Cutlets alla Palermitana

Cotolette alla Palmermitana finished dish

A lot of people know the recipe for cotolette alla milanese.  This much lighter version comes from Palermo in Sicily. It uses a lot less oil as it is baked, not fried and no egg is used.

• 500 g sliced ​​meat (beef, pork or chicken)
• 300 g breadcrumbs
• 30g capers desalted and chopped
• 50g black olives, stoned and chopped  (I only had green available, but it didn’t make too much difference)
• 50g Cacio cavallo , Parmesan or pecorino Romano, grated
• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
• Chopped parsley to taste and/or chopped mint
• 30g chopped almonds (optional)

Cotolette alla Palmermitana ingredients

Prepare the coating by mixing together the breadcrumbs, garlic, parsley,cheese, olives and capers.

Cotolette alla Palmermitana bread mixture

Beat the steaks so they are thin and an even thickness. Coat them first in oil, and then the bread mixture.

Cotolette alla Palmermitana ready for oven

Place the cutlets on a baking tray that you have first lined with greaseproof paper.

Bake in a preheated oven at 200°c until they are golden brown. About 10 minutes.

 

Torta Pasqualina

Torta pasqualina finished dish

Torta Pasqualina or Easter Monday pie is a very popular dish to have today that has its origins in Liguria. Easter Monday is traditionally a day for picnics and this is often one of the things taken along. This is a slightly simplified version as it uses pre prepared puff pastry. It’s good to know that doctors no longer say eating cholesterol is bad for you as it includes at least 10 eggs. Serves at least 6.

• 500g puff pastry
• 500g swiss chard or spinach, stalks removed
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 80g of parmesan or pecorino romano (or a mixture of both)
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh marjoram or parsley
• 10  eggs
• 300g ricotta, passed through a sieve to remove lumps
• 1 tbsp of single cream
•  Olive oil

Torta pasqualina ingredients

Put the swiss chard, the onion and 2 tbsp of oil into a saucepan. Season with salt and people and cook over a medium heat until the chard is completely wilted. Allow to cool and squeeze out as much liquid as possible.

Torta pasqualina wilting chard

Chop finely and transfer to a bowl. Add an egg, 50g of cheese and the marjoram or parsley and mix well.

Torta pasqualina filling

In another bowl mix together the ricotta, the cream, 2 eggs and 30g of cheese.

Torta pasqualina assembling pie

Roll out 2/3 of the pastry and use it to line an oiled cake tin. Make a layer with the chard. Cover with the ricotta. Crack 6 eggs, regularly spaced onto the surface.

Torta pasqualina ready for the oven

Roll out the remaining 1/3 of the pastry and use it to close the pie. Trim off the excess pastry and fold over and crimp the edges to seal. Brush with olive oil and bake at 180 °c for 45 minutes.

Torta pasqualina after baking

Baked mussels

Cozze ripiene gratinate. This is quite an unusual mussel recipe. Mussels baked on the half shell are a very common antipasto here, but this recipe treats them a bit like the French scallop dish coquilles saint-jacques. They are baked with white sauce, cheese and wine. Serves 4 as a main course, many more as part of an antipasto.

Baked mussels finished dish

• 2 kg large mussels
• 250 ml bechamel or white sauce
• 50 g grated pecorino romano 
• 2 or 3 tbsp of dry breadcrumbs
• 2 sprigs of parsley
• A clove of garlic
• An egg yolk
• Half a glass of white wine
• Olive oil

Baked mussels ingredients

Clean the mussels well. Place them in a pan along with half the clove of garlic, a sprig of parsley and the wine. Open the mussels by placing the pan over a high heat. Drain the mussels and filter and reserve the cooking liquid. Remove them from their shells.

Baked mussels opened with cooking liquid

Mix the mussel meat with 2 tbsp of olive oil, a chopped sprig of parsley, the rest of the garlic, chopped and a tbsp of the cooking liquid. Season with pepper.

Baked mussels removed from their shells

Place each mussel on a half shell.

Baked mussels on the half shell

Mix together the white sauce, the egg yolk and a couple of tablespoons of the cooking liquid. Top each shell with some of the mixture.

Baked mussels with white sauce

Sprinkle breadcrumbs on the top and bake at 190°c for 15 minutes.

Spaghetti al cacio e pepe

Spaghetti al cacio e pepe. From Rome. This is another recipe that I cook a lot, but have never got around to posting. Spaghetti (vermicelli is a synonym for spaghetti) with pecorino and black pepper sauce. Anyone who has ever been to Rome will know it. It seems like almost every trattoria there has it on the menu.   It is very simple, just three ingredients, but one of my favourite ways to eat pasta. It  is always worth spending a little more to get really good quality ingredients, but it is especially important to use good cheese with this dish. Use a good Pecorino Romano DOC (PDO). Serves 4.

Spaghetti al cacio e pepe finished dish

• 320 g spaghetti
• 160 g  Pecorino  Romano, grated.
• Lots of freshly cracked black pepper.

Spaghetti al cacio e pepe ingredients

Roughly crack the pepper corns. You can use a pestle and mortar, or as I do a coffee grinder. How much you add is a matter of taste, but it’s very important that it should be freshly ground. Don’t grind it too finely.

Cracked pepper

Cook the pasta until it is al dente  and drain, reserving some of the cooking water.

Spaghetti al cacio e pepe mixing the pasta

Mix the pasta together with some of the cooking water and most of the cheese. You should obtain a creamy sauce that coats the spaghetti well. If the sauce is too wet, add some more cheese. Likewise, if the sauce is too dry, add some more cooking water. Add the pepper and mix again. Serve topped with the rest of the cheese.

Panzerotti

Panzerotti. From Bari. These are one of the most famous and popular dishes from Bari. They are deep fried pockets of dough stuffed with a variety of fillings. Two of the most common are mozzarella, cherry tomatoes and oregano and ricotta forte (also called skuanda), cherry tomatoes, onion and anchovies. Ricotta forte is a bit of a “Marmite” ingredient. By that I mean it is very strongly flavoured and you either love it or hate it.  I am in the first camp, lovely stuff. Rather than cherry tomatoes, “appesi” are more traditional. These are small tomatoes which are picked when still not completely ripe and hung up for later consumption. As these are hard to find, you can use any type. I went to a party here and a lady was employed just to make panzerotti all evening. The last round was filled with Nutella! The size of the panzerotti varies, but I made 12 with this recipe.

Panzerotti ingredients

For the pastry

• 500 g 00 flour
• 100 ml tepid milk
• 1 cube of fresh yeast
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 10 g salt

Dissolve the yeast in the milk. Add the milk to the flour, oil and salt along with enough tepid water to make a smooth dough.

Oil the dough, cover with a tea towel and leave to rise for up to 2 hours.

Separate the dough into 12 portions and roll into small balls. Cover with a tea towel and leave to rise for a further half an hour.

Panzerotti balls of dough

Take one ball of dough and roll it into a large disc. Place a large tablespoon of filling in the middle of each one. Fold the dough over to form a half moon shape. Press down well and try to exclude as much air as possible. Either fold over and crimp the edges or cut off the excess pastry with a pasty wheel and seal the edges with a fork.

Panzerotti ready to cook

Deep fry the panzerotti until they are lightly golden. Some people use extra virgin olive oil and some people use regular vegetable oil. You can also bake them in an oven at 200 °C for 15 minutes, but the result is quite different.

Panzerotti finished dish

Fillings

• 200 g mozzarella
• 300 g cherry tomatoes
• Oregano
• Chop and drain the tomatoes. Cube the mozzarella.  Mix together with a generous amount of mozzarella.

• 50 g ricotta forte
• 100 g cherry tomatoes
• 50 g onions
• An anchovy
• Salt and pepper.
• Fry the onion in some oil, bone and chop anchovy. Spread each disc of dough with ricotta forte. Add a piece of tomato, some onion and a piece of anchovy. Salt and pepper to taste.

• 100 g ricotta forte
• 20 g grated pecorino romano
• 2 cherry tomatoes for each panzerotto
• 1 egg yolk (optional)
• Mix together the ricotta forte and the pecorino. Some people like to add an egg yolk to the mixture. Place a tablespoon of the filling and 2 chopped tomatoes in each panzerotto.

• Radicchio and gorgonzola.

• Fried minced pork mixed with parmsan and mozzarella. This is traditional on shrove Tuesday.

And of course the very untraditional but popular with children young and old:-

• Nutella 🙂

Peppina at the party

Puglia style meatloaf

Polpettone pugliese. This is another recipe that I cook a lot. Other recipes cook the meatloaf in a tomato sauce, but this one roasts it dry. It uses minced veal, but if you can’t find it then minced beef will be fine. Italians don’t use the crated “white” variety anyway, so the veal is very pink. This is often served with roast potatoes. Serves 6.

Meatloaf ingredients

• 800 g minced veal
• 2 stale bread rolls
• 3 eggs
• 100 g grated parmesan or pecorino
• Milk
• Olive oil

1. Break the bread rolls into small pieces and moisten with some milk.
2. Mix together all the ingredients and season with salt and pepper.
3. Form into a loaf and bake for 30 minutes at 200°C.
4. Remove from the oven and leave to rest for a few minutes before slicing.

Meatloaf finished dish

Pesto Genovese – Official recipe

Basil is very much in season here at the moment, so I bought a couple of bunches at the market and decided to make pesto.I dug out the official recipe from Consorzio Pesto Genovese. It’s very specific about exactly where the ingredients should come from. I’m providing the original recipe, but feel free to substitute ingredients from another region. eg. Basil not from Genoa 🙂 The recipe also calls for a pestle and mortar. This is undoubtably the best way, but you can get very acceptable results using a blender. Just put all the ingredients in a blender and blitz until almost smooth. Serves 6

Pesto Genovese Ingredients

• 50g of basil leaves (from Genoa of course)
• Extra virgin olive oil (from Liguria)
• 6 Tbsp grated Parmigiano Reggiano or Grana Padano
• 2 Tbsp Pecorino (romano, toscano, sardo or siciliano)
• 2 cloves of garlic (can be omitted)
• 1 Tbsp pine kernels (from the Mediterranean area)
• 1 tbsp chopped walnuts can be substituted for the pine kernels (must be European from the species “Juglans regia”)
• Coarse sea salt

1. The traditional method uses a wooden pestle(where the dish gets its name from in a round about way) and a marble mortar. Start by pounding the garlic and salt until you get a smooth paste.
2. Add the basil, a handful at a time, and keep grinding using a circular motion until each batch of the leaves is incorporated. To preserve the essential oils in the basil, you shouldn’t be too rough with it.
3. Add the pine kernel and grind some more.
4. Add the cheese and mix well.
5. Add the oil, little by little, until the pesto has the right consistency – a matter of taste.
6. Serve with pasta or added to minestrone. The recommended pastas are troffie, trofiette or trenette, but it goes with just about any pasta. I usually serve it with spaghetti or linguine.

Pesto Genovese finished dish

Baked anchovies

Alici arraganate. From Puglia. There is probably not much chance of finding fresh anchovies in the UK, but if you do, this is a good recipe to try. It takes a fair bit of preparation, but it’s worth it in the end. You need to clean them as soon as you get them home as they will spoil extremely quickly. Do not do as I did this morning and leave yourself 30 minutes to clean a couple of hundred anchovies before you have to go to work 🙂 To clean them, snap the back bone just behind the head and pull. The guts should come out with the head. If you can’t get the hang of that, use a small sharp knife to cut through the back bone, taking care not to cut all the way through and pull. Next remove the backbone by running your thumb along the spine of the fish, flattening it out into two fillets. The backbone should then be easy to pull out. “Close” the fillets by folding them along the line of the backbone. The recipe says this will feed 4 as an antipasto, but it would feed at least that number as a British style starter.

Baked anchovies ingredients

• 800g fresh anchovies
• 60g pecorino – grated
• 80g dry bread crumbs
• 2 ripe tomatoes – sliced
• 1 tbsp chopped parsley
• 1 clove of garlic – chopped
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• Dry white wine
• Olive oil

1. Clean and prepare the anchovies as above.
2. Mix together the pecorino, breadcrumbs, parsley, oregano and parsley
3. Grease an oven dish with a little  oil. I used 4 individual dishes.
4. Line the dish with a little of the breadcrumb mix. Add a layer of anchovies and cover with the breadcrumb mix. Repeat until all the anchovies are used up, finishing with a layer of breadcrumbs.
5. Top with the tomato slices and a little more of the breadcrumb mix.
6. Splash some wine and drizzle olive oil on top.
7. Bake at 180C until golden brown and sizzling.

Baked anchovies finished dish

Bucatini and Mussels all’Amatriciana

Bucatini e cozze all’amatriciana.  This is a new twist on the classic amatriciana. The addition of mussels works surprisingly well. It is adapted from “Sale e Pepe” which is something like the Italian equivalent of “Good Food Magazine”. The original recipe calls for guanciale, but as this is hard to find, even in Italy, this is my version using pancetta. Serves 4

Bucatini amatriciana with mussels ingredients

• 320g bucatini or spaghetti
• 1 kg mussels
• 400g passata
• A clove of garlic
• 50g pancetta – cubed
• 1/2 a glass of dry white wine
• Pecorino romano cheese – grated
• Chilli powder to taste
• Olive oil

1. Fry the pancetta in a little oil along with the whole garlic clove.
2. When the garlic has browned, remove and discard.
3. Add the chilli and fry for a few seconds.
4. Add the passata and cook over a low heat for about 30 minutes.
5. Meanwhile put the mussels in a pan along with the wine and cook over a high heat until the mussels have opened. Drain and reserve the liquid.
6. Shell the mussels, reserving a few for decoration.
7. Pour the mussel liquid into a large pan and add water to make it up to about 3 litres. Bring to the boil and cook the pasta until al dente.
8. Shorlty before the pasta is ready, add the mussels to the tomato sauce and allow to heat through for a minute or so.
9. Drain the pasta and add to the pan with tomato sauce.
10. Mix well and serve with the pecorino on the side.

Bucatini amatriciana with mussels finished dish

Neapolitan meatloaf – Authentic recipe

Polpettone alla napoletana. This is a tasty and economical recipe. In Naples it is also known as ‘polpettone in salsetta’ – meatloaf in sauce. The sauce is used to dress pasta for the first course and the meat is eaten as the second course. The recipe calls for buffalo mozzarella and Neapolitan salami, but I’m sure it would be fine with whatever you have handy. Thank to Gino for the advice. Serves 4-6.

Meatloaf ingredients

• 500g minced beef
• 4 eggs
• 50g cooked ham (about 2 slices)
• 50g Neapolitan salami (optional)
• 40g parmesan, grated
• 40g pecorino, grated
• 50g buffalo mozzarella, sliced (not too fresh)
• 2 cloves of garlic, whole but lightly crushed
• Flour
• 100g stale bread
• 400g chopped tomatoes
• 50g concentrated tomato puree
• A large sprig of basil, torn
• 2 tbsp chopped parsley
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper

• Hardboil 2 of the eggs and allow them to cool.Slice them thinly.
• Moisten the bread with a little cold water and break into small pieces.
• Mix together the meat, the raw eggs, the bread, the parmesan, the pecorino and the parsley. Season with salt and pepper. Knead with your hands until all the ingredients are incorporated.
• Spread the paste on a square of kitchen paper to form a 2cm thick rectangle.  Cover with the slices of ham, the salami, the mozzarella and the sliced eggs.

Meatloaf with filling

• Using the kitchen paper to help, roll up, pressing together firmly, to form the meatloaf.

meatloaf ready to cook

• Dust with flour and fry the loaf in olive oil in a large pan until it is browned on all sides. Lower the heat, cover and continue cooking for 30 minutes.
• In a seperate pan, fry the garlic for a few minutes in 3 tbsp of olive oil. Add the tomatoes, the tomato puree mixed with a little water, the basil and a pinch of salt. Cook for 5 minutes.
• Add the tomato sauce to the meatloaf and cook for a further 30 minutes.
• When the meatloaf is cooked, remove it from the sauce and allow it to cool slightly. Slice into 1-2cm slices and serve with a little of the tomato sauce.

Meatloaf with tomato sauce

The best baked ziti ever!

IMHO 🙂 Pasta al forno Pugliese. Baked pasta is popular all over Italy. This version comes from Puglia. It uses Scamorza cheese instead of mozzarella. If you can’t find scamorza you can use mozzarella, but make sure it’s not too fresh as it will make the dish too wet. Actually, that probably wouldn’t be a problem outside Italy 😉 It is traditionally made with pecorino, but nowadays most people use parmesan. There is a lighter meatless version that leaves out the meatballs. Thanks to Grazia and Tiziana for the advice. Serves 6

Baked ziti ingredients

• 500g mezzi ziti or rigatoni
• 200g scamorza cheese, finely diced
• 50g pecorino Romano or parmesan
• 800g passata
• 1 onion
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper

For the meatballs:

Meatballs ingredients

• 250g minced beef
• 50g pecorino Romano or parmesan
• 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp breadcrumbs
• 2 medium eggs
• sprig of parsley, finely chopped
• Salt and pepper

• Make a tomato sauce by frying the onion for a few minutes in plenty of olive oil. Add the passata, season and cook over a low heat for about 30 minutes.
• Make the meatballs by mixing all the ingredients together. Form into small balls about the size of a hazelnut. Fry in olive oil until well browned. Drain on kitchen paper.

• 

  fried meatballs

• Boil the pasta until it is very al dente, two or three minutes less than the usual cooking time.  Dress with a couple of ladles of the tomato sauce and half the parmesan.
• To assemble the dish take a high sided baking tray and put a layer of the pasta in the bottom. Cover with tomato sauce and sprinkle with meatballs, diced scamorza, and parmesan.

• 

  partially assenbled dish

• Continue until you have used up all the pasta. The last layer should be pasta covered with tomato sauce. Sprinkle the top with parmesan
• 
• Bake in a hot oven for 25 minutes.

Baked ziti

Carbonara – Authentic recipe

From Lazio.  What is Carbonara? If You ask an Englishman they’ll probably tell you it’s a dish prepared with cream and ham! Nooooooo!!!!! 😉 More crimes against Italian food have been committed under the name of Carbonara than any other dish.

So, in an attempt to set the records straight, I present the authentic recipe (as deposited in the archive of Acadamia Italiana della Cucina). No cream! No ham! And don’t you dare cook the eggs! 🙂 Serves 6.

• 600 grams spaghetti or bucatini
• 120 grams guanciale or pancetta — diced or cut into strips
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 medium eggs (very fresh)
• 100 grams mixed Parmesan and pecorino Romano (or all pecorino) — grated
• olive oil
• salt and pepper

1. Cook the guanciale in a pan along with the whole peeled garlic clove and a little oil, until the guanciale is well coloured. Discard the garlic.
2. Beat the eggs in a bowl with a little of the cheese and a pinch of salt.
3. Cook the pasta until al dente, drain and add to the pan with the guanciale.
4. Lower the heat to a minimum and add the egg mixture. Mix well. Be careful not to let the eggs set. If the dish is a little dry, beat in a little of the pasta cooking water. This is not mentioned by the academy, but some people say it’s essential for the “creaminess” of the sauce.
5. Remove from the heat and add the rest of the cheese. Mix again and serve immediately.

Here’s a quote from Kate/Susan over at Kate, Katie, Susan, Sue who cooked the recipe as part of an Italian evening.

“That carbonara was one of the best things I’ve ever eaten, certainly the best pasta dish I’ve ever eaten. I would rank it above lasagna in my estimation.”

And this one’s from Cui at Equipoised.

The bottom line… carbonara typically feels too heavy and sickening after a while because of the addition of cream (an American adulteration). The egg way produces a much lighter, more palatable dish. And it was really the best carbonara I’ve ever had, ever. I tend to serially order carbonara at Italian restaurants because it is by far my favourite pasta, and I’ve had a lot of carbonara, but I feel like I can’t have it with cream any more after trying this.

Spaghetti amatriciana

Spaghetti all’ amatriciana. From Lazio. This is another Italian classic. Pasta with pancetta (or guanciale if you want to be really authentic), tomatoes and chilli. It is more traditionally served with bucatini, but is just as often served with spaghetti. Serves 4.

Spaghetti amatriciana ingredients

• 360 grams Spaghetti
• 100 grams pancetta — cubed
• 1 onion — thinly sliced
• 500 grams tomatoes — peeled, seeded and chopped
• 1 fresh (or dried) chilli — seeded and chopped
• olive oil
• salt and pepper
• Parmesan or pecorino Romano cheese to serve (optional)

1. Grease a flameproof casserole with oil, add the pancetta and cook over a low heat until the fat starts to run.
2. Add the onion and cook until lightly browned, stirring occasionally.
3. Add the tomatoes and chilli, season with salt and pepper, cover and cook for about 40 minutes. If it looks like drying out, add a little water.
4. Serve with the cooked spaghetti.

Spaghetti amatriciana finished dish

Stuffed mussels

Cozze ripiene. From Bari. This recipe was given to me by Marilisa – thanks a lot for taking the trouble. They were delicious 🙂 It’s actually her granny’s recipe and Marilisa’s favourite. The recipe seems a bit daunting as you have to open the raw mussels, but it’s really not that difficult. Follow the link below if you want to know how. Serves 4-5

Stuffed mussels ingredients

• 1 kilogram large mussels
• 4 medium eggs
• 1 bread roll — crust removed
• parsley — finely chopped
• 100 grams Pecorino Romano or Parmesan — grated
• milk
• olive oil
• garlic to taste — finely chopped
• salt and pepper
• kitchen string
• 2 bottles passata

• Clean the mussels and open them keeping the shells attached
• Soak the bread roll in a little milk and tear into small pieces.
• Beat the eggs in a bowl and mix with the cheese, garlic, parsley and bread. Season with salt and pepper.
• Add breadcrumbs little by little until you have a fairly dry stuffing mix.
• Stuff the mussels with the mixture and tie them almost closed with kitchen string. Don’t tie them too tightly as the stuffing has to come into contact with the cooking sauce.

Stuffed mussels ready to cook

• Heat some oil in a large pan and add some chopped garlic. When the garlic has coloured add the tomatoes. Cook over a medium heat for about 15 minutes.
• Add the mussels and cook for a further 15 minutes.
• Remove the mussels from the sauce and remove the string.
• Serve the sauce with spaghetti or linguine as a first course.
• The mussels can be served as the second course or as part of an antipasto (hot or cold)

Stuffed mussels finished dish

Stuffed mussels with pasta finished dish

Ragu alla Barese

This is another recipe from Tiziana (many thanks). This one of the most common ‘Sunday lunches’ in Bari. I think it’s known as “Sunday gravy” in the Sates. The recipe doesn’t give very precise measurements as it depends how many people you are cooking for and your personal taste.  As a rough guide allow 2-300g of meat per person. Tiziana usually serves the ragu with orecchiette, but you can use your favourite pasta. Serve the meat separately as the second course.

Ragu alla Barese ingredients

• Thin slices of meat (you can use beef, veal, pork, or horse meat),flattened with meat mallet
• Pieces of lamb (preferably on the bone)
• Lardo(salted lard) or prosciutto fat or fatty pancetta
• Parsley
• Garlic
• Pepper
• Pecorino Romano cheese, grated
• 1 Onion, sliced
• Passata or tomato pulp
• 1/2 glass dry white wine

1. Chop together the lardo, parsley, garlic, pepper and pecorino to make a coarse paste.
2. Place a little of the paste in the middle of each slice of meat. Roll up and secure with a toothpick.
3. Take a large pan(NOT nonstick) and add the onion, some olive oil, the meat rolls, the lamb pieces and half a glass of water.
4. Cook over a high heat making sure that the meat catches on the bottom of the pan but doesn’t burn. Scrape the pan frequently with a wooden spoon. This is an important step as it contributes a lot of the flavour of the sauce.
5. Add the wine and allow to evaporate
6. Add enough passata to cover the meat well
7. Cook over a very low heat until the meat is tender. (A slow cooker would be ideal)
8. A few minutes before the end of cooking, season with salt and pepper.
9. For the best results, allow to cool, refrigerate over night and reheat the next day.
10. When you are ready to serve, remove the meat and keep warm.
11. Serve the sauce with pasta as the first course followed by the meat as the second course.

Ragu alla Barese orecchiette

Ragu alla Barese meat