Frittedda

A wonderful Sicilian dish where is crucial the freshness of the ingredients, that should be all first produce, is crucial It's a recipe for the spring, to cook in the month of March and, in the north, until the month of April.
All ingredients should be fresh and just as soon sprung up from the ground.

Ingredients: 2 fresh onions or the corresponding weight of onions weds, 6 new and tender artichokes, 800gr fresh medium peas, 800gr of fava beans, ½ cup of olive oil, salt and pepper. Wild fennel or mint, minced.

Shell the peas and fava beans and if you want to do a good job, remove from favas even their outer skin. This may takes some time but also creates an occasion to get help from friends in the kitchen .

In ancient times, the particular envelope that surrounds fava bean has fueled legends related to myths of death and rebirth. Pythagoras himself, because of a myth telling that inside fava beans there were souls of the dead, decided to abstain from eating.

Clean artichokes removing the woody parts and any outer leaves that are tough, slice them into rather small wedges, remove the central hay (that should not be there if the artichokes are just young and fresh), and put them on hold in water acidulated with lemon juice.

Thinly slice onions and let them dry in a pan with the oil. Add to the pan artichokes, well dried, and brown for 10 minutes. Then add fava beans and finally, after few minutes peas. Cook very slowly, shaking the pan occasionally until vegetables are cooked and only finally season with salt and pepper.
Finish with chopped Ffennel or Mint as I prefer.
The Frittedda might be over here and that's how I prefer it.
But as I mentioned in the recipe described in my book La Storia nel Piatto, somebody completes it fading with ½ cup of not too strong vinegar and evaporates it quickly over high heat.

Note
However, never add water and possibly limit the risk of drying too much vegetable, keeping the pan partially covered.

Merveilles, Carnival fritters

Everywhere fritters are the Carnival sweets.
In the south of France, in Aquitaine they are called Merveilles and are quite similar to what we call Chiacchiere in Italy .

It’s a simple recipe, but there are several variants with different yeasts, different liquor and more or less sugar.

Ingredients: 1/2kg flour, 100gr sugar, ½ small bag of yeast, 10gr butter, 4 eggs, orange scent water, a pinch of salt, oil for frying, powdered sugar.

In a bowl, mix flour with sugar, orange water, yeast and a pinch of salt. Add eggs and then the melted butter.
Mix very well to obtain a homogeneous mixture.
Knead until it detaches from your hands, adding a little flour if needed and then put it to rest for 1 or 2 hours in a cool place, covered with a sheet.
To make fritters, heat the oil for frying and lightly flour the work surface.
Take a small amount of dough at a time (a little more than a walnut) and roll it out very thinly with a rolling pin. Cut portions of various shapes, square, rectangular or even sticks and put them immediately to fry. It's traditionalyou to make lozenges engraved in the middle.
The frying time is fast cause the Merveilles must have a light golden color. To make they swell well, it is necessary a very thin dough and an oil temperature hot but not smoking, because this would affect the result.

image from the blog 123Merveilles

As you remove them from the oil, drain immediately the Merveilles on a sheet of absorbent paper.
Garnish with powdered sugar and serve warm or cold.

Chicken Tajine with vegetables and plums

A tajine is a unique type of ceramic cookware that's popular in North Africa.
The bottom is a wide, circular shallow dish used for both cooking and serving, while the top of the tagine is distinctively shaped into a rounded dome or cone.

The word tajine also refers to the succulent dish which is slow-cooked inside the cooking vessel.
A tajine is a rich stew of meat tipical of Morocco and most often includes vegetables and fruit.

How works a TAJINE

This pan allows slow cooking times, where meat are juicy and very tender.

Ingredients: 1 whole chicken of 1200gr cut into pieces, 200gr dried plums, 1 medium onions, 1 clove of garlic, 2 carots, celery, 2 big potatoes and eventually other vegetables, some slice of preserved lemon (Citron Confit), 2 teaspoons of mixed spices (ginger, curcuma, saffron threads, cumin and cilantro seeds crumbled), salt and pepper, a little olive oil.

Arrange the chicken pieces in the tagine (flesh-side down).
Distribute onions and garlic, very finely chopped, all around and also all other vegetables cut into medium sized pieces. Add preserved lemon slices and spices. Salt and pepper.

Add a small amount of water and place over a medium-low heat eventually on a diffuser and always covered. Simmer slowly always covered for at least 2 hour.
If necessary add again a little water to mantain the meat wet. In the meantime, put dried plums in water and add them to the stew only when the cicken is near cooked.

Stir gently not to mash plums and vegetables and let on the fire other 20 minutes.
If you like, add also sliced almonds, first stir fried with a little oil.

Serve with white boiled rice or Couscous.

Kolhrabi and Topinambur Gratin

Ingredients for 4 people: 2 kohlrabi, the same weight of Jerusalem artichokes, 1 cup fresh cream, 1/2 cup dry white wine, 1 tsp  mustard of Dijon, diced bacon, salt and pepper.

Peel the vegetables and cut into slices.
In a large pan, mix wine and fresh cream. Cook for 5 minutes and season with salt, pepper and Dijon mustard. Then add kohlrabi and Jerusalem artichoke sliced.
Cook again for 5 minutes. Add a part of bacon.
Transfer everything in a well-greased casserole and bake in a moderate oven for about 20 minutes, until hot and golden.
Before serving, if you like, garnish with diced grilled bacon.

Roast Chicken with Tarragon and Citron Confit

If well cooked, this chicken is delicious and the sauce has a delicate lemon scent.

Ingredients: A small chicken or a cockerel, 2 thick slices of fresh bacon, Citron confit, Tarragon, Olive oil, Salt and Pepper

Take a baking pan with high walls and with a lid.
The ideal is a Pyrex baking dish.
Ungetene the bottom and appoggiateci chicken.
Guarnsh the breast with 2 slices of fresh pork bacon that with some toothpicks.


Put inside the chicken at least 4 slices of citron confit (a total of at least ½ lemon) and add a generous teaspoon of dried tarragon.
Pour over the chicken a few tablespoons of olive oil
Add salt and pepper. Cover the pan and place it in the oven at 180° C for 1 hour and a half and after continue cooking until at a temperature of about 160°C until tender.
Check the cooking. The sauce must be clear, abundant and without burning.

Citron Confit (Preserved Lemon moroccan style)

This preparation comes from Morocco where it is traditional .
Usually lemons are left whole and are engraved at the petiole practicing a cross cut quite deep. Sometimes, in some more traditional recipes to lemon are also added pink berries of pepper.

These lemons are preserved in large jars with salt and water and are used in many recipes .

European chefs discovered them a few years ago and since then the citron confit have become part of the ingredients of many fine dishes, both sweet and savory.

In my recipe I suggest you cut lemons into slices because in this way you will be able to store them in less space and also to use them more easily.


Ingredients : Lemons untreated, salt

Wash lemons and cut each of them into 8 wedges or slices.
Arrange the lemon slices in layers in a glass jar, cover each layer with salt pressing it well.
At this point you can also add juniper and peppercorns, if desired.
Close the jar.
Wait at least 3 weeks before you start to use

Mastroberardino: a family and its wine

The Mastroberardino family for over two centuries deals with wine.
The first evidence of the presence in Irpinia date back to the Land Registry Bourbon, in the middle of the eighteenth century, a time when the family chose the village in the province of Avellino Atripalda their headquarters, where they are still located on the old cellars, and there originated in offspring that their fate inextricably tied to the cult of the wine. Since then I have spent 10 generations that have carried on the business of the family of origin ups and downs: the phylloxera, the first and the second world war that depopulated the countryside and the earthquake that struck so disastrously in the 70 territory.

"We defended our traditions and our tastes gaining recognition worldwide. Pliny spoke of Fiano and Falanghina in these areas, we fought to preserve the history" was use to tell to those who visited the winery Antonio Mastroberardino, the guru of wines from Campania, who died last January aged 86. It 'about her though many winemakers have retained the Irpinia Aglianico vines, Taurasi, Fiano and against any Greek fashion, against any approval of taste would say almost ahead of its time, at a time when the Ministry of agriculture pushed to replace old varieties with more productive, Trebbiano and Cabernet.