INFIORATA 2016

As I've mentioned before, no one really knows why, in the 18th century, some Italian towns started celebrating the Festival of Corpus Christi or Corpus Domini by creating "carpets "of flowers but one theory is that people were simply using what they had to make something beautiful for God and what they had was an abundance of flower petals.  The town of Noto's Infiorata tradition started more recently, 37 years ago, and the event is always held over the third weekend of May so I made my way there on Saturday.

The "carpet of flowers" is spread out along the town's via Nicolaci and this year's theme was "The Infiorata Welcomes the World".  I'm sure you will understand that, as you have to walk up one of the sides of the display, it is rather difficult to take well-angled photos, especially in glorious sunshine so that you can't see what you're doing! Nonetheless, I hope the photos I managed to take convey something of the beauty and the atmosphere of the occasion for you.  

I thought the cat was rather magnificent so here he is again:

 As a souvenir, I bought one of these nifty lemon squeezers that collect the juice in the little jug on top of the "tap" thing:

Half way up via Nicolaci, I spotted a great menu on offer at €12,90. As it was 1 pm I entered the establishment and to my surprise, was served one of the best, and most generous, plates of bruschette I ever had and certainly the best chicken and vegetable couscous I've tasted in Sicily!  

What better day out could there be?

You can see panoramic images of the Infiorata here.

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.

ELEGANCE ON A PLATE

I've often said that gel al limone must be among the most refreshing desserts in the world and this is one of the most elegant presentations I've seen of this dish:

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.

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!

SPOONFED

Regular readers will know that one of my favourite Sicilian desserts is gel al limone and over the weekend I enjoyed it at two fabulous meals to which I was treated. There seems to be a new fashion for thrusting the spoon into it to serve:

CREAMY LEMON CHICKEN

I don't often get food cravings, except for ice cream, but the other day I decided I just have to have chicken with cream and lemons.  I rarely use cream in my savoury cooking as cooked cream upsets my stomach but Italian panna di cucina is lighter than British single cream and does not cause me any problems. 

Get the butcher to cut one skinned and boned chicken breast [that is, two breasts as they are sold in the UK and one as sold in Italy] crosswise into not too thin medallion shapes.  Soften a chopped, medium white onion in 4 tablesp olive oil in a wide, fairly deep pan. Don't let the onion brown. Turn the chicken pieces in about 2 tablesp flour and add them to the pan.  Seal them on both sides.  Add 300 ml white wine, the grated zest and juice of 1 Sicilian or unwaxed lemon and stir well. Add 250 gr chopped mushrooms, a little chopped fresh thyme and parsley and a little dried oregano.  Stir well and season.  Simmer for 45 mins, then add 200 ml panna di cucina or other thin cream and stir. Simmer for another 15 mins, then serve with orange salad and enjoy!

Serves 4.

AND ONCE IN A WHILE....

Once in a while it's an unexpected and very welcome treat when a friend brings me fresh lemons from her garden.  These perfume the kitchen even more.  And when, on the same day, another friend brings me some of her pretty, handmade chocolates I know I'm in for a blissful evening:

I'll just let you have a closer look at the chocolates....

Happy weekend, everybody!

NOW AND THEN....

Now and then buying a bunch of Sicilian lemons, with their leaves still attached, perfumes the kitchen, reminds me where I am and brightens my day:

LAMB WITH LEMONS

This is a variation on the "Finger-Burner" Lamb Chops recipe in the lovely Tuscan Sun Cookbook by Frances and Edward Mayes:

I used Frances and Edward's idea for the marinade, namely a mixture of a little olive oil, red wine, fresh thyme and seasoning, then added some dried oregano as well. I used 1 kg of chops but bear in mind that the lamb chops available down here are very small and have little meat on them.  If you can get meatier, or what I call "normal" lamb chops, you may just want to use, say, two per person.  Anyway, having left the chops in their marinade in the fridge overnight, I didn't grill or pan-roast them but put them in a foil-lined roasting dish with some slices of lemon - we are in the green lemon season here - and a few sliced vine tomatoes.  [You can seed the tomatoes if you want but I didn't.] I sprinkled just a dash more oil and coarse seasalt over the tomatoes and cooked the dish in the oven at 180 C for 50 minutes.

The result, I thought, was excellent and I'll definitely be making this again.

NECESSITY IS THE MOTHER......

Bakewell Tart, Chicken Marengo, Chocolate Chip Cookies..... Many are the great recipes invented by accident and, as every cook knows, sometimes the substitution of an ingredient with what he or she has to hand makes the dish turn out even better, despite the momentary panic that the situation may have caused.

Thus it was on Sunday evening when I decided to make the cold stuffed peppers again [or you can eat them hot, if you prefer] and found I had no milk to soak the breadcrumbs in.  I don't keep milk in the house, you see, as I don't drink it and am allergic to it [except for a little as an ingredient].  What else did I have?  Wine, water, passata? The important thing when you lack an ingredient, I've discovered, is not to lose your nerve so I looked around, then hit on the obvious solution, given where I live:  I soaked the pane grattugiato in the juice of a lovely, Sicilian lemon and the dish turned out so much better that I am resolved to do this every time!

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!

FRIDAY RISOTTO

Friday night is "comfort food night" and for me, the two great comfort foods of the world are mashed potato and risotto.  As I had a supply of the Sicilian asparagus I showed you yesterday, this evening it had to be asparagus risotto.

These quantities will serve four as a starter:

What really crowns a nice, creamy risotto is a little butter stirred in at the end and for this one I made some lemon butter.  All you do is add some grated lemon rind to about 125 gr unsalted butter, wrap the butter in foil and let it firm up again in the fridge while you prepare the risotto. 

Trim the hardest stalks from c. 350 gr asparagus, then cut it into small pieces [best done with a scissors]. Sicilian asparagus has small, thin spears which you will lose if you try to keep them separate from the cut-up stalks, as some recipes suggest, so just rinse all the asparagus together, then throw it into a pan of boiling, salted water and simmer until it is just tender - 15 - 20 minutes.  

Meanwhile, chop a small white onion or half a medium one finely with a stick of celery. [Sicilian celery is very thin so you won't need much if you are using another kind.]  Drain the asparagus and set aside.

Have 500 gr arborio or other risotto rice ready and in a jug, have ready 150 ml white wine and 550 ml water. In a wide pan, heat 2 tablesp olive oil and add the onion, celery and just a little of the rice.  Stir it all around but don't let the onion brown. After a couple of minutes add the rest of the rice, all the asparagus, seasoning to taste and enough of the water and wine mixture to just cover the mixture.  Over a medium heat, stir until the rice has absorbed the liquid, then add half the remaining liquid and simmer till the rice has absorbed this too. Now add the last of the liquid and simmer till absorbed.  [The whole absorption process will probably take about 20 mins.]

Off the heat, quickly stir in a generous couple of tablesp of grated parmesan, grana or ragusano cheese.  Spoon the risotto into serving bowls, add a generous knob of the lemon butter to each and you're done!  

As I've said many times before, there is no secret to preparing a good risotto.  In my opinion, you just need:

- the right kind of rice

- a wide but not too deep pan

- the patience to add the liquid gradually 

- to remember that Italians like their risotto "wetter" than the Brits

- that all-important butter to stir in at the end!

This dish was just what I needed after a week at the chalk face!

MEDITERRANEAN COBBLER

No, not a Modican shoe repairer but my name for a new dish I've invented!  The inspiration for this dish is the recipe for "Syrian Chicken" in Diane Seed's Top 100 Mediterranean Dishes, of which I think this may be an updated edition.

Here's how I've Italianised the dish:

4 - 5 loaves Sicilian pane arabo or other flattish bread
0.75 kg chicken breast fillets
1 medium white onion
2 Sicilian or unwaxed lemons
1 jar grilled peppers
6 tablesp olive oil
c. 1 tablesp dried oregano
seasalt and freshly ground black pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 180 C and lightly oil a large, rectangular Pyrex-type dish.
Cut half the loaves in half lengthwise and line the bottom of the dish with them, crusty side down.
Slice the onion into rings and lay these on top of the bread.
Slice the lemons as thinly as you can and lay the slices of one of them on top of the onions.
Season with salt, pepper and some dried oregano.
Now lay all the chicken pieces on top of the lemons and season them in the same way.
Next, cover the chicken with the [not too enthusiastically] drained peppers and the slices of the other lemon.
Drizzle over half the olive oil.
Cover everything with the rest of the bread, sliced to more or less fit the dish, crusty side up.
Drizzle over the rest of the olive oil, cover the dish with foil and cook for 50 mins.
When the dish is ready, the bread will be impregnated with the aromatic juices and the chicken will be meltingly tender.

Enjoy.

CHICKEN WITH LEMON & GARLIC

This excellent recipe is in one of my favourite cookbooks, La Cucina del Sole by Nancy Harmon Jenkins.  I altered it in only one detail by adding a little cut-up lardo [white bacon] with the potatoes.  The result was better than ever!

FAVOURITE RECIPE FROM 2011

This recipe, which I found late in 2011 in an Italian magazine - sorry, I forget which - definitely gets my vote for culinary discovery of the past year!  Having made it several times now, I have altered it a little and so give it here:

Ask your butcher for 1 kg pork loin in one piece [Italian cut] and also ask him to wrap it in butcher's netting.  If, like my butcher, he offers to season it for you with fresh sage, garlic, seasalt and black pepper, let him, for the finished result will be all the more delicious! When you get the meat home, make incisions all over the top - I used a skewer to do this - and jam some rosemary needles into the holes.  Put the meat in a Pyrex dish in which it will just fit and pour 2 large glasses of white wine over it. Sprinkle a little more rosemary over the top and  leave to marinate for at least 2 hours.  Cook in an oven heated to 180 C for 25 mins, then turn the meat over and cook for 20 mins more. While this is happening, stir 4 teasp brown sugar with the juice of 4 large lemons over a low heat. When the mixture gets syrupy, add 2 tablesp Calvados and stir to amalgamate. Pour the sauce over the meat and cook it for another 10 mins. 

Slice the meat as thinly as you can to serve and pour the sauce over.

PICCOLO GRANDE COLORE

The first time I showed Sicilian green lemons on this blog, several commenters were convinced that they were limes!  I assure you they are lemons and are just as "lemony" in flavour as their yellow cousins.  They appear here between yellow lemon harvests and today I found these giant, round ones.  I spotted the tiny chilli peppers at the same time.

LATE SUMMER BREAKFAST

Lemon granita and a pastry. 

PORK WITH PINK PEPPERCORNS AND LEMON

"You don't want lonza [loin] for spezzatino", said my trusty butcher when I explained that this was the cut specified in the recipe.  "It's too lean",  he continued, so I told him I would take the cut that he advised.   And I'm jolly glad I did because the dish, of pork marinated in lemon juice with pink peppercorns and the unpeeled slices of another lemon, then cooked slowly in abundant olive oil with a red onion, a bunch of fresh herbs and no extra liquid save two ladlefuls of brodo, turned out to be meltingly tender and absolutely delicious. 

Those of you who are in Italy will find the recipe in the July edition of Vero Cucina.  You must use Sicilian lemons, of course!

THREE SUMMER FAVOURITES

A glass of iced tea with a goodly dollop of lemon granita in it:

The last of the spring lemon crop.  These are so big and round that they could almost be mistaken for grapefruit - until you are close enough to enjoy their scent, that is:

And my favourite fruit of all, the tabacchiere ["snuff box-shaped"] peaches from Etna: