Bavette with razor shell clams

Bavette con i cannolicchi. I came across these today in the fish market. I was at a loss what to do with them and in the end cooked them using the same recipe as vermicelli con le vongole. Very nice they were too 🙂

 

 

 

Grilled stuffed squid

Calamari ripieni alla griglia. Some people like to leave the wings on the squid, but I prefer to remove them and include them in the stuffing. Serves 4

Grilled stuffed squid ingredients

• 4 medium  squid, cleaned and skinned
• 1 sprig  parsley, chopped
• 1/2 clove  garlic, chopped
• 50g  bread crumbs
• olive oil
• salt and pepper

1. Preheat the grill to hot.
2. Chop the squid tentacles and wings with the parsley and garlic. Add the breadcrumbs, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
3. Stuff the squid bodies with the mixture and secure with a toothpick.
   

   Grilled stuffed squid ready to cook

4. Brush with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
5. Grill, turning frequently, until golden brown and tender. Cooking time will depend on the size of the squid.

Grilled stuffed squid finished dish

Tagliatelle with artichokes and anchovies

Tagliatelle con carciofi e acciughe. If you are unsure how to prepare the artichokes, click here. Serves 6

tagliatelle with artichokes and anchovies finished dish

 

•  500 g fresh tagliatelle
•   6 small artichokes
•   1 lemon
•   12 tinned anchovies in oil
•   2 cloves garlic
•   75 ml dry white wine
•   100 ml vegetable stock
•   2 tbsp chopped parsley
•   30 g butter
•    olive oil
•    salt and pepper

1. Prepare the artichokes in the usual way. Slice thinly.
2. Add 4 tablespoons of olive oil to a large pan. Fry the whole cloves of garlic until they are well coloured and then remove them from the pan. Drain the artichokes well and add to the pan. Fry for 5 or 6 minutes until they start to colour.
3. Remove the artichokes and put to one side. Add the anchovies and break them up with a wooden spoon. When the anchovies have completely dissolved, return the artichokes to the pan. Add the wine and stock. Reduce the liquid to half over a high heat. Remove from the heat, seasons with salt and pepper and stir in the parsley.
4. Cook the tagliatelle. Drain and toss with the butter (optional). Add to the pan with the artichokes, mix well and serve immediately.

 

Beef in white wine and tomatoes

This classic dish is known as spezzatino di manzo in Italian. If you serve it with polenta, it’s a meal in itself. Serves 4

Beef in white wine ingredients

• 1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 25g butter
• 1 medium carrot, finely chopped
• 1 stick of celery, finely chopped
• 600g lean stewing beef, cubed
• 75ml dry white wine
• 200g tomato pulp or passata
• salt and pepper

1. Heat the oil and butter in a pan, add the onion, celery and cook over a low heat, stirring from time to time, for 10 minutes.
2. Add the meat and stir-fry until it is browned all over.
3. Add the wine and let it reduce until it has almost completely evaporated.
4. Add the tomatoes along with 150ml warm water.
5. Cover and simmer over a low heat until the meat is tender, 1-2 hours.

Beef in white wine

Sausage ‘alla cacciatora’

Salsicce alla cacciatora translates as ‘Hunter’s sausage’ . I just thought I’d mention that for those of you that love double entendres 🙂  Serves 4

400 grams sausages – preferably Italian
 200 grams mushrooms — sliced
 1/2  medium onion — chopped
 1      clove garlic — chopped
 400 grams tomatoes (fresh or tinned) — peeled and chopped
 butter
 salt and pepper

• Prick the sausage and fry in a little butter until well coloured. Remove the sausages and put aside.
• Add the onions and garlic to the pan and fry for a couple of minutes. Add the tomatoes and mushrooms. Season with salt and pepper and cook for ten minutes.
• Return the sausages to the pan, cover and cook for a further 15 minutes.

Serve with fresh crusty bread

Tagliatelle with lemon

Tagliatelle al limone. Serves 4

• 400 grams  fresh tagliatelle
• zest of 3 lemons — grated
• 50   grams  butter
• 50   grams  single cream
• parmesan cheese
• salt

1. Melt the butter in a sauce pan until it starts to foam
2. Add the zest from 2 of the lemons. When the butter is well flavoured with the zest, remove from the heat and stir in the cream. Season with salt to taste.
3. Cook the tagliatelle, drain and add to the Lemon sauce. Mix gently.
4. Turn out onto a warmed serving dish. Sprinkle on the zest of the third lemon and plenty of parmesan.

Note: Use unwaxed lemons for this dish – see comments.

Tagliatelle with sausage and vegetable ragu

Serves 4

•   500 grams  fresh tagliatelle
•   1      medium  carrot — roughly chopped
•   1      stick  celery — roughly chopped
•   1      medium  red onion — roughly chopped
•   1      medium  courgette — diced
•   400 grams  italian sausage — skinned
•   2      tablespoons  cream
•   1      glass  red wine
•           olive oil
•           salt
•           parmesan cheese to serve

1. Fry the carrot, celery and onion in a little olive oil for a few minutes.l
2. Add the courgettes and cook for a few minutes longer.
3. Add the sausage and mix well. Season with salt and fry for a few minutes
4. Add the wine and allow it to partially evaporate.
5. Reduce the heat and cook for a further 20 mins
6. Remove from the heat and add the cream
7. Serve with tagliatelle and parmesan.

Mezzalune with mushrooms

You’re out of luck if  you’re expecting a recipe for left over turkey 🙂 These were part of our new year’s eve dinner. This dish comes from puglia where they love cardoncelli mushrooms but I was in England when I cooked it so I used a mix of exotic mushrooms instead.  Serves 6

mezzaluna with mushrooms ingredients

• 300 grams fresh pasta
• 1 quantity tomato sauce
• 300 grams mushrooms
• 2 potatoes — boiled
• 200 grams ricotta
• a tablespoon of chopped parsley
• a clove of garlic
• 1 medium egg
• olive oil
• salt and pepper

Clean the mushrooms carefully. Fry in olive oil with the garlic, salt and pepper, over a high heat for about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and chop finely.

Mash the potatoes and mix with the mushrooms, parsley, ricotta and egg. Mix with a wooden spoon until you have a smooth paste.
Roll out the pasta into thin sheets (about 2 mm thick). Cut into 7-8 cm rounds using a pastry cutter or wine glass.

Place a little of the mushroom mixture in the centre of each round.

Fold the pasta over to make the mezzalune (half moon) shapes. Be careful to exclude as much air as possible and to press down the edges well.

Cook the mezzelune in plenty of salted boiling water. Cooking time depends on the thickness of the pasta but shouldn’t be longer than 4-5 minutes. Serve with the tomato sauce.

mezzaluna with mushrooms finished dish

Fresh pasta

Fresh pasta is actually very easy to make. It’s just flour and eggs. It takes a bit of effort, but if you invest in a pasta machine it’s a piece of cake. One misconception that a lot of people have is that pasta should always be made with durum wheat flour. Durum is used mainly for dry commercially produced pasta, such as spaghetti. Some fresh pastas made without egg, for example orecchiette, are made with durum flour. Fresh egg pasta should be made with normal white flour, preferably finely ground ’00’ grade. Allow 100g of flour and 1 egg per person. Serves 4

400 grams plain white flour (pref type ’00’)
4 medium eggs

• Pile the flour in a volcano-shaped mound on a work surface
• Break the eggs into the centre.

• Stir the eggs into the flour with a fork and then with you hands until it forms a coarse paste.
• Knead the dough until it becomes smooth and elastic (or pass it through the rollers of the pasta machine several times at the widest setting)

• Let the dough rest for about 30 mins, covered with a cloth.
• Roll the pasta out as thinly as possible for ravioli etc. Fettuccine and other ribbon noodles should be a little thicker. (Thinnest setting on the machine for ravioli, second thinnest for fettuccine etc)
• To cut ribbon shaped noodle, loosely roll up the sheets of pasta and cut to the desired thickness.

• Shake the rolls out onto a board and leave to dry for about 10 minutes before cooking.

Meatloaf in tomato sauce

This dish can be eaten hot or cold. If you like you can use some of the sauce with some pasta  as the first course. Polpettone al sugo is eaten all over Italy. Serves 8

• 1 kg minced beef
• 250g bread crumbs
• 2 tbsp chopped parsley
• 60g parmesan – grated
• 4 eggs
• olive oil
• 1 medium onion – finely chopped
• 1 clove garlic
• 4 cans plum tomatoes
• handful of basil leaves
• salt and pepper

1. Mix together the meat, bread crumbs, parsley, parmesan, eggs, salt and pepper
2. Form into a large oval meatloaf.
3. Fry the loaf in a large casserole until it’s golden-brown on all sides.

1. In a seperate pan, fry the onion in olive oil until golden. Add the garlic and fry for another couple of minutes.
2. Add the tomatoes, break up with a wooden spoon and cook over a medium heat for about ten minutes.
3. Add the sauce to the meatloaf, cover and simmer for around an hour.
4. Towards the end of cooking, remove the lid to allow the sauce to thicken.
5. Let the meatloaf rest for ten minutes before serving.

Pasta and potatoes

This soup is another classic Bari dish. If you ask a Barese what their favourite dishes are, they’ll usually mention Pasta e Patate. Serves 4

Pasta and potatoes ingredients

• 500g potatoes, peeled and diced
• 200g ditali
• 100g  polpa di pomodoro or tinned chopped tomatoes
• 1 celery heart, chopped
• 1 clove  garlic, peeled and squashed (but still whole)
• olive oil
• salt and pepper

1. Brown the garlic in 4 tablespoons of olive oil. Remove the garlic and discard.
2. Add the potatoes and celery and cook for a couple of minutes.
3. Add the tomatoes and season with salt and pepper
4. Add water so that all the ingredients are covered
5. Cook until the potatoes are starting to fall apart.
6. Half cook the pasta in plenty of salted boiling water
7. Add the pasta to the potato mixture and continue cooking until done.
8. If the soup is too thick, add a little of the pasta cooking liquid.

Tiella of mussels and potatoes

This is another classic dish from Bari. A tiella is a terracotto cooking dish thought to have been introduced by the Spanish. The ingredients are built up layer by layer in the dish and then baked in the oven. Tiellas were at one time the evening meal of the farm workers when they came in from the fields. They were made from whatever was abundant and cheap at the time. This version uses mussels, a staple of Pulgia.  Serves 4

• 1kg mussels, thoroughly cleaned
• 500g tomatoes, sliced
• 300g potatoes, thinly sliced
• 2 large onions, thinly sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 bunch parsley, finely chopped
• pecorino, grated
• olive oil
• salt and pepper

1. Heat the mussels in a pan with a little olive oil until they open. About 5 minutes. Reserve the liquid
2. Remove the top shell from each mussel
3. In an oven proof dish, preferably terracotta, put a layer of  half the tomatoes, then all the onions, half the parsley and half the garlic.
4. Season with salt and pepper and drizzle a little olive oil.
5. Then make a layer of the sliced potatoes.
6. Make a layer of mussels in their half shell and top with the rest of the parsley and garlic
7. Sprinkle plenty of pecorino on top and drizzle with some more olive oil.
8. Bake at 180 C for 35-40 minutes

Mussels ‘au gratin’

• 1 kg mussels,thoroughly cleaned
• 100g bread crumbs
• 2 sprigs parsley, finely chopped
• 1 chilli, finely chopped
• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
• zest of a lemon, finely chopped
• olive oil

1. Open the mussels by putting them in pan with a little olive oil and heating for around 5 minutes
2. Remove the top shell from each mussel and arrange them in a single layer on a baking tray.
3. Mix together the bread crumbs, parsley, chilli, garlic and lemon zest in a bowl.
4. Add a little olive oil and mix again. Keep adding olive oil in the way until the mixture has a ‘crumble’ like consistency
5. Top each half shell with a little of the mixture.
6. Bake for around 15 minutes at 200 C

Mussels ‘au gratin’

  1      kilogram  mussels — thoroughly cleaned
  100 grams  bread crumbs
  2      sprigs  parsley — finely chopped
  1      chilli — finely chopped
  1      clove  garlic — finely chopped
          zest of a lemon — finely chopped
          olive oil

• Open the mussels by putting them in pan with a little olive oil and heating for around 5 minutes
• Remove the top shell from each mussel and arrange them in a single layer on a baking tray.
• Mix together the bread crumbs, parsley, chilli, garlic and lemon zest in a bowl.
• Add a little olive oil and mix again. Keep adding olive oil in the way until the mixture has a ‘crumble’ like consistency
• Top each half shell with a little of the mixture.

• Bake for around 15 minutes at 200 C

Gnocchetti sardi with mussels

This is a semi-soup. Be careful when adding the cooking liquid from the pasta, you don’t want it to be too sloppy.  Serves 4

Gnocchetti sardi with mussels ingredients

• 400 grams  mussels — thoroughly cleaned
• 200 grams  Gnocchetti sardi
• 1 clove  garlic — finely chopped
• a few chilli flakes
• olive oil
• 4 sprigs  parsley — finely chopped

1. Put the mussels in a pan along with a little olive oil, the garlic, parsley and chilli
2. Cover and cook over a high heat until the mussels open. About 5 minutes. Remove the meat from the mussels, reserving a few for decoration, and return to the pan.
3. Cook the pasta in plenty of salted water until al dente.
4. Drain the pasta, reserving a few tablespoons of the cooking liquid.
5. Add the pasta and the reserved cooking liquid to the mussels.
6. Continue cooking for a couple of minutes and serve.

Gnocchetti sardi with mussels finished dish