cookitaly.com

Ready for the new Giveaway?

 

This time I wanted to offer a prize that anyone and everyone can enjoy, wherever they are, so this giveaway is for a

50 $ Amazon Gift Card

to spend any way you like. I was thinking the books of your choice in the language of choice, but you can use the card any way you wish if you win, no restrictions.

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If I were the winner I would head for cookbooks so I thought I'd mention a few favourite Italian cookbooks here so you can look up any you don't already know. In order of the oldest to newest they are:

Pellegrino Artusi - Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well - First published 1891 - University of Toronto Press ( 2003); ISBN-10: 0802086578 ISBN-13: 978-0802086570

 


Elisabeth David - Italian Food - First Published 1979 - Penguin Rev Ed (1998); ISBN-10: 0140273271 ISBN-13: 978-0140273274

Marcella Hazan - Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking - Knopf (1992); ISBN-10: 039458404X ISBN-13: 978-0394584041

Carol Field - Celebrating Italy - William Morrow & Co (1990); ISBN-10: 0688070930 ISBN-13: 978-0688070939

Antonio Carluccio - Carluccio's Complete Italian Food Quadrille Publishing (2002) ISBN-10: 1903845564 ISBN-13: 978-1903845561

Giorgio Locatelli - Made in Italy: Food and Stories Fourth Estate (2006); ISBN-10: 1841157015 ISBN-13: 978-1841157016

The Italian Academy of Cuisine - La Cucina - The Regional Cooking of Italy - Rizzoli (2009); ISBN-10: 0847831477 ISBN-13: 978-0847831470

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Amazon Gift Card, Cook Italy Blog Second Giveaway

 
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Spring Song Pasta

About the imminence of spring and the rewards of eating seasonally

 

The arrival of the first fava beans, coinciding with the arrival of the big fat round Roman artichokes, is the first welcome sign of spring in the food markets of Bologna.

When I saw the fresh fava pods in the market about 10 days ago, my heart did a little excited dance. On checking I found the price was too high, a sure sign that these were the very first of the season, the "primizie". Primizie produce fetches premium prices  - sorry, tongue twister! - though the produce is not yet at its best, and that's because impatient gourmands are prepared to pay more, to satisfy a year-old yearning. But I knew that the beans inside would be sweet, yes, but they would also be too too tiny, the pods almost empty. You'd be paying for the pods mainly and you can't cook the pods!

Yesterday however the price had already dropped to half last week's and my trusted green grocer assured me the pods were full of good sized beans. I was so thrilled to buy them, my first of the season, smiles and joy!

I eat seasonally, which in a way means serially, one a thing at a time, as it ripens and reaches the market. We've been indulging in artichokes cooked many different ways through the winter, and enjoying red radicchio, winter greens, bulb fennel, broccoli and cardoons. Next, very soon now, we will be eating a lot of fresh favas, peas and asparagus; a lot of peas especially, because their season is so short. Later I will be as excited to make my first fresh tomato sauce as I am sad when I make my last one of the year. Then the basil, the tiny leaf Genoa basil, will arrive, finally good enough to add perfume and not just colour. Then the colourful soft fruits will start and so on and on. It really is sheer joy to eat like this. Not only do you eat everything at its absolute peak, when it tastes most intensely of itself, there is also the relish of anticipation, the added pleasure of re-encountering a cherished missed flavour after a long patient wait.

 

In central Italy, because the timing of the favas coincides with lambing time, a common antipasto this time of year is a heap of fava pods on the table with a chunk of young Pecorino, aged just 20 days or so, and a fresh loaf of bread alongside: perfectly matched food that sings of spring. Few things can beat this rustic feast. The sweet raw fava beans, the fresh cheese with its aromas of milk and grass, good bread, good  company, a glass of wine: this centuries old ritual is a perfect celebration that connects with the the earth, with its rhythms and cycles.

Stuffed Artichokes

 

I grew up with Maltese style stuffed whole artichokes. These have a very savoury filling of breadcrumbs, parsley, garlic, anchovy and olives, sometimes capers too, which is pushed down between the leaves and into the heart. To eat them each leaf is pulled, the filling eaten, the centre of leaf scraped off and the remains of the leaf piled tidily or untidily to one side of the plate.

I was delighted to discover the Italian way of preparing artichokes, where all the stuff discarded at the side of the plate is removed in advance, so that every delicious mouthful on your plate is one hundred per cent edible.

This does mean more preparation, more work for the cook, but it is so well worth it that I do it every time with one exception. Children seem to enjoy the ritual of scraping leaf by leaf so for kids I leave the artichokes whole.

There are oodles of artichoke recipes in Italy's regional cuisines and many traditional artichoke fillings, literally dozens of ways of cooking the many varieties available through the long artichoke season that runs from October to early May. In Abruzzo and Molise they have a tuna, caper, anchovy and parsley filling. In Calabria they fill with ground meat, pecorino, parsley and breadcrumbs. I have come across but never tasted a Naples recipe for a filling of chopped left over cooked beef and dried mushrooms stewed with tomatoes; when the sauce is thick and much reduced, it is mixed with grated cheese and parsley and used to stuff the "carciofi". Liguria too makes use of dried mushrooms, mixing them with the chopped artichoke stems, parsley, garlic, breadcrumbs, grated cheese, oregano and nutmeg.

Cavatelli e Bietole

Cavatelli is a favourite pasta shape of mine. The shape is from Southern Italy and it is popular in the regions of Molise, Basilicata and Apulia.

The verb "cavare" means to scoop or gouge, so "cavato" means scooped or hollowed out, concave, and cavatelli are little scooped out pasta pieces. A shape that lends itself to nestling sauce in its hollows. I like making Cavatelli, whether the simple cowrie shell shapes, sometimes called "cavatelluzzi" made with just the index finger or the many fingers longer version. I like it because though you need to shape each piece one at a time, you don't need a pasta machine or a rolling pin, just your hands, flour and water and a work surface. Wood is better, because pasta likes warmth but anything will do at a pinch.

I still have my gorgeously fragrant stone ground Senatore Cappelli flour and this is what I used: 250 g (a generous half pound) durum wheat flour and 125 ml (half a cup) of warm water, plenty for two.

I made the dough using the usual durum wheat pasta proportions of about half the weight of flour in warm water. No other ingredients. I kneaded the two together long enough to get a smooth dough that looked like this. I put it away to rest under a glass bowl - a plastic bag or plastic wrap will also do.

 

Magic!

This is why I like doing cooking classes for kids: 

And now you're here, check out my Giveaway.

Crisp Calamari

  
Who doesn't love these? Definitely one of my favourite things but not that easy to get right. There are two tricky things to watch for: making sure the calamari are not rubbery and making sure they crisp and not greasy after deep frying. Italians are superb at this and in my time here I have garnered many hints and tips and use them all. For Italian frying tips and trick check out my Posterous Blog - a good idea to read that up before making this recipe.

Here I am sharing a recipe for making crisp outside, tender inside Fried Calamari to enjoy as a pre-meal antipasto with your Prosecco or as a meal in itself. I say "a" recipe because i don't always make them this way, but these did turn out especially good. I used a batter this time, though often I just use flour. Because I am fond of a nice light crisp batter I like this Fritto (also called Frittutra) both ways, though many Italian insist just flour is best for frying shrimp and calamari rings. And in truth flour on its own does adhere better to the squid rings You can try both ways and see which you prefer. If you use only flour, place the flour in a bag, pop the dried squid inside and shake till they are well coated. Nice to just throw the bag away after and have nothing to wash up.

A little note: the more finely milled the flour, the better it coats the item to be fried. This means less risk of spitting as the liquid in the squid (or vegetable) leaks out. It also means a very fast seal is created round the item being fried, which stops it from becoming penetrated by the oil and turning greasy. Here I used chickpea flour, as I often do with fish. I like it because apart from coating beautifully it also makes the finished calamari that little bit more golden. Other fine flours you can experiment with are rice flour, potato flour and corn starch, though when I have used these I have never so far used them alone but just substituted for about a third of the regular flour. 

Fritto di Calamari

For 4 as a starter or 2 as a main course:

300g (a little more than half a pound) of fresh whole squid

150g (5 ounces) chickpea flour

150-200ml (one third to fourth fifths of a cup) ice cold fizzy mineral water

milk for soaking the squid

ground nut (peanut) oil for deep frying

a small piece of butter

a slice of old stale bread

an ice cube straight form the freezer

salt

a lemon

First you need to clean the squid, and this video by 5min.com courtesy of www.crafsters.org shows you how if you've never done it before.

Once you've cleaned the squid, cut the triangular fins off, and cut the bodies into rings. If the tentacles section is quite big cut it into two or three.

Keep the tentacles and fins separate from the rings and place in two bowls, then cover in milk and leave for at least 2 hours - this helps to keep them tender.

 
When you are ready to fry, dry off the squid on paper towels first. Prepare you serving platter by lining it with paper towels

And the Winner is.........

 

Thank you all for participating, I was thrilled there were so many entries for my first Cook italy Bologna Cooking Class Giveaway!

To draw the winner I used the random numbers generator at random.org and this is the result:

Draw #1,528
1st draw held by Carmelita Caruana
Completed on Sunday, 14 February 2010 at 22:18:46 Europe/Rome Time
65 entrants, 1 winner

Winners (1)

1st: 24 - XXXATerksdotcom

Entrants (65)

#22: -XXXiniAThotmaildotcom
#23: -XXXadsATgmaildotcom
#24: -XXXATerksdotcom
#25: -XXXATstutzdotcom
#26: -XXXisaATyahoodotcom

The winner of a cooking class for two in Bologna is Teresa O'Connor. I e-mailed her and waited for her reply before publication and this what she wrote:

Carmelita: Yes! Yes! I accept with great delight. Thanks for the best Valentine’s Day present ever…How exciting! I’m not quite sure when we can get to Bologna. But I promise you, we’ll come before Feb. 2011 – and we can’t wait… What do you think are the best times to come? Meanwhile, my husband said he has gained weight just by looking at your Web site…

Congratulations Teresa!

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It was fun reading all your favourite pasta dishes. Some people got so carried away thinking about Italian food that some non pasta dishes got nominated: risotto and gnocchi got several votes and veal saltimbocca and coratella alla Romana also got mentions, though they are main courses.

 

Of the pasta dishes, pasta with seafood, especially Linguine or Spaghetti alle Vongole (with clams)  was the most popular. There were several mentions too for pasta dressed with pesto, Spaghetti Carbonara and the Southern Italian favourite Spaghetti al Pomodoro, with the eggplant Pasta alla Norma edging in also. 

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AND IF YOU WERE NOT LUCKY ....

Just come back tomorrow when I will be posting a NEW Giveaway right here and you can try your luck again!