The Cooking and Cuisine of Sicily

[Pontormo]

P.S. Elie: congratulations on making the first successful batch of cannoli here. Love the Texas-inspired technique.

[Adam Balic]

Magnificent! I like the serving tray, too; is it Sicilian?

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No the plates are Deruta Majolica from Umbria, but in reality they pretty much what most of the people throughout Europe would have used if they could afford it in the 16/17th century, so not so regional as such now.

[Franci]

Franci, those 'ravioli' veal-chocolate things look wonderful.  What a strange name for them, do you have any idea where it came from?

I was thinking of you last night, as I made "spaghetti alla siracusa" from my "Specialita` d'Italia" cook book.  I had no idea if this was a primi course, or maybe a dolce!  Basically you partially cook some capellini, then coat it in beaten egg, then breadcrumbs.  You then fry the capellini in strutto, and dress it with a sauce of honey and orange juice.  It was such a wild combination of flavors, textures and techniques that I had to try it.  It reminded me of a Cantonese dessert noodle dish, where the noodles are pan fried and then served with sugar and red vinegar, which happens to be truly delicious.  Let's put it this way, we ate the whole plate, but kept thinking of different ways to adjust it: add pine nuts, maybe some pepperoncino, etc. Has anyone else come across a recipe like this?

(Note: no sardines were slaughtered to make this dish....)  Now, I can't get the photo to load...it must be the gods punishing me for teasing you guys!

Tonight's granita experiment: watermelon-ginger.

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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).

[...]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.

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Post the ingredients and amounts and paraphrase the directions, and you'll be alright.

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'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.

Michelasso: Mangiare, bere e andare a spasso."

Who is this Michelasso? Is he only ficitional?  Is it still possible to join this nunnery?

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)

Franci:  Your dolce made with chocolate and ground veal reminds me of a Neapolitan dish I would like to try later: a chocolate filled eggplant timbale that is slathered with chocolate once unmolded.  Do you know if this is due to cultural exchanges between the southern coastal city and the island, or....? 

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

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Adam, this timballo looks very good. I don't generally like this kind of dishes but yours look very tempting indead.

[Pontormo]

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

Famous Florentine from the Quattrocento? Michelozzo, the one-time partner of Donatello?

Franci:  Your dolce made with chocolate and ground veal reminds me of a Neapolitan dish I would like to try later: a chocolate filled eggplant timbale that is slathered with chocolate once unmolded.  Do you know if this is due to cultural exchanges between the southern coastal city and the island, or....?  

Why, because of chocolate?  I don't think they are related. Unmolded? Never seen in this way...

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Yes, because of the chocolate which I realize is used with savory, main-course dishes in Mexico. I made the connection also because Sicilian caponata combines eggplant with cocoa.

As far as "unmolded" goes, there is a book on Naples by Giuliano Bugialli that makes something like your dish, only it is molded in a large bowl and after cooking, it is coated with a shiny chocolate glaze. I looked at the publication once in a bookstore, so I cannot be certain of the recipe, but I do not believe the eggplant slices were fried in a batter.

[FoodMan]

Magnificent! I like the serving tray, too; is it Sicilian?

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I have to second that...wow. Did you use lard in the crust as well?

Hathor-

the meatballs have 1lb of veal, 2 eggs, parsley, breadcrumbs, Locatelli Romano, and salt. they are cooked in olive oil to brown then a cup of water with a tablespoon of tomato paste is added. After simmering that liquid is drained off. Now place the meatballs back in the pan and add a cup or so of toasted ground almonds. Then a 1/2 cup red wine vinegar with 2 tablespoons of sugar and let it simmer till mostly evaporated.

Pontormo-

I just use whole cow's milk for ricotta. I do have a recipe posted in RecipeGullet for it and it lasts at least a week in the fridge. To make it "salata" I placed some between two identical bowls with a cheesecloth in between and a weight on top in the fridge overnight. I needed better drainage and longer time I think. BTw, making this ricotta-like cheese is not hard at all. Much easier than making yogurt and the result is better than most of the grainy stuff you buy at the store.

[Franci]

As far as "unmolded" goes, there is a book on Naples by Giuliano Bugialli that makes something like your dish, only it is molded in a large bowl and after cooking, it is coated with a shiny chocolate glaze.  I looked at the publication once in a bookstore, so I cannot be certain of the recipe, but I do not believe the eggplant slices were fried in a batter.

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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

[Adam Balic]

No lard in the pastry. From what I have read, there is a wide variation in the composition of the short crusts made in Italy, so I used all butter as this is what I am use too using.

[fortedei]

As far as "unmolded" goes, there is a book on Naples by Giuliano Bugialli that makes something like your dish, only it is molded in a large bowl and after cooking, it is coated with a shiny chocolate glaze.  I looked at the publication once in a bookstore, so I cannot be certain of the recipe, but I do not believe the eggplant slices were fried in a batter.

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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

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A few things. Silvano Bugialli might be unknown in Italy. In fact, who is Silvano Bugialli?

Guliano Bugialli, however, is very well known, particularly in his native Tuscany, but perhaps not in the south.

The other thing about Bugialli, is that he has spent an inordinate amount of time, doing original research, something that is very seldom done in the food world.

When he talks about the history of the dish, this is not being made up. It is based on research done in libraries (and on the ground). nothing has been made up. His knowledge about the historical aspect of Italian cuisine is among the very best in Italy. He also happens to be a great cooking teacher (having started giving lessons in Florence when there were no other cooking schools in Italy for foreigners) and a wonderful person.

[Kevin72]

I dove back into Sicilian cooking this weekend, starting with a dinner party Saturday night.

We began with a cocktail that has mutated over time from Mario's generic recipe of seasonal fruit with sweet vermouth: he recommended watermelon at one point and I tried it. Since then, I've started augmenting it with vodka and lime juice, and now, to give it that extra exotic Sicilian kick, rosewater.

Antipasto I:

Fried Zucchini

Sticks of baby zucchini are twice-fried, then topped with sugar, of all things.

The second antipasto, which I didn't get a picture of, was the same Pan Fried Cheese I did last year. I also forgot to dust it in flour before I seared it off, so it was a little more messy. Not quite as . . . stimulating as last year's.

Primo was pasta norma, which a number of people have already discussed, so I won't go too much more into it:

But I love it. The nearly meaty eggplant, the sweet basil off of the spicy tomato sauce, and then the ricotta salata is what sends it home for me.

For the main, it was Mario's grilled lamb. A leg of lamb is marinated overnight with a mint paste, grilled, then served with a dipping "pesto" of green olives, almonds, chilies, and orange juice. I forgot (again, maybe that cocktail was a little stronger than I intended?) to get a more appealing pic of it right off the grill. So, you get a pic of a platter of chopped up meat instead:

You can see the pesto in the very upper right hand corner. I had planned on getting the meat to 100F internal, then tossing it in my oven on the keep warm setting (145 F, the perfect temp for medium rare lamb) but it took forever to warm up internally and I guess once I did get it in the oven, there was quite a bit of carryover cooking to be done. So I found it a little drier than I wanted, but everyone else liked it. I was quite pleased to see a faint smoke ring on the inside of the meat though!

Served with it was a simple arugula and lemon salad.

To drink with the meal, a sampler of three Sicilian reds that are pretty easy to come by here:

I liked the middle one the best, but they all had a nice, jammy, intense fruit flavor.

Dessert was a gelato sampler:

Yucky pic. They were pistachio, nutella, and cinnamon ricotta.

Three interesting things played out in each gelato. The hands-down fave was the nutella, but it has never completely frozen and melts almost immediately at room temp. The cinnamon ricotta, by contrast, is rock-hard and grainy. I've made it before and it was a highlight; not sure what's going on here. And the pistachio, normally also a favorite and it tasted great on its own, but alongside the other two, it lost alot of its sweetness and almost tasted more salty than anything.

[Kevin72]

My wife's birthday meal was this weekend. Each year, she'll pick an ingredient, invariably seafood, and then I make an entire meal using that ingredient. This year was tuna.

We started with tuna "polpettini"; tuna with potatoes, ricotta salata, green onion, and normal ricotta, rolled in breadcrumbs and fried. They are then finished with a spicy tomato sauce:

Then, a tuna pizza-type thing.

I rubbed a tuna steak with ground coriander and star anise and seared it. The pizza dough had green onions in it. I baked the dough separate, then topped it with arugula, the sliced tuna, and some of the leftover almond olive pesto from the previous night.

For a pasta, penne with spicy zucchini and canned tuna:

Finally, cribbing from Franci's glorious involtini, but with far less appealing results:

In the stuffing I used bread crumbs, slivers of onion, fresh figs from our tree out back, and pistachios.

[Pontormo]

In the stuffing I used...fresh figs from our tree out back...

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Makes up for the summer weather in Texas?

Nice birthday tradition, Kevin. Great choice of words this year and the polpettini look especially good.

[Kevin72]

In the stuffing I used...fresh figs from our tree out back...

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Makes up for the summer weather in Texas?

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At this point I'd need a Jennifer Connelly tree to make up for this summer's weather.

[Adam Balic]

Your dolce made with chocolate and ground veal reminds me of a Neapolitan dish I would like to try later: a chocolate filled eggplant timbale that is slathered with chocolate once unmolded.  Do you know if this is due to cultural exchanges between the southern coastal city and the island, or....? 

liccumie are eggplant and chocolate dolce made in the same region as the meat and chocolate dolce.

[Pontormo]

Here's something in English on Modica's chocolate & the Sicilian eggplant dolci Adam names: Antica Dolceria Bonajuto (Herald Tribune).

Edited July 24, 2006 by Pontormo (log)

[FoodMan]

Kevin-

I love these Tuna-balls, do they have any breadcrumbs as part of them, or is it just on the outside?

On another note, what's up with Itlians breaking the "no cheese with seafood" rule whenever they like? In this case Ricotta salata with tuna. I've also seen Mario use Pecorino as part of stuffing for clams....

[hathor]

Buon compleano Mrs. Kevin72!!

Kevin, I make 'your' fried cheese antipasto all the time. It's amazing...people just sop up every bit of juice, cheese...

As for the gelato experiments, they are fun aren't they? Its really weird, and I hope I've kept good enough notes, but some flavors really need to spend a few days in the freezer, it's like a reverse braise, and others lose their freshness. Some flavors 'taste' colder than others. And as you've noticed, some freeze and melt so much quicker than others. I've got a book on frozen desserts but it doesn't mention too much about this. I had an orange-fennel granita set up in half the time as the other fennel flavors. Why? I'm sure one of the scientific persons floating around eG would be able to explain this phenomena, and I'm not talking about the addition of any alcohol, that I understand effects freezing/melting.

Here is a recent granita di cafe. Mine is with a little panna drizzled over it, Jeff likes his straight.

I'm really not much of a dessert person, missing a sweet tooth or something. But I did manage to pull off some good canoli yesterday. Short saga: On Saturday, I sent Jeff (my very amiable partner and guinea pig) off to Francesco's farm to get some sheep ricotta. He came back, about 2 hours later, completely cross-eyed drunk!! Francesco's new name for him is "Jeff American Express" and by the time Francesco was through introducing him to his home made wines, I was lucky to get the ricotta at all.

Sunday morning, I cranked out the shells, before the heat of the day.

Kevin, trust me, I was thinking of you as I went to pull off the first shell! But, they were fine and slipped off easlily. PM me and I'll give you my shell recipe...I can't imagine why else you would have had a problem. I even experimented with taking them off hot, taking them off cold...Who knows?

I filled them with the sweetened sheep ricotta, 2 varieties: with toasted grated almond, and with grated fresh lemon and dried orange peel. Unfortunately, I was running late, and in a hurry, so no final pic of the finished product. I even got a round of applause from my friendly Umbrian neighbors, who are slightly mystified why I am cooking Sicilian, but whatever, a round of applause was a very nice thank you.

edited because I really cannot proofread and I'm still fighting with the photo upload god!

Edited July 24, 2006 by hathor (log)

[FoodMan]

Buon compleano Mrs. Kevin72!!   

Kevin, I make 'your' fried cheese antipasto all the time. It's amazing...people just sop up every bit of juice, cheese...

As for the gelato experiments, they are fun aren't they? Its really weird, and I hope I've kept good enough notes, but some flavors  really need to spend a few days in the freezer, it's like a reverse braise, and others lose their freshness. Some flavors 'taste' colder than others. And as you've noticed, some freeze and melt so much quicker than others. I've got a book on frozen desserts but it doesn't mention too much about this. I had an orange-fennel granita set up in half the time as the other fennel flavors. Why? I'm sure one of the scientific persons floating around eG would be able to explain this phenomena, and I'm not talking about the addition of any alcohol, that I understand effects freezing/melting.

Here is a recent granita di cafe. Mine is with a little panna drizzled over it, Jeff likes his straight.

I'm really not much of a dessert person, missing a sweet tooth or something. But I did manage to pull off some good canoli yesterday. Short saga: On Saturday, I sent Jeff (my very amiable partner and guinea pig) off to Francesco's farm to get some sheep ricotta.  He came back, about 2 hours later, completely cross-eyed drunk!!  Francesco's new name for him is "Jeff American Express" and by the time Francesco was through introducing him to his home made wines, I was lucky to get the ricotta at all.

Sunday morning, I cranked out the shells, before the heat of the day.

Kevin, trust me, I was thinking of you as I went to pull off the first shell!  But, they were fine and slipped off easlily. PM me and I'll give you my shell recipe...I can't imagine why else you would have had a problem. I even experimented with taking them off hot, taking them off cold...Who knows?

I filled them with the sweetened sheep ricotta, 2 varieties: with toasted grated almond, and with grated fresh lemon and dried orange peel.  Unfortunately, I was running late, and in a hurry, so no final pic of the finished product.  I even got a round of applause from my friendly Umbrian neighbors, who are slightly mystified why I am cooking Sicilian, but whatever, a round of applause was a very nice thank you. 

edited because I really cannot proofread and I'm still fighting with the photo upload god!

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At least the Umbrians recognized the food as Sicilian

Yes, Kevin you should give cannoli another try. They come off with no problem. Hathor's shells are nice and crackly. I certainly want to aim for that thinness next time I make mine.

[Pontormo]

On another note, what's up with Itlians breaking the "no cheese with seafood" rule whenever they like? In this case Ricotta salata with tuna. I've also seen Mario use Pecorino as part of stuffing for clams....

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The idea of a rule seems to respond to the number of dishes that top dried pasta with toasted breadcrumbs instead of grated cheese when a featured ingredient is seafood.

However, see post 109 here in Kevin's blog last year where a North/South divide is questioned.

And there's this discussion here.

Edited July 24, 2006 by Pontormo (log)

[Pontormo]

P.S. Gorgeous, Hathor, especially the granite!

[Kevin72]

Kevin-

I love these Tuna-balls, do they have any breadcrumbs as part of them, or is it just on the outside?

On another note, what's up with Itlians breaking the "no cheese with seafood" rule whenever they like? In this case Ricotta salata with tuna. I've also seen Mario use Pecorino as part of stuffing for clams....

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Breadcrumbs on the outside only; most of the filling was potato.

I have noticed but never received a satisfactory answer to the cheese-n-fish quandary myself. It does seem like some of the more "delicate" or lighter, younger cheeses are occasionally matched with fish, especially if the fish is strong in flavor. When used as a stuffing, it's rarely a significant amount, more just a flavor enhancer. I still say it seems mostly true of pasta dishes and shellfish that you don't want cheese in there.

[Kevin72]

Kevin, trust me, I was thinking of you as I went to pull off the first shell!  But, they were fine and slipped off easlily. PM me and I'll give you my shell recipe...I can't imagine why else you would have had a problem. I even experimented with taking them off hot, taking them off cold...Who knows?

I filled them with the sweetened sheep ricotta, 2 varieties: with toasted grated almond, and with grated fresh lemon and dried orange peel.  Unfortunately, I was running late, and in a hurry, so no final pic of the finished product.  I even got a round of applause from my friendly Umbrian neighbors, who are slightly mystified why I am cooking Sicilian, but whatever, a round of applause was a very nice thank you. 

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I dunno what to tell you, except that as we all know there's certain things out there that we are cursed to be unable to make, no matter how simple they are. I've tried three separate cannoli recipes (Batali's, the one in Sweet Sicily, and the one in Italian Holiday Cooking) none of which turned out. Maybe it is the tubes; they were cribbed from some bargain bin at our Italian deli. I seem to be dancing around one of my bad luck streaks after this past weekend, so I'm reluctant to try them again.

[Pontormo]

Since we've actually had a couple of bearable days here--only a break--I kept the a/c off to make a more authentic Sicilian primo: pasta con i mazzareddi e ricotta from The Flavors of Sicily (Tasca Lanza).

My bitter greens were from the market rather than the wild, something called Italian dandelion greens in the US, a kind of chicory with vivid red spindly stalks that I can't find pictured in a quick google search, though I did discover that Bearded Dragons will eat them, courtesy of The Reptile Room. I also picked up an experiment from the same Swiss organic farmer: Radicchio di Treviso.

The link does not provide an exact resemblance, but it suits my find since I wondered why my purchase was magenta and pale green instead of white, if the same elegant tapered shape of the version we've all seen. According to Elizabeth Schneider, the plant does not mature gracefully in the heat and is best in cooler months; in the summer it remains green and is extremely bitter. So be it.

I boiled the two together, chopped and sauteed them with chili peppers and garlic and cooked the perciatelli in the deep purple water that held the greens until they became the shade of unvarnished oak. Tossed both with a combination of fresh ricotta, ricotta salata and Romano to approximate the preferred sheep's milk ricotta. Silky, not at all too bitter. Fine prelude to roasted chicken and sauteed red peppers.

[Ling]

Been eating out a lot lately and didn't do much cooking this week...just wanted to chime in on the praise, especially for the cannoli, the gelato, the pasta encrusted in pastry (starch and starch, what could be better), and Kevin's birthday meal for his wife (how sweet!)

[markemorse]

Wow, I feel like I missed a spectacular party! SO much beautiful food, and perfect for these Surface of the Sun temperatures we're experiencing...

Seems like everyone's pretty set for cookbooks, but if anyone's still thinking about the list Kevin started with, I'll mention that my favorites are the Giuliano (although I don't cook directly out of it that often anymore, I think that's because at a certain point I was cooking out of it so often that I just memorized the parts i needed) and this little book from Clarissa Hyman that I don't think anyone's mentioned since Kevin's list, Cucina Siciliana. It's only 154 pages of recipes (with lots of writing about Sicily and big space-hogging photos), but it has a high proportion of recipes that push my personal Sicily buttons: chickpea flour crisps, 3 caponata recipes, baccala, inpanata, involtini, polpette di tonno, etc. Don't know, I could just be swayed by the pretty pictures. I should mention that I've only read it in Dutch, which is not a language in which I can parse subtlety, so I have NO idea what the quality of the non-recipe writing is actually like.

But it's inexpensive, light, and fun. Definitely couldn't be your only Sicilian cookbook, but combined with the Giuliano they're a nice pair. I like that they both assume you know how to cook, so there's not a lot of wasted space explaining fundamentals.

OK, back to the kitchen....

Mark

Edited July 25, 2006 by markemorse (log)

[Franci]

My bitter greens were from the market rather than the wild, something called Italian dandelion greens in the US, a kind of chicory with vivid red spindly stalks that I can't find pictured in a quick google search, though I did discover that Bearded Dragons will eat them, courtesy of The Reptile Room.  I also picked up an experiment from the same Swiss organic farmer:

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)

Edited July 25, 2006 by Franci (log)