Franci

Last pictures for the day. Panzerotti. It's a simple dough, 50% hydratation more or less. Filling is tomatoes and mozzarella, I beg forgivness to napoletani, we do call fiordilatte "mozzarella". The only difficulty with panzerotti is that if the hedge get wet you will never be able to close it properly. Once the panzerotto hits the oil it will burts open and leak, the oil will start spilling and will get dirty. So you need to be very fast at closing. Do work on one panzerotto at the time. If a couple are wet, fry the others first. For deep frying peanut oil is acceptable (why is so expensive elsewhere outside Italy?)

I have seen friselle in stores, even here in UK or in the States. Usually the are of very poor quality. You could do friselle yourself. It is not difficult and you can work to get the one you like better. I do particurarly like the one make in Salento with wild yeast and barley flour. If you like wild yeast baking and you have a brick oven you are all set . These were made with a biga of 10 hours and a some lard (or oil) in the dough, these friselle in particular don't need soaking. You do a normal bread dogh, shape into doughnuts , flatten a litte bit and bake almost cooked and still in pale color. Take out of the oven cool and cut into two, put back in the oven, at the beginning a little higher temperature, then lower it and completely dry the frisa. How do we eat it. Do you have in mind how in Spain they dress pan con tomate? There is all the ritual of dressing the frise-also getting all dirty by squeezing the juice on your shirt We have some cherry tomatoes that have a very hard skin, very little pulp but tons of juice. Bite into into the tomato with you canine, spread all the juice on the frisella. Add a little salt, crumbled dry oregano (or capers, we use a lot of it! one of the two) and drizzle with oil (extra virgin only). The tomato can be thrown away. Dipending on the kind of frisella you might need to soak it, should be still cruncky.

Focaccia ripiena Its made with durum flour and flour 00, floury potatoes, oil (by the way, when we talk about oil it's ONLY EXTRA VERGIN, also for frying), some water, salt and yeast The filling traditional for focaccia con le cipolle would be "spunzali" (local green onions) or red onion from Acquaviva, the onions are sweat in oil, 3-4 cherry tomatoes are added, capers (under salt!) and black olives to be depitted. The black olives are a problem, the olives we use are cured under wine, so they stain your mouth and tongue when eaten. The inside of the focaccia will turn black because of it. It's not just a mere color thing, it has also a different taste. These capers come from my grandfather garden, now that he is no longer in life the task has been handed to my cousin, it's rather a salty brine but maybe is just my family tradition. We do not like a particular tall focaccia, as you can see is pretty flat With the same dough you could make also a panzerotto al forno. It is filled with tomatoes and mozzarella and wet with more tomato on top

Kevin did present Puglia very well. I was born in Puglia and grown up there, exactly around Taranto still in an area which might be considered part of Murgia tarantina (Murgia or Murge being a plateau divided between Bari, Brindisi and Taranto provinces). It's not a well known region and you might find difficult to find recipes from there. As Kevin described, our food is very simple, it is purely based on the local ingredients: a lot of vegetables (many wild ones), meat (in particular lamb, mutton-castrated, kid, horse, wildboard) and fish (a big culture of raw shellfish) and durum pasta and breads. Unfortunately, many cookbooks are mere collection of recipes, there is no story, no background. I'd like to start talking about what you would find in a bakery. In the North they would call it panetteria, we call the store "il forno". The most famous bread from Puglia, outside Puglia, is Pane d'Altamura http://www.panedialtamura.net/fasi_di_produzione.htm it is made with durum flour and wild yeast starter. Beside pane di Altamura, bread from Laterza is also very famous, it is also made with durum flour, wild yeast and salt. It is baked in a brick oven with a floor made of "chianche" - which is the white stone that is used to pave our streets- fed using local or olive wood (with some pictures http://www.panificiodifonzo.it/) In my area the bread is still durum but with a very dense crumb. Other common baked goods are taralli, a kind of pretzel, a savory crunchy ring made with evo, white wine and often flavored with fennel seeds. There are basically two major categories of taralli: scaldati which are boiled before being baked (like bagels) and the caserecci which are baked directly. You will recognize the scaldati because of the shiny surface. I do like better the caserecci. Taralli traditionally are made with no yeast although the most of the recipe around call for it. But a real pugliese will disapprove. What I know is that my taralli never turn as good as the one I can buy at the bakery. There is also a popular kind of tarallo that is sweet and very common around Easter, it is an egg tarallo covered with scilepp' that is an white frosting. Frisella (plural friselle) is another staple. It is a doughnut shape bread, hard, which is normally soaked in water barely enough to bite into it. There are different kinds of friselle (durum, whole wheat, barley especially in Lecce), some friselle need a longer soaking, others because they are small and have some oil or lard don't need to be pass in water at all. Friselle can keep a long time and many times, in the summer, people will have a frisella for dinner. Let's talk about our fast food: focacce and panzerotti (in puglia don't call them calzoni! You will find only calzoni in pizzeria and are big) Focaccia is everywhere, good and cheap, you can buy in any bakery or there are stores that will sell only focacce and panzerotti. Focaccia ripiena, stuffed focaccia is a classic. Especially the one stuffed with onions, capers, black olives, some cherry tomatoes and sometimes anchovies. Other stuffing would be ham (prosciutto cotto), mozzarella, tomatoes and underoils (like mushrooms), or hot salame, mushrooms underoil, provolone piccante. We do no mix different kind of salumi in the same dish. The other very well famous focaccia is the plain one with cherry tomatoes and dry oregano. Panzerotti instead are generally fried but you can find also baked in the oven. It's a normal bread dough with a filling of mozzarella and tomatoes. Follows some pictures and recipes

gfron1, good work! Were you happy with your delizie as much as those you had in Italy?

Wheat starch is for sure preferred over potatoes

The first time I heard of this 12 fish dishes has been in the States, I think that nowadays almost anybody observes traditions too strickly. Although I am not religious, I like to keep it to menu' di magro (meaning no meat), the Eve is not the right day if you want to eat, in fact it is seen as a day of fastening awating Christmas (for italians the lunch is more important!)

I am translating from the collection of regional recipes of Oretta Zanini De Vita: At the beginning of the twentieth century, at the house of Angelo Musco-famous Sicilian actor-were invited for dinner different artists. One of them being Nino Martoglio, a commedy writer. Donna Saridda, Musco's niece in law, prepared for the night a special dish of spaghetti dressed with a dense tomato sauce, spinkled with ricotta salata and enriched with fried egglpants. After trying it, Martoglio said: Donna Saridda, this is a real Norma (referring to the Bellini's Norma)! Clearly Martoglio considered the Norma a masterpiece and wanted to compliment Donna Saridda. If there are other anecdotes I don't know.

Italian is very easy to pronunce, you read as it's written! But there are sounds that are difficolt for english speakers. Gl for ex. it's one sound, g and l are not pronouced separately. Also gnocchi, which for me is a painful word to hear mispronouced, or bruschetta. Che, ghe, chi, ghi are guttural che=ke chi=ki here you can listen to the sounds http://www.askoxford.com/languages/it/toi_.../pronunciation/ For pasta alla Norma, Norma referres to Vincenzo Bellini opera The traditional pasta aglio e olio doesn't require breadcrumbs. Although many recipes in the South (Puglia and Sicily in particular) use often toasted bread crumbs to sprinkle over some pasta dishes: see orecchiette con le cime di rapa.

I. The Table: A: Cold Salads 1) Octopus In my hometown is cooked very simple: Water, salt and a glass of red wine vinegar. I cook in the pressure cooker for 20 minutes. It should be fork tener but not overcooked. Let it cool in its own water. I do not take out the suckers, only the thickest skin parts, dress with evo, parsley and lemon. Or if you wish to turn it into a warm appetizer you could go for polpo alla pignatta, octopus cooked in a claypot in a spicy sause. 2)Marinated Anchovies Do you find fresh anchovies? I always had an hard time to get them when I lived in Manhattan. These are great Clean the anchovies removing the head and innards, scales, wash and open, take out the spine but do not divide the two fillets. Dry the fishes. Take a liter of white wine vinegar and add kosher salt to saturation almost. Add the sardines in layers and let marinate for half an hour to 45 minutes dipending on the size of the anchovies (if kept to long they become hard and it should be avoided). I put the anchovies on inverted plates to drain and then dry well. Make layers of anchovies, evo, chopped parsley (or mint and parsley), garlic and if you wish some dry hot peppers. C: Stuffed Bread: Although it's not a stuffed bread it is traditional for Christmas in Puglia to make pettole, it's a very slack dough deep fried. There is a savory version with anchovies and a sweet version were the pettole are dipped in vincotto or honey (they look similar to what americans-italian americans-called zeppole but they taste different, zeppole for me are something else) Or Danubio stuffed with cheese/ham or besciamella/vegetables D-E-F I'll do single plates with taste of cheese-salumi-under oils As for salumi, in NY I did really like to go and buy pancetta pepata, guanciale, capocollo and speck at Buonitalia at chelsea mkt. Salame forget, in the States always taste terrible, I cannot manage to eat. A nice bresaola also could be an idea, I dress with a little oil, lemon (or sumac). For the under oils at Grace's mkt in ues they carry this brand that is called Puma Conserve, their grilled artichokes under oil are the best store bought. H: Hot Apps: 1)Baked Clams (you are already cooking it in pasta, why repeating yourserlf) I would do a mix of fried vegetables: califlowers (blanched), baby artichokes, mushrooms and baccala' (it's Christmas Eve!) II. Sit Down A)Pasta: 1)Spaghetti w/ Spicey Mussle sauce 2)Spaghetti with clam sauce 3)Big Night Rigatoni I'll do or mussles or clams and I will go for a soup of Tubettini and mussels B)Meat: I'll go with fish (just because of the primo piatto and because it's Christmas Eve). But for meat I'll do a Bollito misto with mostarda, salsa verde and rossa and boiled vegetables (and at this point tortellini in capon stock as first dish). Or lamb and potatoes in the oven. III.Desserts back to the table: 1)Cakes- panettone, pandoro with crema al mascarpone. You could do also a zuppa inglese using pandoro 2)Cookies- mostaccioli, amaretti morbidi, paste ricce, cartellate, purcidd, panforte, certosino 3)Pies- Pastiera (now it's always made also for Christmas

I will go the otherway around caponata topped with fried sardines. Caponata is one of my favourites. This is a "fake" caponata, suggested by Gic and Albenghi on Gennarino forum

I lived in Milan for 6 years and it's one of my favourite cities in the world. If it's your husband first time there, I'd go for sure around Brera for aperitivo and I would walk from Colonne di San Lorenzo to Navigli after dinner for drinks. You need to go there to have a feel for Milano There is one osteria that I tried this year and my family many times Abele via della Temperanza 5, subway stop Pasteur Tel 02 26.13.855 It's a nice and rustic place, the waiters are very, very nice. Their specialty is risotto. They usually serve a different tris of risotti every night. It's more cucuna Lombarda and veneta.

Rombo? Turbot, I think. Maybe this could be helpful From mareinitaly.it This is Rombo chiodato This is Rombo liscio less pricey than chiodato Not all flat fishes are skinned the same way, dove soles for ex. need to be skinned before filetting, it's just make easier to pull the skin.

I am sure we'll talk about this againg. In Puglia also cooking with wild herbs is very common I took these immages from www.semialportico.it One is cicoria selvatica (it makes a blue color flour) Tarassaco (dandelion from french) is very similar to cicoria selvatica but it has a yellow flower In Puglia, I cannot find a picture we have also something that looks like dandelion with red stalks and lightly prickly leaves and we called "sivone" In Sicily I am preatty sure the can find wild chards (for the schiacciata catanese) These not wild but I used to buy in the States because available, there is still called dandelion (for who lives in NY, in Astoria you can find plenty of dandelion varieties) we call it Catalogna (and there is the variety with or without puntarelle)

Sorry, but I think Silvano Bugialli version is his version (by the way he is unknown in Italy), I have always heard of fried eggplants, maybe to unmold gives a better presentation. Both Italians and Spaniards use meat and chocolate: what about cinghiale (or rabbit or game) in dolce e forte

I am pretty sure you are looking for the Torta verde della Lucchesia, typical from Lucchesia and Lunigiana, also known as Torta d'Erbi (yes, erbi not erbe). The recipe I have saved in my files has zucchini and spinach . Also in Viareggio is typical a sweet cake with zucchini that is called scarpaccia

Pontorno, I don't understand what are you saying, rape sold in balls? That would be redbeets and are not interchangeble with spinach

In general, in the south we use durum flour, thinner than semolina to make pasta with no eggs. In sardinia they do use semolina+eggs+water. Since the semolina to dissolve requires a lot of work, nowadays a lot of people switched to durum+eggs+water. The dough with semolina it requires hours of hand mixing (according always to my sardinian friend) and at least 45' in the mixer. I did try these "Culisgionis de arescottu" last week form my friend recipe and if the filling is too soft they add a little bit of semolina.

Testarolo singular, terstaroli plural In the Lunigiana area they boil the testaroli cut in lozenges until slightly puffed (couple minutes) then they dress them with pesto and grated pecorino. But from friends of my italian forum I heard the the fresh testaroli (testo is the cast iron pan where they are cooked on the ashes) said that are also piled up and served rolled as crepes with a filling of oil and parmigiano, or pesto, or mushrooms. They told me that the fresh ones are infinitely better than the one bought under vacuum. Unfortunately I have never tried them.

The name 'mpanatigghie" could be italianized in impanatine, doesn't remind you empanadas? Likely the desserts has been brought by the Spaniards. I have a nice collection of regional recipes, I alway take these recipes with the benefit of the doubt, they are too wide and are superficial, I prefer to go to a person from the area to ask for a recipe. Anyway, I checked on these collection and I have two sicilian recipes for capellini d'angelo: 1. pasta is bleanched, deep fried, dressed with candied and fresh fruit and sprinkled with powdered moscovado sugar. 2.Capellini d'angelo with spinach, raisin fried and drizzle with honey. I don't think these dishes are very common nowadays, instead still very popular in the north are torta ricciolina or torta di tagliatelle (in Emilia and Veneto). Post the ingredients and amounts and paraphrase the directions, and you'll be alright. ← 'mpanatigghi Gic recipe from gennarino forum http://www.gennarino.org/forum/viewtopic.p...igghie&start=15 For 30 pieces The dough: Flour 0, 400 g (all purpose flour is ok, Flour 0 has a little more protein than 00) Sugar 125 g Lard 100 g Yolks 100 g (about 5-6) whole milk 135 ml Baking ammonia (ammonium carbonate) +baking soda 6 g Filling Lean Veal in one piece 250 g Bleanched, toasted and grated almonds 180 g Sugar 110 g Bittersweet chocolate 63-70% chocolate, 80 g Bitter cocoa 5 g Freshly grounded cinnamon 5 g cloves n. 12 1 lemon zest egg white 180 g (about 4) vanilla essence Plus Lard to cook the meat and to grease the baking tray Flour 00 to dust the table 10X to dust the finished sweets Preparation times: 2 hours to make the dough and the filling 8 hours of rest for the dough and the filling 30 minutes to roll and fill the sweets 12 minute of baking time at 170 Celsius For the dough In the stand mixer mix flour, sugar and rising agents. Add the lard and egg yolks working with the hook at 1st spead for some minutes. Add the milk and increase the spead working until the gluten will activate. You should get a smooth and elastic dough. Wrap it in plastic and refrigerate at around 10 celsius for at least 8 hrs. For the filling: toast in the pan the bleanched almonds and grate. Pan fry the meat with lard and cook to internal temperature of 70 C. Let rest until lukewarm, any juice put back in the pan. Mince with a chef knive the meat and put bak in the pan with the almonds, cocoa, chocolate and sugar. Add the cinammon and the grounded cloves and melt on the stove. When lukewarm add lemon zest, vanilla and the eggs slightly beaten. Refrigerate for 8 hrs. Divede the dough in 4 and work one piece at the time (leaving the rest refrigerated). Roll down the dough very thin, about 1mm. Using a pasty cutter (8cm) cut rounds, add the filling (don't be stingy!) and close, helping yourself with the back of a fork and cut again with the pastry cutter to make a clean border. With a twizer make a hole on top of the pasty and bake for 12 minutes or until the borders get to a nice golden color. Let it cool and dust with 10X. According to my mom that's me , I am the perfect Michellaccio. Anyway, it's a very popular way of saying, I also had to check on internet, I found that could be a famous fiorentino that at certain point decided that he didn't want to work anymore or could come from Spanish and French miquelet= roaming, dishonest) Why, because of chocolate? I don't think they are related. Unmolded? Never seen in this way, like a parmigiana I did make melanzane al cioccolato a couple years ago, it's a traditional sweet from the costiera amalfitana on Ferragosto Look at this http://www.prezzemoloefinocchio.it/modules...?articleid=2428 Adam, this timballo looks very good. I don't generally like this kind of dishes but yours look very tempting indead.

For sure texture. Think of a raviolo made with brasato rather then chickpeas or potatoes or a vegetable. And the veal is still very delicate.

Hi mrbigjas, they can be served at the end of the meal with coffee but they could be eaten also as a snack. I served them to some ukranian friends, they could tell the cocoa powder in it, the cinnamon, the almonds, the chocolate but not the meat

Just in the last couple weeks, on the Italian food forum Gennarino, for which I am one of the moderators, we have been working in our lab to come out with a good recipe of 'mpanatigghi or 'mpanatigghie (there is some discussion if they are masculine or feminine). Maybe many of you are familiar with this sweet, it's typical from ragusano: a very thin and delicate dough that encases a very unconventional filling being veal meat and chocolate Mine was one of the first attempts and I never had the opportunity to try the real 'mpanatigghie before, so expecially my dough was off, I made more a shortdough although the end up result was not bad Gic, one of our administrators come up with a recipe which he considers very close to the original If you want to look at the picture here is a link for it http://www.gennarino.org/forum/viewtopic.p...er=asc&start=15 Let me know if you are interested in the recipe and I will post it here in the recipes. I whish I could post more stuff because in gennarino there are very knowledgeble Sicilians and there are very nice recipes around but I think would be contrary to the policy of egullet.

Shaya, I am really happy that my involtini inspired such an happy dinner, yours look very good!

I did broil to the max of my oven and they were still juicy while hot. Deep fried are certainly better (a sicilian friend of mine raccomanded no more than 90 seconds). If you deep fry prepare the involtini with advance and keep refrigerated