Archive

ITALIAN RECIPES

Few Ideas for Tomorrow Night

Sardine and Curly Endive Tart

Ingredients:

2 heads curly endive
1 1/8 pounds (500 g) fresh sardines, cleaned, boned, and split to obtain fillets
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
Hot pepper flakes to taste
Salt

Preparation:

Begin by washing the endive and cutting the leaves into strips a couple of fingers wide. Heat the oil in a broad skillet, add the garlic, and when it begins to crackle the endive.
Salt lightly and cook the endive, stirring, until it has wilted and the water it has given off is mostly evaporated (you don't want it to be bone-dry, but it shouldn't be dripping either).

While you are cooking the endive, heat your oven to 400 F (200 C) Line a fairly deep pie pan (9-10 inch, or 22-25 cm) with oven parchment, and make the tart by sprinkling a little hot pepper over the paper, and putting down a layer of fish fillets arranged in a spoke pattern.

Follow the fish with a layer of endive, and continue until all is used up, lightly seasoning the layers with salt and hot pepper.
Bake the tart for about 20 minutes, and when you remove it from the oven set a serving dish over it. Hold the hot pan with an oven mitt, press down on the serving dish, and flip everything so the tart comes to rest on the serving dish with the first layer of fish topmost.
Remove the parchment, season, if you want with a little more olive oil, and serve at once.

Lasagna with Salmon and Robiola Cheese

Ingredients:

10 ounces (250 g) sheets fresh lasagna
1 pound (450 g) fresh salmon fillet, finely sliced
1/4 pound (100 g) smoked salmon
1 pound (450 g) robiola or similar mild soft spreadable cheese
2 cups (500 ml) whole milk
1/4 cup freshaly grated Grana Padano or Parmigiano Reggiano
1/4 cup dried breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons (30 g) unsalted butter
2 teaspoons fresh marjoram, minced, or 1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram
Salt and pepper, ideally pink

Preparation:

To begin with, Robiola is a mild, slightly tart spreadable cow's milk cheese from the north. In its absence I would combine cream cheese and ricotta.
Returning to the recipe, chop the smoked salmon and combine it with the robiola, a teaspoon of ground pepper, half the marjoram, the milk, and salt to taste. Mix well.

Preheat your oven to 400 F (200 C). Grease a 9 by 11 inch (20 by 25 cm) baking dish and fill it, starting with a layer of lasagna, followed by a layer of the creamy mixture and one of the fresh salmon. Continue alternating layers until all is used up, closing with a creamy layer.

Mix the breadcrumbs with the grated cheese, another half teaspoon pepper, and the remaining marjoram. Sprinkle the mixture evenly over the lasagna.
Cover the lasagna with a sheet of aluminum foil and bake it for 15 minutes. Remove the sheet and bake it another 5-7 minutes, and serve at once.

Fish Caponata

The Freselle:

Two whole-wheat freselle (bread, baked in the shape of a donut, common throughout South Italy, especially Puglia).
1/3 cup olive oil
1/2 cup white wine vinegar
The Fish:
1 pound boiled fish, whatever you prefer. Pick the flesh from the bones and set it aside.

The Salsa Verde:

2 ounces anchovy filets, boned
1 ounce capers (I prefer salted to pickled), rinsed, soaked briefly in tepid water, and drained well
1 ounce canned tuna (optional)
1 clove garlic
Abundant parsley, minced
1/3 cup olive oil
Vinegar or lemon juice, to taste
Pepper
Salt as necessary
Meat broth, if necessary
Fresh mint, basil, or thyme (optional)

Preparation:

Combine the solid ingredients and blend them with the olive oil and vinegar and pepper to taste. The consistency of the sauce should be fairly liquid, though not watery; add a little broth if need be.
If you chose not to include the tuna, increase the capers and anchovies by a proportionate amount. You can also, if you want a firmer sauce, soak some Italian bread in vinegar, press it dry, and crumble it into the sauce.

Keep in mind that the primary ingredient should be in any case parsley, perhaps with a minor addition of other fresh herbs.

The Greens:

Escarole -- about a half pound (go by eye), washed and shredded.
Lettuce -- about a half pound (go by eye), washed and shredded
Caper Sauce:
5 ounces salted capers, rinsed, soaked briefly in tepid water and drained well
1/3 cup olive oil
Vinegar or lemon juice
Salt & Pepper to taste

Preparation:

Blend the capers and the oil, then add lemon juice or vinegar, salt, and pepper to taste.

The Mayonnaise:

3 egg yolks
1 cup olive oil
The juice of a lemon
Salt & white pepper to taste

Preparation:

This can be done with a whisk or egg beater, but is much easier to make with a blender.
Lightly beat the yolks, then begin to add the olive oil in a slow stream, beating all the while. The mixture should emulsify and become creamy. When you have beaten in about half the oil, beat in the lemon juice -- the mixture will thin considerably.

Slowly add the remaining oil, continuing to beat, until your mayonnaise is fluffy and creamy. Season to taste with a pinch of salt and a little freshly ground white pepper.
If you want to make your mayonnaise zestier, beat in a pinch or so of ground mustard (at the beginning), or perhaps a pinch of horseradish or ground cayenne. Or try using vinegar instead of lemon juice.
Note that mayonnaise won't emulsify well if there's a thunderstorm brewing nearby.

Garnishes:

Pitted sweet black olives
Anchovy filets
Hard-boiled eggs, slivered
Tomatoes, sliced
Tiny vegetables, pickled

Preparation:

Once you have all the ingredients assembled, proceed:
Dip the friselle in a mixture of water and white wine vinegar, removing them from the bowl when they are damp but not soaked. Crumble them into a mound in the middle of an elegant serving platter.

Divide the boiled fish into three parts and season each with most of one of the sauces.
Dress the escarole and the lettuce with olive oil, salt and pepper.
Lay a first layer of fish over the friselle, pour a little more of the sauce with which you seasoned it over it, and cover with a layer of lettuce and escarole. Cover with a second fish layer and the second of the sauces, then the remainder of the greens.

Lay down the third layer of fish -- it should be the mayonnaise fish -- and spread the remaining mayonnaise over everything to produce an elegant white mound. Decorate the mound with the garnishes, and serve.

Buon appetito!

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