The Cooking and Cuisine of Sicily

[Pontormo]

Mrbigjas: Sounds more like brutto ma buono than a true lack of success. What kind of prosciutto cotto did you pick up? I've only found one brand here and was not impressed; ended up buying a good domestic ham instead.

Henry: Looking forward to your pistachio gelato.

Chufi: How inspired!! The tartlets ought to be shared on glossy paper, too. Which Marcella?

[Chufi]

anyway, verdict: i suck at this sort of thing, so it doesn't look so good, but it does taste so good.  it's too bad--after missing out on half of this month so far, i set aside a good part of the afternoon, and had hoped to be able to post up some photos of something fun.  oh wells.  at least we have tons of leftovers...

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mrbigjas, the fact that it tasted good is much more important than the fact that you have no good pictures!

Chufi:  How inspired!!  The tartlets ought to be shared on glossy paper, too.  Which Marcella?

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Potormo, the baked risotto is from Marcella's Italian Kitchen.

[Andrew Fenton]

So I made some coffee granita the other day. It worked great; easy to make and very satisfying. But then I made the mistake of serving it (con panna, natch) for dessert last night. The caffeine kept me up until 3 AM...

But at least it gives me the excuse to eat granita for breakfast!

[chefzadi]

So I made some coffee granita the other day.  It worked great; easy to make and very satisfying.  But then I made the mistake of serving it (con panna, natch) for dessert last night.  The caffeine kept me up until 3 AM...

But at least it gives me the excuse to eat granita for breakfast!

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A friend of mine from Italy makes it with almond syrup flavored ice and pours coffee over the shaved ice.

Delicious and very easy to make. I can't remember where in Italy he said he first had this.

[Ling]

mrbigjas: The only thing that matters is that your loved ones enjoyed the meal!

The red peppers look great...are they cooked, or raw?

The almond syrup and coffee granita sounds like such a great snack on a hot summer day.

[mrbigjas]

Mrbigjas:  Sounds more like brutto ma buono than a true lack of success. 

yeah that's the ticket! rereading it, my post sounded more disappointed than i really was--it's just that it's obviously supposed to be a big presentation sort of thing, and it wasn't.

What kind of prosciutto cotto did you pick up?  I've only found one brand here and was not impressed; ended up buying a good domestic ham instead.

i think it was this steamed 'gran biscotto' from dibruno's, but it might have been this roasted version. i'm pretty sure it was the steamed one, because of the texture. it was herbal, and tender, and ... well, just great stuff. i only bought three little slices though, and i really need more.

[Andrew Fenton]

A friend of mine from Italy makes it with almond syrup flavored ice and pours coffee over the shaved ice.

Delicious and very easy to make. I can't remember where in Italy he said he first had this.

It sounds a little more like grattachecca (shaved ice) than granita per se. But it also sounds really good.

Anyway, on the frozen dessert front, I made some granita di anguria* today, and it's superb: refreshing in this brutal heat. I have some peaches ripening, so they will be next; then it's time to scale Mt. Mandorla. Onward and upward!

*That's watermelon, of course. Question for the Italophones: is there a connotative difference between anguria and cocomero? There's an etymological difference (one's from Greek, the other's from Latin), but as far as I can tell, they refer to exactly the same fruit. Is that correct?

[Andrew Fenton]

Mrbigjas:  Sounds more like brutto ma buono than a true lack of success. 

yeah that's the ticket! rereading it, my post sounded more disappointed than i really was--it's just that it's obviously supposed to be a big presentation sort of thing, and it wasn't.

Still, sounds wicked good. I need to start playing with involtini; there's something inherently dramatic about mixing different meats, which I guess is what's behind that recipe...

[FoodMan]

Absolutly lovely food Lorna. Pefectly made arancine and so well photographed. Glad the party was a success.

I like that risotto baked eggplant too. This past week Mario made a very similar recipe in an episode dedicted to Sicily and eggplants. He roasted the eggplant whole, and opened it like you would a baked potato then stuffed it with cooked risotto. Then the whol thing was braised in tomato sauce. good looking stuff.

[chefzadi]

A friend of mine from Italy makes it with almond syrup flavored ice and pours coffee over the shaved ice.

Delicious and very easy to make. I can't remember where in Italy he said he first had this.

It sounds a little more like grattachecca (shaved ice) than granita per se. But it also sounds really good.

Anyway, on the frozen dessert front, I made some granita di anguria* today, and it's superb: refreshing in this brutal heat. I have some peaches ripening, so they will be next; then it's time to scale Mt. Mandorla. Onward and upward!

*That's watermelon, of course. Question for the Italophones: is there a connotative difference between anguria and cocomero? There's an etymological difference (one's from Greek, the other's from Latin), but as far as I can tell, they refer to exactly the same fruit. Is that correct?

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granita if this is a granita method, than what I had was a granita.

Btw, Tunisans call apricots mechmech (transliterated differently, meshmesh).

[mrbigjas]

Still, sounds wicked good.  I need to start playing with involtini; there's something inherently dramatic about mixing different meats, which I guess is what's behind that recipe...

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in part, yeah. it's kind of like a reverse hoagie or something--meat wrapping cold cuts wrapping bread (and cheese)....

actually tonight we had it as leftovers, and a night in the fridge did wonders for the cohesiveness of the dish, so i'm gonna go ahead and post a pic, because i have a new camera:

edited to say that you can totally see the issues here: bready filling too big, gaps in the meat wrapping, etc. what you can't see is the deliciousness. mmmmm

Edited July 17, 2006 by mrbigjas (log)

[hhlodesign]

edited to say that you can totally see the issues here: bready filling too big, gaps in the meat wrapping, etc.  what you can't see is the deliciousness. mmmmm

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Ohhhh...but I can see the deliciousness! That looks amazing!

[Ling]

That looks incredible! You got some great meat and bread in one tasty package...what more could you want?

[Kevin72]

I've been quite busy this month and haven't been able to devote as much time to cooking from one of my favorite regions as I'd like to. But everyone else is doing such a great job that I'm having almost as much fun just watching and reading about everyone's efforts.

[Andrew Fenton]

Still, sounds wicked good.  I need to start playing with involtini; there's something inherently dramatic about mixing different meats, which I guess is what's behind that recipe...

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in part, yeah. it's kind of like a reverse hoagie or something--meat wrapping cold cuts wrapping bread (and cheese)....

actually tonight we had it as leftovers, and a night in the fridge did wonders for the cohesiveness of the dish, so i'm gonna go ahead and post a pic, because i have a new camera:

edited to say that you can totally see the issues here: bready filling too big, gaps in the meat wrapping, etc. what you can't see is the deliciousness. mmmmm

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Dude, that looks awesome. And you're totally right about the reverse hoagie: my first thought on seeing that photo was to wonder how the cold braciole would work on a sandwich... mmm...

[Andrew Fenton]

I was looking through some of my Sicily photos this morning and thought I would post a couple, showing two sides (literally) of the island, and a few sweet Sicilian treats.

First, Cefalu in the northwestern part of the island. There's a 12C Norman cathedral there with a really remarkable mosaic of Christ Pantocrator; diabolically balancing it is Aleister Crowley's house (which I couldn't find. dang.) And the harbor is beautiful:

This was one of the best cannoli I had in Sicily. The candied fruit on the end is typical. what a great breakfast... I enjoyed the oatmeal I had this morning, but it's just not the same, somehow:

Marizpan is another very Sicilian treat, one which takes advantage of all the almonds that grow there. I don't actually like it very much, but I admire the artistry that goes into making it. And I admit a fondness to food that looks like other kinds of food:

(Not the greatest picture, sorry.) Fruit-shaped marzipan seems to be the most common; what I liked about this shop is that it had tons of different shapes of marzipan: here you've got fichi d'india, eggs, and panini. I think they had little marzipan steaks, too.

This store is in Taormina, in the northeast. It's a really stunning city, though massively over-touristed (and sadly, as far into Sicily as a lot of people get). But the tourism means lots of window displays of, among other things, desserts:

Torrone! Yum.

Anyway, somebody ought to make some cool-looking marzipan this month. You know, show off your mad food-sculpting skillz...

Edited July 17, 2006 by Andrew Fenton (log)

[Kevin72]

I'm really curious to see how cannoli turn out if someone makes them from scratch. You may recall they were and remain one of my culinary weak spots; I can't ever get them to turn out right: they either slip of the mold in the oil and turn into puffs or stay stuck on the mold and fall apart trying to scrape them off. I don't even think I'll attempt them this month but will take notes from anyone who succeeds.

[Ling]

After our dinner party, we dropped by the Mistral kitchen to hang out for a bit, and we mentioned to the pastry chef that we didn't fry cannoli because we didn't have the metal tubes. Turns out she has some metal tubes so maybe we can borrow them and I'll give it a try on Thursday or Friday when I'm back down in Seattle.

[Pontormo]

Tonight's dinner responded to the humidity and heat pressing upon us this week:

Salad of shaved fennel and oranges

With cured black olives, slivers of red onion soaked in cold water while preparing dinner & fresh mint. Obviously a favorite. Sorry, Kevin, but I did peel the orange especially since I used the zest to make olio santo. However, for the first time I can remember, the small plump female bulb of fennel that I purchased was virtually tasteless. I will try getting some at the market next week.

Perciatelli con tonno e pomodorini

I know you are not a fan of long hollow strands of dried pasta, Klary, but I like them and noticed that they're called for in a couple of versions of this dish made with beautiful, sweet uncooked yellow cherry tomatoes from the market. According to Anna Tasca Lanza, garlic is not used pervasively in Sicilian cooking, but I like it sauteed before adding the tuna, capers, parsely, etc.

Cauliflower salad

Because I had to use up an enormous, misshapened head from last week. Boiled just until tender and then tossed while steaming hot with olive oil, lemon juice, minced parsley and seasoned. Sounds boring. Actually a bit better than that. Suitable for weather.

I just tried purple cauliflower for the first time back in the fall and was pleased to see the color retained when roasted, or last week, when sauteed. Since purple string beans turn green when cooked I was all prepared for this to turn, too as my book indicated. However, while the water turned the color of the slippers of Mary (I'm guessing) in the mosaics at Cefalu, the stalks and florets remained a pronounced lavendar over an almost ghostly translucent white; green eventually became noticeable in the stalks I didn't throw into the salad bowl. When I squeezed on the lemon, the effect would have caused a young child to gasp: instantly they were speckled with a deeply saturated florescent plum only as much this color as this.

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Andrew: beautiful photographs! The story about Crowley is quite amusing as are the fried eggs. I think those torrone would be just the thing to change my mind about candied fruit, they're amazing! I read one recipe in which they're pressed in between the same kind of wafers that are distributed for communion--if a different shape.

Ling: I'm looking forward to your reports. MrBJ: the photo reminds me of a delicious recipe for polpettone in Mario Batali's most recent book, only with a vegetable vs. egg core. Rolling it with ground meats allowed for more patch-up work though there was spillage.

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Two questions:

1) Is anyone consulting Pomp and Sustenance, too? I've just started reading through it and wanted to hear from others before I said anything.

2) Elie or Adam: Do you happen to recall how much watermelon (in weight) makes how much juice? I bought one of those tiny round melons that weigh less than 6 pounds and look just like the ones in 17th-century paintings. Turns out to be one of the best I can e'er recall eating so I am thinking of sparing only the smallest amount to make the pudding.

[Pontormo]

Adam & Andrew, this is for you. (And me at the very end.)

Click around the names of Sicilian sites. The outdoor market in Palermo is striking, too.

Discovered in search for this where Mary's mantle, not slippers (Norman) is purple.

Edited July 18, 2006 by Pontormo (log)

[Ling]

Has anyone done any cooking from the book Foods of Sicily & Sardinia and the Smaller Islands by Giuliano Bugialli? I borrowed it from a chef who highly recommends it. I've flipped through the book and the recipes look great...I'll probably cook something from that book next.

[Adam Balic]

Adam & Andrew, this is for you.  (And me at the very end.)

Click around the names of Sicilian sites.  The outdoor market in Palermo is striking, too.

Discovered in search for this where Mary's mantle, not slippers (Norman) is purple.

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Excellent photgraphs, the produce is just amazing isn't it?

[Kevin72]

After our dinner party, we dropped by the Mistral kitchen to hang out for a bit, and we mentioned to the pastry chef that we didn't fry cannoli because we didn't have the metal tubes. Turns out she has some metal tubes so maybe we can borrow them and I'll give it a try on Thursday or Friday when I'm back down in Seattle. 

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[Andrew Fenton]

Adam & Andrew, this is for you.  (And me at the very end.)

Click around the names of Sicilian sites.  The outdoor market in Palermo is striking, too.

Discovered in search for this where Mary's mantle, not slippers (Norman) is purple.

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Excellent photgraphs, the produce is just amazing isn't it?

Indeed, and so cheap! After a year of spending 40 cents (or less) on an artichoke, it breaks my heart to see them at the supermarket for $1.50...

[Andrew Fenton]

Tonight's dinner responded to the humidity and heat pressing upon us this week: