Tag: Vegetables

CAPONATA of Potatoes (Recipe for Caponata di patate)

One very flavourful way to cook potatoes as a contorno (a side dish, an accompaniment to any main dish) is the Caponata di patate (potato caponata). Caponata personifies Sicilian cuisine and as you’d expect, there are many regional variations of this recipe.

I first ate a Caponata di patate in Catania, hence the photos of Catania as an accompaniment to fish.

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Fish Market in Catania

About caponata

There are other Sicilian caponate (plural of caponata) made with other vegetables, for example, caponata di carciofi (artichokes) caponata di verdura verde (green leafy vegetables) and caponata di patate (see recipe below). The principal and most common flavourings that characterise a Sicilian caponata remain the same: the celery, capers, green olives and the sweet and sour caramelised sauce made with vinegar and sugar (agro dolce).

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Many recipes contain nuts – almonds or pine nuts or pistachio, used fresh in some recipes, in others they are toasted. Frequently herbs are added – sometimes basil, at other times oregano or mint. Certain recipes also include raisins or currants and some, fresh pears. Several include fish, singly or in combination of canned tuna, prawns, octopus, salted anchovies and bottarga.

To make caponata I always sauté (on high heat) my vegetables separately and then combine them at the end in the agro dolce (sweet and sour) sauce.

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CAPONATA DI PATATE
(Potato caponata)

This caponata can be eaten hot or at room temperature. It also keeps well refrigerated for several days.

The potatoes in this caponata are fried until lightly golden. The ingredients commonly used to make caponata – onions, celery, olives, capers, tomatoes and the vinegar and sugar for the agro dolce – are cooked together separately. The potatoes are then added to the other cooked component.

I often pre cook the potatoes first before  tossing them into the hot oil to fry. saves time and the potatoes result more crisp.

INGREDIENTS
potatoes, 1.5 kg
celery, 1 heart (the centre pale green stalks and some of the fine leaves)
onion, 2, large, chopped
capers, ½ cup, salted or in brine
green olives, ¾ cup , stoned, chopped
white vinegar, ¾  glass
sugar, 3 tablespoons
extra virgin olive oil, 1 cup (or more)
salt and freshly ground pepper
parsley, 1 cup, cut finely
tomato passata, 1 cup

PROCESSES
Peel and cube the potatoes and place onto a clean tea towel (or paper) to dry.
Fry the potatoes in hot extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle with salt – do not crowd the potatoes and if needed use a wide frypan or cook in batches.
Turn occasionally until they are cooked and golden. Drain the potatoes and set aside. You can use this same oil to braise the vegetables (purists would use new oil).
Heat the oil and add the onions and the celery. Stir frequently and cook over a moderate heat until the onion is golden and the celery has softened. Add seasoning and parsley.
Add the tomatoes, capers and olives and toss the ingredients together for about 5 minutes.
Add sugar and vinegar and increase the heat to high to evaporate some of the vinegar.
Add the potatoes, cook for about 4-5 minutes to blend the flavours.
Serve at room temperature.

VARIATIONS
Add either chopped, toasted almonds or pistachio before serving (either on top or through the caponata) and scatter with fresh mint leaves.

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Another dish with fish and potatoes:

BAKED FISH WITH POTATOES, VINEGAR and ANCHOVIES

PATATE as a contorno (Two recipes for ‘squashed’ potatoes, Patate in tecia). …from Trieste

 

FAVE ( Broad beans)

Fresh broad beans are only available for a short season in Spring, but walking around the Melbourne Victoria market in the last two weeks I have only seen them in a few stalls.

In spite of my love for broad beans I do not always buy them unless the pods are fresh, bright green in colour and most importantly they must be small or medium sized. Unfortunately most of the broad beans you see for sale are the puffy, larger broad beans, the most mature pods.

In Sicily these large pods are shelled and the beans are dried. Beans this size have to be soaked before cooking and each bean has to be, individually, peeled.

The size of the beans inside the pod determines how you prepare them.

Sicilians eat the tender, young broad beans (about the size of a fingernail) raw. Sadly, you are not likely to find these for sale – you will have to grow them yourself.

Broad beans are sold in their pods and they have to be shelled. And if you look at the photos you can imagine that the process takes time and you need to buy a large quantity of bean pods to get a decent feed. I paid $7 for these ($4 per kilo) so they are not exactly cheap.I ended up with less than 500 g.

When I bought my broad beans I was amused to see that the vendor had placed a packet of shelled broad beans on top of the bean pods. She said her daughter had shelled some because some people do not know what’s inside the pods and that they have to be shelled before eating.

Others may not know that the larger beans need to be skinned again (double-peeling or twice-peeled beans). They have a thick, outer skin, which can taste slightly bitter. Double peeling beans is a very time consuming process, which I try to avoid by selecting the smallest pods I can. (I like to select my own).

There are different brands of frozen broad beans and some brands are double peeled
(you can usually find them in Asian food shops). Although frozen beans are quite acceptable, the fresh ones certainly taste better. Think of the differences in taste and texture between frozen peas and fresh, young peas.

Broad beans are not difficult to cook. My favourite cooking method is to sauté them in a little oil and a little chopped onion, parsley and a little salt and pepper. To finish the cooking add a little liquid, cover and braise them until softened (cooked in umitu in Sicilian and in umido in Italian).

RECIPE:

Broad beans with mint

If the beans are not too big (or have been double peeled), a very simple way is to cook them in boiling water till softened (I do not cook them for long), drain them and dress them with a little good quality extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper and a few leaves of mint. Mint is tender and lush at this time of year. If you do not have mint, dried oregano is always a good Sicilian choice.
See my other posts about broad beans: Cannulicchi a la Favuritaa – pasta,

Maccu – soup, made with dry broad beans

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MY FAMILY FEAST SBS ONE, my recipes have been selected

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I have some good news.
A few months ago I submitted three family recipes to the SBS Food website as part of a promotion for the upcoming SBS TV series MY FAMILY FEAST, which begins on Thursday, 27 August at 7:30pm on SBS ONE.

MY FAMILY FEAST is a weekly half hour television show that will take us into the lives and cooking traditions of Australian immigrants and their families, as seen through the eyes of award winning chef Sean Connolly.

The three recipes (as called on my web) are:
• SARDE A BECCAFICO (Sardines stuffed with currants, pine nuts, sugar and nutmeg)
• PASTA CON LE SARDE (Pasta with sardines, from Palermo, made with fennel, pine nuts and currants)
• EGGPLANT or ZUCCHINI PARMIGIANA (Milinciani or cucuzzeddi a parmiciana – parmigiana di melenzane or di zucchine).

All three recipes were selected and published on the SBS website. On their website they are called:
• Sardines a beccafico, stuffed with currants and pine nuts
• Eggplant or zucchini Parmigiana
• Pasta with sardines, fennel, pine nuts and currants

I have now been informed (by Shelley Hepworth Editor, SBS Food)
that one of my recipes Sardines a beccafico, stuffed with currants and pine nuts has been cooked by Sean Connolly and will be published as a video on the MY FAMILY FEAST website.

The SBS website is:
http://www.sbs.com.au/food

You can view the video on the SBS Food website here:
http://www.sbs.com.au/food/recipe/893/Sardines_a_beccafico_stuffed_with_currants_and_pine_nuts

I have reproduced a photo of Sean Connolly from the web, therefore I will acknowledge it.
Executive Chef and restaurateur Sean Connolly poses at the official launch party for Sean’s Kitchen at Star City on September 10, 2008 in Sydney, Australia.
(September 10, 2008 – Photo by Gaye Gerard/Getty Images AsiaPac)

15th October 2009

My Family Feast

I have been overseas and have only had the opportunity to view three episodes of this adventurous, food series. I was very impressed by Sean’s obvious enjoyment and the respect he demonstrated to the people and the ingredients. I particularly enjoyed the informality of the interaction between the cooks and Sean. Congratulations, and I am sorry that I have not viewed them all.

Marisa


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RAPE (Turnips)


This photo shows a fresh bunch of small turnips. Turnips (the bulb), even if small are not popular to eat in Italy, but the leaves are eaten.

You can see that the ones I buy are a sold with their leaves – green, fresh and tasty. They are excellent to eat either wilted in salted water and dressed with oil and lemon, or braised with garlic and chilli. Turnips are members of the brassica family and these greens are related and taste very similar to cime di rape (see ONE OF MY FAVOURITE VEGETABLES Cime di Rape  ).

Tim, Kieran and Chris (at a stall in the Queen Victoria Market) know that I always like to buy my turnips, beetroot and celeriac with their green leaves attached – they should never be wasted.

 Iota is a stew-like soup of borlotti beans, potatoes and smoked pork meats. It is a specialty of Trieste and environs and in Trieste is traditionally made with saurkraut, however in  a couple of places close to Trieste the saurkraut, is replaced with turnips.

IOTA FROM TRIESTE, Italy made with smoked pork, sauerkraut, borlotti beans:

IOTA (Recipe, a very thick soup from Trieste) Post 1

IOTA FROM TRIESTE, Italy, made with smoked pork, sauerkraut, borlotti beans – Post 2

FENNEL – male and female shapes

Although fennel bulbs may look similar in shape there are two differently shaped bulbs and each is identified by its sex (or so the Sicilians and southern Italians say) – the round are known as the maschi (the male fennel) and the slightly flattened shapes are the femmine (females).

My father always said that the round shaped fennels are the best tasting ones and this is the shape of fennel I always buy, except maybe at the end of the season when the flat, elongated bulbs of fennel become much more common. The shape differences may be subtle, but the taste of the round ones is superior. This may be because the flatter bulbs are getting ready to sprout (hence, allocated the female gender) and therefore their flavour may be dissipated.

Recently, I began to doubt my conviction. I had read that the females are the round fennel bulbs and so last Saturday morning I made a point of buying my fennel from my Italian stall holder at the Queen Victoria Market (I only purchase my fennel from one of the four stalls that sell the best fennel – two of these stalls are Asian). Just to make sure, I then asked several other Italian stallholders about male and female shapes.

Exactly right. I was very happy to have my viewpoint confirmed; for many years I have been advising many others about fennel (not only friends, but also stall holders and people who are selecting bulbs for purchasing). Besides, how could my father be so wrong? (I never appreciated his folklore as a teenager, but as an adult I began to make sense of his world – he grew up in Sicily and moved to Trieste as a seventeen-year old during the war. There he met my mother).

Bottom photos show the characteristic shapes of male and female fennel bulbs.

A friend of mine who grows fennel in her wonderful Adelaide Hills garden tells me how the plant at the very end of the growing season produces some very flat bulbs, which never mature. After speaking to her about this (last year) I saw some bunches of these small flat bulbs for sale in one of the stalls at the Queen Victoria Melbourne Market. I spoke to the vendor who said that rather than wasting them he thought that he would bunch them and try to sell them. When I saw him the following week, he said that they were not a huge success. These may one day become marketable and could be used as a substitute for making Pasta con le sarde or the Minestra di finocchio e patate.

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What happens to the flat shaped bulbs of fennel in Italy?

If you have a look at all my photos of fennel in this blog taken in Italy, you will see that they are all round in shape. I do not know what happens to the flat ones, but I have never seen them for sale. Maybe these are removed when young? My father always removed some of his fruit crop when the fruit had just formed. This allowed the remaining fruit to grow big.

There are many recipes for how to use fennel on my blog ( too many to list here). Key in fennel in the search button.

 


 

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).