CONTORNO

I got the idea for serving fried courgette slices with mint and garlic from a TV programme but the other ingredients are my suggestions:

Fry courgette slices [not too thick, not too thin] in olive oil till golden on both sides. Drain on kitchen paper.

Put in a serving dish and sprinkle with plenty of chopped mint, a little parsley, a chopped garlic clove, chilli flakes to taste, salt [Himalayan pink salt works well] and the grated rind of a lemon.

A good side dish - buon appetito.

HOT AND SPICY EASTER STEW

It's the time of year when Sicilians go in for lamb so here's a hot and spicy spezzatino I've invented, mainly becaiuse I wanted to use the tiny, round chilli peppers I found in the greengrocer's the other day:

In a wok or other deep, wide pan with a lid, heat 5 tablesp olive oil.  Add 1 kg lamb pieces [for spezzatino in Italy, otherwise a bit bigger than the usual cubes sold for casseroles in Britain, preferably bone-in]. When the pieces are browned on all sides, add 1 sliced white onion and a chopped garlic clove.  Continue cooking, stirring, until the onion is soft. Then add a small, sliced aubergine and the contents of 2 tins [400 gr each] of pomodorini [cherry tomatoes in their juice.].  You can use tins of chopped tomatoes if you can't get these, Add some chopped sage and sprigs of rosemary, seasalt, black pepper, 6 - 8 tiny chilli peppers or some chilli pepper flakes, 2 teasp of my favourite spice sumac and 200 ml water.  Add 2 - 3 large potatoes, sliced but not peeled, some cinnamon ground from a  cinnamon mill and just a few cumin seeds.  Put the lid on and simmer for 1 hour.

If you were able to get the tiny chillis, use a few more to garnish.

BRIT-SICILIAN-INDIAN SHEPHERD'S PIE

Long ago, I used to make the great Madhur Jaffrey's "A Kind of Shepherd's Pie" from her 1994 Madhur Jaffrey's Cookbook - Food for Family and Friends. However, due to the difficulty of obtaining minced lamb here and despite having tried the recipe a couple of times with minced beef, in the end I stopped making it. 

But in colder weather comfort food calls so a few weeks ago I decided to revive the recipe using the ingredients I can easily get here, so it's become a bit British, a bit Sicilian and a bit Indian.  I've kept Madhur's idea of a grilled aubergine base and I think this makes it quite Sicilian too. You can use frozen grilled aubergines, reconstituted as directed on the pack, or just slice an aubergine lengthwise and cook the slices on a tray lined with baking parchment in the oven for 10 minutes. The latter is a tip I picked up from Antonella Clerici and I find that the cooked slices freeze well. The other Sicilian touches are the use of sweet Sicilian carrots, green [French] beans and passata. The Indian part is, of course, the use of spices, though there's another nod to Sicily with the use of cinnamon.

Here's the recipe:

Brit-Sicilian-Indian Shepherd's Pie

1 aubergine, sliced and cooked as above [or use frozen grilled aubergine slices]
100 gr green beans, cooked in boiling water until tender, then drained and cut into small pieces
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
300 gr mushrooms, sliced
1 white onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
500 gr mixed minced meat [a mixture of beef and pork if you are in Italy but you can use all beef or lamb]
2 goodly-sized knobs ginger, peeled and finely chopped
cinnamon
1 kg potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
c. 125 gr butter, softened plus a little extra
200 gr passata, made up to 300 gr with water
4 tablesp olive oil
1 tablesp flour
Handful fresh sage leaves, chopped

Arrange the aubergine slices in a large, fairly deep Pyrex or ceramic roasting dish.

Cook the onion and garlic in the oil until softened, then add the carrot slices and soften these too. Add the meat and cook, stirring, until browned.

Add the beans, mushrooms, half the ginger, a little cinnamon and most of the chopped sage and stir for a couple of minutes.

Add the passata mixture and flour, season and stir well.

Turn the heat down and let the mixture simmer for 20 mins.

Meanwhile, cook the potatoes in boiling water till soft but not disintegrating.

Mix the butter with the rest of the sage leaves, a little more cinnamon and the rest of the ginger. Use this to mash the potatoes.

Now pour the mixture in the pan on top of the aubergines and spoon the mash over. Smooth the top with a palette knife. Add a few small knobs of butter and a final sprinkling of cinnamon.

Cook in the oven at 180° C for 15 mins.

Garnish with some whole sage leaves if you wish.

Buon appetito.

UPDATED POLPETTE!

Last year, I published this recipe for lemon polpette which I had adapted from a magazine.  Well, now I have adapted the adaptation and I thought you might like to know about it!  I had three-quarters of an enormous red pepper to use up, you see, so I decided to add it to the polpette mixture:  I just chopped most of it up very finely in order to do so but left a little to cut into strips to strew among the polpette in the roasting tin. It looks pretty and if they char a bit, it adds to the appeal!

Oh, and I left the garlic out this time - because I didn't have any.

This adaptation worked very well and I'll definitely continue making the recipe this way.

Tip:  If you find that the mixture doesn't quite bind together with these measures [Italian eggs are bigger than UK ones] just add a little lemon juice.

WATERMELON APPETISER

Italians, look away now! I know anguria is usually kept for the end of a meal but why not try to be different for once?

Here is a very quick and cooling watermelon appetiser which also looks pretty. You will have to assemble it just moments before serving, but you can cut the watermelon and keep it in the fridge, grill the courgettes [if not using frozen ones] and make your own pesto [if you wish] and chill it in advance.

First cut as many watermelon wedges as you have guests plus a few extra. Leave the rind on what will be the outside edge when the pieces are on the serving plate, as they will be easier to pick up that way. [In Italy, a greengrocer will cut the watermelon for you.]  With a very small coffee spoon, scoop out all the seeds you can see, on both sides.  Arrange the slices on a plate and top each one with a slice of grilled courgette, then add about 2 teasp pesto. [I do usually make my own but this time I didn't and sorry, Masterchef UK people - I don't do quenelles.] Top with a datterino tomato or half a cherry tomato and decorate with basil leaves.

Buon appetito. 

NOT EXACTLY A HOST....

Not exactly a host and not exactly golden, either, but I was pleased to see these at last opening on my balcony this morning. It would have been nice if they had managed it for St David's Day, but you can't have everything!

And when you see clumps of borage everywhere - it is late this year, which has been exceptionally cold - you know it's spring in Sicily!

LONZA WITH MOSTARDA

This is yet another variation on using a whole piece of lonza [pork loin], cut in the Italian way. I thought it would be festive to try it with mostarda [Italian mustard fruits]. The most famous mostarda is, of course, made in Cremona and you may find it easier to find a jar in the UK than it is for me in Sicily! However, Lidl Italia do a good version.

For this recipe you need a 1 kg piece of lonza, flavoured with garlic and herbs and encased in butcher's netting. In Italy the butcher will aromatizzare the meat for you but you can do it yourself by making a few holes through the netting with a skewer and rubbing the meat with a mixture of a crushed clove of garlic and chopped, fresh herbs such as rosemary, thyme and sage.  Place the piece of lonza in a Pyrex-style dish and sprinkle a little saffron powder over the top - or the contents of a sachet of saffron if you are in Italy. Add about 0.25 litre of white wine and leave to marinate in a cool place for at least 2 hours.  Turn the lonza in the marinade once.

Heat the oven to 180 C . Grind some black pepper and sprinkle a little coarse seasalt over the top of the lonza and place the dish with the lonza and its marinade in the oven. Cook for 45 minutes, basting once.

About 5 minutes before the cooking time is up, place the juice and grated zest of 2 oranges in a small pan with 2 teasp. sugar, the contents of another sachet of saffron and 2 tablesp. liquid from a jar of mostarda. Bring to the boil, stirring, then simmer for 2 mins. Pour this mixture over the lonza and let it cook for another 5 mins.

Put the lonza on a board, carve it, then serve on a plate with some of the juice. Decorate it with some of the mostarda fruits. You only need some garlic or herb-roasted potatoes and a green salad to go with it.

Buon appetito.

POLPETTE AL LIMONE

I'd studied several recipes for polpette al limone and was particularly inspired by one which suggested cooking the polpette on a bed of lemon leaves but we can't get lemons with the leaves on at this time of year. [They will come in the autumn.] I wondered for a few days what I could use instead and then it came to me - I would try with fresh bay leaves! In my version, I added pinenuts, for the very good reason that I like them in polpette and I used pane grattugiato [very fine dried breadcrumbs which we can buy in packets in Italy] instead of soaking bread in milk and then squeezing it.

OK, you need:

500 gr minced veal
2 large Sicilian or unwaxed lemons
1 clove garlic, crushed
c. 1 tablesp. chopped parsley
a few cut rosemary needles
about 8 leaves fresh sage, chopped
125 gr pane grattugiato
80 gr grated Ragusano or Parmesan cheese
olive oil
seasalt and black pepper
50 gr pinenuts
2 eggs, beaten
about 20 fresh bay leaves

In a bowl, mix the veal, grated zest of the lemons, garlic, herbs, cheese, pane grattugiato, pinenuts, seasoning and eggs with a fork. Roll the mixture into balls with your hands - it should make about 14.

Lightly oil a small roasting tin and place the bay leaves in the base. Put the polpette on top of the bay leaves, then cut the zested lemons into wedges and put these in the gaps.  Drizzle some olive oil over the polpette and scatter a few rosemary sprigs over the top.  Cook at 180 C for 25 minutes.

These are also pretty good cold, so would make interesting picnic food.

Serves 4 generously.

CHICKEN INVOLTINI WITH GOJI BERRY RISOTTO

As soon as I saw dried goji berries in the supermarket here, I knew I wanted to use them with chicken and this is what I came up with:

12 chicken escalopes, pounded very thinly. [In Italy just tell the butcher you want breast slices for involtini.]
12 thin slices pancetta
400 gr risotto rice
juice and rind of 1 lemon
0.25 litre white wine
1 white onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
50 gr dried goji berries
100 gr pinenuts
basil leaves
cinnamon, preferably freshly ground from a cinnamon mill
seasalt and black pepper

First, make the risotto: Heat 3 tablesp olive oil in a wide pan, add the onion and garlic and cook, strirring, over a low flame until soft but not brown. Pour the white wine and lemon juice into a measuring jug and make up to 1 litre with water. Add about 100 gr of the rice to the pan and stir around, then add the rest of the rice and about a quarter of the liquid, stirring. When the rice has absorbed it, add another quarter and repeat the process, until you have all the liquid in the pan. Add the berries, pinenuts, 3 - 4 twists of cinnamon from a mill or 1 teasp powdered cinnamon, the lemon rind, seasoning and a few torn basil leaves.  Turn the heat down and let the risotto cook for about 15 mins., stiriring occasionally. When it tastes right, take it off the heat and let it cool for up to 1 hour.

Heat the oven to 180 C.

Lay the pancetta slices on a chopping board or a couple of large plates and put a chicken slice on top of each one. Spread some of the risotto - about a dessertspoon for each one -  along the slices, then roll them up in the pancetta.  You won't need to secure them with anything - they will hold. Lightly oil a large, Pyrex-style roasting dish and place the involtini in it. Cook in the oven for 30 mins.

I served these with roasted datterini tomatoes which I had sprinkled with herbs, seasoning, balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

You can freeze any leftover risotto mixture for the next time!

Serves 6.

Buon appetito.

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!

LONZA WITH CRANBERRY SAUCE AND CAMPARI

Here is yet another variation on a whole piece of lonza [pork loin]! This time I had decided I needed to use up the cranberry sauce I'd made just after Christmas, and had the idea of using it with lonza. I knew it needed a kick of something but couldn't think quite what. Then, in the middle of the night, I thought of campari. I didn't have any in the house but the owner of the bar opposite was happy to give me some in an espresso cup! Here's what I did:

Ask your butcher to make a few incisions in a 1.5 kg piece of lonza so that you can insert slices of orange in them. [This time you don't want the lonza in butcher's netting.] When you get the meat home, insert half an orange slice in each incision, along with a leaf of fresh sage and a couple of rosemary needles. Rub over some coarse seasalt [I used pink Himalayan salt] and a couple of grindings of mixed peppercorns and tie the lonza at intervals with kitchen string. Put it in a dish and pour over the juice of an orange and 200 ml white wine. Marinate in the fridge for 2 hours or so, turning once.

When you are ready to cook, turn the lonza back over and place it in a smallish roasting pan lined first with foil and then with baking parchment. Pour the marinade over it and cook for 1 hour at 180 C.  [Italian ovens tend to be fast so I turned mine down to 160 C half way through cooking.]  Baste the lonza after half an hour.

Just before the cooking time is up, mix about 200 gr cranberry sauce with the juice of another orange and half an espresso cup of campari. Place in a shallow pan on the hob and cook, stirring. When the mixture bubbles, turn the heat down and keep stirring for another 2 mins. Pour this over the pork and give it another 5 mins in the oven.

Cut off the string, carve the pork and serve with the sauce.

Serves 6 - buon appetito!

FEVER SOUP

Red onion soup made with brodo [stock] is an old Italian cure for colds and flu and when I was feeling poorly last week I knew that onion soup was just what I needed. I didn't have any red onions and lacked the energy to go and get some but I did have some white ones. I also wasn't really in a brodo frame of mind, so I decided to concoct my own onion soup using passata. [I like the rustica type that is a bit thicker]. Here's what I did:

For 1 - 2 people thinly slice 6 medium white onions and chop 2 cloves garlic, then soften them very slowly, in a heavy pan, in 55 gr butter and 1 tablesp olive oil.  This will take about 15 mins.

Now, what's this lovely stuff?

It's coarse seasalt flavoured with lemon zest and mint and I found it in Catania at Christmas. I've been dying to use it so in some went!  You can of course just add normal seasalt, some grated lemon zest and chopped herbs of your choice. Add a good grinding of mixed peppercorns, too.

Now add 680 gr passata or homemade tomato sauce. Simmer, stirring, for about 20 mins.

To serve the soup you can put buttered toast in the bottom of the bowl if you like, but I just added some small squares of ordinary bread as it reminds me of the soups I ate as a child. Don't we all need to think of being cossetted when we're unwell?

I felt heaps better the next day. It could have been the medication the doctor gave me but I'm convinced it was the soup!

SPEZZATINO OF PORK WITH LEMONGRASS

It's not often that I find fresh lemon grass in Sicily but I did find some last time I was in Catania. In its honour, I invented this recipe:

Spezzatino of pork with lemon grass

A note on the spezzatino cut:  When I first came to Sicily, I found the cubes of meat that butchers would cut for spezzatino too big and I used to get them home and cut them again. Over the years, though, I've got used to the bigger pieces and, if you want to make a pork spezzatino, a good butcher will give you pieces with a fair bit of fat on at one end. They believe that this is good for the flavour and they are right.

In a wide pan, soften 1 sliced white onion in 4 tablesp olive oil, then add 1 kg pork pieces for spezzatino and brown on all sides - about 10 mins.  Add 3 chopped lemon grass bulbs, season the mixture with a few grindings of mixed peppercorns and some coarse seasalt, then add water to just cover the meat. Add 2 dried chilli peppers, 2 teasp dried sage and 2 teasp dried oregano and stir. Cover and simmer for 1 hour, turning the meat now and then.

Fish out the chilli peppers and serve.

Serves 4.

WARM RICE SALAD

The other evening I decided I just had to have a warm rice salad to go with my butcher's excellent spiedini [kebabs]. The shops being closed, I had to use what was in the store cupboard and [newly working] freezer, so here's what I did:

Cook 500 gr long-grain rice - in Italy we can get special salad rice - in salted water for the time indicated on the pack. If this time is no longer than 10 minutes, chuck 200 gr frozen peas right in there with the rice. If the time indicated is longer - and please note it's the time from when the water comes to the boil - throw the peas in for the last ten mins.

While the rice and peas are cooking, chop a large red onion and a couple of peppers from a jar of grilled peppers in oil. Halve some datterini or cherry tomatoes and tear up a handful of basil leaves.

When the rice and peas are done, strain them and transfer to a serving dish. Mix in the other vegetables and basil and season well. Stir in 1 tablesp olive oil and serve.

Serves 4 generously. 

Buon appetito.

FUSION POACHED CHICKEN WITH RICE SALAD

I don't hear the term "fusion cooking" much any more but then, I do live in a place where most people just do not want to try food from other lands! I, however,  still sometimes hanker after strong spices and, on those occasions,  a smidgin of cinnamon or red chilli pepper will not do.

A few weeks ago, I made up this recipe for poached chicken - a neglected way of cooking one, I feel. It is a popular way of cooking chicken breasts but you can also cook a whole chicken by this method.  The Sicilian ingredients are cinnamon and red chilli pepper in decent amounts and the lemon. If you add carrots, they could be sweet, Sicilian ones.

OK, now the size of the chicken you use will depend on the size of the largest pot you've got with a lid. Because I have a couple of large but not enormous pots, I only poach a whole chicken when I can get a small one, which is difficult in Sicily, though not in the UK. You need a pot that will take your chicken, plus a few vegetables and spices, comfortably and in which there is room to cover the chicken with liquid plus one inch.

Having selected your pot and got your chicken, season the inside of the chicken with coarse seasalt and a few twists of mixed peppercorns. Add half a lemon., half a red onion, 1 unpeeled garlic clove, 2 fresh bay leaves, a little dried oregano and knob of peeled, fresh ginger. Close the opening with a wooden skewer or some cocktail sticks.

Put the chicken in the pot and cover with water and 125 ml white wine. Season the liquid and add 2 more knobs peeled, fresh ginger, 2 dried chilli peppers, 1 unpeeled garlic clove, the other halves of the lemon and red onion, 1 large cinnamon stick [we get whackingly fat cinnamon sticks here] and a few fresh sage leaves. You can add a few unpeeled, sliced potatoes if you like - in my case it was a matter of how many I could cram in - and some sliced carrots if you wish. [I forgot these this time.]

Put the pot on the heat, bring to the boil, then put the lid on and lower the heat.  Simmer for 50 mins., then turn the heat off and just leave everything for 10 mins.

The chicken will be so tender that it will be falling off the bone.

Last night I invented a rather jolly rice salad to go with this dish. Sicilians would be really puzzled by this as they seem to have difficulty in imagining a rice salad that does not contain tuna. [I can't eat fish and in restaurants, even when I ask if it's possible to have a rice salad without it, they will say, "Yes" but still bring me a portion with tuna, as if it's not fish at all. I've given up.]  For this rice salad, apart from the pineapple, an ingredient which I had planned, I used what I happened to have and it was much more successful than I expected:

Cook 500 gr rice suitable for salads according to the instructions on the pack. Drain and rinse several times in cold water. Transfer to a large serving bowl. Add the slices of a whole, fresh pineaapple, a chopped red onion, a few chopped aubergines that have been preserved in oil, some fresh basil leaves and some sundried cherry tomatoes over which you have sprinkled a little oil.  Put the mixture in the fridge until you are ready to serve.

Make up a dressing of 6 tablesp olive oil, 1 tablesp red wine vinegar, 1 tablesp honey, a little dried oregano and a seasoning of a couple of twists of mixed peppercorns and fine seasalt. Mix all together and put the bowl in the fridge till you are ready to serve the salad. Then chuck the dressing over and toss with a spoon and fork.

You can either serve the carved chicken - it won't need much carving! - with the potatoes and some of the cooking liquid and serve the rice salad separately or you can serve the slices of chicken on the salad with the potatoes around them.  I prefer to do the latter.

I've also seved this with this black rice salad  [and I remembered the carrots that time!] but I think I prefer yesterday's white rice version.

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!

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!

BAKED ONIONS WITH APRICOT RAGU

Baked, stuffed onions are a favourite in Sicily during the Giarratana onion season and I used the largest ones I could find for this recipe.  The ragù with dried apricots and almonds is my own invention because I wanted to do something different, so all you Sicilians who are shocked by the mix of "sweet and savoury" had better look away now!

First, clean, trim and peel 6 large, flattish onions and then put them in simmering, salted water for 20 minutes or until tender but not falling apart.  Lift them out of the pan with a slotted spoon and let them dry on kitchen paper on a plate.

Heat the oven to 170 C while you make the ragù.  These quantities are enough to fill the 6 large onions and to have some ragù left to put around them:

4 tablesp olive oil + extra for drizzling
200 gr mixed, minced meat [typically pork and beef in Sicily]
200 gr pasta di salame [sausage mince]
125 gr mushrooms, chopped
6 fresh mint leaves, chopped
125 ml white wine
100 gr chopped almonds
100 gr dried apricots, chopped
coarse seasalt and black pepper
mint leaves to garnish

Brown all the meat in the 4 tablesp olive oil and add the mushrooms. Stir well, then add the wine, chopped almonds, chopped mint and apricots. Season the mixture, then turn down the heat and simmer for about 25 mins.

Meanwhile, scoop out the centre of the onions as best you can. [I used a small knife and a teaspoon.] Oil a glass or ceramic oven dish and place the onions in it. Now fill them with the ragù and spoon the remaining ragù around them. Drizzle more olive oil over the contents of the dish and bake for about 30 mins. Garnish with more mint leaves.

Buon appetito!

ZUCCHINI MOUSSE

It's always gratifying when a mousse, semifreddo, timballo or any other dish that is meant to turn out actually does just that, so I thought I'd show you this zucchini mousse. Admittedly , it would have looked better if I'd had the patience to cut the zucchini for the top into ultra-thin ribbons but I didn't have the patience tonight and sliced them in the processor. 

The recipe, for those of you in Italy, was in Donna Moderna about three weeks ago but I'm afraid I can't find the date on the pages I kept. You are supposed to use goat's cheese but, as I couldn't find any, I used Crescenza.  The dish also contains eggs, chives, basil, more grated zucchini and panna di cucina [cream for general cooking - it is thinner than British single cream]. 

STINCO WITH HARISSA

The Moro Cookbook has a recipe for roast chicken which has been marinated in harissa and the other day, it occurred to me that this should work with stinco of pork.  Stinco is the shin cut and it is much beloved of Italians for Sunday lunch. Some of my friends just marinate it in red wine - preferably a Nero d'Avola, they all say - and herbs, then cook it slowly in the oven.  I decided to liven it up a bit and this is what I did:

Rub about 1 tablesp harissa all over a stinco. Put it in a bowl, season, and sprinkle a little dried oregano over it.  Leave in the fridge for a few hours or overnight.

Line a small roasting tin with foil and put the stinco in the centre. Slice 3 largeish, unpeeled potatoes and 2 carrots. Cut a red pepper into strips. Put the vegetables around the stinco and add about 6 unpeeled garlic cloves.  Season the vegetables and add some sprigs of fresh rosemary and thyme.  Pour 3 tablesp olive oil over the vegetables and drizzle a little over the stinco.  Pour the juice of 2 - 3 lemons over the vegetables, too.

Cover the tin with foil and put it in the oven at 170 C for 1.5 hours, turning the vegetables over half way through the cooking. Then take the foil off, add a little more oil and cook for another 20 - 30 mins.  Watch it carefully during this time.

Slice the stinco and serve with the vegetables.

This will serve 3 people. If you want to serve more hungry folk, you can always add another stinco!

Buon appetito.