My daughter found this clipping. It was printed in the Herald Sun (Melbourne) on Friday 5th August 2011. The accompanying text is:
Samantha’s sister spotted this interesting pasta on a menu in a London Restaurant.
I hope No.10 is actually ‘aubergines’ and not what it says ( grilled aboriginies).
I wonder how many noticed the unfortunate faux pas. So often readers bring (during the reading process) what they expect to find in the text – by that I mean that as readers, we do not necessarily read every word carefully and because the word ‘aborigines’ looks a little like ‘aubergines’ (eggplants), many would read it as such.
Call a particular dish alla Siciliana and immediately it may sound special to someone who may not know any better. I would not order it on principle – anything called alla Siciliana smells fake.
A recipe cooked alla siciliana could contain almost any ingredient from anywhere in the south of Italy, for example tomatoes, olives, wild fennel, anchovies, pine nuts, raisins. This restaurant has chosen a rich tomato sauce, mozzarella, grilled aubergines, a dash of garlic and parmesan cheese. I am not sure about the combination but here is a recipe for Fusilli alla Siciliana that is more to my taste.
It is a summer dish; tomatoes, peppers eggplants, basil – I do know that all of this produce seem to be available at the Queen Victoria Market even if it is out of season in Melbourne.
Fusilli: This strip of pasta is fashioned like a spiral and shaped like a big screw or a spring. The same shapes may be labelled spirali if made by a different manufacturer. To be more Sicilian you could use cavatelli or caserecci.
eggplant, 1-2,
pasta, 400 g (100g per person)
salted capers, ½ cup – pre soaked
red tomatoes, 1 kg or good quality tinned
chopped parsley, 1 tablespoon salt to taste
Peel the eggplant and cut into cubes, soak in some salt water till ready to use. Put a weight on the cubes to keep them submerged. Drain and towel dry before cooking.
Roast/char peppers and remove the skins. Separate them into strips.
Heat more oil in a separate frypan and sauté the eggplants. Add anchovies, chilli, capers and parsley. Mix the ingredients together and cook for about 10 minutes. Add peppers and basil and heat through.
MA2SBAE8REVW