Tag: Catania

Patè from Catania – Recipe by – Italian Cuisine

First prepare the dough: put the flours and salt in a bowl and mix.

Dissolve yeast and sugar in barely warm water, then add it to the flours and start kneading.

Add the lard in a couple of batches, adding the next one only after the previous one has been completely incorporated.
Cover the bowl with cling film and let rise for at least 2 hours or until doubled.

In the meantime, cut the butter into pieces, place it between two sheets of baking paper and roll it out with a rolling pin until you obtain a thin rectangular sheet, then put it back in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Take the dough and roll it out into a rectangular sheet, place the sheet of butter in the center and fold the edges of the dough over the butter.
Roll out with a rolling pin and leave to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Take the dough again and repeat 3 more times: fold the edges from the short side towards the centre, roll out with a rolling pin and put in the fridge for 30 minutes, then again and again.

Prepare the filling by cutting the cheese into cubes and the ham into small pieces.

Take the dough, roll it out on a sheet of baking paper in a layer maximum 1 cm high and cut it into 12 squares.

Add a little filling to the center of the squares and close them into a triangle by bringing one of the corners over the opposite one, then seal the edges well.

Transfer the parcels onto the baking tray, using their baking paper, brush with the lightly beaten egg and cook for around 15-20 minutes at 180°C in a pre-heated ventilated oven.

The Catania pâtés are ready, at least let them cool before serving.

Anchovy pie, the recipe of the La Siciliana restaurant in Catania – Italian Cuisine

Il Tortino di Alici, a great classic of Sicilian cuisine to be made at home, with the recipe of the restaurant in Buon Ricordo, La Siciliana di Catania

The anchovy pie is one of the tastiest expressions of the Catania tradition. Simple materials, typical of the area, come together to create a final result in which the individual flavors mix with harmony, maintaining their own particularity. The strong flavor of anchovies, blue fish, goes perfectly with that of local cheese, all refreshed by the presence of fennel, in a tart whose recipe is handed down from generation to generation. Ideal example of how simplicity and tradition can lead to haute cuisine results.

This is how chef Vito La Rosa prepares it at his restaurant, The Sicilian of Catania. In the upper part of the city, in a nineteenth-century villa, it offers traditional island dishes. Among these, there are well-known Catania specialties: such as rigatoni of fresh pasta alla Norma, with tomato, eggplant and pecorino, dedicated to the musician Bellini, or 'u ripiddu nivicatu', in which Etna is reproduced as a cone of risotto with black cuttlefish, with the top garnished with ricotta as if it were snow and spicy tomato sauce like incandescent lava.
The anchovy pie, a dish of Buon Ricordo, is inevitable.

Ingredients for 4 people

600 g delice anchovies
150 g crumb of fresh homemade bread
200 g Diced semi-seasoned Ragusano DOP
50 g grated old pecorino
100 g wild fennel
chopped parsley
salt, pepper, extra virgin olive oil

Method

Grease a 24 cm cake tin and arrange the anchovies lining the inside of the cake tin.
Stuff with breadcrumbs, Ragusano, pecorino cheese, wild fennel, salt, pepper, parsley.
Cover with the remaining anchovies and sprinkle with oil. Bake for about 20 minutes at 180 degrees. After cooking, leave to rest for 10 minutes. Turn out and cut into wedges and serve with tufts of parsley.

original recipe from Catania or Messina – Italian Cuisine

Preparing the pasta to the original Norma requires very precise attention, but there is a difference between the Catanese and the Messina one

The standard pasta is one of the most popular first course dishes Sicilian cuisine. According to tradition, its name derives from the opera Norma, of the Catania composer Vincenzo Bellini (1831). Apparently he was the poet Nino Martoglio, also from Catania, to taste it and be so struck by its goodness to exclaim "Chista is a "true naïve".

As can be seen from this story, the real pasta alla Norma it would therefore be the Catanese one, but Messina also claims its version of this beloved recipe. What is the difference? Let's find out from the original recipe from Catania.

The ingredients of pasta to the original Catanese standard

To prepare the original recipe of pasta alla Norma it is necessary to use ingredients righteous. They are few, simple and characteristic of the Mediterranean tradition.

First, the tomato sauce must be made with peeled tomatoes. You can also use fresh Pachino tomatoes, to boil and pass in the purée. The sauce should be cooked with it clove of garlic and never with onion.

The eggplant they must be strictly those black is long (in Catania they are called Turkish), cut to strips and fried inextra virgin olive oil.

No Parmesan or pecorino, the cheese is exclusively sheep ricotta, salted and seasoned.

And the pasta format? Macaroni, obviously. The only exception is the Trapani version of the Norma, which foresees the use of the busiata, a traditional format of fresh pasta, processed with an underwire called buso. If you want to experiment, don't ever dare with long pasta, like spaghetti: only rigatoni or, at most, feathers are accepted.

Difference between Catania and Messina recipes

Catania against Messina. Although the original recipe is claimed by the people of Catania, the dispute remains on and concerns one of the ingredients.
In Messina, pasta alla Norma is made exclusively with a cheese typical of the area, or the baked ricotta. Compared to salted ricotta, the baked one tastes sweeter and delicate, but definitely a perfume toasted.

Pasta alla Norma original recipe from Catania

Let's now pass to the original Catanese recipe explained step by step.

Ingredients

Aubergines 500 g
Peeled Tomatoes 500 g
Rigatoni 300 g
Garlic
Ricotta salata
Extra virgin olive oil
Basil
salt
pepper

Method

Cut the aubergines in strips, put them in a colander, covered with salt, for about 30 minutes. In this way you will eliminate excess liquids. rinse to avoid being overly sapid.
Reheat plenty of extra virgin olive oil in a non-stick pan e fry aubergines, a few at a time. drain and place them on absorbent paper to remove excess oil.
Fry the clove of garlic in a pan (you can also use the same, changing the oil), paid peeled and salted tomatoes and cook for 10-15 minutes.
Bake the pasta, drain and pour into the pan with the tomato. Add part of the eggplant and stir.
serve adding the remaining aubergines, basil leaves and grated salted ricotta.