We all know that breaded cutlets and chops, whether veal, pork, lamb or—that all American favorite—chicken, make for awesome eating. But did you know that vegetables can prepared as cutlets, too? And if you ask me, eggplants are the perfect veg for the purpose; they turn out round perfectly round cutlets, golden brown and crispy on the outside, meltingly soft on the inside.

Traditionally categorized as an antipasto or side dish, Eggplant Cutlets can also serve as a light, vegetarian main course.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

• 6 small eggplants or 3 medium eggplants, about [1 kilo/2 lbs]
• Salt

For breading:

• Flour, q.b.
• 6 eggs
• Salt
• A few sprigs of parsley, finely minced (optional)
• 50g (2 oz) grated Parmesan cheese (optional)
• Breadcrumbs, q.b.

For frying:

• Olive oil or vegetable oil, or a mixture of both (see Notes)

For garnish:

• Lemon slices or wedges
• Tomato salad, made without vinegar

Directions

Cut the eggplants into medium-thick slices, say about 1 cm (3/8 inch). Sprinkle each slice on both sides with salt and let them sit in a colander for at least an hour. (See this post for details.)

Set up an ‘assembly line’ for breading the eggplant with three bowls or other shallow container. Fill the first one with flour, then the second with the eggs, beaten just until the yolks and whites are fully mixed, seasoned with salt and, if you like, the parsley and grated cheese. Finally, add breadcrumbs to the third bowl. Pat each eggplants slice dry, then dredge it in flour, followed by the egg and finally the breadcrumbs. Proceed gingerly—the breading easily ‘smudges’ off the smooth surface of the eggplant, especially around the skin.

Shallow fry the breaded eggplant slices in enough oil to come up about 1cm (3/8 inch) up the sides of your skillet. Adjust the heat so the slices fry gently without burning—not too hot, or the outsides will brown before the insides have a chance to cook. Make sure the slices have lots of room for the oil to bubble up around them. Remove the slices as they are done and set up on a cooling rack or a platter lined with paper towels.

Arrange the Eggplant Cutlets on a serving platter, lightly salt them and serve them while they’re still warm, accompanied by lemon slices or wedges, or, if you like, with some tomato salad made without vinegar. (For more topping ideas, see the Notes below.)

Notes on Eggplant Cutlets

The key to making Eggplant Cutlets is making sure the insides are fully cooked at the same time as the quickly browned crust browns. To achieve this there are a few tricks: To begin with, make sure to purge the eggplant with salt. This step isn’t always necessary but for this dish it really helps. Besides getting rid of any bitterness, it slightly soften the eggplant so it cooks more quickly and allows the breading to adhere better to the eggplant. Second, don’t cut the slices too thin or too thick. You want the slices substantial, to give them the look and mouth feel of actual cutlets, but don’t overdo it or the insides won’t cook properly—the 1 cm or 3/8 inch thickness indicated above should be about right. Finally, fry the cutlets at gentle heat, to give the insides a chance to tenderize before the crust browns. But here again, don’t overdo: if the heat is too low, your cutlets will come out soggy and greasy. And, as for any frying, make sure the cutlets aren’t crowded in the pan.

To skin or not to skin? Most Italians typically don’t skin eggplant, and I never do. The skin adds some interesting color and tends to hold the cutlets together in a neat round shape. But sometimes very mature eggplant can have tough skins, so observe first and decide. But it’s better to look for younger eggplants anyway.

You can make Eggplant Cutlets using only eggs and breadcrumb, but I find that dredging them in flour first helps the egg to stick to the eggplant. Equally delicious, but very different, are the fried eggplants and other veggies my grandmother made just with flour and seasoned egg and no breading. I’ve seen vegan versions of this dish made with a thin chickpea and water batter to replace the beaten eggs, but haven’t tried it so I can’t say how well it works.

Eggplants Cutlets are delicious just on their own with a sprinkle of salt and perhaps a few drops of freshly squeezed lemon juice. But you can get fancy with them, too, for example by topping them with fresh tomato salad as you might a Milanese veal chop. Or for a more substantial meal, you can your Eggplant Cutlets them with slices of ham and fontina cheese and pop them under a broiler until the cheese melts. In some recipes, the ham and cheese goes inside the cutlet, as you would a costoletta alla valdostana, also delicious if a bit fussy for a lazy cook like myself.

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Cotolette di melanzane (Eggplant Cutlets)

Rating: 51

Prep Time: 1 hour

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

Yield: Serves 4-6

Ingredients

• 6 small eggplants or 3 medium eggplants, about [1 kilo/2 lbs]
• Salt
For breading:
• Flour, q.b.
• 6 eggs
• Salt
• A few sprigs of parsley, finely minced (optional)
• 50g (2 oz) grated Parmesan cheese (optional)
• Breadcrumbs, q.b.
For frying:
• Olive oil or vegetable oil, or a mixture of both (see Notes)
For garnish:
• Lemon slices or wedges
• Tomato salad, made without vinegar

Instructions

1. Cut the eggplants into medium-thick slices, say about 1 cm (3/8 inch). Sprinkle each slice on both sides with salt and let them sit in a colander for at least an hour. (See this post for details.)
2. Set up an 'assembly line' for breading the eggplant with three bowls or other shallow container. Fill the first one with flour, then the second with the eggs, beaten just until the yolks and whites are fully mixed, seasoned with salt and, if you like, the parsley and grated cheese. Finally, add breadcrumbs to the third bowl. Pat each eggplants slice dry, then dredge it in flour, followed by the egg and finally the breadcrumbs. Proceed gingerly—the breading easily 'smudges' off the smooth surface of the eggplant, especially around the skin.
3. Shallow fry the breaded eggplant slices in enough oil to come up about 1cm (3/8 inch) up the sides of your skillet. Adjust the heat so the slices fry gently without burning—not too hot, or the outsides will brown before the insides have a chance to cook. Make sure the slices have lots of room for the oil to bubble up around them. Remove the slices as they are done and set up on a cooling rack or a platter lined with paper towels.
4. Arrange the Eggplant Cutlets on a serving platter, lightly salt them and serve them while they're still warm, accompanied by lemon slices or wedges, or, if you like, with some tomato salad made without vinegar. (For more topping ideas, see the Notes below.)

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Everyone likes limoncello. For me, just a sip brings back memories of summer and sand and seafood by the shore. The best limoncello exquisitely balances the pungency of lemon zest and the sweetness of sugar, with just an intriguing hint of bitterness.

The quality of commercial limoncello can vary wildly. (I know people who compare the taste of bad limoncello to Lemon Pledge, a popular furniture polish here in the US.) Luckily, limoncello is really very easy to make at home, so you can adjust the recipe to suit your own taste. Limoncello is nothing more than alcohol infused with lemon zest, then mixed with simple sugar syrup.  It just takes a bit of patience, as the infusion needs a few days. And while limoncello can be consumed as soon as it’s made, it’s much better is left for at least a week to mellow.

This recipe comes for Jeanne Caròla Francesconi, author of the authoritative La Cucina Napoletana and my muse in all things Neapolitan. She says her recipe makes a rather dry limoncello—which she calls limoncino, by the way—and that’s exactly the way I like my limoncello.

Ingredients

Makes one medium decanter of limoncello

• 500g/1 lb lemons, preferably organic
• 500ml/2 cups grain alcohol or unflavored vodka
• 700ml/3 cups water
• 250g/8 oz granulated sugar

Directions

Peel the zest off the lemons, making sure that you leave as much of the pith (the white layer below the zest) as you can behind. Place the lemon zest in a mason jar in which you will have poured the alcohol. Close tightly and put the jar in a cool, dark place for 3 or 4 days to infuse.

Once the infusion is done, heat the sugar and water over a high flame until the sugar has entirely melted and the water is just about to boil. Turn off the heat and let the resulting syrup cool completely.

Filter the infused alcohol through a sieve lined with cheesecloth into the syrup. Then pour the mixture into a decanter or bottle. Let your homemade limoncello rest for about a week before using. It is at its best served very cold.

Notes on Homemade Limoncello

As mentioned, the great thing about homemade limoncello is that you can play with this recipe to suit your personal tastes. Adding more lemon zest or letting the alcohol infuse longer will give you a more intensely lemon flavor. Using more or less sugar will adjust the sweetness. And leaving a bit of pith on the zest will lend some bitterness, which I think helps balance out the flavors.

Since this recipe uses the peel, it is really good idea to buy organic, even if you don’t normally care about such things. The peel is where any trace pesticides are lurking in non-organic fruits and vegetables. And avoid lemons that are treated with wax to make them shiny—t’s not something that would add a nice flavor to your limoncello.

As for the alcohol, I’ve always used inexpensive, unflavored vodka, not caring too much for ‘quality’ in a spirit that is (or should be) perfectly odorless and tasteless. In Italy, grain alcohol is the traditional ingredient. It is preferable because it really is pure and entirely tasteless. Before writing this post, I had been under the impression that grain alcohol was illegal in the US, and it is certainly still hard to find— but, as it turns out, you can now buy a grain alcohol, produced especially for those who want to make spirits at home, called “Everclear“. Apparently, though, grain alcohol is still illegal in about a dozen States, including New York.

This recipe for homemade limoncello can be used with any citrus fruit you feel like: oranges are particularly popular, but do try grapefruit or, for a New World take, lime—which you’d call “limecello”, I guess…?

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Homemade Limoncello

Rating: 51

Ingredients

• 500g/1 lb lemons
• 500ml/2 cups grain alcohol or unflavored vodka
• 700ml/3 cups water
• 250g/8 oz granulated sugar

Instructions

1. Peel the zest off the lemons, making sure that you leave as much of the pith (the white layer below the zest) as you can behind. Place the lemon zest in a mason jar in which you will have poured the alcohol. Close tightly and put the jar in a cool, dark place for 3 or 4 days to infuse.
2. Once the infusion is done, heat the sugar and water over a high flame until the sugar has entirely melted and the water is just about to boil. Turn off the heat and let the resulting syrup cool completely.
3. Filter the infused alcohol through a sieve lined with cheesecloth into the syrup. Then pour the mixture into a decanter or bottle. Let the mixture rest for about a week before using.

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Italian cookery can be confusing. As we’ve talked about before, it’s highly regional and even local, so much so that some people say that there is no such thing as Italian cuisine. I don’t agree, but it is true that there are amazing differences between regions, especially as you travel from north to south. And that variety includes many contradictions, especially in the names given to food. Pasta shapes are notoriously confusing: the same shape can have several different names depending on where you are. Those little tubular pasta shapes used for pasta e piselli, for example, can be called tubetti, ditali or ditalini depending on where you are; the pasta called bucatini in Rome are called perciatelli in Naples, the square spaghetti called spaghetti alla chitarra in Abruzzo are called tonnarelli in Rome, and so on.  And, what’s more, different pasta shapes can also share the same name: Just think how many different pasta shapes are called strozzapreti or strangulapreti (“priest stranglers”) …

And so it is with other foods. A case in point is caponata. When most people hear that word, they think of Sicilian caponata, one of the best known dishes in the entire Italian repertoire. But the Neapolitans also have their own caponata napoletana, and it’s actually nothing like its Sicilian namesake—but actually a kind of bread-based salad closer to bruschetta or panzanella.

Caponata napoletana is an incredibly simple dish, but it does call for an unusual ingredient, a kind of twice baked doughnut-shaped bread that looks a lot like a toasted bagel called friselle or freselle (see Notes). Each frisella is soaked briefly to soften it a bit, then topped with tomato salad and, if you’re in the mood, other savories like olives, anchovies, mozzarella and crumbled tunafish.

Caponata napoletana makes for a great antipasto or—if you add lots of those extra toppings—a light summer supper. It’s especially welcome on those days when it’s too hot to even think about lighting the stove. Or when you just don’t feel like cooking.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

• 4-6 friselle
• 4-6 large tomatoes, cut into chunks or wedges
• Olive oil
• A pinch of dried oregano
• Salt and pepper

Optional additional toppings:

• Green and/or black olives
• Anchovy fillets
• Fresh mozzarella, cut into cubes
• A can of tunafish, drained and crumbled
• Capers
• Red onion, chopped or finely sliced
• Fresh basil leaves

Directions

About a half hour before you’re ready to eat, take your friselle, dip them briefly in tepid water and place them on individual plates.   Pour some olive oil over each frisella.

Now prepare a tomato salad with the tomatoes, olive oil, oregano, salt and pepper, and spoon some of the salad onto each plate, covering the top of the frisella.

Now you can add whatever other toppings strike your fancy. Let rest until you’re ready to eat.

Just before serving, drizzle a bit more olive oil over each plate.

Notes on Caponata napoletana

The typical base for making caponata napoletana are friselle, also called freselle, are a kind of ring-shaped bread that are partially baked, then split in two horizontally to continue baking until golden brown all over, so as to remove any trace of moisture from their crumb, so they last indefinitely. The history of friselle goes back a long time, at least to the Middle Ages. They were originally meant for soldiers, pilgrims, fisherfolk and others who would be away from home for extended periods. The dry bread would be reconstituted as needed with water, a bit like hardtack for sailors. (But don’t worry, unlike hardtack, they’re relatively crisp and light.) Their doughnut/bagel-like shape allowed them to be strung together through the middle hole for easy storage and transportation. Besides Campania, friselle are made in most of southern Italy, in particular in Puglia—which is actually where they originated—as well as Calabria, where they are called frese.

Friselle

Sadly, friselle can be hard to find these days. Even my local Italian deli no longer carries them—the manager explained to me that they just aren’t in demand any more. If you live in an area with a sizable Italian-American community, you may have better luck. If not, they can be purchased online. Or you can make them yourself—and they’re actually pretty easy to make, as explained in this post by fellow food blogger Vincent Scordo. Otherwise, you can make a perfectly acceptable caponata napoletana by substituting other kinds of bread—day old bread that you bake in the oven until brown, for example, should work well.  I’ve seen Italian recipes calling for those slices of pre-made toasted bread that Italians call ‘fette biscottate‘. And since friselle look like bagels, although they’re very different in texture, you might even try making caponata napoletana with a toasted bagel, although personally I’ve never given it a try.

As for any dish as simple as caponata napoletana—and especially using uncooked ingredients—quality is crucial, especially the tomatoes. The dish is at its best this time of year, when the markets are full of tomatoes that are ripe and luscious and full of flavor. The olive oil should be very fruity in the southern Italian style, the best you can afford. And the quality of the optional ingredients—mozzarella, anchovies, olives, tuna—all make a difference, too, if you’re using them. The mozzarella need not be di bufala but it should be fresh; it is best to let the cut mozzarella drain for a few minutes before using to avoid their milk running into the rest of the dish. Salted anchovies will taste better than those packed in olive oil, and those in jars are generally better than canned. The loose olives you can buy at better supermarkets are almost always better than the kind you buy in jars. And best-quality tuna from Portugal or Italy, while expensive, is well worth it when served like this.

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Caponata napoletana

Rating: 51

Total Time: 30 minutes

Yield: Serves 4-6

Ingredients

• 4-6 friselle
• 4-6 large tomatoes, cut into chunks or wedges
• Olive oil
• A pinch of dried oregano
• Salt and pepper
Optional additional toppings:
• Green and/or black olives
• Anchovy fillets
• Fresh mozzarella, cut into cubes
• A can of tunafish, drained and crumbled
• Capers
• Red onion, chopped or finely sliced
• Fresh basil leaves

Instructions

1. About a half hour before you're ready to eat, take your friselle, dip them briefly in tepid water and place them on individual plates. Pour some olive oil over each frisella.
2. Now prepare a tomato salad with the tomatoes, olive oil, oregano, salt and pepper, and spoon some of the salad onto each plate, covering the top of the frisella.
3. Now you can add whatever other toppings strike your fancy. Let rest until you're ready to eat.
4. Just before serving, drizzle a bit more olive oil over each plate.

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If you’ve ever had occasion to read the 4th century Roman cookbook De Re Coquinaria, popularly known as Apicius, you will have noticed that an ingredient called garum seems to make it into just about every savory dish, and even some sweet ones. Garum—a condiment made from fermenting fish—was a common ingredient back then, playing a role in ancient Roman cookery along the lines that salt does today. A descendent of garum made with anchovies called colatura di alici is still made in the Campanian town of Cetara. Its most common use these days is to dress pasta, typically long pastas like spaghetti or linguine.

To make spaghetti alla colatura di alici, this precious elixir is combined with the typical ingredients for making aglio, olio e peperoncino—garlic, olive oil, parsley and red pepper. The resulting uncooked sauce is tossed with hot, well drained pasta and served up right away. Traditional for Christmas Eve, this quick and easy dish can be enjoyed any time of year. In fact, I think it makes for a particular nice summer pasta.

You can feel free to adapt the recipe here to suit your taste, especially when it comes to the star ingredient. The measurements are really just suggestions to get you started.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

• 400-600g (14-20 oz) spaghetti
• 4-6 Tbs colatura (or best quality Asian fish sauce)
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, finely minced
• A sprig or two of parsley, finely minced
• A pinch or more of red pepper flakes, q.b.
• Olive oil
• Salt (optional)

Directions

Put the spaghetti on to boil in unsalted or very lightly salted water. (NB: It’s unusual not to salt water for pasta well, but bear in mind that the colatura is very salty.) Cook until al dente.

While the spaghetti is cooking, mix all the remaining ingredients in a bowl until they are nicely amalgamated. Taste and adjust the measurements to taste—a bit more colatura if you want a stronger taste, for example, or more red pepper if you want more heat.

When the spaghetti is done, drain it very well and add it to the bowl. Mix the pasta and sauce thoroughly and serve up immediately. (NB: No grated cheese, please on this pasta…)

Notes on Spaghetti alla colatura di alici

Colatura is the amber liquid by-product of curing anchovies with sea salt, drained off, collected in jars and aged for six months or more. Colatura was, until very recently, an obscure local product. For all my years living in Rome, I only heard of it after I moved back to the States. It has enjoyed something of a boomlet in popularity, but it is still very hard to find in stores, although you can find it online, at a fairly steep price. (Fortunately, a little does go a long way.)

Asian food lovers will probably be thinking that colatura is basically the same thing as Asian fish sauce. You’d be right, although colatura is a bit more concentrated than most Asian fish sauce. I’ve tasted Red Boat, a good quality fish sauce, side-by-side with colatura, and, truth be told, the difference is pretty subtle. And though my Italian friends may well hang me for saying so, seeing as Asian fish sauce is much easier to find here in the US—and costs a fraction of the price—I’d be happy using it as a substitute for the elusive cetaresi elixir. Avoid, however, cheaper fish sauces, which tend to be too diluted and include sugar.

As for any simple dish like spaghetti alla colatura di alici, the quality of your ingredients will decide whether you wind up with something truly special. Besides the colatura itself, it’s important to choose best quality spaghetti or linguine. Look for pasta that’s made with durum wheat (of course!) preferably extruded through bronze dies, which gives the pasta a slightly ‘rough’ surface, perfect for catching this rather slippery sauce. If you can find pasta from Gragnano, so much the better. Not only is Gragnano famous for having the best pasta secca in Italy,  Gragnano lies only a few kilometers away from Cetara, just across the base of the Sorrento peninsula. The other key ingredient is the olive oil—look for a nice, fruity, deep green extra virgin oil of the southern Italian variety. My personal favorite at the moment is a Sicilian extra virgin called Frantoia, from M. Barbera & Figli. It’s not cheap, but has wonderful, deep flavor.

YouTuber Mimmo Corcione has a particularly lovely variation on this dish that he calls linguine ai sapori ‘cetaresi’, or linguine with the flavors of Cetara. To the sauce described in this post, he adds a bit of anchovy and basil, and then emulsifies it all with a hand mixer until creamy; the pasta is topped with a freshly grated lemon zest. If you understand Italian—or even if you don’t—do check out his YouTube video. I’ve been a big fan of il grande Mimmo for quite a while. His winning manner and charming Neapolitan accent never fail to bring a smile to my face and, more often than not, his recipes start a rumbling in my stomach!

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Spaghetti alla colatura

Ingredients

• 400-600g (14-20 oz) spaghetti
• 4-6 Tbs colatura (or best quality Asian fish sauce)
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, finely minced
• A sprig or two of parsley, finely minced
• A pinch or more of red pepper flakes, q.b.
• Olive oil
• Salt (optional)

Instructions

1. Put the spaghetti on to boil in unsalted or very lightly salted water. Cook until al dente.
2. While the spaghetti is cooking, mix all the remaining ingredients in a bowl until they are nicely amalgamated. Taste and adjust the measurements to taste—a bit more colatura if you want a stronger taste, for example, or more red pepper if you want more heat.
3. When the spaghetti is done, drain it very well and add it to the bowl. Mix the pasta and sauce thoroughly and serve up immediately. (NB: No grated cheese, please on this pasta...)

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There’s a saying in Italian: fritte son bone anche le scarpe, meaning “even a shoe tastes good when it’s fried”. Well, I couldn’t agree more, and seafood tastes especially delicious when it’s fried—good enough to convince even the piscatorially challenged.

The fritto misto di mare, a platter of assorted fried seafood is hugely popular in Campania but found all over Italy. It will always include crustaceans and mollusks, typically shrimp and squid, and often very small whole fish, such as fresh anchovies or sardines, or baby mackerel or mullet, collectively known as paranza. Here in the US, you might look for fresh sardines or smelt; they are hard to find but occasionally make an appearance, especially in areas with large Italian-American communities. But you should really feel free to include whatever seafood that’s fresh and available to you locally. For today’s fritto misto di mare, I couldn’t find any tiny fish in the market, but I did spy some local soft shell crabs, as well as some gorgeously plump scallops, which were a rare and expensive treat back in Rome.

A fritto misto di mare is sometimes batter-fried (see Notes below), but the simplest and my personal favorite method is the one we’ll present today: The seafood is lightly coated in flour and quickly deep fried in hot oil until golden brown. If you ask me, there’s no better way to prepare seafood.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

A total of 2-2.5 kilos (4-5 lbs) of mixed seafood, which should, at a minimum, should include:

• Jumbo shrimp
• Squid

Plus, if you like, one or more of the following:

• Fresh sardines or smelts or other tiny fish
• Scallops
• Soft shell crabs
• Crayfish

Directions

Step 1: Prepping the seafood

The shrimp (as well as other crustaceans like crayfish) should be shelled, but leave the tails on. (If you’ve found shrimp with their heads—a rarity here in the States but normal in Italy—leave them on, too.)

If you’ve bought your squid already cleaned, almost all squid is these days, at least here in the US, then proceed to cut the squid sacks into rings about 1 cm (1/3 in) thick; the tentacles can be left whole. And don’t forget the tentacles; I agree with the Japanese, who say they’re the best part of the squid. (If the squid hasn’t been cleaned, see this video for instructions.)

If using soft shell crabs, cut them in half down the middle vertically, then horizontally, so that each crab makes four pieces.

Scallops in the US are sold out of their shells, but if you are elsewhere and buy them in still in their shells, detach them by gently sliding a paring knife between the scallop and its shell. [Remove the roe sack as well.]

The small fish, assuming you fishmonger has cleaned it for you—can be cooked as is.

You should lay out your prepared seafood on paper towels to soak up any excess liquid:

Step 2: Flouring the Seafood

Now lightly flour your seafood. I like to do this by placing my seafood in a plastic bag, then spoon in 1-2 spoonfuls of flour, and shake the bag around until all the pieces are lightly coated, like so:

Then pour the contents of the bag into a colander. Shake the colander to eliminate the excess flour. The seafood should look something like this:

Step 3: Deep Frying the Seafood

Now it’s time to fry. Heat your oil in a fryer or a deep cast iron pot until it is very hot. In a deep fryer, just crank the temperature up as high as it will go, to a temperature of 190C/375F. If using frying in a pot, then use a [deep frying] thermometer if you have one; if not, then heat it until just before the oil begins to smoke.

Deep dry the fish quickly in the hot oil, until the seafood is just cooked through and a light golden crust has formed on the outside. This should take no more than 2-3 minutes. Avoid overcooking the fish.

NB: Unless I’m dealing with a single portion, I like to flour and fry each type of seafood separately, as they do cook at slightly different rates, with the shrimp or smaller bay scallops taking almost no time, while the squid and crab can take a bit longer, as can larger scallops. In any case, don’t overcrowd the deep fryer and proceed in batches if you need to.

Drain your fried fish on paper towels or a cooling rack as they are done like so:

Step 4: Serving the Seafood

Once all your seafood is cooked, transfer them to a serving platter (preferably lined with paper towels to soak up any excess oil), sprinkle lightly with salt, and serve your fritto misto di mare with lemon wedges.

It is crucial to serve fried foods as soon as possible after they’re done, while they’re still nice and hot and crispy. As they say in Naples, frijenno e magnanno—which, loosely translated, means “fry it and eat it”. But if you really need to make it ahead, or if you have so much fish that some is already cold by the time the last of it is done, you can return all the fish to the deep fryer for a  quick dip to warm up—but this should literally just be for a few seconds. Then drain again and serve.

Notes on Fritto misto di mare

My main tip for making a great fritto misto di mare is avoid overcooking the seafood. While I usually advise balance when deep frying meat or vegetables—not too hot, not too cool—for seafood, which cooks very quickly, I find the best method is to fry at the highest temperature possible, for the shortest time possible, just long enough to cook the seafood through but not a moment more. The result is seafood as it best, sweet and briny and juicy. Taste a piece before serving—you’ll be surprised how little salt or other seasoning it actually needs.

As mentioned, a fritto misto di mare can be made with a light batter of flour, olive oil and enough water to make a cream-like mixture. Some batters call for adding egg to the batter, which you can add whole or, if you want to get fancy, add the yolk and then (just before frying) fold in the egg white, which you will have whipped into a foam. Egg batters, especially if you whip your egg whites, will be quite thick. You need to let any batter sit for about an hour before using. Make sure you’re seafood is quite dry before coating with your batter, or the batter will tend to slip off in the frying. Batter-fried seafood take a bit longer to cook than when lightly floured, so increase the frying time by a minute or two.

For the oil, while some recipes, especially the older ones, call for olive oil, for deep frying at high heat I find peanut oil or the more reasonably prices safflower oil, does a better job. As for the flour, it is the subject of some controversy. Some recipes call for hard-wheat flour, others insist on soft “OO” flour, some on semolina. I simply use the kind known here in the US as “All Purpose” and it works just fine. And while a fritto misto di mare generally doesn’t include vegetables, unlike a meat-based fritto misto which almost always does, occasionally you will find a recipe that calls for some slices of zucchini or other summer vegetables; these are always fried covered in batter, even if your seafood isn’t.

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Fritto misto di mare

Rating: 51

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Yield: Serves 4-6

Ingredients

A total of 2-2.5 kilos (4-5 lbs) of mixed seafood, which should, at a minimum, should include:
• Jumbo shrimp
• Squid
Plus, if you like, one or more of the following:
• Fresh sardines or smelts or other tiny fish
• Scallops
• Soft shell crabs
• Crayfish

Instructions

1. Prepping the seafood: The shrimp (as well as other crustaceans like crayfish) should be shelled, but leave the tails on. (If you've found shrimp with their heads—a rarity here in the States but normal in Italy—leave them on, too.) If you've bought your squid already cleaned, almost all squid is these days, at least here in the US, then proceed to cut the squid sacks into rings about 1 cm (1/3 in) thick; the tentacles can be left whole. And don't forget the tentacles; I agree with the Japanese, who say they're the best part of the squid. If using soft shell crabs, cut them in half down the middle vertically, then horizontally, so that each crab makes four pieces. Scallops in the US are sold out of their shells, but if you are elsewhere and buy them in still in their shells, detach them by gently sliding a paring knife between the scallop and its shell. [Remove the roe sack as well.] The small fish, assuming you fishmonger has cleaned it for you—can be cooked as is. You should lay out your prepared seafood on paper towels to soak up any excess liquid:
2. Flouring the Seafood: Now lightly flour your seafood. I like to do this by placing my seafood in a plastic bag, then spoon in 1-2 spoonfuls of flour, and shake the bag around until all the pieces are lightly coated. Then pour the contents of the bag into a colander. Shake the colander to eliminate the excess flour.
3. Deep Frying the Seafood: Now it's time to fry. Heat your oil in a fryer or a deep cast iron pot until it is very hot. In a deep fryer, just crank the temperature up as high as it will go, to a temperature of 190C/375F. If using frying in a pot, then use a [deep frying] thermometer if you have one; if not, then heat it until just before the oil begins to smoke. Deep dry the fish quickly in the hot oil, until the seafood is just cooked through and a light golden crust has formed on the outside. This should take no more than 2-3 minutes. Avoid overcooking the fish. Drain your fried fish on paper towels or a cooling rack as they are done.
4. Serving the Seafood: Once all your seafood is cooked, transfer them to a serving platter (preferably lined with paper towels to soak up any excess oil), sprinkle lightly with salt, and serve your fritto misto di mare with lemon wedges. It is crucial to serve fried foods as soon as possible after they're done, while they're still nice and hot and crispy.

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Columbus Day is right around the corner, and as regular readers know, that’s the occasion each year for us to feature a classic Italian-American dish. This year we’re sharing an old family recipe, one that I’m sure will be familiar to many readers “of a certain age”: Peas and Eggs. A quick and inexpensive dish that recalls simpler—and leaner—times. Remember Clara Cannucciari’s Great Depression Cooking YouTube series, in which her grandson lovingly recorded the 90-plus-year-old Clara preparing the simple and inexpensive meals that had got the family through the hardships of that era? This is that kind of cooking.

The original Old World version of this dish, piselli cacio e uova, is a delight, but today we’re going to talk about the New World version. For once, the trip across the ocean did not make the dish more complicated or carnivorous—just the opposite, in fact—but one thing marks Peas and Eggs as Italian-American: the use of a humble convenience food, canned peas.

Foodies often turn up their noses at canned products, but they have their place, I think, in home cooking, particularly when it comes to legumes. And peas were among the first foods to be canned. In 1806 the legendary gastronomist Grimod de la Reynière wrote glowingly of the new-fangled product, noting that canned peas were “green, tender and more flavorful than those eaten at the height of the season.” I wouldn’t quite go that far, but Peas and Eggs, along with its close cousin, pasta e piselli, just wouldn’t taste quite right to me made any other way.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• Olive oil
• 2 cans of peas
• 4-6 eggs (depending on size)
• 75g (3 oz) grated Parmesan cheese
• A few sprigs of parsley, finely chopped
• Salt and pepper

Directions

In a large braiser or saucepan, sauté the chopped onions gently in olive oil until they are very soft and translucent, taking care that they don’t brown. While the onions are braising, season them lightly with salt and pepper, and add a few drops of water from time to time—this will help them soften and prevents browning. Take your time, as the flavor of the dish depends in large part on coaxing the sweetness out of this soffritto of gently sautéed onions.

Pour the canned peas, together with its liquid, into the pot. Let them simmer gently for just a few minutes, to allow the flavors to meld.

While the peas are simmering, whisk the eggs together with the grated cheese and, if using, the parsley, in a mixing bowl. Season  generously with salt and pepper.

Turn up the heat a bit and add the egg mixture to the peas. Mix together with a wooden spoon or spatula until the eggs have formed soft curds and remove from the heat. The eggs will absorb the liquid the longer it cooks—you can let it cook longer for a ‘dry’ version, shorter for a ‘wet’ one, as you prefer.

Serve immediately, with some extra cheese sprinkled on top if you like, and perhaps a nice turn or two of freshly ground pepper.

Notes on Peas and Eggs

The Old World version of Peas and Eggs, piselli cacio e uova, calls for fresh or frozen peas instead of canned; instead of the canning liquid, some homemade broth is added to the peas as they simmer. Fresh peas will take a bit longer to cook than canned or frozen. The Tuscans add some pancetta to the soffritto, and rather than being scrambled, the eggs are gently opened and placed whole on top of the simmering peas to poach—very much like Eggs Florentine.

As mentioned, you can makes your Peas and Eggs dry or wet. And if you add broth to your Peas and Eggs, it turns itself into a rather nice soup as well. You might even go crazy and take it in another direction, adding ditalini or another smaller pasta shape, which makes for a fine pasta dish, a slightly richer version of pasta e piselli.

Peas and Eggs is a real poor man’s meal, but it really does taste better if you use those slightly more expensive, very young smaller peas, which are sweeter and more delicate in taste. And if you’re concerned about the BPA in canned products, some companies now use BPA-free cans, and others sell peas in jars.

Peas and Eggs is a hard dish to categorize. It could be a first course, especially if you make it on the soupy side, or a vegetarian second course, or even a side dish if you go easy on the egg. But to my mind, Peas and Eggs is interesting enough to be its own light dinner—a piatto unico, as they call it in Italian—served with a nice chunk of crusty bread and followed by a piece of fruit and perhaps a nice bit of aged cheese.

Finally, a special thanks to my Mom for sharing Angelina’s old recipe, which she still makes from time to time. Without her good memory, so many of these family recipes would have been lost by now!

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Peas and Eggs (Piselli cacio e uova)

Rating: 51

Total Time: 15 minutes

Yield: Serves 4-6

Ingredients

• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• Olive oil
• 2 cans of peas
• 4-6 eggs (depending on size)
• 75g (3 oz) grated Parmesan cheese
• A few sprigs of parsley, finely chopped
• Salt and pepper

Instructions

1. In a large braiser or saucepan, sauté the chopped onions gently in olive oil until they are very soft and translucent, taking care that they don't brown. While the onions are braising, season them lightly with salt and pepper, and add a few drops of water from time to time—this will help them soften and prevents browning.
2. Pour the peas, together with its liquid, into the pot. Let them simmer gently for just a few minutes, to allow the flavors to meld.
3. While the peas are simmering, whisk the eggs together with the grated cheese and, if using, the parsley, in a mixing bowl. Season generously with salt and pepper.
4. Turn up the heat a bit and add the egg mixture to the peas. Mix together with a wooden spoon or spatula until the eggs have formed soft curds and remove from the heat. Serve immediate, with some extra cheese sprinkled on top if you like, and perhaps a nice turn or two of freshly ground pepper.

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The use of fruits in savory dishes was once common place in Italian cooking, as it was in European cooking generally.  Giuliano Bugialli, for example, tells us that the original duck à l’orange was a Tuscan dish. But with some notable exceptions like mostarda for boiled meats and strawberry risotto, it’s become a rarity. So much so that some Italians I know find the very idea of dishes like ham and pineapple, or guinea hen and cherries, or even turkey with cranberry dressing absolutely revolting.

In any event, here’s another example of this rare kind of dish: Sausages and Grapes, or salsicce all’uva, a simple vineyard worker’s dish from Umbria and Tuscany. The combination of sausages and grapes may sound odd, even off-putting, but it actually works. The sweetness and slight acidity of the grapes cuts the richness of the pork quite nicely.

In its most basic version, Sausages and Grapes could hardly be easier to make. It’s literally just sausages sautéed in a skillet until done, with grapes thrown in for the last five or ten minutes. No need for a soffritto, as the sausages lend lots of savor on their own. The only trick, as for any sausage dish, is to make sure to cook the sausages over a gentle flame, sautéing them slowly so their insides are done by the time the outsides have reached a nice golden brown. And, yes, it is possible to overcook sausages—and there’s not much less appetizing than a dry and tasteless overcooked sausage—so don’t let them go too long. If you’ve used gentle heat, they should be ready as soon as they’re brown all over. If in doubt, prick the sausages; if the juices run clear, they’re done.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

• 4-6 sweet Italian sausages
• 1 small bunch of seedless grapes
• Olive oil
• Freshly ground pepper

Directions

Prick the sausages here and there with the prongs of a fork. Don’t skip this first step as it prevents the sausages from bursting their skins as they cook and the stuffing expands.

In a large skillet or sauté pan, sauté the sausages gently in the olive oil until golden brown on all sides. Do not rush the process or the outside will brown before the meat inside is fully cooked.

While the sausages are sautéing, pick the grapes off their stems, then wash and drain them in a colander. When the sausages have browned, add the grapes and let everything simmer together for about 5-1o minutes, just until the grapes begin to soften a bit.

Season generously with freshly ground pepper and serve.

Notes on Sausages and Grapes

Obviously, with a recipe this basic, the quality of your two main ingredients will make all the difference. Best quality Italian sausages, made with pork and not too lean, are my favorite. I particularly like luganega sausages, the kind that are fairly thin and sold coiled in rounds, but they are almost impossible to find where I live, so I make do with ‘standard’ sweet Italian sausages. Still, I bet that the dish would work fine with other sausage types. Just try to find sausages with good fat content. Too many sausages you find these days are quite lean—I guess for health reasons—but it’s the fat that gives this dish its flavor!

As for the grapes, most Italian recipes I’ve seen call for green grapes, but red will do just fine. And while the ones I found in the market today were pretty large, smaller grapes are better; they taste sweeter and cook more quickly.

Some variations on this basic recipe for Sausages and Grapes call for adding a bit of onion to the sausages for extra savor, or a splash of wine—sometimes red, sometimes white—while the sausages are simmering. Some will have you cut up the sausages beforehand; this helps them to cook more quickly, and, I suppose, it helps the flavor of the sausage meld more thoroughly with the grapes. You will notice that the recipe doesn’t call for salt; it shouldn’t need any, as sausages should already be quite heavily seasoned, and salt would upset the delicate balance between the savor of the sausages and the sweetness of the grapes.

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It might be the season, but coming right on the heels of our recent post on Sausages and Grapes, today’s post once again features a mixture of sweet and savory ingredients. Whereas that post combined fruit and meat, today we’ll take a look at a fruit and vegetable combination from Sicily: Orange and Fennel Salad. To my mind, it has everything you could hope for in a salad: it’s beautiful, healthy and delicious.

Orange and Fennel Salad is also quick and easy to prepare.  All it is, after all, are slices of orange and fennel arranged on a plate—’composed’ in culinary lingo—and dressed with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper, perhaps with few olives and fennel fronds for garnish. Both of the main ingredients in Orange and Fennel Salad, however, need to be prepped in a certain way, so I’ve included step-by-step photographic directions here to show you how.

Salads are usually classified as contorni, or side dishes, in an Italian meal, but when it’s presented decoratively as we’ve done here, Orange and Fennel Salad can stand alone as an antipasto or, as its own salad/fruit course. It’s a refreshing way to end a substantial meal.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6 people

• 3-4 fennel bulbs, preferably not too large
• 4 or 5 oranges
• Best quality, extra-virgin olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• A few black olives for garnish (optional)

Directions

First, prep the fennel: Take your fennel bulb and inspect it. The one I’m working with today is rather large and bit discolored, as you can see—not uncommon for most fennel you will find in supermarkets. It’s hardly ideal, but with some careful trimming and slicing, we can turn this rather sad piece of vegetable into something salad-worthy.

Trim the fennel bulbs top and bottom.

If you’re working with a larger, older fennel, particularly one that is spottled like this one, remove the outer layer. Now cut the bulb into quarters:

then slice each quarter very thinly from top to bottom, making sure that each slice has a bit of the base, which will hold the slice together:

Second, prep the oranges: Trim them top and bottom.

Then take a paring knife and cut from top to bottom along the sides, between the pith (the bitter white stuff just under the peel) and the flesh. (If you’re like me, you’re likely to take a bit of the flesh off, too, but no worries.)

Once the orange is peeled, trim off as much of any remaining pith as you can.

Then slice the orange horizontally into thin, rounds.

Third, compose the salad: Arrange the fennel and orange slices decoratively on a serving plate (or, even better, on individual plates if you have the time). Season with salt and, if you like, freshly ground pepper. Garnish with the black olives if using and drizzle everything very generously with the olive oil. And for an elegant final touch, if you like, top with bits of fennel frond.

Notes on Orange and Fennel Salad

This is one of those simple dishes that relies entirely on the goodness of its ingredients. You should look for a best quality, fruity extra-virgin olive oil, the kind that is dark green in color. And since Orange and Fennel Salad is a Sicilian dish, the oil would ideally be from Sicily. Here in the States, I’d recommend Frantoia brand olive oil, one of my favorites for any dish, Sicilian or not. It’s not cheap, but then no good olive oil is.

The fennel should be young and therefore not too large, if you can find it. Smaller fennel bulbs are more tender, while the larger, older bulbs tend to get a bit fibrous. Older fennel is fine for cooked dishes like finocchi gratinati (Fennel Gratin) or a Fennel Sfornato, but for salads like this one, look for the young kind. If all you can find are the larger bulbs, however, no worries: you can make do by removing their tough outer layer, as mentioned above, and slicing them just as thin as you can manage. As for the oranges, good old navels will do just fine, but feel free to choose the types that appeals to you (Satsumas are in season at the moment and would do very nicely indeed, I think) or even other citrus fruits like a pomelo or grapefruit.

I like to compose my Orange and Fennel Salad, but for a homier tossed version, cut the fennel into strips (removing the base that keeps the layers together) and the oranges into sections and toss them with the oil, salt and pepper as you would a typical Italian salad. There’s no need for vinegar in this salad—even if most recipes I’ve seen in English call for it—since the juice of the oranges will mix with the oil to make a dressing. But I have seen Italian recipes that call for some additional orange or lemon juice. Garnishing with black olives is an optional but lovely touch, as are the fennel fronds. Some recipes call for bits of walnut, which would be particularly nice this time of year.

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Insalata di arance e finocchi (Orange and Fennel Salad)

Rating: 51

Total Time: 15 minutes

Yield: Serves 4-6

Ingredients

• 3-4 fennel bulbs, preferably not too large
• 4 or 5 oranges
• Best quality, extra-virgin olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• A few black olives for garnish (optional)

Instructions

1. Prep the fennel: Trim the fennel bulbs top and bottom. If you're working with a larger, older fennel, particularly one that is spottled like this one, remove the outer layer. Now cut the bulb into quarters, then slice each quarter very thinly from top to bottom, making sure that each slice has a bit of the base, which will hold the slice together.
2. Prep the oranges: Trim them top and bottom, then take a paring knife and cut from top to bottom along the sides, between the pith (the bitter white stuff just under the peel) and the flesh. Once the orange is peeled, trim off as much of any remaining pith as you can, then slice the orange horizontally into thin, rounds.
3. Compose the salad: Arrange the fennel and orange slices decoratively on a serving plate (or, even better, on individual plates if you have the time). Season with salt and, if you like, freshly ground pepper. Garnish with the black olives if using and drizzle everything very generously with the olive oil. And for an elegant final touch, if you like, top with bits of fennel frond.

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I first learned to make Strudel when I was living in Vienna, its birthplace. Strudel is also made in Italy, in particular in the Northeastern regions that were under Austrian rule, and most especially the region known to Italians as Alto Adige and to German speakers as Südtirol, which was part of Austria until the end of the First World War. In Italy, Strudel is traditionally made with a soft, pliable dough made with flour, enriched with egg and melted butter or oil and rolled out very, very thin, even if today many people use store-bought pastry dough or pasta frolla. It is also wonderful made with phyllo dough.

Although it looks very fancy, Strudel is actually quite easy to make—especially if you use store-bought dough. Rolling the dough up into a loaf can be a little tricky the first time you try, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll be whipping up this dish in little over an hour, and that’s counting the 30-45 minute baking time. For those celebrating Thanksgiving this week, it makes for a nice change from the usual pumpkin pie (which, I have to admit, I never liked…)

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

For the dough:

• 150g (5oz) flour
• A pinch of salt
• 2-3 Tbs granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 2-3 Tbs olive or vegetable oil (or melted butter)
• Water, q.b.

For the filling:

• 750g (1-1/2) apples
• 75g (1/3 cup) granulated sugar
• A handful of raisins, pre-soaked in rum
• A handful of pinoli (pine nuts), or slivered almonds
• 1-2 Tbs cinnamon
• 75g (2-1/2 oz) breadcrumbs
• A good nob of butter

For baking and finishing:

• More flour
• Melted butter
• Powdered sugar

Directions

If using homemade dough, prepare it by mixing the dry ingredients, then the egg and oil, then finally just enough water to form a ball. Knead briefly until the dough is soft and elastic. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap, then in a towel, and let rest for a good 3o minutes or more. (In some old recipes, you are told to let the dough rest in a warm saucepan, to soften it even more, in which case I’d skip the plastic wrap.) See notes below for using store-bought dough.

While the dough is resting, peel, core and slice the apples as thinly as you can. Add the sugar, cinnamon and raisins, which you will have drained and squeezed dry, and the pine nuts or almonds.

Mix things all together, moistening the mixture if you like with a bit of the rum in which the raisins have been soaked. Set aside.

Sauté the breadcrumbs in the melted butter over very gentle heat until they are lightly browned. Be careful not to over-brown the crumbs.

When the dough has rested at least a good 30 minutes, mold it into a flat, rectangular shape and place it on a well-floured cotton (not terry cloth!) dish towel or, even better, a linen baker’s couche.

Roll the dough out as thinly as you can manage into a large, rectangular shape. Older recipes tell you to stretch it further with your hands, as you might a thin-crust pizza—supposedly until you can read a newspaper through it, but I have to assume that’s hyperbole…

Brush the dough liberally with melted butter, leaving the edges dry.

Spread the sautéed breadcrumbs in a thin layer all over the dough, leaving the edges clear.

Pour the filling over the breadcrumbs and spread it out even, again avoiding the edges.

With the aid of the towel, roll up the dough into a large lozenge-shaped “loaf”.

Once the strudel is fully rolled up, tuck the edges under

and, very gingerly, transfer this loaf onto a baking pan or sheet. Brush the loaf liberally with melted butter. If you prefer a ‘shiny’ surface to your strudel, you can brush the surface with milk or egg wash instead.

Bake the strudel in a hot (200c/400F) oven for a good 30-45 minutes, until golden brown all over. (I find it helps browning if you brush it once or twice with more melted butter while it bakes.)

Let the strudel cool entirely. Top with powdered sugar before serving in thick slices, perhaps with a nice side of whipped cream or ice cream if you’re feeling decadent.

Notes on Strudel di mele

If using store-bought pastry dough, just lay it out flat on the sheet it is usually attached to and lay the breadcrumbs and filling out on top, then roll it up as usual. You won’t need to brush it with butter, as pastry dough already has a high fat content, [although brushing it with milk will help it brown]. I’ve seen recipes for Strudel with puff pastry, too. And if you want to use phyllo dough, which makes a particularly delightful Strudel, lay out one sheet, brush it with melted butter, then repeat until you have 4 or 5 layers of dough, before laying on the breadcrumbs and apple filling. Phyllo, I have to guess, may have actually been the original Strudel dough, since sources say that Strudel was derived from the baklava made by the Ottoman Turks.

The breadcrumbs, by the way, don’t turn up in all recipes, but the thin layer of breadcrumbs is useful to soak up the juices that can extrude from the apples as they cook. This way, the crust doesn’t get soggy.

The classic apple for making strudel—the Italian variety at least—are Renettes, but I’ve seen recipes calling for all sorts of apples, from Granny Smiths to Golden Delicious. For this strudel, I used Honeycrisps, and it was delicious. If using a rather tart apple like the Granny Smith, I’d increase the amount of sugar in the filling. In fact, you can vary the amount of sugar anyway, in the filling or the dough, to suit your personal tastes. The measurements given here produce a strudel that is only slightly sweet, which is the way I like it.

The word “Strudel” comes from Middle German for whirlpool, since the roll was traditionally formed into a spiral shape. Although Apple Strudel is by far the most famous, there are all manner of Strudel, both sweet and savory. And once you’ve got the hang of the basic recipe, you can make any of them. But that’s a story for another post.

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Strudel di mele (Apple Strudel)

Rating: 51

Total Time: 1 hour

Yield: Serves 4-6

Ingredients

• *For the dough:
• 150g (5oz) flour
• A pinch of salt
• 2-3 Tbs granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 2-3 Tbs olive or vegetable oil (or melted butter)
• Water, q.b.
• *For the filling:
• 750g (1-1/2) apples
• 75g (1/3 cup) granulated sugar
• A handful of raisins, pre-soaked in rum
• A handful of pinoli (pine nuts), or slivered almonds
• 1-2 Tbs cinnamon
• 75g (2-1/2 oz) breadcrumbs
• A good nob of butter
• *For baking and finishing:
• More flour
• Melted butter
• Powdered sugar

Instructions

1. If using homemade dough, prepare it by mixing the dry ingredients, then the egg and oil, then finally just enough water to form a ball. Knead briefly until the dough is soft and elastic. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap, then in a towel, and let rest for a good 30 minutes or more. See notes below for using store-bought dough.
2. While the dough is resting, peel, core and slice the apples as thinly as you can. Add the sugar, cinnamon and raisins, which you will have drained and squeezed dry, and the pine nuts or almonds.
3. Mix things all together, moistening the mixture if you like with a bit of the rum in which the raisins have been soaked. Set aside.
4. Sauté the breadcrumbs in the melted butter over very gentle heat until they are lightly browned. Be careful not to over-brown the crumbs.
5. When the dough has rested at least a good 30 minutes, mold it into a flat, rectangular shape and place it on a well-floured cotton (not terry cloth!) dish towel or, even better, a linen baker's couche.
6. Roll the dough out as thinly as you can manage into a large, rectangular shape. Brush the dough liberally with melted butter, leaving the edges dry.
7. Spread the sautéed breadcrumbs in a thin layer all over the dough, leaving the edges clear. Pour the filling over the breadcrumbs and spread it out even, again avoiding the edges.
8. With the aid of the towel, roll up the dough into a large lozenge-shaped "loaf". Once the strudel is fully rolled up, tuck the edges under and, very gingerly, transfer this loaf onto a baking pan or sheet. Brush the loaf liberally with melted butter. If you prefer a 'shiny' surface to your strudel, you can brush the surface with milk or egg wash instead.
9. Bake the strudel in a hot (200c/400F) oven for a good 30-45 minutes, until golden brown all over.
10. Let the strudel cool entirely. Top with powdered sugar before serving in thick slices, perhaps with a nice side of whipped cream or ice cream if you're feeling decadent.

Notes

If using store-bought pastry dough, just lay it out flat on the sheet it is usually attached to and lay the breadcrumbs and filling out on top, then roll it up as usual. You won't need to brush it with butter, as pastry dough already has a high fat content, [although brushing it with milk will help it brown]. I've seen recipes for Strudel with puff pastry, too. And if you want to use phyllo dough, which makes a particularly delightful Strudel, lay out one sheet, brush it with melted butter, then repeat until you have 4 or 5 layers of dough, before laying on the breadcrumbs and apple filling.

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When you’re in a real hurry or just too tired to cook anything too elaborate, here’s a great solution: cacio e pepe, literally ‘cheese and pepper’, a pasta dish usually made with spaghetti, bucatini or—my personal favorite—tonnarelli, a kind of square spaghetti better known Stateside by its Abruzzese name, spaghetti alla chitarra. This old-time Roman dish has become fashionable lately, and you’ll find it on the menus of the priciest Italian restaurants. But don’t let that turn you off—there’s actually nothing pretentious at all about cacio e pepe.

Great for a weeknight dinner or spur of the moment spaghettata, to make cacio e pepe you simply toss just-boiled pasta with lots of grated pecorino romano and freshly ground black pepper. With only three ingredients—four, if you count the pinch of salt for the pasta water—nothing could be more quintessentially Italian in its exquisite simplicity. And yet cacio e pepe is not that easy to master. Get your technique wrong, and this dish can turn into a rather unattractive mess. But no worries, let me give you a few tips that will have you whipping up your own perfect cacio e pepe in no time.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

• 500g (1 lb) tonnarelli, spaghetti, bucatini or another long pasta
• 250g (1/2 lb) freshly grated pecorino cheese
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Salt, for boiling the pasta

Directions

Boil the pasta in well salted water, drain it—but not too well—and pour it into a large, warmed mixing bowl.

Add the grated pecorino and lots of freshly ground pepper, and mix very well until the hot water that clings to the pasta melts the cheese to make a kind of creamy sauce.

Serve on heated plates, topped f you want with more grated pecorino and another healthy grinding of pepper.

Notes on Cacio e pepe

Your mixing technique is the key to success. The most important thing to remember for a successful cacio e pepe is not to stop mixing too soon. At first, the cheese will tend to clump together, but don’t be discouraged. Keep on mixing vigorously, adding a bit of cooking water if you need to so that the pasta slithers around freely, until the cheese melts entirely and clings uniformly to the pasta. If the pasta is too wet for the cheese to cling to the pasta, add more grated cheese.

On the other hand, you shouldn’t take too long either, as the pasta will be cooling off the whole time. If you take too long, the cheese will begin to harden and your pasta will start to get cold. So be energetic in your stirring. I find that tongs are perfect for this job, but the traditional pasta fork will do you just fine. Getting this mixing business right is a bit tricky at first, but it will come with a bit of practice.

To make things even trickier, for a truly authentic cacio e pepe the pasta and cheese should be mixed ‘a freddo‘, i.e., not over a flame. It’s said that the intense heat of a burner will denature the flavor and texture of the cheese and risk overcooking the pasta. Even so, I like to warm the mixing bowl beforehand by placing it on top of the pot for the last minute or two while the pasta is still boiling, then re-place the bowl on top of the pot, off heat but still steaming, while mixing up the pasta with its cheese and pepper condimento. The gentle warmth of the steam helps the cheese to melt and ensure that you won’t be eating lukewarm pasta. Of course, you need to leave the pasta water in the pot, so either use a pasta pot with a perforated insert or fish the pasta out of the water with a pasta fork, instead of pouring the pasta and water into a colander. (A good practice, in my opinion, no matter what pasta you’re making.)

If you find this all a little intimidating, a practically foolproof if not entirely DOC technique is to melt a bit of butter with a ladleful of the cooking water in a skillet, to which you add your pasta and then your cheese and pepper. You sauté the whole thing over very gentle heat until it all comes together. This keeps the pasta nice and warm, and you can take your time mixing.

There are some variant techniques for making cacio e pepe. Some recipes call for you to mix the grated cheese and ground pepper in the bowl before adding the pasta on top. In my experience, this leads to too much of the melted cheese sticking to the bottom of the bowl rather than the pasta. (Some sticking is inevitable—feel free to scrape up the melted cheese with a spatula and top your pasta with it.) Some recipes also tell you to add a bit of butter or un filo d’olio before or after you mix the pasta. I rather like the creaminess of the butter variation, but I like even better the austere (but very tasty) simplicity of just pasta, cheese and pepper.

And finally, some people mix pecorino with the milder parmigiano-reggiano. To me, however wonderful parmigiano is, the salty ‘bite’ of pecorino is one of the attractions of the dish, so I wouldn’t dilute it with anything else. But, as they say, de gustibus non eat disputandum. If you like the idea of any of these variations on cacio e pepe, by all means try them and let us know how you like them!

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Cacio e pepe, a Roman classic

Rating: 51

Total Time: 30 minutes

Yield: Serves 4-6

Ingredients

• 500g (1 lb) tonnarelli, spaghetti, bucatini or another long pasta
• 250g (1/2 lb) freshly grated pecorino cheese
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Salt, for boiling the pasta

Instructions

1. Boil the pasta in well salted water, drain it—but not too well—and pour it into a large, warmed mixing bowl.
2. Add the grated pecorino and lots of freshly ground pepper, and mix very well until the hot water that clings to the pasta melts the cheese to make a kind of creamy sauce.
3. Serve on heated plates, topped f you want with more grated pecorino and another healthy grinding of pepper.

Notes

Your mixing technique is the key to success. The most important thing to remember for a successful cacio e pepe is not to stop mixing too soon. At first, the cheese will tend to clump together, but don't be discouraged. Keep on mixing vigorously, adding a bit of cooking water if you need to so that the pasta slithers around freely, until the cheese melts entirely and clings uniformly to the pasta. If, on the other hand, the pasta is too wet for the cheese to cling to the pasta, add more grated cheese. On the other hand, you shouldn't take too long either, as the pasta will be cooling off the whole time. If you take too long, the cheese will begin to harden and your pasta will start to get cold. So be energetic in your stirring. I find that tongs are perfect for this job, but the traditional pasta fork will do you just fine. Getting this mixing business right is a bit tricky at first, but it will come with a bit of practice.

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Here’s a recipe that’s so simple you could call it a non-recipe: impepata di cozze, or Peppered Mussels. To make this  Neapolitan classic, you simply steam mussels in their own juices with nothing but generous amounts of freshly ground black pepper. Garnish them, if you like, with some chopped parsley and lemon wedges. And that’s it. No oil and garlic base, as as some recipes erroneously call for—which would make this a delicious but different dish, sauté di cozze—or any other flavorings. You shouldn’t even need salt, as the mussels themselves should be quite briny enough. It’s the ne plus ultra of pure, simple flavor. It may sound plain, but if your mussels are of good quality and your pepper fresh and aromatic, it is exquisite eating.

Peppered Mussels are usually classified as an antipasto, but they make a fine light main course as well.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

• 1-2 kilos (2-3 lbs) mussels
• Freshly ground pepper

To serve (optional):

• Finely chopped parsley
• Lemon wedges

Directions

Rinse the mussels well. (Most mussels sold these days don’t require any special preparation, but see notes below.)

Place the still dripping mussels in a pot large enough to hold them all with room to spare. Grind over them generous amounts of black pepper. Cover and turn the heat on high. Let the mussels steam in their own juices, shaking the pot with the cover on from time to time. (If the pot is too large or heavy for shaking, then open the lid and mix them with a wooden spoon or spatula.)

After about five minutes or so, open the pot and check on the mussels. As soon as all the mussels have opened, serve up your Peppered Mussels, either in the same pot they’ve cooked in or in a warmed serving bowl. Garnish them, if you like with another generous grinding of black pepper, a sprinkling of chopped parsley and lemon wedges on the side.

Notes on Peppered Mussels

It practically goes without saying, but the success of your Peppered Mussels will depend entirely on the quality and freshness of your mussels, so go to  a source you trust implicitly. If they’re fresh, mussels should not smell fishy at all, but have a clean, briny aroma. They should look bright and clean, and should closed, unbroken shells.

In the old days, mussels were picked off rock on the shoreline. Most mussels these days, at least in North America, are ‘farmed’: grown on a rope that is dangled in sea water. Farmed mussels tend not to have as much taste the those picked in the wild, but they have the great advantage of not needing any special preparation. The best are said to come from Prince Edward Island (or PEI for short) off the eastern coast of Canada between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Wild mussels have filaments called a ‘beard’ by which they were attached to the rocks; these need to be trimmed away with a paring knife. Wild mussels can be sandy as well, and should be soaked in cold water for at least 30 minutes to purge them.

Either way, since mussels are highly perishable, you should check your mussels before you cook them—if they are unusually heavy or don’t close when you touch them, discard them. (Discard also any mussels that fail to open after 5-7 minutes of cooking.) Always cook mussels the same day you buy them, and store them in the fridge as soon as you get home from the market.

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Impepata di cozze (Peppered Mussels)

Rating: 51

Total Time: 15 minutes

Yield: Serves 4-6

Ingredients

• 1-2 kilos (2-3 lbs) mussels
• Freshly ground pepper
• To serve (optional):
• Finely chopped parsley
• Lemon wedges

Instructions

1. Rinse the mussels well. (Most mussels sold these days don't require any special preparation, but see notes below.)
2. Place the mussels in a pot large enough to hold them all with room to spare. Grind over them generous amounts of black pepper. Cover and turn the heat on high. Let the mussels steam in their own juices, shaking the pot with the cover on from time to time. (If the pot is too large or heavy for shaking, then open the lid and mix them with a wooden spoon or spatula.)
3. After about five minutes or so, open the pot and check on the mussels. As soon as all the mussels have opened, serve up your Peppered Mussels, either in the same pot they've cooked in or in a warmed serving bowl. Garnish them, if you like with another generous grinding of black pepper, a sprinkling of chopped parsley and lemon wedges on the side.

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As I’ve written many times, Jeanne Caròla Francesconi (b. 1903, d. 1995) is my muse for Neapolitan cookery—apart from my grandmother Angelina, of course. And I’m certainly not alone. Often called the doyenne of Neapolitan cuisine, her classic 1965 work, La Cucina Napoletana, is the most iconic cookbook on the subject, perhaps second only to La Cucina Teorico-pratica (1837) by Ippolito Cavalcanti (b. 1787, d. 1859) and much easier to cook from for today’s cooks. Francesconi is to Neapolitan cooking what Artusi and Ada Boni are to Italian cooking in general.

As celebrated as her cookbook is, there is remarkably little to be found on her personal life, perhaps because it was, in a sense, unremarkable. She was a devoted mother of four children who, I read in this article, continue to share her passion for the local cuisine—especially her son Armando. He tells us that she was the host of legendary dinners for the upper class society of Naples. Food, family and friends, it would seem, were her life. Not a bad way to live, if you ask me.

Francesconi’s Masterwork: La Cucina Napoletana

Her masterwork, La Cucina Napoletana, is a true compendium of classic Neapolitan cookery, over 480 recipes in all, including a whopping 77 recipes for pasta. She devotes a whole chapter just to pasta-and-vegetable dishes, a staple for southern Italians, as well as 37 recipes for (mostly vegetable-based) soups. Rice also makes an appearance, including fives different versions of Naples’ best known rice dish, sartù di riso. And, of course, homemade pizzas, pizzette, calzones, taralli and other fried or baked dough-based dishes take their rightful place, along with a generous chapter on fritti, or fried food, so beloved of Neapolitans and Italians in general back in the day.

As for second courses, Francesconi gives us ten recipes for that old-time favorite, baccalà, along with seafood dishes of every description. The short but informative following chapter on eggs includes six frittata recipes. She doesn’t neglect meat, of course, but the 70-page chapter dedicated to vegetable recipes might well be her tour de force. That shouldn’t come as a surprise: Vegetables, perhaps even more than pasta, typifies the local cuisine, so much so that Neapolitans were once called mangiafoglie, or “leaf eaters” by other Italians. Desserts round out the collection, among which her personal take on the iconic babà al rum, struffoli (Friend Honey Balls), la pastiera (Neapolitan Easter Cheesecake), and Cavalcanti’s old time biancomangiare (Blancmange), together with a whole nine-page section on that most Neapolitan of pastries, the sfogliatella. And she includes a few desserts that might surprise you, like melanzane al cioccolato, or Eggplant with Chocolate, something even I haven’t had the nerve to try (yet). Gelato and other frozen sweets get their own chapter, topped off with a short chapter on homemade liqueurs.

Her recipes are generously larded with historical notes and personal stories. She lavishes special attention on the icons of Neapolitan cooking like ragù, which has come down to Italian-Americans as “Sunday Sauce“, and minestra maritata, the original “Wedding Soup”, along with classic dishes less known outside Campania like la genovese, beef stewed in onions, and the soffritto napoletano, a thick stew of pork innards (lungs, heart, spleen and so on) simmered in a thick tomato sauce. While she mostly conveys traditional recipes, including a good number of Cavalcanti’s, in some cases she shares a personal recipe, like her vermicelli ai molluschi (Pasta with Mollusks) or her own idiosyncratic take on a classic dish, like her insalata di rinforzo (Christmas Cauliflower Salad), which includes hearts of curly endive, or her fish-based variant of sartù. She shows a distinctly modern take on vegetables, telling the reader not to overcook them. And she’s not averse to technology, either; her chapter on ‘tips and tricks’ recommends frozen foods to save time.

Finding Francesconi’s Recipes

As far as I’m aware, Francesconi’s masterwork is only available in the original Italian. It is available through amazon.com, albeit at exorbitant prices. But if you don’t read Italian or don’t want to pay upwards of $275 for a cookbook, no worries—just keep reading this blog! I consult Francesconi whenever I blog on Neapolitan dishes and, even if I don’t always follow her recipes, I will generally let you know what her take on the recipe is in the Notes section that follows. Here are some of the posts on this blog that mention her:

• Homemade Limoncello*
• Pasta e patate (Pasta and Potatoes)
• Carciofi e patate in padella (Sautéed Artichokes and Potatoes)
• Peperoni in padella (Angelina’s Fried Peppers)
• Zucchine “a scapece” (Piquent Fried Zucchini)
• Babà al rum (Neapolitan Rum Cake)*
• Gattò di patate (Neapolitan Potato Cake)
• Melanzane a funghetto (“Mushroom-Style” Eggplant)
• Crochette di patate (Potato Croquettes)
• Minestra maritata (The Original “Wedding Soup”)*
• Sartù di riso (Neapolitan Rice Timbale)
• Pizza di scarola (Escarole Pie)
• Calzoncini napoletani (Neapolitan Miniature Calzones)
• Casatiello (Neapolitan Easter Bread)
• Uova in purgatorio (Eggs in Purgatory)
• Zeppole con le alici (Zeppole with Anchovies)
• Purpetielli affogati (Braised Baby Octopus)
• La pizzaiola (Pizza Maker’s Beef Slices)
• Angelina’s Lasagna di carnevale (Angelina’s Lasagna for Carnival)
• Tubetti cacio e uova (Tubetti pasta with Egg and Cheese)
• Aglio olio e peperoncino (Pasta with Garlic, Olive Oil and Hot Pepper)

The ones with an asterisk are the recipes based on the version of the dish set out in La cucina napoletana. The other posts mention her version of the dish, generally in the Notes section.

A Personal Note

I feel a special attachment to Francesconi’s work. As Neapolitan actor Luca De Filippo explains in the Introduction, her reason for writing La cucina napoletana was very much my own for writing this blog: la memoria. As De Filippo puts it:

La memoria. I believe it was just this intimate, primary need that inspired Jeanne Caròla Francesconi to write La cucina napoletana. Every page, every recipe, every word conveys the desire to remember and, above all, to pass on the ancient traditions of her family, justly preserved with love and pride. 

I couldn’t put it better myself. If I have captured just a little bit of Francesconi’s spirit here on Memorie di Angelina, then I can feel like I’ve accomplished something worthwhile.

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Chicory and Beans is one of those lean dishes that Angelina practically lived on weekdays. Like many good southern Italians, she was what we might call today a ‘flexitarian‘—living mostly on vegetables, saving meat for Sundays and other special occasions. Her lunch would often consist of chicory or escarole or some other vegetable, sautéed in typical aglio e olio style, perhaps over a slice of grilled bread. Way before Michael Pollan came along, Angelina ate real food and mostly plants, although, to be honest, she may have comprised on the “not too much” part of his famous formula for eating.

In this variation on a common theme, boiled beans add enough heft to the sautéed chicory make the dish a fairly substantial eating. When I don’t have the time or foresight to soak and boil dried beans—which is often—I add canned beans, well rinsed and drained. It makes the dish really quick and easy.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

• 2 large or 3 medium heads of chicory
• 1 small can (425g/15 oz) of cannellini or borlotti beans, well rinsed and drained, or equivalent boiled beans
• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• 1 peperoncino or a pinch of dried pepper flakes (optional)
• Olive oil
• Salt

Directions

Most chicory these days is sold pre-washed, but if you have any doubts, soak it in several changes of water to remove any grit. Drain well, reserving the light-colored heart if you like for salad (see Notes) and cut off the roots.

Boil the chicory in salted water until fully tender, about 5-10 minutes. Drain, reserving the cooking water. You can let the chicory cool if you have the time, or rinse it under cold water if you don’t. Squeeze the chicory dry and chop it roughly.

In a large braised or sauté pan, lightly brown the garlic in abundant olive oil, adding the peperoncino  or red pepper flakes if using, for a few moments at the end. Remove both garlic and peperoncino. (The pepper flakes can stay in the pan, but proceed to the next step right away to avoid them burning and becoming bitter.)

Add the chopped chicory to the seasoned oil and let it simmer for about 5 minutes so it has a chance to absorb the flavorings. Then add the canned or boiled beans, along with a ladleful (or more) of the cooking water. Mix well but gingerly to avoid breaking up the beans. Let the mixture simmer for another few minutes.

Taste and adjust for seasoning, and serve hot or warm. A drizzle of best quality olive oil doesn’t hurt.

Notes on Chicory and Beans

Chicory and Beans is a really flexible fish. While the basic recipe makes a fine contorno or side dish, the beans make it substantial enough to serve as a vegan main course. And if you serve Chicory and Beans over toasted bread, it works as a light piatto unico, or one-dish meal, with only a piece of fruit needed afterwards to round things out. Add enough cooking liquid to your Chicory and Beans, and it becomes a thick soup serve as a first course, to which you could make even more substantial by adding rice or pasta as well. Come to think of it, you could even put small amounts on crostini as an antipasto…

While cannellini or borlotti (aka cranberry) would be the most typical choices for Chicory and Beans, you can really use just about any kind of bean you like for this dish. And why not experiment with pintos or even red beans or black-eyed peas if that’s what you have on hand? And, by the way, you can always add more beans than called for here—as much as double, in fact—if you want a more substantial dish. Personally, I don’t even measure, just “eyeballing” it until I have the balance of greens and beans that appeals to me. And while purists may scoff, I actually find canned beans are quite an acceptable substitute for dried beans. Just be sure to rinse them well, to remove the funny taste of their canning liquid.  In my opinion, good quality convenience foods have their place in even the best home cooking.

And, by the way, as another way to bulk up your greens, you can add potatoes, cubed or sliced into wedges instead of potatoes.

Rather than adding them to the pot along with the tougher dark green outer leaves, I like to reserve the tender hearts of chicory for use as a salad. As I’ve written about before, their slightly bitter flavor goes especially well with the anchovy dressing that Romans use for puntarelle.

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Cicoria e fagioli (Chicory and Beans)

Total Time: 30 minutes

Yield: Serves 4-6

Ingredients

• 2 large or 3 medium heads of chicory
• 1 small can (425g/15 oz) of cannellini or borlotti beans (or equivalent boiled beans)
• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• 1 peperoncino or a pinch of dried pepper flakes (optional)
• Olive oil
• Salt

Instructions

1. Most chicory these days is sold pre-washed, but if you have any doubts, soak it in several changes of water to remove any grit. Drain well, reserving the light-colored heart if you like for salad (see Notes) and cut off the roots.
2. Boil the chicory in salted water until fully tender, about 5-10 minutes. Drain, reserving the cooking water. You can let the chicory cool if you have the time, or rinse it under cold water if you don't. Squeeze the chicory dry and chop it roughly.
3. In a large braised or sauté pan, lightly brown the garlic in abundant olive oil, adding the peperoncino or red pepper flakes if using, for a few moments at the end. Remove both garlic and peperoncino. (The pepper flakes can stay in the pan, but proceed to the next step right away to avoid them burning and becoming bitter.)
4. Add the chopped chicory to the seasoned oil and let it simmer for about 5 minutes so it has a chance to absorb the flavorings. Then add the canned or boiled beans, along with a ladleful (or more) of the cooking water. Mix well but gingerly to avoid breaking up the beans. Let the mixture simmer for another few minutes.
5. Taste and adjust for seasoning, and serve hot or warm. A drizzle of best quality olive oil doesn't hurt.

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Lent—la Quaresima in Italian—is the roughly six week period on the Catholic calendar between Ash Wednesday and Easter. Traditionally a period of self-sacrifice and fasting, in the old days the faithful were expected to abstain from eating meat and rich foods, and live on simple vegetable, fish and grain dishes. A whole range of simple meatless cookery—la cucina quaresimale—typified the season, with the individual dishes called piatti di magro, or ‘lean’ plates. Not many people observe the Lenten fast anymore, but that’s no reason to lose this unique school of cooking. These piatti di magro might be simple, even plain, but they are often quite delicious.

Baccalà lesso, or boiled salt-cured cod, is typical Lenten food. The fish is treated as simply as you can imagine: lightly simmered in plain water, then napped with a light lemon, garlic and parsley sauce that recalls the salsa verde you might serve with mixed boiled meats. In this sauce, however, the saltier elements like anchovies and capers are left out of the sauce, as the baccalà already has plenty of savor.

This recipe for baccalà lesso comes from Jeanne Caròla Francesconi’s classic cookbook, La Cucina Napoletana.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

• 1-1.25 kilos (2 to 2-3/4 lbs) salted codfish, pre-soaked (see Notes)
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely minced
• A few sprigs of parsley, finely minced
• Olive oil, q.b.
• The juice of 1 lemon
• Freshly ground black pepper (optional)

Directions

Simmer the pre-soaked salt cod in enough water to cover for 15 minutes. Francesconi calls for simmering it in plain, unsalted water, but I threw in a piece of lemon and a few parsley stems leftover from making the napping sauce (see below). As the salt cod is already salty, this is one case where you don’t need or want to salt the water.

Gently remove the cod from its poaching liquid onto a cutting board. Pat dry with paper towels and remove any bones you may find, then divide it into smallish pieces, discarding any skin, with a fork or spoon. (Francesconi admonishes you not to use a knife for this, although other recipes will tell you to cut the fish into slices.)

Arrange the pieces of cod on a serving platter. Taste a bit of the fish to see how salty it is. Now nap the fish completely with a little sauce you will have made from whisking together the minced garlic, parsley, lemon juice, pepper and—only if the fish needs it—a pinch of salt.

Serve still warm or at room temperature, with boiled or steamed potatoes as a side if you like.

Notes on Baccalà lesso

Once a common and inexpensive food, baccalà has become something of a rarity, at least here in the US. (Cod has suffered from over-fishing, so it is in short supply, which also makes this one-time poor-man’s food expensive, too.) If you do find it, baccalà is usually sold still salted and often frozen, in which case you will need to soak it before cooking. The time this will take depends on how well cured it is. Take a look: it is lightly salted if the flesh still has some spring in it, 8 hours or so should be enough. If it’s heavily salted or very firm and dry, it will need to soak overnight, up to 24 hours or more. The fish will be ready to cook when it looks and feels like fresh fish again, albeit a bit firmer to the touch. No matter how long you soak it, baccalà is still likely to be a bit salty, so as indicated in the recipe, go easy on the seasoning as you cook. A few stores, especially those specializing in Italians or Spanish food items, sell pre-soaked baccalà (bacalao in Spanish) that you can cook with right away. It’s a great convenience.

Jeanne Caròla Francesconi doesn’t specify making a sauce from the ingredients, by the way, and many recipes call for topping the baccalà with the chopped garlic and parsley, lemon juice and freshly ground pepper, one by one, then a good pour of olive oil over all—a kind of deconstructed sauce.

You can also use the boiled salt cod to make a salad: add slices of boiled potatoes to the pieces of salt cod, then mix with a dressing of olive oil and lemon juice, mixing gingerly so as not to break things up. Some recipes call for olives, red onion, celery and/or herbs to enliven the dish. You can leave out the potato for a lighter dish or substitute boiled beans.

For more ideas on meatless cookery, check out our fish and seafood and our vegetarian archives, or click on the corresponding tags in the tag cloud at the righthand side of this webpage.

Italian cuisine has a wide variety of baccalà recipes, and not just for simple Lenten fare: you may be interested in trying out the lusty baccalà alla napoletana from Naples, or the rich and creamy baccalà alla vicentina from Vincenza, or the luscious baccalà mantecato from Venice.

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Baccalà lesso (Boiled Salt Cod)

Total Time: 30 minutes

Yield: Serves 4-6

Ingredients

• 1-1.25 kilos (2 to 2-3/4 lbs) salted codfish, soaked for 24 hours (see Notes)
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely minced
• A few sprigs of parsley, finely minced
• Olive oil, q.b.
• The juice of 1 lemon
• Freshly ground black pepper (optional)

Instructions

1. Simmer the pre-soaked salt cod in enough water to cover for 15 minutes. Francesconi calls for simmering in plain, unsalted water, but I threw in a lemon rind and a few parsley stems leftover from making the sauce (see below). As the salt cod is already salty, this is one case where you don't need or want to salt the water.
2. Baccala lesso (prep)
3. Gently remove the cod from its poaching liquid onto a cutting board. Pat dry with paper towels and remove any bones you may find, then divide it into small pieces, discarding the skin if any. (Francesconi admonishes you not to use a knife for this, [although other recipes will tell you to cut the fish into slices].)
4. Arrange the cod on a serving platter. Taste a bit of the fish to see how salty it is. Now nap the fish completely with a little sauce you will have made from whisking together the minced garlic, parsley, lemon juice, pepper and—if the fish needs it—a pinch of salt.
5. Serve still warm or at room temperature, with boiled or steamed potatoes as a side if you like.

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Delicious as it may be, the dish known in most of the world as Eggs Florentine —eggs sitting on a bed of spinach braised in butter, topped with mornay sauce and shirred in a hot oven— is, in fact, not Italian but a French invention. Some say it was invented by the venerable G.A. Escoffier. (If you care to look it up, it’s Recipe No. 400 in the Guide Culinaire.) As many of you probably know, the term “Florentine” is commonly used in French cuisine to denote a dish in which spinach features.

The real Eggs Florentine, or Uova alla fiorentina, as actually eaten in Florence, is rather another thing according to Florentine  food historian and cookbook author Giuliano Bugialli. As befits Tuscan cooking, it’s rather simpler (and less creamy) than Escoffier’s dish, but very satisfying: nothing more than eggs poached or shirred on a bed of spinach sautéed in garlic and olive oil, in the in padella style we’ve featured so often before.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

• 500g (1 lb) spinach, trimmed of its stems and well washed
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, peeled and lightly crushed
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• 4-6 eggs

Directions

Prepare and sauté the spinach in garlic and olive oil in a large braising pan, following the recipe for spinaci ripassati in padella. 

After the spinach has sautéed for a minute or two, make little wells in the spinach and gingerly drop an egg into each well. Cover the cover the pan and let the eggs cook over very gentle heat until done to your liking—if you’re like me, until the whites are just cooked and the yolk still runny.

Serve immediately, with some crusty bread and some crisp white wine.

Notes on Eggs Florentine

For a more elegant alternative, as pictured in this post, you can serve your Eggs Florentine in individually baked ramekins. Oil the bottom of each ramekin, prepare a bed of sautéed spinach in each, leaving a little well in the middle of each one. Then drop one egg into the middle of each ramekin. Bake in a hot 200C/400F oven until the eggs are done to your liking.

This is a great dish for weekday evenings when you don’t have time to spare, as it only takes about 20 minutes to make.

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Uova alla fiorentina (Real Eggs Florentine)

Total Time: 20 minutes

Yield: Serves 4-6

Ingredients

• 500g (1 lb) spinach, trimmed of its stems and well washed
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, peeled and lightly crushed
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• 4-6 eggs

Instructions

1. Prepare and sauté the spinach in garlic and olive oil in a large braising pan, following the recipe for spinaci ripassati in padella.
2. After the spinach has sautéed for a minute or two, make little wells in the spinach and gingerly drop an egg into each well. Cover the cover the pan and let the eggs cook over very gentle heat until done to your liking—if you're like me, until the whites are just cooked and the yolk still runny.
3. Serve immediately, with some crusty bread and some crisp white wine.

Notes

For a more elegant alternative, as pictured in this post, you can serve your Eggs Florentine in individually baked ramekins. Oil the bottom of each ramekin, prepare a bed of sautéed spinach in each, leaving a little well in the middle of each one. Then drop one egg into the middle of each ramekin. Bake in a hot 200C/400F oven until the eggs are done to your liking.

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Here’s a dish that’s perfect for a spur of the moment meal, but is so beautiful and refined it could also serve as the starter for an elegant dinner: Vellutata di cavolfiore, or Cream of Cauliflower Soup. A vellutata—like its twin the crema, see the Notes below—can be roughly translated in English as a “Cream of X” Soup, but the cream isn’t really the main point. Rather it’s the smooth and velvety texture that defines this category of dishes. (Velluto means ‘velvet’ in Italian.)

This basic recipe is truly quick and easy. The cauliflower, along with some potato, simmers in a typical flavor base of sautéed onion or leek, topped up with water and broth. Once tender, you purée everything in a blender until perfectly smooth, and finish off the dish with a cream or egg yolk liaison. You should be done in less than 30 minutes. And once you’ve mastered this simple basic recipe, you can use the same technique to make a vellutata out of just about any vegetable.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

• 1 medium head of cauliflower, trimmed, cored and roughly chopped
• 1 russet or other baking potato, peeled and chopped into cubes
• 1 medium onion, peeled and sliced, or 1 leek, only the white part, sliced into rounds
• Olive oil and/or butter, q.b.
• Water or broth, q.b.
• 100ml (1/2 cup) heavy cream
• Salt and pepper
• 1oog (3-1/2 oz) grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

For toppings:

• Minced chives
• Minced fresh parsley
• A drizzled of olive oil
• Freshly ground pepper
• Fleur de sel

Directions

As with so many Italian dishes, begin by making a flavor base, called a soffritto in Italian, by gently sautéing the onion or leek in olive oil and butter in a large saucepan until wilted, taking care to avoid browning.

Add the potato and cauliflower pieces, turning everything over to cover them in the soffritto. Let everything simmer together, turning from time to time, for a minute or two.

Add enough water or broth to just cover the vegetables. Cover and let simmer until the vegetables are perfectly soft, about 15 minutes.

Transfer the vegetables and their cooking liquid to a blender, along with the cream (and grated cheese, if using). Let the blender run until the mixture has turned into a perfectly smooth purée.

Return the purée to the saucepan. Check for thickness. If too thick, add more liquid, which could be more water, broth or cream as you prefer. If too thin, let the purée reduce over a gentle simmer. Check and adjust for seasoning as well.

When you’re ready to serve, bring the purée just to the simmer over gentle heat. Serve with one or more of the suggested toppings and, if you like, slices of toasted bread.

Notes on Vellutata di cavolfiore

The terms vellutata and crema are often used more or less interchangeably, as they both refer to soups of puréed vegetable, but I’ve read various sources that draw a distinction: A vellutata is thickened by adding a cream or egg yolk liaison at the end, while the crema is thickened by using a roux. But others sources like this one say that it is a vellutata is the one that begins with a roux—which actually makes sense, since salsa vellutata is a way to say béchamel sauce in Italian. And, to complicate things a bit further, there’s also the passato, which refers to your basic vegetable purée, but which can be enriched with cream.  I’ll let the experts fight this one out, whatever you call this kind of soup, it’s delicious.

As mentioned, there’s a whole range of vellutate you can make in the very same way with other vegetables according to the season. I love cauliflower in the cold winter months, but pumpkin or beans are equally welcome in the Fall or Winter, asparagus in the Spring, zucchini in the Summer, etc. And you can make your vegetable purée a bit thicker to use it not as a soup on it own, but as a dressing for pasta. I like to add potato whenever I feel I need an especially smooth texture, but it’s optional; many vegetables are perfectly fine on their own. And if you want to make your soup extra rich, whisk an egg yolk into your cream before adding it at the end; bring the soup just barely to the simmer before serving.

And by the way, there no need to throw away the green part of the leeks: it can be used for broth, along with other vegetable scraps.

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Vellutata di cavolfiore (Cream of Cauliflower Soup)

Total Time: 30 minutes

Yield: Serves 4-6

Ingredients

• 1 medium head of cauliflower, trimmed, cored and roughly chopped
• 1 russet or other baking potato, peeled and chopped into cubes
• 1 medium onion, peeled and sliced, or 1 leek, only the white part, sliced into rounds
• Olive oil
• Butter
• Water or broth, q.b.
• 100ml (1/2 cup) heavy cream
• Salt and pepper
• 1oog (3-1/2 oz) grated Parmesan cheese (optional)
For toppings:
• Minced chives
• Minced fresh parsley
• A drizzle of olive oil
• Freshly ground pepper
• Fleur de sel

Instructions

1. As with so many Italian dishes, begin by making a flavor base, called a soffritto in Italian, by gently sautéing the onion or leek in olive oil and butter in a large saucepan until wilted, taking care to avoid browning.
2. Add the potato and cauliflower pieces, turning everything over to cover them in the soffritto. Let everything simmer together, turning from time to time, for a minute or two.
3. Add enough water or broth to just cover the vegetables. Cover and let simmer until the vegetables are perfectly soft, about 15 minutes.
4. Transfer the vegetables and their cooking liquid to a blender, along with the cream (and grated cheese, if using). Let the blender run until the mixture has turned into a perfectly smooth purée.
5. Return the purée to the saucepan. Check for thickness. If too thick, add more liquid, which could be more water, broth or cream as you prefer. If too thin, let the purée reduce over a gentle simmer. Check and adjust for seasoning as well.
6. When you're ready to serve, bring the purée just to the simmer over gentle heat. Serve with one or more of the suggested toppings and, if you like, slices of toasted bread.

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When they think of anchovies, most people, at least here in the US, think of salt-cured anchovy fillets packed in oil. If you’re a bit more au fait with Italian cookery, you may even know about anchovies sotto sale, or packed in salt. You may also know cured anchovies are a fantastic way to add some intense umami to your cooking, whether or not you’re cooking seafood. But did you know that fresh anchovies are a thing in Italian cooking, and that they make for some excellent eating? They can be hard to find (see Notes below), but fresh anchovies are well worth seeking out.

In this Neapolitan recipe, fresh anchovies are cleaned and simply battered by dipping them in flour and then in egg, and then quickly fried in olive oil until golden brown on each side. It’s a method very much like the one for making Angelina’s fried vegetables, but being a fish dish, without the grated cheese often added to the egg.

The only slightly tricky part of this simple dish is cleaning the anchovies, so we’ve given you step-by-step illustrations to show you the way. It can be a bit awkward at first, as whole anchovies are small and slippery, but with a little practice, you’ll be churning them out in no time.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

• 1 kilo (2 lbs) fresh anchovies
• White flour, q.b.
• 4-6 eggs, beaten and seasoned with salt and pepper
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• Lemon wedges or slices

Directions

If you’re fresh anchovies are frozen, let them thaw out completely. This can be done fairly quickly by immersing them in tepid water. Drain them entirely.

Now take an anchovy and slit it horizontally down the belly like so:

Cut of the head, then with your fingers, gently open the two sides of the fish up to expose little ‘vein’ (actually the viscera) and backbone, like so:

Scrap out the vein, then with the help of your paring knife, very gingerly detach the backbone from the fish, slipping the knife under the bone to detach it, then using it to hold down the fillets while you lift the bone away from the fillets with your fingers, taking care to avoid separating the two fillets from each other. (If they do separate, it’s no real problem, but it will be a bit less pretty.)

Stop when you get to the tail. Cut the backbone off just below the tail, keeping the tail attached to the two fillets. You should wind up with a fillet that looks something like this:

You can rinse the fillet off so it’s perfectly clean if you like, then pat them dry. Keep going until you’ve cleaned all your fillets.

Lay out the flour and seasoned egg in separate bowls and pour enough oil in a skillet to come up about 2cm (3/4 inch) or so up the sides. Heat the oil until it’s quite hot but not yet smoking.

Now, using the tail as a ‘handle’, dredge each anchovy in the flour and then in the egg, then place it gently in the hot oil. Repeat with more fillets until the skillet is full, but not crowded, with fresh anchovies. Fry on both sides until nice and golden brown, adjusting the flame if you need to to maintain the oil at a hot but not smoking hot temperature. The oil should bubble vigorously around the edges of the fresh anchovies like so:

Once golden brown, remove the anchovies to a platter lined with paper towels or, even better, a baking rack, to dry off a bit.

Just as soon as you’ve fried all your anchovies, arrange them on a serving platter, season them generously with salt, and serve them right away with lemon wedges or slices on the side.

Notes on Fresh Anchovies

The cleaning may be a bit fussy, but the real challenge to making this dish is finding the fresh anchovies, at least here in the US. While I’ve read some people have spotted them occasionally at better supermarkets, they are a rarity. After being on the lookout for them (together with fresh sardines, which are similarly elusive) for years, I finally stumbled across a box of frozen anchovies imported from Spain in a local deli specializing in Spanish products. (Marinated fresh anchovies are a popular kind of tapa called boquerones.) You may have similar luck in delis or fish stores in Italian neighborhoods. If you’re lucky enough to have an independent fish market close by, they may be able to special order them for you. And there are fish store in New York and San Francisco that carry them. I’ve found a number of online sources in the UK like this one, but none that serve the US.  Perhaps some of our readers will have more luck…

Ideally, you should eat these fried fresh anchovies while they’re still nice and hot. As the Neapolitans say frijenno magnanno—”fry and eat!” But if you really must make these ahead, they can be re-heated in in a moderate oven (180C/350F) for 15 minutes or so. Don’t salt them, however, until just before you’re ready to eat, or they’ll get soggy.

Very small anchovies can be fried whole, which obviously makes the whole dish much easier. In this case, the anchovies are more typically dredged in flour only seasoned with salt before frying, in the manner of a fritto misto di mare. And, indeed, fried whole anchovies can very easily be part of a fritto misto. Besides frying, fresh anchovies can be made a number of different ways. To my mind, they are particularly lovely lightly poached and dressed with the same lemon and parsley sauce you would use on baccalà. Let the whole anchovies simmer gently for about 2-3 minutes, then drain well. Let them cool off a bit and, as soon as they are cool enough to hand, filleted them with your hands. Be careful, since once boiled fresh anchovies are liable to break apart quite easily.

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Alici dorate e fritte (Batter-Fried Fresh Anchovies)

30 minutes

15 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Yield: Serves 4-6

Ingredients

• 1 kilo (2 lbs) fresh anchovies
• White flour, q.b.
• 4-6 eggs, beaten and seasoned with salt and pepper
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• Lemon wedges or slices

Instructions

1. If you're fresh anchovies are frozen, let them thaw out completely. This can be done fairly quickly by immersing them in tepid water. Drain them entirely.
2. Now take an anchovy and slit it horizontally down the belly. Cut off the head, then with your fingers, gently open the two sides of the fish up to expose little 'vein' (actually the viscera) and backbone.
3. Scrape out the vein, then with the help of your paring knife, very gingerly detach the backbone from the fish, slipping the knife under the bone to detach it, then using it to hold down the fillets while you lift the bone away from the fillets with your fingers, taking care to avoid separating the two fillets from each other. (If they do separate, it's no real problem, but it will be a bit less pretty.) Stop when you get to the tail. Cut the backbone off just below the tail, keeping the tail attached to the two fillets.
4. You can rinse the fillet off so it's perfectly clean if you like. Keep going until you've cleaned all your fillets.
5. Lay out the flour and seasoned egg in separate bowls and pour enough oil in a skillet to come up about 2cm (3/4 inch) up the sides. Heat the oil until it's quite hot but not yet smoking.
6. Now, using the tail as a 'handle', dredge each anchovy in the flour, then in the egg, then place it gently in the hot oil. Repeat with more fillets until the skillet is full, but not crowded, with fresh anchovies. Fry on both sides until nice and golden brown, adjusting the flame if you need to to maintain the oil at a hot but not smoking hot temperature. The oil should bubble vigorously around the edges of the fresh anchovies.
7. Once golden brown, remove the anchovies to a platter lined with paper towels or, even better, a baking rack, to dry off a bit.
8. Just as soon as you've fried all your anchovies, arrange them on a serving platter, season generously with salt, and serve them right away with lemon wedges on the side.

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Ravioli nudi, or “nude ravioli”, also known as gnudi, malfatti, gnocchi verdi, or the more literal gnocchi di ricotta e spinaci—are dumplings made with the usual spinach and ricotta filling for regular ravioli without their usual pasta “clothing”. Often thought of as a speciality of Tuscany—they are also sometimes called strozzapreti toscani—they are traditional in Lombardy as well, and popular all over Italy.

Ravioli nudi are really quite easy to make, with two little complications you’ll need to navigate: First, then spinach and ricotta mixture is quite sticky, so it can be a bit tricky to work with. Here, a liberal coating of flour on your work surface and your hands will help. And second, the delicate mixture is apt to fall apart if you’re not careful to bind it well. Eggs usually do the job and, although not all recipes call for it, I add a bit of flour, too. But don’t overdo the flour or your dumplings will lose their characteristic lightness. In this connection, make sure that both main ingredients, ricotta and greens, are well drained of excess liquid before they go into the mixing bowl; that’ll avoid the need for too much flour. It’s also a good idea to cook one test dumpling to see if the mixture holds together—if not, add a bit more.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

• 1 kilo (2 lbs) spinach or Swiss chard
• 1 or 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and lightly crushed
• Olive oil
• 1 kilo (2 lbs) ricotta cheese, well drained if needed
• 100g (3-1/2 oz) grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 eggs
• A heaping spoonful of flour, or more if needed
• A pinch of nutmeg
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

Trim the stems off the spinach or Swiss chard and rinse the leaves well to remove any grit. Drop the leaves in boiling, salted water and remove just as soon as they have wilted, usually by the time the water comes back to the boil. Drain the leaves well, rinse off with cold water and squeeze them dry with your hands. Chop the leaves finely.

In sauté pan or skillet, gently sauté the garlic cloves in olive oil. When the cloves are lightly browned, remove them and add the chopped greens and let them simmer together, just for a few minutes so the greens absorb the flavor of seasoned oil, seasoning with salt and pepper as you go. Transfer the sautéed greens to a mixing bowl and let them cool.

Add the ricotta, grated Parmesan cheese, eggs and nutmeg to the bowl and mix everything together quite well. Add a heaping spoonful of flour and mix again. Taste for seasoning and, if it needs it, add a bit more salt. The mixture should be quite moist but hold together. If not, you can add another spoonful or two of flour.

Take a heaping spoonful of the mixture and, with well-floured hands, form it into a dumpling, which can be perfectly round, a bit flattened or in lozenges, as you prefer. Roll the dumpling in flour to cover and set it out on a well-floured baking sheet. Repeat until you’ve used up the mixture.

Poach your ravioli nudi in simmering salted water, draining them well with a skimmer when they come to the surface of the water. (The water should not be at a full boil, or they may well break apart.)

Serve your ravioli nudi right away, with the sauce of your choice (see Notes).

Notes on Ravioli nudi

Ravioli nudi are quite tasty, and a simple dressing of melted butter, perhaps scented with sage, complements their flavor very well. You melt the butter in a small skillet and add a few fresh sage leaves to sauté very gently for a few moments, then turn off the heat and let the sage steep in the butter until you’re ready to serve. But a basic tomato sauce, as pictured here, makes an equally delicious combination. In either case, a topping of grated Parmesan is never amiss. I’ve also seen recipes for ravioli nudi covered in béchamel and gratinéed in the oven, which I’m sure is quite good, if a bit on the heavy side.

Ravioli nudi are invariably made with spinach or Swiss chard, ricotta, Parmesan cheese and eggs, and sometimes flour, but the measurements tend to vary wildly from recipe to recipe. The ratio of greens to ricotta is typically a bit more than the 1:1 ratio given here for the sake of simplicity; I’ve seen recipes that call for as high a ratio as 2:1. The amount of Parmesan can be as much as double or as little as half the 100 grams given here. The number of eggs varies, too, with recipes calling for as few as just one to as many as five for this quantity of greens and ricotta. As for the flour, I like to add just a few spoonfuls, but I’ve seen recipes that call for as much as 100 grams for this quantity of dumplings. It’s all a matter of taste, so feel free to experiment!

In some recipes, the garlic is replaced by some chopped onion, which is sautéed in the olive oil until translucent and soft. Other recipes omit this step altogether, and have you add the chopped greens directly to the bowl. Personally, I think that the soffritto add a pleasant extra layer of flavor.

Commercially made ricotta cheese can be quite runny or quite dry, depending on the brand. For this recipe, you want your ricotta to be quite dry, or you’ll need far too much flour to make a workable mixture. As mentioned above, it’s a good idea to drain the ricotta in a colander if you notice any excess liquid in the container. (Actually, this would be a fine recipe for using homemade “ricotta”—really a ricotta-like fresh cheese—something we will feature in a future post.)

I’ve read that you can form the ravioli nudi ahead of time and freeze them until you’re ready to cook them. I’ve not tried it, however, and, frankly, they’re quick enough to make that I’m not sure it’s really worth it. The mixture can, of course, be made a bit ahead and refrigerated until you’re ready to form the dumplings and cook them. A stay in the fridge might actually make them easier to handle. You can also form the dumplings a bit ahead as well, although they do tend to stick to any surface they’re on, so be sure to flour it very well. Finally, per Arthur Schwartz, you can also cook your ravioli nudi ahead and warm them in a moderate oven (180C/350F) drizzled with melted butter for 10-15 minutes.

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Ravioli nudi (Florentine Spinach and Ricotta Dumplings)

Total Time: 45 minutes

Yield: Serves 4-6

Ingredients

• 1 kilo (2 lbs) spinach or Swiss chard
• 1 or 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and lightly crushed
• Olive oil
• 1 kilo (2 lbs) ricotta cheese, well drained if needed
• 100g (3-1/2 oz) grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 eggs
• A heaping spoonful of flour, or more if needed
• A pinch of nutmeg
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. Trim the stems off the spinach or Swiss chard and rinse the leaves well to remove any grit. Drop the leaves in boiling, salted water and remove just as soon as they have wilted, usually by the time the water comes back to the boil. Drain the leaves well, rinse off with cold water and squeeze them dry with your hands. Chop the leaves finely.
2. In sauté pan or skillet, gently sauté the garlic cloves in olive oil. When the cloves are lightly browned, remove them and add the chopped greens and let them simmer together, just for a few minutes so the greens absorb the flavor of seasoned oil, seasoning with salt and pepper as you go. Transfer the sautéed greens to a mixing bowl and let them cool.
3. Add the ricotta, grated Parmesan cheese, eggs and nutmeg to the bowl and mix everything together quite well. Add a heaping spoonful of flour and mix again. Taste for seasoning and, if it needs it, add a bit more salt. The mixture should be quite moist but hold together. If not, you can add another spoonful or two of flour.
4. Take a heaping spoonful of the mixture and, with well-floured hands, form it into a dumpling, which can be perfectly round, a bit flattened or in lozenges, as you prefer. Roll the dumpling in flour to cover and set it out on a well-floured baking sheet. Repeat until you've used up the mixture.
5. Poach your ravioli nudi in simmering salted water, draining them well with a skimmer when they come to the surface of the water. (The water should not be at a full boil, or they may well break apart.)
6. Serve your ravioli nudi right away, with the sauce of your choice (see Notes).

Notes

Ravioli nudi are quite tasty, and a simple dressing of melted butter, perhaps scented with sage, complements their flavor very well. You melt the butter in a small skillet and add a few fresh sage leaves to sauté very gently for a few moments, then turn off the heat and let the sage steep in the butter until you're ready to serve. But a basic tomato sauce, as pictured here, makes an equally delicious combination. In either case, a topping of grated Parmesan is never amiss. I've also seen recipes for ravioli nudi covered in béchamel and gratinéed in the oven, which I'm sure is quite good, if a bit on the heavy side.

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I love second courses that combine meat and vegetable in a single dish. Not only is the combination invariably delicious, but it saves the cook from making an extra dish. In this speciality from Puglia and Campania, often served at Eastertide, lamb—the ne plus ultra of spring meats—joins peas—one of the classic spring vegetables.

The lamb is browned then braised in a soffritto of onion sautéed in olive oil until almost tender, then peas are added to the braise until they, too, are tender. The result would be tasty on its own, but most recipes have you finish the dish cacio e uova style: eggs that have been beaten together with freshly grated Pecorino cheese are mixed together with the meat and peas until the heat of the pan sets the egg mixture just enough to produce a creamy sauce. The resulting dish is substantial but infused with lively flavors.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

• 1.5 kilos (3 lbs) lamb (see Notes), cut into chunks
• 1 medium onion, thinly sliced
• 750g (1-1/2 lbs) peas, fresh or frozen
• White wine
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper

To finish the dish:

• 2-3 eggs
• 25g (1 oz) freshly grated Pecorino romano cheese
• A few sprigs of fresh parsley, minced (optional)

Directions

In a braiser or sauté pan large enough to hold all the lamb, sauté the sliced onion in a olive oil over a gentle flame until tender and translucent. Raise the heat a bit and add the lamb pieces, turning them so they brown on all sides, taking care so the onion doesn’t burn. Season with salt and pepper as you go.

Add a splash of white wine, give the pan a stir, and let the wine cook off. Add a ladleful of water, stir again, and cover tightly. Turn the heat way down, so that the lamb braises gently. Let it cook this way until the meat is perfectly tender, usually about 45 minutes. The liquid should have reduced considerably but not completely evaporated; check on the meat from time to time; add more water if needed to keep things moist.

If using fresh peas: Shell the peas and add them about halfway through the braise, so they will be perfectly tender when the meat is. (Many Italian recipes call for adding the lamb at the beginning of the braise, right after browning the meat, but unless your lamb is very young (see Notes below) that’s like to result in mushy peas.)

If using frozen peas: Add them when the meat is almost tender, along with another ladleful of water if needed, and let them braise with the meat for the last 5-10 minutes, until they, too, are tender and have lost a bit of their bright green color.

To finish the dish, beat the eggs and grated cheese together (and if you like, a bit of minced parsley) in a bowl. Take the pan off the flame entirely, and pour over the egg and cheese mixture, and mix it well but gingerly with the lamb and peas, turning until the eggs have set enough to form a creamy sauce. Serve immediately.

Notes on Lamb and Peas

In Rome, where I lived during my years in Italy, most of the lamb you would find was extremely young, called abbacchio. This kind of lamb is not more than four weeks old and weighs no more than 5 kilos.  The whole animal would be cut up into parts that included both muscle and bone, a bit like a chicken. Perhaps this is why many Italian recipes will just call for “lamb” (agnello or abbacchio) without specifying the cut, with the notable exceptions of dishes like scottadito or costelette fritte, which are made specifically with rib chops from somewhat older animals. Here in the US,  things are generally quite different. Most lamb is older, typically from 6-8 months and up to a year old. The average lamb sold here weighs over 100 lbs., so lamb is sold in discrete cuts, more like beef than chicken. In your typical supermarket, your choices will usually be the leg or various chops, from the rib, loin or shoulder. Occasionally, you will also find ground lamb and lamb “stew meat”. For this dish—and most braised lamb dishes—I like to use shoulder chops cut into pieces. Shoulder chops have a nice balance of meat, bone for sweetness and fat for juiciness, and they’re easy to find. Stew meat will also work. It usually has ample fat and sometimes, if you’re lucky, will have some bone in as well.

Lamb and Peas can also be served without the cacio e uova treatment at the end, of course, and it’s just as good, in my opinion. I’ve seen recipes calling for braising the lamb and peas in the oven, then pouring the cacio e uova mixture over the top without mixing, then letting the dish bake, uncovered, until the mixture has formed a light crust.

Some recipes for Lamb and Peas add rosemary and/or garlic to the soffritto. Although rosemary is, of course, a classic seasoning for lamb, I actually don’t care for the idea of it in this dish. I think its strong flavor would clash with the delicacy of the peas and eggs—but who knows? I may be wrong. Try it and let us know how it goes.

As mentioned, Lamb and Peas is a speciality of both Puglia and Campania, and often makes an appearance on the Easter dinner table. (And this article claims the dish for  Molise.) Jeanne Caròla Francesconi makes the dish with capretto (kid, or young goat) rather than lamb, sautés her soffritto in lard or butter rather than olive oil, uses Parmesan rather than Pecorino, and adds a squeeze of lemon juice to the finished dish right before serving. This last touch reminds me of a Roman lamb dish popular at Easter, agnello brodettato, lamb with egg and lemon sauce. The recipe also admits cubes of potatoes along with the peas, at least for the non-purists. And you could also add wedges of artichokes to the dish, reminiscent of the classic side dish.

If you’d like to make this dish ahead, prepare it without the final egg and cheese finish. When you’re ready to eat, reheat the dish and then give it its cacio e uova treatment right before serving.

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Agnello e piselli (Lamb and Peas)

Total Time: 1 hour

Yield: Serves 4-6

Ingredients

• 1.5 kilos (3 lbs) lamb (see Notes), cut into chunks
• 1 medium onion, thinly sliced
• 750g (1-1/2 lbs) peas, fresh or frozen
• White wine
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• To finish the dish:
• 2-3 eggs
• 25g (1 oz) freshly grated Pecorino romano cheese
• A few sprigs of fresh parsley, minced

Instructions

1. In a braiser or sauté pan large enough to hold all the lamb, sauté the sliced onion in a olive oil over a gentle flame until tender and translucent. Raise the heat a bit and add the lamb pieces, turning them so they brown on all sides, taking care so the onion doesn't burn. Season with salt and pepper as you go.
2. Add a splash of white wine, give the pan a stir, and let the wine cook off. Add a ladleful of water, stir again, and cover tightly. Turn the heat way down, so that the lamb braises gently. Let it cook this way until the meat is perfectly tender, usually about 45 minutes. The liquid should have reduced considerably but not completely evaporated; check on the meat from time to time; add more water if needed to keep things moist.
3. If using fresh peas: Shell the peas and add them about halfway through the braise, so they, too, will be perfectly tender when the meat is. (Many recipes call for adding the lamb at the beginning of the braise, right after browning the meat, but to me that means mushy peas.)
4. If using frozen peas: Add them when the meat is almost tender, along with another ladleful of water if needed, and let them braise with the meat for the last 5-10 minutes, until they, too, are tender and have lost a bit of their bright green color.
5. To finish the dish, beat the eggs and grated cheese together (and if you like, a bit of minced parsley) in a bowl. Take the pan off the flame entirely, and pour over the egg and cheese mixture, and mix it well but gingerly with the lamb and peas, turning until the eggs have set enough to form a creamy sauce. Serve immediately.

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Asparagus with Lemon and Olive oil, or asparagi all’agro, is one of those dishes that is so simple you might argue it hardly needs a recipe. But simple doesn’t necessarily mean easy or obvious. In fact, simple dishes can be quite tricky to pull off. The very simplicity leaves you with nowhere to hide, so to speak—use a lesser quality ingredient or faulty technique and you can wind up with a mediocre dish.

But no need to be daunted. This dish doesn’t require you to be a master chef, you just need to pay attention to detail if you want to enjoy it at its best. The all’agro technique is one that, for me, typifies the simple elegance of Italian cooking at its best. The asparagus are cooked until just tender—not “crisp-tender” in the Asian manner but fully tender, with some bite. They are then dressed with an emulsion of lemon juice and olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper and, if you like, some fresh herbs.

You can serve your Asparagus with Lemon and Olive oil as a side dish or a light antipasto.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

• 2 bunches of asparagus
• Salt
• Lemon wedges or slices

For the sauce:

• 100ml (1/2 cup) best quality olive oil
• Freshly squeezed juice of one medium lemon
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• Fresh herbs (optional—see Notes)

Directions

Trim off the whitish, woody ends of the asparagus, if they haven’t already been trimmed by your market. If using the thicker variety of asparagus (see Notes), peel each spear starting from just below the tips all the way down the spear. Tie all the asparagus spears together into a bunch with some butcher’s string. (I often just use the ties that the asparagus was sold with, as soon in the photo below.)

Take your asparagus cooker (see Notes) and pour in enough water to come up about 5cm/2 inches up the sides. Add a generous pinch of salt. Turn on the heat and when the water comes to a boil, place the asparagus in the cooker basket, tips upward, and insert the basket into the cooker. (Take care not to scald your fingers!) Replace the cover.

Steam the asparagus for about 5 minutes or so, until just tender. Remove the basket from the cooker, and let the asparagus cool and drain on a counter.

When the asparagus have cooled off but are still a bit warm, remove them from the basket, untie them and arrange them on a serving plate, in layers if necessary, spooning the sauce over them, making sure that all the layers gets a bit of sauce, all up and down the spears.

Serve with additional lemon wedges on the side for those who like their asparagus tangier and, if you like, sprinkle over some fleur de sel.

Notes on Asparagus with Lemon and Olive Oil

I usually just boil asparagus loose in a saucepan or open skillet, but for this dish a special purpose asparagus cooker, as shown in the photos above, is really useful. It allows the thicker bottom ends of the spears to boil fully immersed in water, while the middles and tender tips gently steam, giving you a more evenly vegetable. And since most the spear is steamed, not boiled, there is less risk of it becoming water-logged. The asparagus will better absorb the sauce. But if you don’t have a special purpose asparagus cooker, no worries. Just boil your asparagus in well salted water, then make sure to drain them very well.

Here in US, green asparagus comes two ways: the thinner ‘pencil’ asparagus and the rather thicker ‘regular’ asparagus. For many dishes, especially for frittata, I like the thinner variety rather better. It also has the great advantage that thin asparagus generally doesn’t need peeling. But for this dish, I prefer the meatier regular asparagus. White asparagus, invariably thick, is harder to find and pricey when you do, but if you do come across them, this is fine way to enjoy them.

I love the simplicity of a plain lemon and olive oil sauce, with just salt and pepper for seasoning, but you will find recipes that call for adding finely fresh herbs like parsley or basil. And for savor, you might also add just a bit of finely minced garlic. And you will find all’agro recipes that call for white wine vinegar in lieu of lemon juice, but personally I much prefer lemon’s sprightly zing. Technique can vary, too. Rather than making an emulsion, you can dress your asparagus in the usual manner of Italian salads, adding lemon juice and oil separately, then seasoning.

Other vegetables can be served all’agro. Way back in the early days of Memorie di Angelina, we showed you how to prepare green beans all’agro; spinach and Swiss chard are also classic choices, but really most vegetables can be enjoyed this way.

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Asparagi all’agro (Asparagus with Lemon and Olive Oil)

Total Time: 30 minutes

Yield: Serves 4-6

Ingredients

• 2 bunches of asparagus
• Salt
• Lemon wedges or slices
For the sauce:
• 100ml (1/2 cup) best quality olive oil
• Freshly squeezed juice of one medium lemon
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• Fresh herbs

Instructions

1. Trim off the whitish, woody ends of the asparagus, if they haven't already been trimmed by your market. Peel each asparagus starting from just below the tips all the way down the spear. Tie all the asparagus spears together into a bunch with some butcher's string. (I often just use the ties that the asparagus was sold with.)
2. Take your asparagus cooker (see Notes) and pour in enough water to come up about 5cm/2 inches up the sides. Add a generous pinch of salt. Turn on the heat and when the water comes to a boil, place the asparagus in the cooker basket, tips upward, and insert the basket into the cooker. (Take care not to scald your fingers!) Replace the cover.
3. Steam the asparagus for about 5 minutes or so, until just tender. Remove the basket from the cooker, and let the asparagus cool and drain on a counter.
4. When the asparagus have cooled off but are still a bit warm, remove them from the basket, untie them and arrange them on a serving plate, in layers if necessary, spooning the sauce over them, making sure that all the layers gets a bit of sauce, all up and down the spears.
5. Serve with additional lemon wedges on the side for those who like their asparagus tangier and, if you like, sprinkle over some fleur de sel.

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