BISTECCA IN SALSA DI PISTACCHI

This week I wanted to do something different with the pizzaiola steak cut and I decided that a pistacchio and mushroom sauce would do the trick.  In Italy, you just ask the butcher for pizzaiola steak and the cut most often used for this is round steak.  I asked for pizzaiola steak for four people.  I also wanted to incorporate cedro [citron] and this is what I did:

Bistecca in salsa di pistacchi

Cut one cedro in half.  Juice one half and marinate the steak pieces in it with a little dried oregano. Leave it in the fridge for a few hours.  [This will tenderise the meat further as well as adding flavour.] Slice the other half and grill the slices quickly, on both sides, in a little olive oil on a ridged griddle pan.  Set aside.

Drain the steak and pat dry with kitchen paper. Cook the pieces in 2 tblsp olive oil on a ridged griddle pan.  Do not overcook them! Place on kitchen paper as they are ready.  

Keep the steak warm in a dish in the oven while you make the sauce:  Soften a chopped white onion in 2 tblsp olive oil in a frying pan.  Do not allow it to brown.  When it is soft, add 200 gr sliced white mushrooms.  Cook for a few minutes, then add 200 ml panna di cucina if you are in Italy or single cream if you are not.  Keep stirring for a few minutes and season.  Do not let it boil.  Off the heat, add a generous sprinkling of farina di pistacchi  [pistacchio flour - very finely ground pistacchi].

Serve the steaks with the sauce and cedro slices.

GOING NUTTY

I enjoyed being taken out for dinner on Saturday and took advantage of the occasion to go nutty!

For the main course both my friend and I had fillet steak in a pistacchio sauce and there was an interesting contorno to share. Then my friend chose pannacotta with caramel whilst I couldn't resist one of my favourites, parfait alle mandorle [almond parfait] which was.....well, perfect!

A PIZZA FOR NELSON?

I'm not a very nutty person - well, not foodwise! - but I do like pistacchi, so when I saw that you could get a pizza containing them, I couldn't resist it. My local pizza takeaway calls this a "Bronte" pizza because, as every Sicilian knows, the best pistacchi come from that town.  Here's my "Bronte" pizza, which also contained mozzarella, tomatoes and mortadella:

Now, in 1799 Admiral Horatio Nelson was created Duke of Bronte. Click here to discover how this happened and to find out about the town of Bronte's possible connection with the British Brontë sisters.

Gateway to the Nelson Castle at Maniace

Pistacchi from Bronte

AUTUMNAL RISOTTO

The other day I wanted to make an autumnal  risotto with particularly Sicilian ingredients and risotto purists had better look away now!

I decided that kaki [Sharon fruit or persimmons] which are so plentiful here in this season, should be the main ingredients. If you are going to use these, you must make sure you have the sweet kind or that they are ripe because otherwise they will leave a horrible, dry taste in your mouth. The ones we get here are truly sublime.   I also used pistacchi, ground so finely that in Italy the result is called farina [flour] di pistacchi and a few twists of canella from my trusty cinnamon mill.

Here we go, then:  Heat 3 tablsp olive oil in a wide pan and soften a finely chopped onion in this.  Then add 400 gr Arborio rice and stir it around for a couple of minutes. Add seasalt to taste.  Have ready a jug of 300 ml white wine and 300 ml water, turn the heat down and add a little of the liquid. As soon as it is absorbed, add a little more and repeat the process, stirring, for about 15 mins or until nearly all the liquid is absorbed.  Now add 2 peeled and chopped kaki, a sprinkling of farina di pistacchi and some ground cinnamon, stir everything again and cook for about 2 minutes more.  Add some chopped parsley and serve.

Notes:  

Risotto is usually served a little "wetter" in Italy than it would be in the UK.  

Be careful with your clothes when handling kaki fruit - if the juice stains your clothes, you will never get the stain out!

STINCO WITH PISTACCHI

Stinco di maiale, or pork shank, is a cut of meat much beloved of Italian housewives.  To be honest, there isn't much meat on it, which is why most people cook several together, but what there is can taste delicious.  There is something very rustic and homely about the aroma of stinco being cooked slowly in the oven and it is on my list of comfort foods.

For those of you who are in Italy, the recipe for this stinco in a chicken, cream, bread and pistacchio crust is in the January edition of Alice Cucina.  The first time I tried it, the crust burnt but the stinco meat still tasted good, so I decided that it was worth persevering. For my second attempt, I wrapped the crusted shank not only in baking paper, as in the recipe, but also in foil and, as you see, this worked!

NAUGHTY, NUTTY AND NICE

A cornetto with crema di pistacchio dispels the Monday morning blues.