Archive

ITALIAN RECIPES

Vegetable Based Antipasti

Pickled Button Onions

Ingredients:

3 quarts (3 liters) white wine vinegar
A handful of coarse sea salt (use kosher salt if need be)
2 bay leaves
2 sticks of cinnamon
A head of garlic, broken up and the cloves peeled
1 teaspoon peppercorns
Some fine ground, untreated salt
Olive oil

Preparation:

Set a pot of water to boil with the handful of coarse salt, and cook the onions for about 10 minutes. In the meantime, bring 2 quarts of the vinegar to a boil with the bay leaves, cinnamon, and peppercorns.

Drain the onions well and transfer them to the boiling vinegar for about 2 minutes. Drain them again, letting them drip dry, and put them into the jars, adding a few cloves of garlic to each.
Pour the final quart of vinegar over the onions, let it cool some, pour a quarter inch layer of olive oil over the vinegar, seal the jars up, and store them in a cool dark place for 2 months before using them.

Pickled Vegetables

Ingredients:

10 ounces (250 g) button onions, peeled and soaked in cold water for an hour
10 ounces (250 g) baby carrots, peeled and cut into sticks
10 ounces (250 g) white celery, stalks only, stripped of filaments and cut into short lengths
A medium-sized cauliflower
1 quart (1 liter) white wine vinegar (have more handy)
Olive oil
A couple of bay leaves
2-3 cloves
1 teaspoon peppercorns
1 tablespoon salt

Preparation:

The vegetables listed are the standard ones one finds in almost every recipe, but you can add other things to suit your taste, for example baby mushrooms, green beans, zucchini, baby cucumbers, or artichoke hearts -- feel free to experiment.
Set the vinegar to boil with the herbs, spices and salt. While it's heating separate the cauliflower florets. When the vinegar comes to a boil, add the vegetables and cook them for about 15 minutes.

Remove them to the jars with a slotted spoon and pour the boiling hot vinegar over them; have more boiling vinegar handy should that in which you cooked the vegetables not be sufficient. Sprinkle a tablespoon of olive oil over the top of each jar, cover them tightly, and let them cool.

Store them in a cool dark place for a couple of weeks, and they're ready for use. Expect them to keep for a year.

White Celery and Artichoke Salad

Ingredients:

A bunch of white celery
2 artichokes
1/4 pound (100 g) leafy salad of choice, washed and shredded
Half an apple, peeled, cored and sliced thinly
1/4 pound Tuscan moderately aged pecorino, thinly sliced (see note)
4 walnuts, copped
The juice of half a lemon
2 tablespoons apple vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Fill a bowl and acidulate it with the lemon juice. Clean the artichokes, removing the tough outer leaves and stems. Cut the hearts in half, scoop out whatever fuzz you find, sliver the hearts from top to bottom, and put them in the water to keep them from discoloring.
You'll need the tender inner stalks and leaves of the celery. Strip the leaves and set them aside. Make matchsticks of the stalks.

Arrange the salad on four plates. Drain the artichokes well, put some over the salad on each of the plates, together with the celery stalks, apples, and the cheese.
Whir the celery leaves in a blender with the olive oil and the vinegar, and season the dressing with a pinch of salt and pepper to taste. Season the salad, sprinkle the walnuts over all, and serve.
Serrves 4.

Stuffed Fried Friarelli

Ingredients:

12 Friarelli or similar peppers
6 canned anchovy filets, drained and diced
A small bunch parsley, minced
1 tablespoon salted capers, rinsed and minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup (8 tablespoons) breadcrumbs
The zest of half of an organically grown lemon
Oil for frying
Salt

Preparation:

Mince the parsley, garlic, and lemon zest together. Mix in the capers, breadcrumbs, and anchovy filets.
Wash the peppers, dry them with a cloth, and make a slit down each, from which to extract the seeds and ribs. Fill them with the stuffing and press the lips of the cut back into place.

Heat enough oil to almost cover the peppers in a non-stick pot, and when it's hot fry them, with the cut side facing up, for about 5 minutes. Drain them well on absorbent paper, salt them lightly, and serve hot.
The rest of the meal? That's up to you, though I might follow my peppers with spaghetti with clams as a first course, and fish al cartoccio (baked in a packet) as a second, with a tossed salad and a white wine along the lines of Greco di Tufo.

Sott'oli

Take firm vegetables from your garden, for example bell peppers, tiny button onions, baby mushrooms, carrots, baby artichoke hearts, tiny cucumbers, and so on, wash them well, cut them into small bite-sized pieces (quarter the artichoke hearts, if you're using them, and dispose of any fuzz they may contain) and blanch them for a few minutes in a water-and-vinegar solution.

Drain them well, pat them dry, and pack them in olive oil in a jar with the herbs of choice, which can include pepper corns, coriander, bay leaves, parsley, oregano, cloves, or what have you. Garlic?

I'd be hesitant because garlic can harbor botulism spores, and though a commercial operation has the equipment for neutralizing them, you may not.
Once you've filled the jar with oil give it a few sharp taps, turning it this way and that, to dislodge air bubbles, seal it tight, and store it in a cool dark place for a few weeks to give the herbs the time they need to flavor the vegetables.

Buon appetito!

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