SEASONAL SLUMBERS

Well, here we are in September, a melancholy month in some ways - not quite the end of summer but not quite autumn either. At least here in Sicily, although the heat persists, the nights are more bearable amd, in a country where the culinary seasons are still respected, autumn fruit is beginning to appear. The fichi d'India (prickly pears) are already here and soon the orange season will be in full swing.

That, however, means goodbye to anguria (watermelon) until next summer but not in my dreams. Bertie-Pierrine, as you see, approves!

 

GOLDEN AUTUMN

Suddenly, in Sicily, the roadside lorries teem with different kinds of fruit, most of which you can purchase by the crate. The little Etna apples, though, are not quite as abundant outside their local area but when you find them, you have a treasure.  Chestnuts are swept from outdoor tables into large bags and, if you buy fichi d'India [prickly pears] from the greengrocer or the supermarket, they will usually have had most of their thorns removed. Otherwise, handle with extreme care!

SABATO MUSICALE

A pretty song from Catania's own Carmen Consoli:

Carmen Consoli - Ottobre

AUTUMN

Real:

Not real but a pretty display in the greengrocer's:

SIGNS OF NORMALITY

Marina di Modica

"I'm sad to be going back to university because it means leaving the sea", said a young man of my acquaintance the other day. There's no truer Sicilian sentiment than that and, as I managed to stop myself saying, "It's not forever", I reflected that it's rather nice to be so attached to your birthplace.

I would be the last person to deny that everybody needs a holiday but one of the difficult aspects about living in Italy is that here everyone takes it at the same time and for an extended period.  This results in some shops and businesses closing for at least four weeks in summer and when a shop or business provides an essential service, as a pharmacy does, this is inconvenient and bordering on mad.

However, there are some advantages to this quiet time in the city:  there is less traffic, you don't have to wait long in the places that are open, you are unlikely to receive cold calls and in my apartment block the lift is always available.  In fact, when people start to return, I come home and think, "Oh, what a cheek - someone's using the lift!"

Other signs that life is getting back to normal are:

These are coming to an end

but these are back:

Traditionally made ice cream will soon disappear from the bars but the fresh orange juice is on its way. No self-respecting Sicilian bar owner will serve orange juice in summer - imported oranges are just not deemed good enough and how right they are!  Yesterday I saw the first batches of autumn cotognata [quince paste] in the supermarket and frutti di Martorana in the pasticceria.

The Lidl leaflet has reappeared in the mailbox, the rosticceria has reopened so that the aroma of foccace  again wafts up the street in the evenings and on Wednesday we even had heavy rain [with floods in some areas].

Last but not least, at around this time in September the female population of Sicily collectively and telepathically decides it's cool enough to discard strappy dresses and the strapless bras it is necessary for those of us not related to stick insects to wear under them. With this decision comes true freedom!

The sea will still be there next year.....

Eloro

SEPTEMBER SALAD

The end of summer means the disappearance of these

but heralds the appearance of these

and calls for a special salad, don't you think? Here's the one I came up with last week:

September salad

You need one skinless, boneless chicken breast if you are in Italy and two if you are in the UK, because here the breasts are sold as a pair and in the UK singly. Ask the butcher to cut it or them into escalopes and pound them.  Marinate the escalopes in 2 tablesp balsamic vinegar with 1 teasp sumac for at least two hours [No, I've never found sumac here - friends send it from the UK.] 

Now you need to deal with 4 prickly pears: to peel one, lay it on its side on a board, plunge a fork into it to hold it steady, then make a slit on one side and start peeling the skin off with the knife. Don't touch the skin as, even if the thorns have been removed prior to sale, you can still get some nasty scratches. Then cut the fruit crossways into slices. Grill the slices in 1 tablesp oil on a griddle pan. They won't go very brown or show griddle marks but the grilling will make the flavour quite interesting. Drain the slices on kitchen paper.

Next, cut 1 large red pepper and 1 large yellow pepper into strips, not very thinly, and grill these in the griddle pan in 2 tablesp. oil.  Drain.

Peel and deseed half a large cucumber or a whole small one and chop it. Put the pieces on a plate, sprinkle with fine seasalt and leave for half an hour or so. Then rinse and drain.

Drain the chicken escalopes and discard the marinade. Pat the escalopes as dry as you can with kitchen paper. Now grill them in 2 tablesp oil in all in a griddle pan. Drain on kitchen paper and leave to cool.

When the chicken is cool enough to handle, cut the escalopes into bite-sized pieces with a kitchen scissors. Put the pieces in a large salad bowl and leave in the fridge.

Make a dressing with 6 tablesp olive oil, 1 tablesp honey, 1 teasp sumac, fine seasalt and black pepper to taste. Mix it all well with a fork and refrigerate this, too.

When you are nearly ready to serve the salad, add  some washed salad leaves to the bowl: I used a whole small radicchio and half an iceberg lettuce, but you can use what leaves you like.  Then add the peppers, prickly pears and cucumber.  Add a few basil leaves and then toss it all in the dressing and serve. 

Serves 4.

AUTUMNAL GELATO

Pomegranate and stracciatella

AUTUMN BLUE

Today, for Sicilians has been a day of brutto tempo [bad weather], there having been a bit of wind. But just look at the blue sky we had! Now all I need is some blue sky in my personal life - please.

PASTA AL FORNO CON ZUCCA

When I need comfort food, as I often do these days, pasta al forno is high on my list of possibilities. At the weekend, I decided I wanted to create a rather more seasonal pasta al forno, so I added pumpkin and a bit of orange zest. Here's the recipe:

Pasta al forno con zucca

First, discard the peel from about a quarter of a small pumpkin and slice the flesh. You'll need about 300 gr. Cook in salted water till the pieces are tender then drain and set aside.

Heat 4 tablsp olive oil in a large, wide pan and add 75 gr pancetta cubes [cubetti di pancetta dolce if you are in Italy]. Cook until browned, then add 1 chopped red onion and cook till the onion is soft. Add 500 gr mixed minced meat - I used a mixture of minced pork and beef but there is nothing to stop you using all beef if you want to. Cook, stirring, to lightly brown the meat.  Add 300 gr sliced mushrooms, the pumpkin pieces and the grated rind of 1 lovely Sicilian orange.  Add a dollop [or dessertspoon] of 'strattu, 200 gr passata and 200 ml water. Season, stir, turn the heat down and simmer for about 40 mins., coming back to stir from time to time. This is your ragù.

Pre-heat the oven to 160 C.

Meanwhile, cook 400 gr rigatoni or tortiglioni for the time indicated on the pack. Drain the pasta and wait for the ragù.

Oil a large ceramic or Pyrex-style roasting dish and add a layer of pasta, a layer of ragù, a layer of 125 gr crumbled ricotta, another layer of pasta, another 125 gr ricotta and finish with a layer of ragù. Sprinkle a handful of fresh breadcrumbs [pane grattugiato] over the top, along with about 1 tablesp of grated Grana Padano, Parmesan or Ragusano cheese. Cook in the oven for 15 mins.

This turned out to be one of the nicest pasta al forno dishes I have ever made so buon appetito!

It will serve at least 4 people generously.

AUTUMNAL RISOTTO

The other day I wanted to make an autumnal  risotto with particularly Sicilian ingredients and risotto purists had better look away now!

I decided that kaki [Sharon fruit or persimmons] which are so plentiful here in this season, should be the main ingredients. If you are going to use these, you must make sure you have the sweet kind or that they are ripe because otherwise they will leave a horrible, dry taste in your mouth. The ones we get here are truly sublime.   I also used pistacchi, ground so finely that in Italy the result is called farina [flour] di pistacchi and a few twists of canella from my trusty cinnamon mill.

Here we go, then:  Heat 3 tablsp olive oil in a wide pan and soften a finely chopped onion in this.  Then add 400 gr Arborio rice and stir it around for a couple of minutes. Add seasalt to taste.  Have ready a jug of 300 ml white wine and 300 ml water, turn the heat down and add a little of the liquid. As soon as it is absorbed, add a little more and repeat the process, stirring, for about 15 mins or until nearly all the liquid is absorbed.  Now add 2 peeled and chopped kaki, a sprinkling of farina di pistacchi and some ground cinnamon, stir everything again and cook for about 2 minutes more.  Add some chopped parsley and serve.

Notes:  

Risotto is usually served a little "wetter" in Italy than it would be in the UK.  

Be careful with your clothes when handling kaki fruit - if the juice stains your clothes, you will never get the stain out!

AUTUMN JEWELS

We are coming up to the Tutti i Santi holiday and, on 2nd November, I Morti, when people remember the dead and that means the pastry shops are full of frutti di Martorana like these, which children receive as gifts from relatives who are no longer with them but continue to watch over them:

I like the legend of the origin of frutta di Martorana, so I will tell it again here:

The exquisite "fruits" are made from pasta reale [almond paste] but “marzipan” is a very inadequate translation which does not do justice to the work involved in its making. Legend has it that the first ever batch of Martorana fruit was made on the orders of a certain mother superior, who wanted to impress her Bishop during his visit. So the nuns prepared the “fruit” and hung it from the cloister trees; so “real” did it look that the Bishop declared that a miracle had happened, as all the fruits had appeared in the same season!

LIKE GOLD IN AUTUMN

What better way to welcome autumn than by preparing this dish of pumpkin roasted with pancetta and rosemary?  The recipe is in the October edition of La Cucina magazine [Corriere della Sera].  I added a sprinkling of grated ragusano cheese when I took the dish out of the oven.

SABATO MUSICALE

I hope you enjoy this self-deprecating little song as much as I do:

Fabrizio Moro - Ottobre

SEASONAL SIGNS

I love to see mounds of chestnuts on sale and to catch the aroma of their roasting as I walk home on autumn evenings in Sicily.  Broccoli, too, is abundant and the purple kind, especially, adds to the rich tapestry of colours here as you pass greengrocers' shops or fruitsellers' lorries.

The fruitseller who calls me bambina has returned from his extended summer break and who am I to argue when he tells me that his wares are in regalo ["a gift"] today at only €10.00 per crate?  As usual, after asking the nearest passer-by to watch his lorry for a few minutes, he carries the crate home for me.

Domenico Modugno - Ciao, Ciao, Bambina

SIGNS OF AUTUMN

The weather has broken and there is thunder as I write.  It is, of course, Persephone and her mother ensuring that Sicily remains fertile. OK, she's supposed to come in the spring but I believe she comes in autumn as well.

I realised today that in one matter one I remain resolutely British and it is this:  I cannot adopt the Italian habit of just waiting for the rain to stop before venturing out, for I remain convinced that if it rains, it's going to rain all day. Thus out I "boldly go" and I was the only fool walking around at 12.30 pm when our magnificent drainage system caused a minor flood.  I swore at every driver in both Italian and English as I was mercilessly splashed on my way to the supermarket.  [I can never understand why drivers can't slow down in the rain in any country.  What do you all have against pedestrians who are having a harder battle than you with the rain?]

On to Raffaele's where the carpets have been put back on the floor.  It isn't cold but it is, after all, September and some of the bars are already clearing away their ice cream.

The first fichi d'India have appeared and soon they will be abundant, like this:

I miss that first chill in the air that you get in Britain and I miss autumn leaves.  But I love being able to open the windows and balcony doors all day even in December and January and I don't miss dangerous, icy pavements!

Andrea Bocelli - Les Feuilles Mortes

AUTUMN ABUNDANCE

This morning I espied these lovely black grapes on sale for 3 euros a crate

and this mound of chestnuts:



This evening, as I strolled back from work, more chestnuts had been brought in and were being roasted:

The young man's assistant pops them in a paper bag, sprinkles over a couple of pinches of seasalt and , when you get home, to quote that old chestnut [sorry] none of them is a hard nut to crack!

SEASONAL DISPLAY

I liked this display in a local supermarket this morning.