A BASKET OF GOODNESS

This is the hottest summer I can remember in Sicily and it seems to be wearing us all down because the extreme heat started early, in May, and I believe it has only rained for about ten minutes since. There are, of course, compensations, such as granita, anguria (watermelon) and myriad ice cream flavours and I certainly perked up when a friend brought me this traditional Sicilian basket of goodies from his garden on Friday. 

There are aubergines, datterini (tiny, date-shaped tomatoes), salad tomatoes, tomatoes for sauce and occhi di bue (bull's-eye) tomatoes, long peppers and a kind of pepper that I had never seen before.These are called friggitelli (from friggere - to fry) and, although they are related to chilli peppers, they are not hot. (I understand they are known in the US.) My friend told me to fry them in olive oil and garlic until browned and to add coarse salt only at the end of cooking. That is exactly what I did and wow, they were good!

HURRICANE PASTA

 At the end of last week, we were all very worried and frightened in Sicily because a Medicane (a blend of the English words "Mediterranean" and "hurricane") was coming in. In Modica it just passed us by and we were fortunate but the effects were devastating in Catania and the Province of Siracusa, as many of you will have seen in the news. We were told to stay at home on Thursday evening and all day on Friday, if possible and the silence in the streets brought back uneasy memories of lockdown for many of us. The early hours of Thursday were particularly scary.

I did venture to my local greengrocer's late on Thursday afternoon, thinking I might be at home until Sunday, and on Friday evening it was my intention to make an amatriciana, one of my favourite pasta dishes. Then I discovered I had forgotten to buy tomatoes and I didn't have a tin of them to improvise with. I did, however, have pancetta, if not the guanciale (pork cheek) you should really use with an amatriciana. (I remember a Masterchef Italia judge groaning because a contestant was using pancetta cubes, but they weren't in an imminent hurricane situation!) I also had passata and - a favourite store cupboard ingredient of mine - a tin of grilled peppers. Therefore it was with these that I created a comforting pasta dish and I named it "Hurricane pasta":

Hurricane pasta

These quantities will serve two people very generously:

200 gr spaghetti or spaghettoni (which are a bit thicker)

2 tablesp olive oil

100 gr smoked pancetta cubes

1 white onion, chopped

200 gr small mushrooms, sliced

330 ml bottle passata

380 gr tin or jar grilled peppers in oil, drained 

seasalt and freshly ground black pepper

chilli flakes to taste

fresh basil leaves if liked

First, get the pasta water on with a little coarse salt in it and, while it is coming to the boil, heat the oil in a wide pan.

Add the pancetta and, as soon as the fat begins to release, add the onion and cook, stirring until softened but not browned.

Add the mushrooms and stir.

Add the passata and stir, lowering the heat.

Add the drained peppers, having cut any very large pieces in half.

By this time, the pasta water should be boiling, so add the pasta to it and cook for the time stated on the pack (probably 10 - 12 mins.)

Add the seasoning and chilli flakes to the pepper mixture and, at this stage, if liked, you can add a few torn fresh basil leaves.

Drain the pasta once it is al dente and add it to the pan containing the sauce. Stir on low heat for just a few minutes.

Serve and enjoy your "hurricane pasta", hopefully in better weather than we had in Sicily last week!

FEASTING WITH AN OLD FRIEND

My friend Carol King, who has recently returned to Sicily, and I decided to celebrate Ferragosto a day late this year, so I kind of cooked her a little meal:

The antipasti included olives, sun-dried tomatoes, fresh datterini tomatoes, mini sausages, bresaola and Parma ham topped with Grana cheese shavings, marinated mushrooms and - I must tell you about this - watermelon with salted cucumber. My original intention was to chuck the cucumber - peeled, deseeded, chopped, salted, left then rinsed, drained and chilled - into the salad but at the last minute I thought it would be a nice addition to the dish of watermelon. Turns out I was right!  The seemingly small apples around the antipasti dishes are actually azzaroli or Neapolitan medlars, which are related to hawthorn. There are mini-pears as well and they are a fine partner for the cheese.

The main course was grilled chicken salad with grilled nectarines. (Yes, I have a thing for grilled nectarines!)   I marinated the chicken in culinary rosewater before grilling and seasoned it with sumac afterwards. I used the dressing I invented for this recipe. The other ingredients were grilled peppers and rocket leaves.

For dessert, I made strawberry tiramisù and Carol brought along the delicious sweet treats on the right.

Everything on this menu can be made in advance and all you have to do is make the antipasti look pretty and assemble the salad.

POLLO ALLO ZA'ATAR

Well, here we are, more than half way through 2017 and I find I have not posted a single recipe this year! So, although other matters, such as health and keeping up with Brexit developments (which will affect me very directly, as they will all expats), mean that I am not currently blogging as often as I'd like, let's at least put the culinary matter to rights.

My pollo allo za'atar is my take on a recipe in the June edition of the Italian magazine Vero cucina. This recipe is for bone-in chicken thighs cooked in very litle oil with lemon slices, then sprinkled with a sauce of lemon juice, garlic and mint. I tried it and found it excellent, but this week I decided I wanted to spice it up a little. There is very little za'atar in my version, actually, but I was so delighted to find some in Catania a few weeks ago that I decided it had to feature in the name of my dish.  Here we go:

Heat the oven to 180° C (fan).

Lightly oil a roasting tin and put in 6 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs.

Cut 1 lemon into wedges and add these to the pan.

Add 3 grilled peppers, preferably yellow, orange and red, cut up. (In Italy we can buy fresh, ready-grilled peppers in supermarkets but you could use well-drained grilled peppers in oil or, of course, grill them yourself.)

Sprinkle over some coarse seasalt, black pepper, a little sumac and some fresh lemon thyme leaves and drizzle over a little more olive oil.

Cook for 30 mins.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl mix 2 tablesp Chinese plum sauce,  juice of 1 lemon, 1 teasp sumac and half teasp za'atar.

Check the chicken and if necessary give it 10 mins more in the oven. When you take it out, pour the sauce over it and serve.  Garnish with more lemon thyme leaves if you wish.

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.

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.

FERRAGOSTO SURPRISE

Because I created this recipe a few days before this year's Ferragosto holiday and because it's a bit unusual, I am calling it Ferragosto surprise. And yes, Italian readers, you'd better look away again as it's certainly not traditional and mixes sweet and savoury ingredients [which you say you never do but I know differently!]

Ever since I read that an ice cream maker was using Himalayan pink salt in a creation for last month's ice cream festival in Catania, I've wanted to use it myself in an ice cream or semifreddo. [Himalayan pink salt is very popular here, particularly in restaurants.]  I was wondering what other ingredients I could use in such a recipe  and how I could serve it when I saw these tiny peppers in the supermarket. [If you can't find mini-peppers, you could just cut interesting shapes from a large one and serve the semifreddo on top.]   The gelato became a semifreddo as it is much easier to make. It also behaves better!

This is what I did:

Ferragosto surprise

3 eggs, separated
100 gr sugar
200 ml whipping cream [panna da montare if you are in Italy]
250 gr mascarpone
10 grinds Himalayan pink salt
Half a red pepper, finely chopped
about 12 mini-peppers

Line an ice cream container with clingfilm, leaving an overlap.
Whip the egg yolks with the sugar and set aside.
In another bowl, whip the egg whites to soft peaks.
In a third bowl, whip the cream to soft peaks.
Combine the three mixtures in the largest bowl, add the mascarpone, chopped pepper and Himalayan salt and mix well with a metal spoon.
Scoop into the lined container, bring the overlap up to cover, put the lid on and freeze overnight.
When you are almost ready to serve, make a cut in the mini-peppers as though to halve them, but don't cut right through. Leave the stems on so that people can use them to pick the peppers up.  Use a teaspoon to fill the peppers with the semifreddo and close them a little,  Once filled, they will "hold" in a container in the fridge for an hour or two.

I nearly decorated with some basil leaves but remembered that Chef Carlo Cracco would say that if an ingredient isn't an integral part of the recipe, you shouldn't use it as a garnish. I think it's good advice.  If I could have got a few whole flakes of the salt out of the grinder to garnish, I would have done so, but it didn't seem worth breaking the grinder to do it. Anyway, decorate as you like!

These quantities will make more than you need for filling the peppers but you can refreeze the rest.

Buon appetito.

SPEZZATINO DI PASQUA

Lamb, artichokes and asparagus: those are the savoury foods most associated with Easter in Sicily. I've been wanting to cook artichokes plus a lamb dish for days, but with limited time, I decided to combine them. I added the sumac, one of my favourite spices, to give it some punch. It's not Sicilian but it should grow here. [I've read that it does but have never found any.] Here's what I did:

Spezzatino di Pasqua

6 tablesp olive oil

1 kg lamb pieces for stew: in Italy, ask for the spezzatino cut. The pieces will be very small, with quite a lot of bone on them, but this does add to the flavour.

6 small onions, chopped [I like cipolle borettane, from Emilia-Romagna.]

2 garlic cloves, chopped

300 gr frozen artichoke hearts, thawed

1 large yellow pepper, cut into not-too-thin strips

1 Sicilian or unwaxed lemon, quartered 

4 - 6 potatoes, unpeeled and cubed

2 teasp sumac

coarse seasalt and black pepper

0.25 litre white wine

sprigs of rosemary and about 6 fresh sage leaves

Heat oil in a deep, wide pan or wok and add the onions and garlic. Cook until golden. Add the lamb and brown on all sides. Then add the artichoke hearts, lemon, yellow pepper, seasoning, sumac and herbs and continue to cook for about 10 mins., stirring well.  Add the white wine and potatoes, stir well and bring to simmer. Simmer for about 1 hour with the lid on, stirring occasionally. Do not be tempted to add more liquid as the vegetables will produce their own.

Serve with a green salad to which you have added some mint.

Buon appetito.

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.

A PEACEFUL LUNCH

A lovely, relaxing lunch with friends in peaceful surroundings on Sunday:

Crostini with foie gras -  ages since I'd had the latter!

And more with gorgonzola and caponata.

Iced sweet pepper soup

followed by herbed chicken served with asparagus, cime di rapa and potatoes.

A British friend had made lemon drizzle cake

and I'd made lemon semifreddo [again].

It wasn't warm enough, by Sicilian standards, to eat outside but it was warm enough to have the doors wide open and enjoy this oasis of peace.

Grazie a tutti gli amici!

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!

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.

SPEZZATINO DI FINE ESTATE

I wouldn't say there's exactly an autumn chill in the air, but it is a little cooler, Sicilians are beginning to return to the city and I am starting to want spezzatini. Last night I decided I wanted a spicy spezzatino, too, so I invented this chicken one:

Spezzatino di pollo di fine estate

Serves 4 generously

2 oz butter and 2 tablesp olive oil
1 large white onion, sliced
1 boneless, skinless chicken breast [if you are in Italy] or 2 if you are in the UK [where each half is sold as "one breast"], cut into bite-sized pieces. [In Italy, just ask the butcher to cut it for spezzatino.]
1 dried red chilli pepper [or 2 very small ones]
4 plum tomatoes, skinned, deseeded and chopped
1 tablesp 'strattu or tomato concentrate
570 ml [1 pint] water
250 gr peeled aubergines in oil, drained. [People make a preserve of these here but we can buy them, too.]
3 peppers of different colours, sliced
500 gr potatoes [no need to peel unless you want to] sliced
seasalt and black pepper
2 teasp sugar

In a wide, high-sided pan, soften the onion in the butter and oil.  Add the chicken pieces and dried chilli pepper and cook, stirring, till the chicken is lightly browned on all sides. Add the tomatoes, aubergines, 'strattu, some seasoning and the water, stir everything and continue to cook for about 10 mins. Now add the peppers and potatoes, give everything a good stir, turn the heat down and continue to cook, with the lid on, for 45 mins. 

Heat the oven to 180C and, at the end of the 45 mins, take the chilli pepper out and transfer the mixture to a Pyrex-type roasting dish. Sprinkle the sugar over the top and put the dish in the oven for 20 mins. [Keep an eye on it during this time.]

Serve with a green salad.

Buon appetito.

TAGLIATA SALAD WITH NECTARINES

Inspired by Nigella's tagliata recipe , I decided to make a salad using this kind of steak:

Tagliata salad with nectarines

500 gr sirloin [in Italy just tell your butcher you want to make tagliata]
3 nectarines [not soft ones]
20 datterini or cherry tomatoes
drained contents of a jar of grilled peppers, cut into smaller pieces if necessary
c. 500 gr rocket leaves, torn if they're large
12 mint leaves

Dressing
4 tablesp olive oil
1 tablesp red wine vinegar
1 tablesp runny honey
pinch chilli flakes
seasalt and a twist or two of black pepper

Start preparing this a few hours before you want to serve it:
First, oil the steak lightly on both sides and place on a heated, ridged griddle pan.  Cook for about 3 mins each side. Put the steak on a board and, when it has cooled a little, cut it diagonally into strips.
Let the griddle pan cool and wash it.
Next, slice the nectarines [not too thinly], drizzle the slices with olive oil [about 1 tablesp] and cook them on the griddle pan too, until stripes start to form on them. Lift the slices off the pan and leave to cool.
Halve the tomatoes.
When the steak and nectarines have cooled, put them in a large serving bowl with the tomatoes, rocket, peppers and mint leaves.  Leave it all in the fridge for at least a couple of hours.
Make the dressing by mixing all the ingredients together with a fork in a small bowl and leave that in the fridge too.
When you are ready to serve, whisk the dressing again with a fork,  pour it over the salad, toss it and there you are!

Serves four generously.

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.

SPEZZATINO OF PORK AND PEPPERS

February evenings can be chilly in Sicily and when that happens, a good spezzatino is what I need.  On Saturday I threw this one together and it was successful:

Spezzatino of pork and peppers
[serves 4]

4 tablesp olive oil
1 kg cubed pork for spezzatino [My butcher makes sure there is a fair bit of fat on the meat, as he believes, rightly, that this will give the stew a better flavour. The "cubes" are big in Sicily!].
1 medium white onion, chopped
1 large red and 1 large yellow pepper, chopped not too finely
400 gr can pomodorini [cherry tomatoes] in their juice or of chopped tomatoes
c. 200 gr sliced mushrooms
a little chopped parsley and sage
large glass white wine
coarse seasalt and black pepper

Brown the pork pieces, stirring, in the oil.  After 2 mins, add the onion and keep stirring. When the meat is brown all over, add the peppers and cook for 10 mins. Add the tomatoes with their juice, white wine and herbs.  Bring to the boil, season and simmer for about one hour.

Serve with orange salad and feel warm and cared about.

TUESDAY PIZZA

Circumstances of high tension in my life have brought pizza night forward from Friday to Tuesday this week, on an "I deserve" basis.  One of my favourite combinations is that of sausages and peppers and what better way to enjoy them could there be than on a Modican pizza?

NEW YEAR'S FEAST WITH GIOVANNA

Giovanna was my first Sicilian friend and it was she who gave me my first Sicilian cooking tip, twenty years ago: "Always put a potato in the pasta water." I have never been able to establish the scientific basis for this but I have been adding that potato ever since! Giovanna is one of the most creative cooks I know and she is not afraid to mix sweet and savoury or to experiment with ideas from afar. Now I'll let you look at the feast she prepared for New Year's Day:

I loved her new idea for presenting antipasti:

 There were these as well:

As I can't eat fish, I had to pass on the fried baccalà  [salt cod]:

Then we sat down, first to lasagne:

 I had to pass again on the shrimp and strawberry risotto but I'm sure it was delicious:

 Next there was veal in a carrot and mint sauce for the non-fish eaters

and vitello tonnato for the others:

There were stuffed peppers, too:

Pineapple is popular at this time of year to refresh the palate:

Giovanna's tronco was a work of art:

 There was my favourite light dessert, gel al limone:

I'd made and taken along another semifreddo di marrons glacés, as it's light and everybody seems to like it:

And what could be better than a Sicilian cassata with the champagne?

Grazie di nuovo, Giovanna!

PEPERONATA WITH POTATOES

When I arrived in Sicily for the first time - exactly twenty years ago today, as it happens - one of the dishes my good friend Giovanna made to welcome me was peperonata with potatoes.  This is my version:

3 tablesp olive oil
1 large red onion
5 peppers - I happened to have red and green but use yellow and orange, too, if you can
500 gr potatoes [a bit more if you like]
6 vine or other flavoursome tomatoes, halved
1 400 gr can cherry tomatoes with their juice or a box of passata
chilli pepper flakes if liked
seasalt
fresh basil

Chop the onion finely and soften in the oil in a wide pan or wok. Deseed the peppers, cut into fairly large  pieces and add to the pan. A Sicilian would peel the potatoes but I only ever do that to mash them so I don't. Cut the potatoes into chunks and add them too, stirring everything well. When the peppers have softened, after about 15 minutes, add the fresh tomatoes [peeled and desseded if you have time or prefer] the contents of the can of cherry tomatoes or passata and stir.  Sprinkle over some chilli pepper flakes if you like them.  Add seasalt to taste, then stir the mixture well, put the lid on the pan and leave to simmer for about 35 mins.  Strew some torn fresh basil leaves over and serve.

Buon appetito.

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!