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ITALIAN RECIPES

Start with String Beans...

Fried String Beans

Ingredients:

10 ounces (250 g) string beans, tips snapped off
Salt
Flour
2 eggs, beaten
Breadcrumbs
Oil for frying
The sweet and sour sauce:
3/4 cup vinegar
3/4 cup water
5 amaretti
2 ounces (50 g) day old bread, crusts stripped and discarded, and the crumb crumbled
1 tablespoon sugar
Salt & pepper
A pinch of powdered cinnamon
2 ounces (50 g) minced candied citron peel
2 ounces (50 g) raisins
2 ounces (50 g) shredded almonds

Preparation:

To make the string beans:
Blanch the beans in lightly salted water, drain them, and pat them dry. Dredge them in the flour, dip them in the egg, dredge them in bread crumbs, and fry them in hot oil until golden, before draining them on absorbent paper.

Mr. Cavalcanti suggest you also use other vegetables, for example celery sticks and zucchini sliced lengthwise, blanching them too and then flouring them.
To make the Sweet and Sour Sauce:

Bring the water and vinegar to a boil and add the amaretti and the bread crumb to it, together with the cinnamon. Season with salt and pepper and let the mixture cook, adding more water as needed to keep it from drying out. After about 10 minutes add the peel, raisins, and almonds.

Continue cooking over a low flame until the sauce is fairly dense and well amalgamated, and at this point taste it to see if more sugar or vinegar is necessary. Serve it either hot or cold, with fried foods or hard boiled eggs.

Bowties with Almonds, String beans, Feta and Tomatoes

Ingredients:

12 ounces (320 g) bowties
1/4 pound (100 g) feta, crumbled
2 ounces (50 g) almonds, toasted and slivered
The juice of half a lemon
A small bunch of parsley, minced
1 heaping teaspoon paprika
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 pound (225 g) string beans
8 firm cherry tomatoes, thinly sliced
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Toast the paprika for a couple of minutes over a low flame in a non-stick pan, until it begins to release its aromas. Turn it into a blender, together with the almonds, 3/4 of the feta, the juice of the half a lemon, the parsley, the garlic, and 1/4 cup (50 ml) olive oil. Blend until the mixture is uniformly creamy, and transfer it to a bowl large enough to hold the pasta.

Trim the tips of the beans and cut them into thirds on a slant; plunge them into lightly salted abundant boiling water and cook them for 5 minutes.
Remove them with a slotted spoon, run them under cold water to keep them from cooking further, and draw a half-cup of water from the pot. Slice the tomatoes.

Use the same water you boiled the string beans in to cook the pasta, adding more salt to it if necessary (it probably will be). When the pasta reaches the al dente stage, drain it into a colander and run it under cold water to cool it.
Dilute the sauce with some of the water from the string beans, stir in the pasta and the remaining ingredients, and serve.

This will be a refreshing first course, and something off the grill, for example chicken, would be a nice sequel. The wine? A white, perhaps a Verdicchio.

Fagottini Stuffed with Steamed Carrots and String Beans

Ingredients:

1/2 cup green beans, steamed
1 carrot, thinly sliced, steamed
1 cup ricotta cheese
A spring onion, finely sliced and gently sautéed in 2 tablespoons of olive oil until soft and well wilted
1/2 teaspoon freshly minced thyme
An egg, lightly beaten
Salt and pepper to taste
A pinch of freshly ground nutmeg (optional)
1 pound (500 g) fresh pasta, in 4-inch (10 cm) squares

Preparation:

Blend the steamed vegetables and combine them with the ricotta, spring onion, minced thyme, and egg. Check seasoning, and add just a little ground nutmeg, if you want. Lay half the pasta squares on your work surface.

Divvy the ricotta mixture evenly over them, moisten their edges with a little water, and cover them with the remaining squares, tamping the edges down with a fork so they stick.
Bring a pot of lightly salted water to a boil and cook the fagottini for 3 minutes, or until the pasta reaches the al dente stage.

Remove them to a serving dish with a slotted spoon (if you drain the pot they will break), and season them with freshly melted unsalted butter and a little freshly grated Parmigiano before serving them.

Buon appetito!

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