Arancini

I know the sound of crickets has been deafening around here lately.  But lest you think I've given up cooking (and blogging) altogether, I refer you to a great recipe that I posted over at Summer in Italy.  If you aren't already familiar with them, the fine folks offer fanastic vacation rental properties around Italy, with a particular focus on the Amalfi Coast and Cilento Coast.  The travel guide part of their Web site also serves up regional recipes and tons of helpful travel information, so it's well worth a look!

Arancini di Riso - special and tasty fried balls of rice that are especially popular around Napoli!

Bruschetta with Rapini

Bruschetta con la rape

What we call rapini is cima di rape in Italy (rah-pay).  It's a cool weather green that has little broccoli flowerettes peaking through the stalks.  While my husband Bryan doesn't like broccoli, he will eat la rape.  It is often boiled and served with a drizzle of olive oil and a squirt of lemon juice as a refreshing side dish to the main course, or sauteed and served with orecchiette.  I put it to work as an antipasto, too.  It's always a hit, even with my veggie-picky husband.

You'll need:
a generous bunch of rapini
a clove of garlic
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
freshly grated parmigiano
crusty bread

Clean the rapini and strip the leaves and broccoli flowers from the stems.  Roughly chop them and put them in a large saucepan with a bit of water and salt.  Bring it to a boil and cook for about 5 minutes.  Drain well, squeezing the leaves in a tea towel or paper towels to extract the moisture.  (Reserve the stems, which can be trimmed and added to soups.)

Make the bruschetta:  Slice the bread and drizzle on a bit of olive oil.  Broil or grill until golden brown.

In a skillet or saucepan, heat about 2 tsp. olive oil.  Add the minced garlic and saute until softened but not browned.  Add the rapini and stir well, coating it in the olive oil, adding another drizzle if needed.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Add 2 TBSP balsamic vinegar.  Combine well.  Top the bruschetta with the rapini.  Sprinkle on a little parmigiano cheese and serve.

Photo Credit: Uprising Seeds, where you can buy seeds to grow your own rapini.

Olive all'Ascolana Part II

If you missed the introduction and background about this delicacy, be sure to ready Part I.

Olive all'Ascolana (pronounced oh-LEE-vay) - Ascoli-style Stuffed Olives

I have eaten an uncountable quantity of these critters while living in Ascoli Piceno, and watched them being prepared, had verbal recipes recited to me, along with a couple of sketchy hand-written instructions. I decided to take the two most reliable recipes, one provided to me by my friend Linda Ancona, and the other from my former landlady, Dorina, as the best ones, and adapted them.

A few notes before you begin.
*This is by far the most "complicated" recipe I've ever posted on La Cucina. While it's pretty straight-forward, it is time-consuming to make them so allow plenty of time. Make a decent quantity (as discussed in Part I) and freeze them. It is nice to have them on hand ready to fry for a future aperitivo party or antipasto.

*In Ascoli, the meat mixture is traditionally made with chunks of meat, then ground in a meat grinder after cooking. It does actually make a difference in taste and texture to prepare it this way, rather than starting with pre-ground meats (but I admit that I use the pre-ground because I don't have a meat grinder; I whirled the meat in a food processor before stuffing the olives.)  If you do have a meat-grinder, though, make it the traditional way, as it truly tastes better.

*The Ascolani have a set system for making their olive all'ascolana:  1) Hand-pit the olives; 2) Prepare the meat mixture and make it into marble-sized meatballs; 3) Stuff the olives; 4) Bread them and let them sit (or freeze them) before 5) Frying them. This routine works because they hand-cut the olive off the pit in a spiral fashion and reconstruct the olive around the meatball. I slices my pitted olives open and stuffed the ball inside, but Janie of Panini Girl recommends piping the meat into the olive with a pastry bag (a sensible idea!).

*Finally, the olives. It can be difficult to find large pitted olives that are not already stuffed with something. The Cerignola is a mild, large olive, but I have only found them whole. (A cherry pitter would work if you want to pit them yourself.) The tenera ascolana is cured in a very mild brine of sea salt and water, so you don't get a "pucker factor" from them.  I found that most jarred olives tend to be much more strongly brined, so they will need to be soaked for a couple of hours to slake off some of the brine flavor before you stuff them.

                          About 100 olives - stuffed and breaded and ready to freeze

Authentic Olive all'Ascolana

Filling:

1 onion, minced

1/3 pound ground chicken (or chicken breast)
1/3 pound ground pork (or chunks of pork)
4 to 5 slices prosciutto crudo, minced
1 carrot, cut into 3-4 large pieces
1 celery stalk, cut into 3-4 large pieces
salt and pepper
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup grated parmigiano or pecorino cheese
1 egg
zest from 1/2 lemon
dash or two of nutmeg

Heat about 1 TBSP of olive oil in a large skillet, and saute the onion until soft. Add the meats and saute until cooked, using a fork to mash it and keep the meat as fine-textured as possible. (If you're using chunks, just brown them and saute until cooked through.) Add the carrot and celery, season with salt and pepper, and then add the wine. Cook until the wine has evaporated. Remove from heat, take out the celery and carrot pieces, and cool.

If you are using chunks of meat, grind them in the meat grinder. If you used ground meat, put it in a food processor and pulse to get a finer texture.

To the ground meat, add the parmigiano or pecorino, the lemon zest, nutmeg and egg. (Dorina cautions to use a light hand with the lemon zest and nutmeg, as too much will overpower evertyhing.) Mix well, like you would a meatloaf mixture.

Fill the olives with the meat.  To do this you can roll the meat into marble-sized balls, as is traditional, or use a pastry bag to pipe it into the olives.


To Prepare the Olives:

Flour
3 eggs
Fine Breadcrumbs

In a shallow bowl, beat the eggs. Place flour in one bowl, the breadcrumbs in another. Dip the olives in the flour, then the eggs, then the breadcrumbs to coat evenly. Put them on a plate. Refrigerate at least 1/2 hour before frying. Note:  You can prepare the olives up to this point and freeze them for future use.

To Fry:

Heat olive oil in a saucepan. Fry olives a few at a time, turning to fry them evenly, until golden. Drain on paper towels.

Italians use olio da friggere, a liquid frying oil that is made of a blend of seed oils (peanut, sunflower, grapeseed and olive oil, I think). They do not use hydrogenated fat for frying! I use olive oil (sometimes pouring in a bit of grapeseed oil which has a higher smoke point).

Makes about 200 olives.

Enjoy with a Piceno wine like Pecorino, Falerio, or Rosso Piceno.

Olive all'Ascolana Part I

Part I of a two-part series.

The local specialty food of Ascoli Piceno is an addictive one: gigantic olives that are stuffed with meat and deep-fried. It may sound odd, but they are very good. In fact, Bryan loves them, and he normally does not eat olives! Around the Piceno, no party or antipasto plate is complete without them.

The Ascolani say that this tradition actually dates back to Roman times, but, like most things in this part of the country, it came into its own during the Medieval period. It is a rather ingenious dish, utilizing the most common (some may say 'humble') products at hand and turning them into a delicacy.

It was originally a way to use up scraps of meat and cheese. The local olive variety, found only in this part of the country, is called the tenera ascolana. It is a behemoth as far as olives are concerned, very large ovals that are very 'meaty'. The olive is a D.O.P. item, as is the final dish of olive all'ascolana (a special certification for the authenticity of specialty regional products).

Local tradition dictates the olives be pitted by hand a spirale, in a spiral around the pit. The olive is then "reconstructed" around the little balls of meat before being breaded and fried. Special curved olive-pitting knives are sold in the local cutlery shops, some embossed with the Ascoli Piceno emblem, making them nice souvenirs. I once watched my former landlord pit about 300 olives this way and quickly decided that buying pre-pitted olives in tubs would be just fine for an americana like me!

The tenera ascolana olives are also unique in that they are cured in a light brine of water and sea salt instead of vinegar. This makes a huge difference in the taste; they are very mild, so there is no 'pucker factor' with these olives.

The meats selected always include pork and chicken; from that base other "scelte" are added according to taste. Indeed, each person I know in Ascoli Piceno makes their stuffed olives slightly differently. Some add a bit of beef or veal to the mix; others insist it must have some prosciutto. I've run across a few that include mortadella, and one man who used pancetta. As for the cheese, most use grana padano, but local, aged pecorino is popular, too. Odori (spices) vary, as well; some cooks add celery and carrot to the pot of cooking meat (pulling it out before proceeding); some like nutmeg, others say it overpowers the flavor. Little arguments break out over the "correct" way to make them, with everyone always referring back to the authoritative, "Well, that is the way my grandmother made them!" Since this was cucina povera, whatever was at hand was what they used, which is why everyone's nonna makes it her own way!

Next time I'll post the recipe, which was a little labor of love to translate and adapt, let me tell you! My friends' recipes required measurement conversions (something I'm still not adept at, even after three years), and frankly the quantities were huge! Dorina, my former landlord, told me, "If you're going to make them, you may as well make 300 of them, because why go to all that work for just a few? She had a point. My recipe will make about 200. Once they are prepared and breaded, they can be frozen until you're ready to fry them.

Prossimamente...la ricetta!

PART II - Recipe and Preparation of Authentic Olive all'Ascolana

Pepper Poppers

One of the things I enjoy about la cucina del sud (southern cooking) in Italy, is that they are willing to take things up a notch on the spicy scale. We love Italian cuisine but around Ascoli Piceno, the faintest hint of heat and they are crying "pizzica!" (It stings!)

Not so down in the mother land. They will sprinkle peperoncino on pasta and drizzle chile oil on veggies. They also make these nice little appetizers called peperoncini ripieni di tonno, which I just call pepper poppers. They are so popular you can find them readily available in jars, preserved in olive oil.

They are a tantalizing taste blend of spicy cherry peppers stuffed with tuna. Don't let the strange combo put you off; believe me, they'll get you addicted so you'll be...well, popping them one after the other!

Pepper Poppers

1 jar hot cherry peppers, drained

1 can tuna, packed in olive oil

1 tsp. capers

1 tsp. anchovy paste or 1 or 2 anchovies from a jar (trust me on this, okay?!)

1 clove garlic

about 2 TBSP fresh parsley

In a food processor or blender, combine everything except the peppers, processing until blended and almost creamy. Spoon the filling into the peppers.

That's it! It's almost *too* easy, but it's so delicious. The saltiness from the capers and anchovies blends well with the tuna, while the zing from the peppers makes it all come alive.

One variation I sometimes make is to make it a little more decadent by adding about a tablespoon of cream cheese. It gives it a velvety texture and tones down the heat a little, if you're serving to wimps!

Polpettine di Ricotta

In Basilicata sheep speckle almost hillside, tended by a shepherd who is accompanied by several wooly dogs. They provide a timeless, pastoral image - as well as lots of delicious pecorino cheese. "Pecorino" literally means little pecora, or sheep, and is used to denote cheese made from sheep's milk. There are many varieties depending on the producer and region.

At the agriturismo we recently occupied for a two weeks' stay, the owners make several types, including "normal" slightly aged cheese, long-aged hard cheese for grating, and a unique variety all their own, pecorino with walnuts (delicious!). They also produce excellent sheep's milk ricotta, which we enjoyed plain, stuffed into ravioli, and tucked inside a sweet breakfast cake.

One evening she made polpettine di ricotta (meatballs, but without meat) as part of their antipasto plate. They were fried in oil then topped with a rich, long-simmered tomato sauce. She said they are also traditionally served in a soup, demonstrating the local flair for maintaining the region's cucina povera (peasant's cooking) dishes. The ricotta balls, once fried, are placed on top of a thick slab of bruschetta, which is made from local, hearty semolina bread. Two or three ladlesful of broth (either chicken or vegetable stock) are poured over top. A sprinkling of freshly grated hard pecorino cheese and the soup is ready to serve.

Polpettine di Ricotta

1 1/2 cups fresh ricotta
1 egg
1/3 cup finely grated parmigiano cheese
1 TBSP flour
1 TBSP fresh, minced parsley
salt and pepper to taste
extra flour
olive oil/oil for frying

Put the ricotta in a bowl and break it up with a fork, fluffing it. All all the other ingredients and, using your hands, dig in and blend it all together well. Roll the dough into balls about the size of golf balls.

Lightly coat the balls in flour then fry in hot oil, placing them on paper towels to drain. Serve hot.

You can serve them as stated above - drizzled with sauce or in the soup. They are also good as is, with just a sprinkling of coarsely-ground pepper on top. They can also be drizzled with pesto, with truffle sauce, or creamy mushroom sauce.

Baked Olives

It's olive season over here. The trees are being stripped and the new oil is out. We went to the frantoio last week to watch the process and buy a healthy-sized jug. The gorgeous green color and fruity yet peppery flavor is unmatched. Is it any wonder I love autumn?

While many of the local olives are being pressed, a good portion are also being cured. Most of those are destined to become the local delicacy, Olive all'Ascolana. The local olive variety, the tenera ascolana, is a behometh in the olive category, perfect for stuffing with meat and deep-frying.

Despite my addiction to the fried critters, I still love a simple dish of baked olives, too. Warm and fragrant, they're irresistable and make a nice presentation when serving guests.

Baked Olives

Mixture of black and green olives, unpitted is best
a bit of lemon or orange peel, grated
a sprinkle of chile flakes
a grating of fresh-ground pepper
a sprig of thyme and/or rosemary (fresh)
2 TBSP red wine
about 2 TBSP olive oil

Combine everything and put in an oven-proof baking dish. Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes. Serve warm.

Bitter Bulbs

While visiting la famiglia in Basilicata, my cousin's wife broke open a jar of home-canned treats packed in olive oil. They had a slightly bitter bite, similar to radicchio but with a hint of orange peel. When we asked, "ma cos'e? Cipollini?" she smiled slyly and proudly replied, "no, they're not onions, they're lampascioni."

Lampascioni look deceivingly like baby onions, but they're actually the bulbs of a type of hyacinth. Melina forages for them in the countryside and then brings them home, soaks them in white wine and with orange peel to remove some of the bitterness, then packs them in jars sott'olio, literally, "under olive oil". They're actually somewhat addictive.

Lampascioni are common around southern Italy, but I've never seen them in the stores here in Le Marche. They are often served as part of the antipasto plate, but Melina gave me a quick and simple recipe that turns them into a delicious side dish, too.

Here it is, according to her verbal instructions:

-Peel and chop some potatoes. (It's always understood that you'll know how many you'll need.)

-Drain the jar of lampascioni, and quarter them all.

-Put the potatoes and lampascioni in a baking dish and mix together. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper, then drizzle on a good deal of olive oil.

-Bake it for about 30 to 40 minutes, stirring it up occasionally., until the potatoes are tender.

If you happen to find these tasty tubers, grab a jar and give them a try.

Hummus

It's been hotter than Hades around these parts lately. Which means I don't want to cook. Without air-conditioning, lighting up the stove even to boil pasta makes the whole apartment feel like inferno. We've been eating a lot of piatti freddi (cold dishes). The typical ones around Italy are prosciutto e melone, la caprese (mozzerella di bufala, tomatoes, and basil drizzled with olive oil), and insalata dei fagioli. But really, after a few weeks I'm tired of that stuff. I like variety. I like spice!

Then...miracle of miracles, I found tahini in the health food store. In Italy! :hallelujiah chorus:
So now we're having hummus on crackers; spread on piadina bread, topped with veggies and rolled up; on crostini topped with feta crumbles and artichoke hearts. Relief has come for the piatti freddi rut.

Hummus
1 can garbanzo beans, drained
2 TBSP tahini
1 clove garlic, peeled
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 tsp. ground coriander
1/4 tsp. paprika
dash cayenne
salt and pepper to taste
2 TBSP water
1/4 C. olive oil

Combine all in a blender or food processer and whirl until smooth.

Stuzzichini Party!

Lately we have become enamored with the aperitivo hour, not just for the nice glass of wine to unwind with, but the little snacks they serve alongside. Called stuzzichini, meaning little teasers, they are presented when you order a drink (including non-alcoholic beverages) in the late afternoon. They are tasty little things, and serve to tide you over until the later dinner hour. We’ve been on a quest to find the best in town.

The US equivalent would be hors d’oeuvres. If you’re planning a get-together, the stuzzichini make nice nibbles.

They can be as simple as a piece of salami or prosciutto on a round of bread and a variety of cheeses, but I like the jazzed-up bites better. For instance:

*Spread pesto on a cracker or bread; top with a marinated artichoke heart or a sun-dried tomato that was packed in oil.
*Hollow out cherry tomatoes and stuff with little mozzarella balls (called cigliegine)
*Hollow the cherry tomatoes and stuff with an anchovy and a piece of asiago cheese
*Spread cooked ham with cream cheese and then pesto, roll up and cut into little rounds
*Spread olive paste (available in little jars in most grocery stores) onto baguette rounds and top with an olive half.
*Top cucumber rounds with slices of tomato, topped with pecorino or casciotta cheese – held together with toothpicks
*Wrap small pieces of thinly-sliced prosciutto around small chunks of honeydew or cantaloupe melon.

Lamb-Stuffed Artichoke Hearts

This dish is Greek-inspired, though it tastes very Middle Eastern with the spices and lamb. Though it dramatically raised my butcher's eyebrows when I requested the ground lamb, it is very delicious.

About 1/2 pound of ground lamb
2 TBSP minced parsley
salt and pepper
1/4 tsp. each coriander, cumin and cardamon
1 egg, beaten
Combine all together, mixing well. Set aside.

1 small onion, chopped
2 TBSP pine nuts
about 2 TBSP olive oil
Saute the onion until golden, then add the pine nuts. Stir until the nuts begin to color. Cool.
Add this to the meat mixture.

Clean 5 or 6 artichokes, pulling off all the tough outer leaves and cutting about 1/3 off the tops. Slice in half and scoop out the hairy choke. Fill each with the meat mixure, mounding it up. (Alternatively, if you are able to find frozen artichoke bottoms you can use those for a faster and easier dish!) Place in an oven-proof baking dish.

In a small bowl, combine the juice of 1 lemon, 1 tablespoon of olive oil, and about one cup of water. Pour into the bottom of the baking dish, cover and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes, until the artichokes are tender and the meat is cooked through.

Antipasti Semplice

With the holiday season upon us, we've been entertaining friends and have been invited to potluck-type parties. With limited time there's always the dilemma of what to take, what to put out for nibbles while I finish cooking. I've concocted a couple simple antipasti that go over extremely well and take only minutes to prepare. Both involve prosciutto, a satisfying "decadence" that gives an upscale feel to your antispasto plate. Ready?

1) Prosciutto wrapped breadsticks
This one's real tough...take a rosemary-sea salt crunchy breadstick (available in your regular grocery store, often at the deli area) and take a strip of prosciutto and - yep, wrap it around the top of the breadstick. Repeat. Lay them on a plate or stick them upright in a water glass. Done.

2) Gamberi con pesto e prosciutto
Buy large precooked, peeled shrimp. Dip them in pesto (either a jar of store-bought or homemade, whichever you prefer), then wrap a strip of prosciutto around it. Arrange them on a plate. Done.

You can also purchase extra shrimp and put them out with a little bowl of pesto for dipping. Makes a nice change from tomatoey cocktail sauce.

Semplice. Soooo simple but they never fail to impress our guests.
Buon natale!

copyright 2005 Valerie Schneider

Two Feta Dips

I adore feta cheese! Salty and crumbly, it adds taste and texture to many dishes. As a dip for crisped pitas and veggies, it can't be beat. These two spreads are simple to prepare, too. I buy "bricks" of feta, either in a package or in whey, then break off a good-sized chunk.

1) Feta and Walnut Dip/Spread
In a blender or food processor combine:
1/2 brick feta
1 clove garlic
a handful of toasted walnuts (but it works nicely with toasted pistachios, too)
a handful of fresh parsley
a sprig of thyme, strip off the leaves
2 TBSP water
Pulse to chop. Then add 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil and blend well.

2) Pesto-Feta Dip
1/2 Cup pesto (homemade or from a jar, whatever you prefer)
a chunk of feta
Blend or pulse. Voila...done!

Could it be any simpler than that? And the great thing is, your guests will be duly impressed!

2005 Valerie Schneider