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ITALIAN RECIPES

Recipes from Veneto

Rice and Savoy Cabbage Venetian Style

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups (250 g) Vialone Nano or other short-grained rice, e.g. Arborio
1 pound (450 g) Savoy cabbage
An onion, peeled and finely chopped
4 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup (40 g) freshly grated Parmigiano
Salt & white pepper to taste
1 quart (1 liter) beef broth, stock, or unsalted bouillon (meat or vegetable), simmering

Preparation:

Strip off and discard any blemished outer leaves the cabbage may have. Separate the rest, rinse them, and shred them.
Heat the olive oil and butter in a pot and sauté the chopped onion until it is translucent gold. Add the cabbage leaves and continue cooking, stirring them about with a spoon, until they have wilted.

Add a cup of hot broth to the pot, cover, and simmer over a low flame for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Stir in the rice, add the remaining hot broth, check seasoning, and simmer until the rice reaches the al dente stage and the broth is absorbed. Incorporate the cheese into the rice, check seasoning, and divvy the rice into four bowls, seasoning each with a twist or two of white pepper.
Serve at once with a white wine, for example a Grechetto or a Soave.
Serves 4.

Baccalà and Potato Salad

Ingredients:

1 1/8 pounds (500 g) soaked baccalà
1 clove garlic
A slice of lemon, preferably organic
2 anchovy filets
A bay leaf
2 medium sized potatoes
2/3 pound (300 g) string beans (frozen will be fine)
A small bunch of parsley
1 tablespoon capers, rinsed
1/4 cup pitted black olives
4 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Cut the baccalà into pieces about 2 inches (5 cm) wide. Put them in a pot with two inches (5 cm) cold water, the lemon, and the bay leaf. Bring to a boil and simmer the fish for 20 minutes, then drain the pieces, and filter a few tablespoons of the broth.
Boil, or better yet steam, the potatoes separately; when a skewer penetrates easily peel them and duce them.

Cook the green beans too, in lightly salted water, until done but not overly soft.
Peel the garlic clove and mince it ·ith the anchovy filets, capers, and parsley. Put the mixture in a bowl and add to it 2 tablespoons lemon juice, the olive oil, 2 tablespoons fish broth, and salt and pepper to taste. Mix well.
Combine the potatoes, baccalà, and string beans in a salad bowl, add the olives and the sauce, mix gently, and serve.
A wine? White, and Lugana would be nice.
Serves 4.

Sole in a Sweet-and-Sour Sauce

Ingredients:

Soles
Olive oil
Carrots
Onion
Bay leaves
Wine
Vinegar
Pine nuts
Raisins

Preparation:

You'll need 3 whole soles weighing 3/4 pound (325 g) each; score the skin just above their tales. Grip the flap of skin through a cloth to keep it from slipping and pull sharply and steadily to skin the fish.
Use a thin-bladed knife to trim the filets from the spine, and flatten them gently with the smooth face of a moistened meat pounder, then pat them dry and season them with salt and a little pepper.

Heat a third of a cup of olive oil and cook the filets for 5 minutes per side, or until they're golden, then drain them well and put them in a cool bowl.
Discard the oil you cooked the fish in and heat another third of a cup of oil. Add to it 2 carrots, sliced into rounds, a sliced onion, a sliced celery heart, and two bay leaves. Season all with salt and cook until the onion is pleasingly golden. Sprinkle the vegetables over the filets, sprinkle an ounce (30 g) each pine nuts and of raisins that you have rehydrated somewhat by soaking in warm water.

Next, combine a half pint of dry white wine and a half pint of white wine vinegar and reduce their volume by more than half in the same pot that you cooked the vegetables in. Pour the mixture over the fish and their garnish, let it all sit covered in the refrigerator for a couple of days, and it's ready.

Fried Radicchio

Ingredients:

3/4 pound (300 g) radicchio
1 cup (100 g) flour
1 cup (250 ml) beer
1 egg, separated
Oil for frying
Salt & Pepper to taste.

Preparation:

Cut the radicchio into thin wedges. Prepare a thin batter with the beer, flour, yolk, salt and pepper. Whip the white to soft peaks and fold it into the batter. Dredge the radicchio in the batter, fry it until crisp golden brown, drain it well on absorbent paper, and serve it hot.
The wine? A crisp dry white.

Spare Ribs

Ingredients:

Ribs necessary to feed your guests
A 50-50 mixture of water and white wine
The leaves of an 8-inch (20 cm) sprig of rosemary
A little more white wine
Salt & Pepper to taste
A pressure cooker with a steamer basket attachment

Preparation:

Put the ribs in the steamer basket, put them in the pressure cooker, and add enough water and wine to fill the pressure cooker within an inch of the bottom of the basket (you don't want to boil the ribs). Pressure cook the ribs for 10 minutes to render out most of the fat.

Let the pressure drop, open the pressure cooker, and arrange the ribs in an oven pan. Sprinkle them with the rosemary leaves, season them to taste with salt and pepper, dribble a little more white wine over them, and roast them for 20 minutes in a preheated oven. Or broil them until they're pleasingly browned.
The wine? A Valpolicella Classico.

Buon appetito!

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