SARDINE, CRUDE E CONDITE (Sardines – raw and marinaded)

Where would Sicilian food be without fish?

Sicily is an island, and a Catholic one at that, where the people were obliged to fast and abstain — refrain from eating meat — on certain days, mainly Lent and on Fridays.Catholics are no longer required not to eat meat on Fridays but Sicilians eat a lot of fish.
One very popular fish is the sardine, still relatively cheap in Sicily and easily available. The photograph was taken in the Palermo market in December 2008. At that time 4 euros were about $8.00 Australian.
 Sardines boxed
For example you cannot go to Sicily and not eat Pasta con le sarde. There are many regional variations of this sauce, often called by the same name, but the most famous is from Palermo made with wild fennel, pine nuts, saffron and currants.
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Sardines are perfect on a BBQ, and baked, but Sicilians also like them crude (raw) e conzate (and dressed), crude e condite in Italian. Although they are called raw, they are cooked by the lemon juice in the marinade.

Sardines are sustainable, and a good choice if you are concerned about the environment. Marinaded sardines make a great antipasto and lose that strong fishy taste that those people-who-do-not- like sardines hate.

When I first came to Australia we were unable to buy sardines, now they have become very popular (similar to squid, both were used for bait!).

The sardines must be fresh, freshly cleaned and filleted with no head, central spine or innards. Begin your preparations one day ahead.

INGREDIENTS

sardines, 1-3 per person
lemons, juice of 3-4
salt, pepper
garlic, 3 cloves, chopped
extra virgin olive oil
parsley and fresh oregano, ¾ cup, cut finely.

 

PROCESSES

Arrange the fish in one layer on a plate or wide vessel and pour the juice of the lemons on top (this lemon juice will be discarded).
Seal with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 3-6 hours. They are ready when they have turned almost white.
Drain the juice well. I use a colander and then quickly dry the fish on a paper towel.
Arrange the fillets in a single layer on a large plate.
Sprinkle the fish with herbs, garlic and salt and pepper.
Dress with the extra virgin olive oil, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate again for about an hour until ready to serve.

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COZZE-Mussels, Crostini (canapés)

Crostini made with mussels.

I do like mussels (called cozzuli in Sicilian and cozze in Italian) and they are sustainable, but more often than not I cook too many (usually steamed in a little white wine, garlic, parsley, chili and eaten with bread). What to do with left over mussel meat? This is not ever a problem, but for something different try these.

Crostini (from the Latin, crusta – crust) are thin slices of toasted bread, cut small, brushed with olive oil and then toasted. Crostini are eaten like canapés spread with different toppings (usually chicken livers) and served with drinks. But these Sicilian crostini are different and remind me of French toast. In this recipe, the mussel shells are discarded; the mussel meat is made into a paste and is then sandwiched between two small slices of bread. It is then dipped in beaten egg, and fried. They make wonderful morsels.

Perhaps there is some French influence in this recipe because it contains besciamella. Some Italian culinary historians believe it was brought to France by the Italian cooks of Marie de Medici but the most common story is that the court chef named the sauce after an important steward in Louis fourteenth’s court – Louis de Béchameil. Originally béchamel was made by adding cream to a thickened stock but the more common and more modern version is made by adding hot milk to a roux of butter and flour. Some béchamel also contains the vegetables found in stock.

INGREDIENTS
mussel meat, about 1 cup (chopped, Australian mussels are much larger than those found in Catania)
bread, thin slices, good quality, sourdough or pasta dura, no crusts. Day old bread will cut better. (I like to use sourdough baguettes – good size for mouths)
pecorino cheese, ½ cup , grated
eggs, 3 extra virgin olive oil for frying
tomato salsa, 1 cup (made with 500g of tomatoes, 2 garlic cloves, fresh basil leaves, sea salt, ¼ cup of extra virgin olive oil).
Place all of the ingredients and any liquid from the mussels in a saucepan and cook uncovered until reduced to about 1 cup. Use cool.

Besciamella (besciamelle or béchamel sauce), 1 cup:

1 tablespoons butter, 1 tablespoons flour, 1 cup milk, freshly ground nutmeg, salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.
Melt the butter and add the flour in a saucepan over a moderate heat, cook the mixture while stirring with a wooden spoon for 1-2 minutes. Over the heat gradually add the milk while stirring to stop lumps occurring. When all the milk is added continue to cook while stirring until the mixture thickens (it should be quite thick). Season, add nutmeg, remove the pan and allow to cool.

PROCESSES
Mix the salsa, besciamella, ground pepper, mussel meat and cheese.
Cut the bread to size and thickness about 1cm.
Spread this mixture thickly between slices of bread, like when making sandwiches.
Dip the sandwiches briefly in the egg but allow the egg to soak in. Heat the extra virgin olive oil in a frying pan and fry the sandwiches on each side. Serve hot.

Chine va chjanu, va sanu e va luntanu (Sicilian proverb).
Chi va piano, va sano e va lontano. (Le cose fatte con calma sono le migliori).
The best things are made when calm.

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SICILIAN EDIBLE WEEDS and Greek VLITA

Sicilians have a wide range of edible weeds, not that they call them weeds, they are ERBE SONTANEE … spontaneous herbs.

I have shopped at the Queen Victoria Market ever since I moved to Melbourne from Adelaide. I am always excited by new produce, whether it is new in season or because it is new to me. I saw a bunch of greens called vlita at one of the stalls where I often buy my vegetables. I had never seen vlita before – sold as a very large bunch of a long, green leafy plant with its roots still attached.

Greens leafy vegetables in January are not very common.

 

One of the stall owners is a Calabrese (from the region of Calabria in Southern Italy) so I assumed – incorrectly – that it was a wild green, traditionally eaten like spinach in Italy and one I was not familiar with.

As I continued my way down the aisle, the vlita was attracting a lot of attention, but from people of Greek heritage, not Italians. I was stopped four times and they were surprised to hear that I knew the name and that I intended to sauté it in olive oil with garlic. A couple of them mentioned the word horta.

Further down the aisle, I was stopped by yet another woman who told me these plants were much appreciated in her country – India. She said that she was more familiar with a purple tinged variety. So home I went with my various bits of information, determined to discover more.

Yes, vlita is a common weed in Australia, but it is a wild green and one of many gathered and eaten in other parts of the world including Greece, Japan, India, South America and Taiwan. The taste is a little like a beet or spinach, only more grassy.

Vlita belongs to the amaranth family and this variety is known as palmer amarynth.

The amaranthus tricolor or red amaranth is sold more in commercial quantities than the green variety and is a very attractive plant; the leaves are much more colourful than palmer amaranth and it is sold in many stalls which sell Asian vegetables.

Alternative names are een choi (Chinese) phak khom suan (Thai) radên (Vietnamese) bayam (Indonesian).

In different parts of Greece, it is usually served as a cooked green salad. Horta are leafy green vegetables or wild greens and vlita is one of these.

Some varieties of the plant are grown as a grain crop for their seeds – which are very nutritious and can be made into flour – and amaranth flour is becoming increasingly well known as a nutritious alternative to wheat, especially in America. My friend who prefers not to eat wheat enjoys pasta made with amaranth (gluten free).

The young leaves and tender stalks are picked and eaten before the plant flowers. They were sold to me in large bunches with the roots attached – picked this way, they last longer.

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Sicilians forage for erbe spontanee and like vegetables are seasonal and collected by many. Some of these wild greens can also be bought at stalls in markets.
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Gira (or giriteddi), sparaceddi (wild asparagus) or amareddi are particularly popular. I gained a wealth of information from this gentleman I encountered collecting his supply.
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Last October–December), when I was in Sicily there were lassine, sanapu, agghiti (wild spinach), urrania (borage) and wild fennel for sale in markets.
The three gentlemen in this post are also in my book Sicilian Seafood Cooking.
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Borage in the photo above.
Wild greens/ Edible weeds can be cooked alone or mixed with other green leaf vegetables.
wild fennel BP1010291

Italians cook greens, as the Greeks do: blanched/ whilted and drained, then seasoned with salt, olive oil and lemon juice and presented hot or cold as a cooked salad.

My favourite cooking method (common mostly in the South of Italy) is to precook the greens in boiling, salted water, drain them well and then sauté them in olive oil, chilli and garlic. They can be eaten hot or cold.

 

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TORTINO DI FINOCCHI (A flan of cooked fennel)

I recently made a Tortino di Finocchio, for lack of a better name – a fennel flan – and managed to find some reasonably fresh fennel from my favourite stall at Queen Victoria Market. The stall holder suggested that his fennel might be  from colder Tasmania.

But as I continued with my shopping, I couldn’t help but notice the sorry specimens at other stalls—stunted, small, and showing signs of going to seed. It always baffles me when customers purchase these well-out-of-season fennel varieties, which are far from ideal for eating raw in salads.

One such customer, standing beside me, picked up a couple of these dull, weedy fennel bulbs and I couldn’t resist commenting that fennel can also be cooked, and she seemed genuinely surprised! It’s a reminder that, while fennel has become a more recognised vegetable in Australia, its versatility is often unknown.

My grandmother, Maria from Catania in Sicily, was particularly fond of making this fennel tortino. This being an old Sicilian recipe, in her version, she used breadcrumbs to bind the dish. In more modern recipes you will find that béchamel or eggs bind the dish. In northern Italy, butter and Parmesan is used instead of the more typical olive oil and Pecorino from Sicily. 

A torta in Italian is a torte or a cake, but it can also be a savoury cake, flan or pie. It is usually made of vegetables and partially baked. It may include pastry.
The ino as the ending in tortino implies that it is smaller, but this is not always the case. I have seen similar dishes called a sformato or a pasticcio and in Sicilian a turticedda. All this can be very confusing for a non-Italian, as basically they are the same things.

This tortino is versatile enough to serve as a hot or cold dish—perfect as a side (contorno) or as a first course (antipasto). The fennel can be pre-cooked in advance, and the tortino itself can be prepared a day or two ahead and stored in the fridge.

The following recipe serves 6-8 people and can easily be adapted to your preferences. It’s simple, yet bursting with flavour.

Ingredients:

1kg fennel bulbs (about 3-4 large bulbs)
1 large onion, finely sliced
1 cup parsley, finely chopped
½ tbsp dried oregano
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 cup grated Pecorino cheese
¾ cup extra virgin olive oil (for sautéing and drizzling)
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 cups coarse breadcrumbs (preferably made from 1-3 day-old, quality bread)
Optional: A splash of white wine or stock (instead of water) to add depth of flavour

Method:

Preheat the Oven:
Begin by heating your oven to 180°C (350°F). If you have a fan-forced oven, you may want to reduce the temperature slightly.

Make the Breadcrumbs:
If you haven’t done so already, prepare your breadcrumbs. A good trick is to use slightly stale bread—about 1-3 days old—for a better texture. If you have a food processor, it’ll be quick work.

Prepare the Fennel:
Slice the fennel bulbs lengthwise and thinly. Don’t forget to chop up the tender green fronds; they add a fresh, aromatic touch to the dish.

Sauté the Aromatics:
Heat a generous 2-3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Add the sliced onion and sauté until it softens, then stir in the fennel slices. Cook until the fennel is just starting to soften and take on a little colour. Add salt and pepper to taste. If the mixture starts to dry out, splash in a little water, white wine, or vegetable stock to help the fennel cook down. Cover and let the fennel soften for about 5-10 minutes.

Prepare the Baking Dish:
Select a baking dish large enough to fit all of the fennel layers (about 10cm deep). Grease it generously with olive oil, or, for a more traditional approach, lard. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of breadcrumbs over the bottom of the dish, ensuring it’s evenly covered.

Layer the Ingredients:
In a bowl, mix the remaining breadcrumbs with the chopped parsley, grated Pecorino, oregano, and garlic. Begin by layering the fennel mixture in the prepared dish. Sprinkle some of the breadcrumb mixture between each layer of fennel, repeating until you’ve used up all the ingredients, making sure you end with the breadcrumb mixture on top.

Compress and Bake:
Gently press down on the layers with your hands to compact them. Drizzle the top with a little extra olive oil. To keep the layers intact while baking, cover the dish with a heavy lid or, as my grandmother would do, place a small, oven-safe terracotta plate on top to weigh it down.
Place the dish in the oven and bake for 40-50 minutes. Check for doneness—if the fennel isn’t soft enough or if it looks too dry, add a little more liquid (wine or stock) and cover it again until fully cooked.

Final Touch:
Once the fennel is tender, remove the lid or plate, drizzle the top with more olive oil, and bake uncovered for another 10 minutes, or until the top forms a golden, slightly crisp crust.

The finished tortino should have the texture of a moist, flavourful cake—easily sliced into generous wedges. Serve it hot, cold, or at room temperature for a comforting, authentic Sicilian treat.

(Good specimens of fennel. The photo was taken at the Saturday morning street market in Greve, Tuscany in December 2008.).

FENNEL CAPONATA (Sicilian sweet and sour method for vegetables).