THE BEST MEDICINE?

In Italy, and in Sicily in particular, food is taken very seriously, as we saw in the "stock cube in the caponata" affair.  It is not, however, taken so seriously that we cannot laugh about it and today I was looking at the facebook page on which people continue to voice their horror at the idea of putting a stock cube in this classic Sicilian dish, ironically post photos of dishes they've made "without a cube" or just joke about it. I particularly like the photo of cannoli "without a cube" and the one in which a woman making cassata siciliana says she will put a stock cube wherever the f*** she likes.  Then there is the je suis caponata image and you do wonder how poor old caponata feels about being catapulted into the headlines just when it least expected it. You wonder, too, whether it is appropriate to adapt a hashtag that had its origin in such tragic circumstances, but I'm sure the Charlie Hebdo catoonists would be among the first to say that it is. As dado also means "dice", I take my hat off to the person who posted a photo of caponata with a dice in it! If you'd like a look, the page is here.

Italians share with the British an ability to laugh at themselves and this was evident earlier this week on twitter, when a certain extremist group or their sympathisers threatened to invade Rome. Italians reacted with "travel tips", among which I liked, "Don't come today - there's another transport strike" and "Don't use the ringroad - there are traffic jams".  "Is it to update your wardrobe?" was a bit cattier but my favourite was, "Is it because you've run out of Nutella?"

The British might have promised to "fight them on the beaches" but Italians responded with humour, which may turn out to be an effective weapon.

"Gli avari e coloro che non hanno niente da offrire, infatti, non ridono. - The miserly and those who have nothing to offer do not laugh."

- Roberto Benigni 

TAKE UP YOUR LADLES!

Oh dear, oh dear - the honour of Sicily has been besmirched and this time it is very serious as it involves food:  it is all about a 30-second television advert for a certain brand of stock cube. In the advert, Tiziana Stefanelli, the winner of MasterChef Italia two years ago, is being shown how to make caponata by a Sicilian woman. But when the Sicilian lady committed the cardinal sin of adding a stock cube, twitter and social networks exploded. 

Tiziana Stefanelli has said she is sorry about the strong feelings that have been provoked by the advert but that she thinks Sicilians have other things to worry about. She also said that she is glad that some women have time to make their own stock as she herself often does not. 

Had this happened in a neighbouring country, I would have said, "Aux armes, citoyens" but the best I can suggest is that all good Sicilians take up their ladles.  Ai mestoli, cittadini!

My [stockcubeless] recipe for caponata is here.

A HIGH-FLYING DISH

I've always loved caponata and now this dish is set to become a real high-flyer when Luca Parmitano from Catania, who is to become the first Sicilian to journey into space, takes some with him on his International Space Station mission in May next year, reports the Palermo edition of La Repubblica.  

The recipe to be used is the brainchild of chef Filippo La Mantia and, as he uses neither garlic nor onions in his version, it was found to be very light when tested at Cape Canaveral three years ago. Thus this dish has been chosen to represent Sicilian cuisine on the mission.

Major Parmitano, who is currently training in Russia, will spend six months on the ISS after taking off from Baikonur in Kazakhstan.  The mission logo, designed by Ilaria Sardella from San Giorgio Ionico near Taranto [Puglia], features an image of the earth in the colours of the Italian flag, reports La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno. Norberto Cioffi, an engineer from Pantigliate near Milan, came up with the mission's name which is, in homage to the Domenico Modugno song, Volare.

What other music could I post tonight?

Domenico Modugno - Nel blu dipinto di blu  [Volare]

DINNER WITH "LIFE IN SICILY"

Yesterday evening I was delighted to be able to cook for my friend and fellow-Modican-by-adoption Carol King, who is @LifeinSicily on twitter.

With the exception of the dessert, all the recipes for the dishes on the menu are my own and have been posted on this blog, so you will see links to them as you read the post:

To start with I made caponata, which you can serve at room temperature or cold.  This time I served it cold.  [Note:  I don't bother salting the aubergine prior to cooking any more.  I have finally come out on the "Don't" side of that culinary debate, having decided it's a waste of time.]

Caponata needs bread or something crunchy to go with it, so I made my Italianised Quesadillas:

Any Italian banquet requires pasta or rice, too, and, for a summer evening, I think this Herbed Risotto Cake is a good solution because it can be prepared in advance:

You slice it, just like a cake!

For the main course I prepared the Tamarind Chicken dish I invented a couple of weeks ago, served on dressed courgettes with datterini tomatoes which had been marinated in oil and lemon juice:

Raspberries are a rarity here, but eagle-eyed Carol had spotted a bar where the owners had just made a batch of raspberry ice cream, so she brought some along with lemon gelato too.  Delicious!

Then I brought out that old standby of mine which I call a lemon semifreddo but is really the much missed Jennifer Paterson's Suffolk Lemon Pudding from her book Seasonal Receipts.

It was good to see you, Carol.  Thanks for the company, the gelato and the laughs!

CANAZZU

I came across this in Matthew Fort's Sweet Honey, Bitter Lemons . The Sicilian friends I asked about it had not heard of it so I looked it up and, as I suspected, it is described as a basic kind of caponata, though this version contains no sugar or vinegar - or capers, for that matter.

Naturally, I adapted Fort's recipe a little: Firstly, instead of using aubergines I used the bases of biete da taglio but only because I had them in the fridge. You clean them as you would a leek [well, that's what I did] and cut them into bite-sized pieces. When cooked they have the texture of softened celery and a mild, pleasant taste which balances well with the zingy flavour of the peppers. A Sicilian would be horrified as I will not peel potatoes, as most of you know. The one British food maxim that I have stubbornly imported is, "most of the goodness is in their skins". I'll confess that I didn't bother peeling and seeding the tomato either, but I would have had there been company! Fort tells you to use 200 ml olive oil but I find ml measurements a nuisance where oil is concerned. I say, bung in 3 tblesp of the stuff and hope for the best! And I would suggest using half the amount of vegetable stock given in his recipe. Anyway, it is a triumph! Like caponata, this can be eaten at room temperature or cold.

All you do is chop a large, white onion and soften it in the oil, then add 2 aubergines or 2 biete da taglio bases, cut into chunks, and stir it all around a bit. Then add 1 or 2 sliced tomatoes, 3 - 4 large potatoes, cut into chunks, and 2 sliced peppers of whatever colour you like. Stir it all around for a few minutes, then chuck in a glass [when I say "a glass", I always mean a large one!] of white wine and let it bubble up for a minute or 2. Add about 200 ml vegetable stock [yes, a cube is fine] season with coarse seasalt [please!] and freshly ground black pepper, throw in some torn leaves of basil, plonk the lid on and cook for 25 mins over a low flame. Add some more basil to serve.

CAPONATA

A friend gave me these home-grown and salted capers, so I just had to make caponata! Besides, a commenter has asked for the recipe. And a third reason for making it is that there is something unmistakeably Mediterranean about the perfume that results from having a dish made with aubergines and peppers bubbling away on the hob.

In Sicilian Food, Mary Taylor Simeti tells us that the dish was probably seagoing food because the vinegar in it means that it keeps well. In the recipe she gives, she includes some chopped, toasted almonds and the optional addition of some cocoa powder. I add neither of these, but almonds do marry well with peppers, so you may like to try it. Some recipes say use tomato sauce [which is what I do - I make my own using Keith Floyd's recipe in Floyd on Italy] whilst others tell you to sieve a can of tomatoes. I should think you could get away with using passata, but I would then thicken it with some tomato paste and maybe use the almonds. [I add a bit of 'strattu anyway, though it's not an authentic ingredient for this dish.] I do stone the olives [and you can use green ones instead of black or a mixture if you prefer] but as the elongated peppers available here don't have much membrane, I don't bother cutting it out. Here is the recipe:,

1 aubergine

c. 5 fl. oz olive oil

1 onion, sliced

1 clove garlic, chopped

1 stick celery, sliced

2 red peppers, sliced [or 1 red and 1 orange pepper]

c. 1 pint good tomato sauce

goodly dollop of tomato paste

2 tblsp red wine vinegar

1 tblsp brown sugar

handful stoned black olives

c. 1 tblsp salted capers, rinsed and drained

Halve the aubergine, score the flesh and sprinkle with coarse seasalt. Put in a colander, jam a plate on top and leave for c. 30 mins. Rinse well and dry with kitchen paper. Cube the aubergine.

Heat the oil in a deep pan and add the onion, garlic, peppers and celery. Cook, stirring, for c. 5 minutes, then add the aubergine cubes.

Add the tomato sauce and paste, vinegar and sugar and cook for a few more minutes.

Add the capers and olives. Season.

Cover and simmer for about 25 minutes or until it is all squashy and looks and smells Mediterranean!

This dish is most often served here as an antipasto and in summer it is served chilled. You can serve it hot if you want to, but I prefer to serve it at room temperature. The dish freezes well and will serve 4 generously. In my opinion it needs no acompaniment other than some good, Sicilian pane arabo.

I had read about but never seen the rounder, paler type of aubergine in the last picture until I came to Sicily. Simeti tells us that this is the "Tunisian" variety but they are charmingly sold as violette here.

Still on a vegetable theme, today I found celeriac on sale for the first time since I've been in Sicily. I have missed céleri rémoulade and shall now be making up for it!