
Strain the stock through a colander, empty it into the saucepan and to the stock, add the ingredients in for the poaching liquid listed above.
Bring the stock with added flavourings to the boil.
Place the fillets gently into this poaching liquid – it should just cover the fillets. Adding the meat to the hot stock will seal the meat and preserve the flavou. Adding the meat to the cold liquid will enrich the taste of the broth. Because the meat is the focus, add the chicken to the hot liquid.
Cover with a lid and bring slowly to the boil again on medium heat. Leave the chicken to poach gently for about 7 minutes (I do not like to overcook them – they need to be white in colour and when pricked with a fork still have some resistance).
Remove the pan from the heat and leave the chicken in the poaching liquid till cool – the chicken will keep on cooking in the poaching liquid and be kept moist till you are ready to marinade it.
Marinade: Mix all of the ingredients together in a container.
To assemble the salad:
I like to use a deep glass bowl to see the chicken and salad ingredients in layers.
Take out chicken fillets and cut each fillet into thick slices.
Strain the poaching liquid, discard the solids but keep the carrots – these can be sliced into batons and added to the salad.
Place the chicken fillets and carrots in layers and cover with a little marinade and other ingredients as you go. The lemon peel and bay leaves can be at the bottom of the dish and between the layers. Sprinkle pine nuts and drained dried muscatels, the spring onions, celery and carrots between the layers.
Top the whole dish with some of the cooled poaching liquid until all the chicken is covered (this will keep it moist and a good colour) and leave to pickle in the fridge. Shake the dish occasionally to amalgamate the flavours. Remove it from the fridge about an hour prior to serving.
Presentation
Prior to presenting the dish you may like to drain off some of the liquid to make it more manageable. Ensure that each person receives some of the other solids as well as the chicken and serve some of the liquid separately if you wish.
It is at this stage that on numerous occasions I have taken more liberties with dish by:
• adding one or more extra ingredients to the dressing: 1-2 chopped anchovies , 1 tablespoon of pomegranate molasses instead of the sugar (molasses is definitely not Sicilian)
• scattering pomegranate seeds on top of the salad.
Save any left over liquid to use as a stock to flavour braised rabbit, chicken, pork and venison dishes.
A bit of trivia:
I read recently that pomegranate juice has anti-inflammatory compounds, cancer-killing isoflavones and antioxidant properties. Italians call it melograna, melograno granato, pomo granato, or pomo punico. The generic term, punica, was the Roman name for Carthage, and the best pomegranates came to Italy from Carthage.
Many believe that a cassata is an ice cream cake made out of assembled layers of ice cream. But no Sicilian believes this.
The unrivalled Sicilian cassata is made with ricotta.
Some people differentiate between the two cassate by referring to the one made with ice cream a Neopolitan cassata, this may be because it is very much like Neapolitan ice cream composed of three different layers of contrasting colours and flavours – one of chocolate, a red coloured variety which sometimes can taste like strawberry and a vanilla flavoured one mixed with nuts and glace fruit. In Australia the pink layer in the slices of that particular ice confectionary called a cassata is sometimes made of cake soaked and flavoured with a pink cordial like essence. In the early 19th century, the ice cream makers of Naples were famous for making moulded, opulent, ice cream layered cakes and these were called cassate.
The Sicilian cassata is a round, moulded cake shaped in a bowl lined with layers of sponge cake, the chief ingredients are sheep’s milk ricotta (it is sweeter and more delicate than ricotta made with cows milk), mixed with sugar, small bits of dark chocolate and candied citrus or zuccata (candied pumpkin). Within Sicily there are some variations which vary by location and family tradition, for example some recipes include an additional layer of sponge cake in the centre as well as the casing.
Cassata was once more popular at Easter, but it is now eaten at any festive occasion in Sicily including Christmas.
The Sicilian cassata, however, has much older roots than the ice cream cakes popular with the Neapolitans.
Some say that the word cassata may have come from the Roman name for cheese, caseus ( the Sicilian word for cheese is casu` or caseata).
Many believe that its origins are Arabic – the Arabs occupied Sicily for several hundred years – the invasion began in 827 AD and they conquered Sicily in 902 AD. They introduced the cultivation of sugar, very sweet desserts and the use of nuts and dried fruit in pastries. It is also likely that the name cassata may have come from Arab word qas’ah, a deep terra-cotta bowl; that may even have been used to shape the cake.
The sponge cake is called pan di spagna in Italian (bread from Spain) and may have been a Spanish addition – the Spanish ruled Sicily intermittently for may years (Angevins, Aragonese, Viceroys and Bourbons from 1282 until the end of the reign of Ferdinand the second in 1859).
There are baked versions of Sicilian casssate and these are often made at home. The uncooked version of cassata can also be made at home successfully, but usually my relatives order their cassata from a pasticceria – it is left to the experts to make, mainly because cassate are usually elaborately decorated by pasticceri.
The cassata is left to set and once it is turned out of the mould it is spread with apricot jam. It can then be covered with a sugar fondant(this is often coloured pale green because at one time cassata was covered with marzipan made with pistachio meal). Some of the cassate in pasticcerie are often very baroque and white and green striped fondant is used. They are then decorated with ribbons of zuccata (candied pumpkins) and are often sprinkled with silver sugar balls.
My preferred option is to cover it with marzipan and candied fruits and I have no trouble making the marzipan (see previous post).
I first made cassata using Ada Boni’s recipe from her Italian Regional Cooking book – this is a very fine and old publication which has been out of print for some time. My cassata recipe, through the ages, has developed to the following and it always seems to taste good, even if it is not as professionaly decorated as the images in this post.
The marzipan can be made well ahead of time (see earlier posts, marzapane).I have also used marzipan fruit as decoration(this is not traditional).
INGREDIENTS
fresh ricotta, 700g
caster sugar, 120 g
dark chocolate, 60g
pistachio nuts, 100g chopped
candied citrus peel, 60g (of good quality and if possible lemon, orange and cedro – candied citron)
vanilla, 1/4 teaspoon(I use vanilla bean paste),
cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon
liqueur, 1/2- 3/4 cup to taste. I have used one of the orange or mandarine flavoured ones, sweet Marsala or Amaretto, Strega or Maraschino
marzipan to cover the cassata (see earlier post)
glace fruits for decoration
apricot jam,1/2 cup
sponge cake, approx 250 g (if bought).
If you make a sponge cake:
Use 5 eggs, 120 g of sugar, 100 g of sifted flour, grated lemon peel and/or vanilla (I use vanilla bean paste or flavour my sugar with vanilla pods) and butter to grease the cake tin.
Process: Beat egg yolks with sugar until creamy. Fold in egg whites separately until very firm and add them to the mix. Slowly fold in the flour, then add flavours. Bake sponge cake in moderate heat for approx. 40 minutes.
PROCESSES
Line a deep round mould with layers of foil or plastic wrap or baking paper.
Cut the sponge into thin layers. Use them to line the sides of the mould. Leave enough sponge to cover the top of the cassata.
Sprinkle the sponge with liqueur to moisten.
Blend the ricotta with the sugar (some use a syrup made with sugar dissolved over heat in a little water, allow the syrup to cool before using.) Slowly stir in the vanilla, cinnamon and a dash of liqueur (do not use this if you have used a sugar syrup).
Fold in the nuts, small pieces of chocolate and candied peel.
Press the ricotta mixture into the lined mould, smooth the top and cover with a layer of sponge cake.Sprinkle with more liqueur. I usually refrigerate the cassata overnight (to set) and cover it with marzipan about 2-3 hours before I serve it.
Make the marzipan and roll it out into a thin round shape.
Turn the cassata out of the mould when it is ready to cover with the marzipan and spread the outer with a thin layer of apricot jam.
Cover with the marzipan and decorate it with the fruit.
Keep it in the fridge until ready to serve.
ADDDED17/12/09
I have had a request to explain about the type of ricotta to use.
I always buy the solid ricotta, usually sold in large rounds – vendors slice it to the required weight.
I never buy the ricotta sold in the tub – it is far too watery( and often tasteless). If this is the only ricotta that you can purchase, it is a good idea to drain it overnight.
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