Tag: cooking in summer

Sicilian caponata: the original Palermo recipe – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

Tasty, comforting, it embodies the whole Mediterranean. There caponata Siciliana, side summer par excellence, was born in Sicily and today it is widespread and appreciated throughout Italy thanks to that unmistakable sweet and sour flavour. Cold, warm and room temperature, it really is irresistible and if it is served on a slice of toasted bread it can even represent an appetizer or a main course. Loved by vegetarians and omnivoresinitially it was also prepared with fish, while today the best known variant it is the one based on suns vegetable ingredients.

Sicilian caponata: the numerous versions

From caponata Siciliana they exist numerous versions but what is certain is that the eggplant they cannot be missed and that all the ingredients they must be individually prepared to be united only at the end. In the alone Sicily at least they can be counted four variations of caponata: a Catania among the ingredients there are also: peppers red and yellow, e.g Agrigento in addition to peppers there are the olives black but not the green ones, a Messina woe betide using concentrate for the benefit of tomatoes fresh it’s at Palermo there recipe that is performed is yet another.

Sicilian caponata: the Palermo recipe

A mix of fried vegetables (otherwise it’s not caponata!) and then pan-fried with a sauce based on sugar and vinegar: this is the secret to obtaining the original Palermo Sicilian caponata from the typical one sweet and sour taste.

Ingredients for 6 people

1 kg of long aubergines
250 g of tomato sauce
80 g of pitted green olives
60 g of desalted capers
60 ml of white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons of brown sugar
1 golden onion
1 stalk of celery
extra virgin olive oil
fresh basil
salt

Method

Start preparing the Sicilian caponata by draining the aubergines. Wash them well with running water, cut off the end with the stalk, cut them into slices a couple of centimeters thick and collect them in a bowl. Sprinkle with coarse salt and place a weight on top. After about an hour, rinse them well with fresh water and let them drain on sheets of absorbent paper. When they are well drained, cut them into cubes.
Pour into a large pan oil and when it is hot, fry the aubergines until golden brown. Remove them with a slotted spoon and let them drain on absorbent paper for fried foods.
Clean the celery, wash it with cold water and cut it into pieces more or less the size of the aubergines. Blanch it for a few minutes in boiling salted water and drain it.
Pour the sugar and vinegar into a bowl and mix until the sugar is completely dissolved. Keep aside.
Peel the onion and chop it finely. In a saucepan, fry the chopped onion in the oil for a couple of minutes, taking care not to let it burn. Also add the capers and blanched pieces of celery and leave to flavor for a few minutes, stirring often.
Add the olives and tomato sauce to the saucepan. Mix, add salt and cook for five minutes. Finally add the aubergines and the sweet and sour sauce. Mix with a wooden spoon until the ingredients are well blended. Season with salt, turn off the heat and flavor with the basil.
Let the caponata rest and serve it at room temperature so the flavor of the vinegar will be less intrusive.

Which aubergines are used to make caponata?

The types of aubergines that would be best to choose for making Sicilian caponata are the “violet” type, like – needless to say – the long Palermo violet. This type of aubergines are characterized by elongated shape and from very firm pulp which holds up well to cooking while remaining intact and compact.

Sardinian fregola in 10 recipes that make you dream of the sea – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

Do you dream of the sea, perhaps even in winter? Then you must try Sardinian fregola in 10 recipes with guaranteed excitement. There fregola Sardinian it is one of the most famous dishes on the island. Also called fregola or it’s cool, it’s a paste semolina with a very ancient history: according to Statute of the Millers of Tempio Pausania dating back to the 14th century, its preparation had to take place exclusively from Monday to Friday, so as not to consume the water necessary for agricultural work on Saturday and Sunday. Its name comes from Latin frisarethat is to say mince, crush, crumble. In fact, fregola is prepared in exactly this way, appearing in the form of small grains.

How to make Sardinian fregola

Fregola can be easily done prepare at home with three simple ingredients: 400 g of durum wheat flour, 200 ml of water and a pinch of salt. Pour the semolina flour onto a pastry board and slowly pour the warm, slightly salted water into the centre. Then, with a circular motion of your fingertips, rub the dough until it forms small balls. It doesn’t matter if they are slightly different in size! Leave a cloth to dry and rest overnight. In the end, toasted the fregola in the oven at 200° for about 15 minutes: in this way it will take on its typical brown color and the flavor that makes it unique. All that remains is to cook it following the chosen recipe.

Fregola with clams: traditional recipe

According to tradition fregola is prepared with clams (or cockles), a type of mollusc a little smaller than clams. There are different ways to make this dish: there are those who prefer it with gravy tomato and who blankwhoever prefers risotto the fregola and who instead serves it how soup. Try this recipe: you will need 1 kg of clams, 300 g of tomato puree, 250 g of fregola, oil, salt and parsley.

First, drain the clams: wash them and leave them in water and salt for at least an hour; finally rinse them. Cook the molluscs in a large saucepan with garlic and extra virgin olive oil for about 4-5 minutes, until they open. Once opened, separate them from the shells (you can remove all the shells or just half. Recover the cooking liquid by filtering it through a fine mesh strainer.

Heat the extra virgin olive oil with two cloves of garlic and start cooking the tomato. After 10 minutes add the fregola, add the liquid from the clams and cook according to the cooking time (about 15-17 minutes). At the end of cooking, add the clams, complete with chopped parsley and serve.

Sardinian fregola: 10 delicious recipes

There fregola with clams it is a great classic, but in Sardinia there are many other typical meat-based recipes, in particular soups and soups. There frigola in broth of meat or the fregola with sausage they are very tasty alternatives, but you can also opt for imaginative vegetarian recipes and even serve it coldlike a rice or couscous salad.

Orecchiette, turnip tops and more: 10 sauces to season them – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

Orecchiette and turnip greens, a winning combination that never tires. It is certainly the most cited dish by those who have to imagine a culinary symbol coming from Puglia, where they still come from made mainly by handbut this pasta shape also lends itself to accommodating many other condiments. Of fish, vegetables but not only, for always new dishes.

How to make orecchiette

Making orecchiette is not complicated but it definitely requires skill and practice. If you know some Apulian pasta makers, take advantage of them: gestures are very precious knowledge. At the recipe We’ll take care of the orecchiette: for 4 people you need 300 g of re-milled durum wheat semolina, 150 g of water and salt to taste. Pour the flour on the pastry board and make a well, add salt and warm water, little at a time, just enough to obtain a smooth and firm dough. You do with the pasta some cords with a diameter of approximately 1 cm; cut them into equally long pieces, roll them on a pastry board «drag themusing the blunt part of a knife flat (in Puglia the traditional sfèrre is used), then turn them over on your thumb to obtain the orecchiette. Spread out the orecchiette on a floured surface and leave them to dry until ready to cook them.

Why are they called orecchiette?

It’s exactly as you might think: the orecchiette are called this because their rounded and concave shape and the wrinkled surface, designed to better retain the sauces, it is very reminiscent of the shape of an ear. Anyone from Puglia knows this: they are produced in different sizes: small, very small, medium and larger, everything depends on the manual skills of the individual housewife.

Orecchiette, turnip tops and more: 10 sauces to season them

From the orecchiette with turnip tops and ginger, for a fresh and exotic touch, to the Trapani pesto, passing through the cherry tomatoes, mussels, peas and croaker. Get ready to experiment.