PIZZA ESTIVA

I nearly called this "Pizza not-what-it-seems" as all the Italians I have shown the photo to are convinced it's topped with aubergines!  However,  pizza estiva or "summer pizza" is more catchy.

My starting point for this was the recipe for soft, Modican pizza I was given a few years ago and I added grilled nectarines - one of my favourite summer ingredients - and pancetta cubes.  I used some datterino tomatoes and passata instead of chopped tomatoes.

Pizza estiva

250 gr 00 flour or strong white bread flour
1 cube of fresh yeast, crumbled, or a sachet of easy-blend yeast
coarse sea salt
warm water
200 gr passata
about 20 datterino or other very small cherry tomatoes
dried oregano
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
chopped basil leaves
140 gr pancetta dolce or unsmoked bacon cubes
250 gr mozzarella, sliced thinly or ready-crumbled mozzarella for pizza
a little grated Grana Padana or Ragusano cheese
4 - 6 nectarines, depending on size
extra virgin olive oil

Mix the flour, crumbled yeast cube or sachet of yeast and some coarse seasalt together with enough warm water to make a soft, springy dough. I use a processor and it takes about 3 seconds but you can mix it in a bowl by hand if you want. Then knead it hard – slap it against the sides of the bowl. [Do this even if you have mixed it in a processor.] Leave to double in size in an oiled bowl covered with a clean, damp tea towel.
Slice the nectarines as thinly as you can, then grill them quickly on both sides on a lightly oiled ridged grill pan. Let them cool on kitchen paper.
Now whizz up the datterini or cherry tomatoes in a processor - you just want them mushy - and mix them with the passata, garlic, oregano and basil. Add some coarse seasalt.
Cook the pancetta cubes in a bowl in the microwave for 1 minute.
Slice 6 nectarines as thinly as you can and cook them in a little oil on a ridged griddle pan - about 1 minute per side.  Leave to drain on kitchen paper.
Cover a baking tray or sheet with baking parchment and oil it lightly.
When the dough has almost risen, heat the oven to 180 C [fan] or 200 C.
Chuck the dough onto the oiled baking parchment and stretch it out as best you can into an oblong shape. [I love this bit as it’s messy.] Pat it out with the heel of your hand, dipping your hand in the tomato mixture so that it doesn’t stick to the dough.
Cover the dough with the mozzarella.
Spoon the tomato mixture over, add the nectarine slices and pancetta cubes.  Sprinkle over the grated cheese.
Put the pizza in the oven and cook for 45 minutes. 

Serves 4 people with generous slices.  You could always make two for more guests / hungry people. Italians, of course, like a whole pizza each!

IL ROSPO NEL BUCO

A former student of mine, a military man, had been asking me to make him "toad in the hole" since it was mentioned in an article we read in class.  I must admit I'd been avoiding it as it's not one of my favourite dishes and I hadn't made it for years but how can you refuse a fighting man? So when he came home to Sicily for a visit last weekend, I relented and made it.

First, though, I served antipasti, including the aubergine polpette I mentioned here [I decided to keep the sauce], Asiago cheese with cherries, olives and datterini tomatoes and salame tartlets, a Jill Dupleix  idea. I'm always afraid of not serving enough, so there had to be a bowl of crisps!

Then the rospo nel buco, using Italian sausages and to which I added some sage and chopped rosemary. I must say, the nerve-wracking thing did puff up nicely:

And finally, as this was, mostly, a British evening, a summer pudding:

You'll be glad to know, and I was very relieved, that it was all a success!

LA PIZZA DI MERCOLEDI

Here's a delicious pizza topping which requires no pre-cooking and, as I invented it on a Wednesday, I might as well name it for that day!

As I've mentioned before, I use the pizza base recipe in Claudia Roden's original Mediterranean Cookery book, but only half the quantity.

When your pizza dough has risen - after about 1 hour - roll it out into a rectangular shape on a floured board. Pull it a bit with your hands to get it the right shape for a baking tray. Put it on a lightly oiled baking tray and spread the contents of a 400 gr tin tomato pulp on it. [You could use a thick passata if you cannot get this.]  Sprinkle over some seasoning and arrange 6 slices of Speck on top. Then add 100 gr chopped mozzarella [we can buy it ready-chopped for pizza here] and arrange 12 halved datterini tomatoes [or the smallest cherry tomatoes you can find] on top of that. Sprinkle over some more seasoning. Next, add a few slices of grilled red and yellow peppers [drained] from a jar of grilled peppers in oil and some drained and rinsed salted capers. Add another 100 gr chopped mozzarella and scatter over some torn basil leaves.

Cook the pizza at 180 - 200 C for 25 mins.  Decorate with more fresh basil leaves to serve.

Serves four very generously and probably six!

MAY DAY PIZZA

I am calling this my "May Day Pizza" because I invented it on this day but you can call it "Red onion and aubergine pizza" if you like!

First of all, make your pizza base: I guess we all have a favourite pizza base recipe and mine is in Claudia Roden's Mediterranean Cookery. I only use half the quantity, though.

While the dough is rising, slice 2 large red onions thinly and soak the slices in cold water for about 15 mins. Drain the slices well and pat them dry with kitchen paper. Then you need to cook them very slowly, in a heavy pan with the lid on, with 85 gr unsalted butter and some seasoning. This will also take about 15 mins. Stir them from time to time.

Rinse 6 - 8 slices aubergine preserved in oil, rinse them and drain again. Pat dry with kitchen paper.

When the pizza base has risen - after about 1 hour - roll it out into a rectangular shape on a floured board. Pull it a bit with your hands to get it the right shape for a baking tray. Put it on a lightly oiled baking tray and spread the contents of a 400 gr tin tomato pulp on it. [You could use a thick passata if you cannot get this.] Put the aubergine slices on top of this, then 200 gr mozzarella. [In Italy we can buy it already chopped up for pizza.] Lift the onions out of the saucepan with a slotted spoon and spread them over the top. Finally, add a few sprigs of fresh rosemary.

Cook the pizza at 180 - 200 C for 25 mins.  Add a few more fresh rosemary sprigs to serve.

Buon appetito.

Incidentally, I have read that Claudia Roden's The Food of Italy has been updated and republished to celebrate its 25th anniversary. Congratulations to one of my favourite cookery writers!

BROCCOLETTI CON DATTERINI

In case you're wondering what I did with that kilo of broccoletti on Tuesday, here's the salad I invented!

Broccoletti con datterini

Trim, wash and drain 1 kg broccoletti. Bring a pasta pan of salted water to the boil and plunge the broccoletti in. Cook for about 3 mins, then drain. Heat 4 tablesp olive oil in a 2"-deep, wide pan or small wok and cook 1 crushed clove of garlic in it for 1 min. Add the broccoletti, season and stir round for about 5 mins. Add 20 or so datterini tomatoes or the smallest cherry tomatoes you can find and cook, stirring, until these just begin to soften - about 2 mins. Then add a few pinenuts, cook for a further minute and add the juice of 1 lemon. Give it all a good last stir then use a slotted spoon to transfer the mixture to a serving dish. A few shavings of Pecorino stagionato over the top and you're done. 

This is great served warm but it's also pretty good cold!  Serves 4 as a contorno.

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.

CHICKEN, ZUCCHINI AND MELON SALAD

This is an updated version of the "Sunday salad" I created last year:  This time, I used a packet of frozen, grilled courgettes [blanched for a couple of minutes in water to which I added the juice of a lemon] instead of the grilled aubergines. I left out the mint because I didn't have any and really I'd used it last year only because it is the traditional herb for aubergines here. I used cubes of pecorino and grana cheese instead of mozzarella. I also added balls of canteloupe melon. I prefer this year's version!

PERFECT PARTNERS

Asiago cheese and cherries

A PEA-SUPER SALAD!

"I eat my peas with honey,

I've done it all my life,

It makes the peas taste funny

but it keeps them on the knife!"

- Anon.

Well, I do eat my peas with honey when I put them in salads, and that's just what I did the other day when I felt like inventing a new chicken salad for the Sicilian summer:

Pea-super* salad

2 tablesp balsamic vinegar

8 chicken breast escalopes, pounded very thin by your butcher

300 gr fresh or frozen peas plus mint sprig

a goodly chunk of Sicilian peppered Pecorino, cubed

6 - 8 plums, sliced

100 gr pack rocket leaves

a handful of other salad leaves of your choice

a handful of basil leaves, torn

about 8 mint leaves, torn

2 tablesp olive oil

Dressing:

2 tablesp olive oil

1 tablesp honey

1 tablesp balsamic vinegar

seasalt and black pepper

Marinate the chicken escalopes in the balsamic vinegar for at least 2 hours, then lift the chicken pieces out and leave them on kitchen paper. 

Cook the peas in salted water with a sprig of mint until they are just tender, then rinse them in cold water.

Drain the peas and put them into a large salad bowl with the Pecorino, plums, salad  leaves and herbs. Put the bowl in the fridge.

Make the dressing by simply mixing all the ingredients together well and put this in the fridge, too.

Heat the oil on a ridged griddle pan and cook the chicken escalopes on it - about 1 minute per side. As they are cooked, lift them onto a plate and leave to cool.  When you can handle them, cut them into small pieces with a kitchen scissors and add to the salad bowl. Just before serving, give the dressing a final whisk with a fork, pour it over the salad ingredients and toss well.

Buon appetito.

*A pea-souper was a thick, London fog which was so polluted that it was said to look like yellow pea soup. I never saw one, as they were largely a product of an age of heavy industry and coal fires. However, when I was a child I heard my parents talking about them and  I thought the fog had got its name because it was so cold and miserable outside that it made you crave a warming pea soup!

PRETTY PECORINO

Spotted in the supermarket the other day.

MANGIARI DI CAVALERI

Tumazzo, pani e pira, è mangiari di cavaleri. 

Mellow cheese, bread and pears are food for knights.

- Sicilian proverb

My thanks go today to a student who works in the food industry and was thoughtful enough to bring me two lovely books about cheese:

  

The one on the left, about Ragusano cheese, has fascinating stories and insights about how this product was and is made, as well as beautiful black and white pictures of the cheese itself, the production process and the Ragusan countryside:  

The book on the right, which is in English, is a comprehensive study of three Sicilian cheeses - Pecorino Siciliano, Piacentinu Ennese and Provola dei Nebrodi. As well as scientific information about the cheeses, the volume contains recipes, serving suggestions, flowcharts of the production processes and a list of historical references to each cheese. I was interested to learn that both Pecorino Siciliano and Piacentinu Ennese are mentioned by Pliny the Elder, whilst the first historical reference to Provola dei Nebrodi was in 1886.

Grazie, studente mio!

FESTIVE JEWELLED BRESAOLA

Some of you may remember the bresaola roll-ups I made in June. Well, the other day, for the first time, I saw turkey bresaola slices in the supermarket and I decided to see if I could make a festive appetiser with them, using my "ingredient of the year", pomegranate seeds. 

This time I got some Robiola but you could use Certosa or even Philadelphia cheese.  I used 150 gr Robiola to fill 100 gr of turkey bresaola slices.  I added some pomegranate seeds and the juice of two mandarins to the cheese and mixed it well, seasoning it with a twist of mixed peppercorns. Then all you have to do is roll the slices up and sprinkle some more pomegranate seeds over the top!

AUTUMNAL SNACK

A hunk of Sicilian peppered pecorino and some cotognata [quince paste]. What could be better?

SUNDAY SALAD

The temperature in Sicily is soaring yet again, so cool food is called for.  I invented this salad thi morning:

Sunday Salad

You will need one chicken breast as they are sold in Italy or two as they are sold in the UK, cut into bocconcini or bite-sized pieces. [The butcher did this for me.]  Put the contents of a jar of red pesto - here we can get fiery red pesto containing red chilli pepper - into a bowl and about 250 gr pane grattugiato or fresh, fine breadcrumbs into another.  Dip the pieces of chicken first into the pesto, then roll them in the breadcrumbs.  Put them on a plate.  

Now put 4 tablesp olive oil in a wok or deep pan with as many of the chicken pieces as will fit comfortably in one layer. Put the pan on the hob at medium heat and cook the chicken pieces, turning occasionally, until coloured on all sides. [The object is not to deep-fry them, just to cook them nicely.] Some of the breadcrumbs will fall off but it doesn't matter.  Lift the pieces out with a slotted spoon as they are done and put them on kitchen paper on a plate.  You will probably have to add a little more oil to do the rest - I found I needed to do it in three batches, adding another 2 tablesp oil for both the second and third batches.  When they are all done, leave them to cool and refrigerate them as soon as they are cool enough.

When you are ready to assemble the salad, put the following ingredients in a large bowl:  the chicken pieces, some bocconcini of mozzarella [halved if large] several grilled aubergines  [I made life easy for myself and used frozen ones, thawed and cut in half ] 20 - 30 datterini tomatoes or the smallest cherry tomatoes you can find and some torn leaves of fresh basil and mint.  

Make a dressing by mixing 4 tablesp olive oil, 1 tablesp honey, 1 tablesp balsamic vinegar and salt & pepper to taste.

Toss the salad in the dressing and serve.

BRESAOLA ROLL-UPS

We're all sweltering in Italy's Scipione l'Africano heatwave so cool, light, easy food is called for. 

I can't remember in which publication I saw that Bresaola and Robiola cheese are a good combination but anyway I couldn't find any Robiola yesterday.  However, my old friend Mr T, who has reappeared at the supermarket deli counter, suggested I use creamy Certosa instead, so I did.  Now Bresaola can be the very devil to get off that transparent paper the slices are laid upon but when Mr T cuts them, I can manage it!

All you do for this is lay a large fresh basil leaf on each slice of Bresaola, spread over some Certosa Stracremosa, Certosa Light or whatever spreadable cheese you prefer, then roll the slice up and tie a blanched chive leaf around it. [I have neither the patience nor the dexterity to make bows but you can if you like!]

Serve this with a dish of olives and another of sundried tomatoes and you have a feast.

A SORT OF COTTAGE PIE - WITH A MYSTERY INGREDIENT

This recipe, a sort of Italian cottage pie, is from a book called Cucina Low Cost. Only garlic and onion are cooked in olive oil prior to adding the meat but, in addition to the mince - in this case, a mixture of beef and pork but it could be mince of your choice - there is an ingredient I had never heard of before, pasta di salame. I was rather irritated with myself about this but was comforted by the fact that none of the Sicilians I asked knew what it was either.  I did an internet search and, although I found some recipes requiring this ingredient, none of them told me what it was. "From the best supermarkets", said a note in one of these recipes but no one had heard of it in the local supermarket.  By this time, I had begun to suspect that we were probably talking about a sausage mix and at my next stop, the butcher's, this was confirmed.  My butcher seasons his sausage meat with fennel seeds, sage and red wine so some of this to put in the dish seemed a great idea to me!

One thing I don't miss about Britain is most British cheese and I cannot stand cooked Cheddar cheese, so I was happy to sprinkle a mixture of ragusano and grana cheese over the top of the dish.  Oh, and some 'strattu was stirred in with the meat, onion and garlic, too.

I was pleased with the result and will definitely be making this again.

PASTA AL FORNO CON ZAFFERANO

I found the recipe for this dish in a little booklet that came free with a sachet of saffron and was pleasantly surprised at how well it literally turned out, moulded, as it was, in nothing more sophisticated than a loaf tin. The sauce is of  carrots, shallot, Sicilian celery and zucchini, all cooked in a little oil and mixed with the saffron, grated grana or ragusano cheese and some Béchamel.  Ziti pasta are used and you are supposed to cut them to the length of your loaf tin after cooking but luckily my loaf tin was just the right size!

PECORICCO

Pecoricco is a flavoured sheep or goat's cheese from the Nebrodi.  I've seen it flavoured with pepper and rocket before but I'd never seen this version before this week:  it is flavoured with red chilli pepper, rocket, capers and stuffed olives and I like it!

TREASURE TROVE IN MODICA BASSA

One of the places I have an affection for in Modica Bassa is the Casa del Formaggio, partly because of its fantastic, traditional products and partly because it is situated in the street where Simi and I lived for five weeks when we first came to Modica.

So on Sunday, when I visited the Chocobarocco Festival, I took the opportunity to call in on Giuseppe:

Cotagnata [quince paste] and mostarda are on display [centre]

Some local cheeses are kept cool in the traditional way.

Do pay a visit to this little shop if you are ever in Modica - you will be surprised and delighted by what you find there.

AUBERGINE & PEPPER POTATO CAKE

For those of you who are in Italy, the inspiration for this recipe came from some potato cakes featured in the September edition of Alice Cucina.  However,  I did my own thing with it, as follows:

Boil 500 gr  peeled,  sliced potatoes in salted water until soft enough to mash.  Meanwhile, slice an aubergine as thinly as you can and cut the slices into strips.  Cook these in olive oil until soft and drain the slices on kitchen paper. Chop half a red pepper and slice 150 gr provolone cheese thinly.  Drain the potatoes and mash with as much butter as it takes to get a dreamily soft mash. [After many fights with a potato ricer, I now use my hand mixer for this.]  Add 150 gr grated ragusano, parmesan or grana cheese to the mash and mix well.  Now oil a not too shallow flan dish or ovenproof mould - I must say I have become a fan of the bendy silicone ones - and sprinkle pangrattato or breadcrumbs over the base. Spread about half the mash over, then arrange the aubergine slices on top and season them.  Now add the cheese slices and sprinkle the chopped pepper on top of these.  Cut up a couple of slices of cooked ham and add these, together with a few torn basil leaves and then spread the rest of the potato mixture over.  Level it with a palette knife.  Pour 2 tablesp olive oil over the top and cook at 180 C for about 45 mins.  Remove from the oven and leave for about half an hour, then unmould the cake:  the only way is to take a deep breath, quickly dump it top-down onto a plate and then put another plate on the base, pray and flip it back over.  It may not come out perfectly but you can shove any runny bits from the side back in with a fish slice.

Serve with salad and enjoy.  [It's good cold, too.]