Tortino di alici e scarola

I had this appetiser or ‘primi piatti’ in restaurant Dappertutto in Amsterdam. I am pretty sure the cook said it was made with spinach and not endive. I almost immediately vowed to try this at home. According to the internet endive is normally used. I made these tortinos without the ingredients I marked ‘optional’. It tasted great without, although the official recipe has parsley, capers, raisins, tomato sauce and two kinds of cheese.

Layer 1: anchovy

You need fresh anchovies. Clean the fish by breaking off the heads, clean the inside and take out the backbone. You can use your thumb for this. Set aside the cleaned fish.

Layer 2: endive

To prepare the vegetable layer sauté the finely cut endive in olive oil with minced garlic. Add pepper and salt, raisins and the pine nuts. Set aside.

Layer 3: breadcrumbs

To prepare the breadcrumb layer mix the breadcrumbs with the cheese, capers, parsley, pepper and salt and a sprinkle of good olive oil.

To assemble the pie you can use a pie shape. I just had terracotta baking dishes, and this worked out perfectly. Start with an optional layer of tomato sauce, then add a layer of breadcrumbs, a layer of endive and a layer of anchovies. Repeat and finish off with a layer of breadcrumbs.

Put in a preheated oven for 15 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius. Below amount is for two servings.

• 300 grams of fresh anchovies.

• 60 grams of stale bread crumbs.

• extra virgin olive oil.

• salt and pepper.

• garlic

• 10 grams of grated pecorino cheese.

• 10 grams of grated Parmesan cheese or 20 grams of either cheese.

• chopped parsley (optional).

• 70 grams of tomato sauce (optional).

• a head of endive, finely cut.

• 10 grams pine nuts.

• raisins (optional)

• capers in salt (optional).

Zuppa di soffritto napoletana

My Italian neighbour invites me for dinner now and then. Once a year he receives a cooled box of zuppa di soffritto napoletana through his network of Italian friends who import Italian foodstuff to The Netherlands. It’s basically smuggled in a cooled truck along with the regular export and import products. Because of the ingredients this dish is even rare in Napoli nowadays. Every year he shares the soffritto with me. This year, the shipment didn’t get through for unknown reasons. I told my neighbour that if he gave me the recipe, we would cook it together. The status of this project is still at the stage of “a list of ingredients”.

The recipe:
1,5 Kg di coratella di maiale (polmone, trachea, cuore e milza); 250 gr di pancetta fresca, 300 gr di concentrato di pomodoro, 2 cucchiai d'olio, 100 gr di strutto (sugna), 1/2 peperoncino forte, 180 gr di salsa di peperoni rossi, 4 foglie di alloro, 1 rametto di rosmarino, sale. From the book: "La cucina napoletana”, Ricetta n° 57.

This is the list of ingredients in English:

1,5 kg of pork offal (lung, windpipe, heart and spleen).
250 gram fresh bacon.
300 gram concentrated tomatoes.
2 table spoons of olive oil.
100 gram lard.
1/2 strong chili.
180 gram red peppers (paprika) mashed to a smooth paste.
4 bay leafs.
1 twig of rosemary .
salt.

The Italian menu

The concept of the Italian menu is well known. It gives you quite a freedom to choose. Secondi piatti is served without vegetables or potatoes, so you can choose which contorni (side dishes) you like. You can skip the antipasto and start with primi piatti, or you can jump from antipasto right to secondi piatti, or skip secondi piatti and order dulce right after primi piatti. The only rule seems to be is that you order caffè last.

If you travel and eat alone you're stuck with the house wine. A quarter liter for each meal was quite enough for me.

Antipasto

Ristocamping Gran Sasso. Antipasto della casa. €10,00.

La Taberna di Rocca Calascio. Caprese €7,00.

Primi piatti

Agriturismo Al Borgo Restaurant. Zuppa di lenticchie con crostini. €6,00.

La Taberna di Rocca Calascio. Lenticchia di Santo Stefano di Sessanio. €7,50.

Ristocamping Gran Sasso. Tagliatelle allo zafferano, pesto di pomodorini secchi, ricotta salata. €10,00.

Secondi piatti

Residence il Palazzo. Primo sale di Pecora e Verdure. Local raw sheeps cheese, melted and served with a spoon of honey. The grilled zucchini and eggplant was amazingly good. €10,00.

Agriturismo Al Borgo Restaurant. Agnello. Plain grilled lamb meat. €10,00.

Contorni

La Taberna di Rocca Calascio. Contorne di verdure: cicoria €4,00.

Dulce

Residence il Palazzo. La Pizza Dolce is a typical cake from Abruzzo, which used to be eaten only at weddings. This little spongy cake was amazing. Each layer had its own consistency from soaking wet (bottom layer) to dry. €4,00.

Insalata caprese

This antipasta dish is all what the Italian kitchens is about: a few high quality ingredients. This appetizer only works if the mozzarella is fresh and soft and the tomatoes ripe and fragrant.

Arrosticini

Arrosticini is a typical speciality of Abruzzo. It can either be made from mutton or lamb, with pieces of oval fat in between the meat. The long shaped brazier it is cooked on is called a canala. 

On the high grasslands of Campo Imperatore there is a butcher located, which not only sells arrosticini, local cheeses, marinated artichoke hearts and ice-cold beer but also provides plenty of canala to grill the arrosticini you just bought. I returned the next day to the same spot to do it all over again.

Lenticchia di Santo Stefano di Sessanio

Sono straordinariamente saporite e il modo migliore per apprezzarle è una zuppa molto semplice: bisogna coprirle con acqua e aggiungere spicchi d’aglio scamiciati, qualche foglia di alloro, sale, olio extravergine e portare quindi a leggera ebollizione, a pentola chiusa. [ Fondazione Slow Food per la Biodiversità Onlus ]

Lentil soup made from Lenticchia di Santo Stefano di Sessanio at Rocca Calascio.

Contorno verdure: cicoria. Boiled and sautéed in olive oil and a little salt.

Panzanella

When your left over bread is hard as rock, you can still turn it into a salad. Quarter ripe tomatoes and spoon out the seeds. Puree the seeds and inner part of the tomatoes with one or two cloves of garlic. Use the puree to make a dressing with red wine vinegar, olive oil, black peper and salt.

Cut the tomatoes in cubes or strips and mix everything together. You can add red onion, thinly cut. Let it sit for at least 10 minutes. Throw in fresh basil leaves and if you have left over black olives, you can also throw them in.

Brussels sprouts & Marsala

Clean, then boil Brussels sprouts for 5-6 minutes. I used 500 gram. Do not overcook Brussels sprouts. Overcooking releases the sulphur smelling glucosinolate: sinigrin.

In the meantime: fry 100 gram diced pancetta in a little oil for a couple of minutes. Add 20 gram butter & cooked chestnuts. When the butter has melted add 50 ml. Marsala and cook until the butter and Marsala form a thick sauce.

Mix the drained Brussels sprouts and a handful of parsley with the pancetta-Marsala-sauce and serve.

Bartolomeo Scappi - eggplant

This is a recipe from Opera dell'arte del cucinare, the famous cookbook by Bartolomeo Scappi (c. 1500 – 1577). His book was translated in Dutch quite early: Koocboec oft familieren keukenboec, 1612, by Antonius Magirus).

The basic ingredients are eggplant, fresh herbs, olive oil and heavy spices like cinnamon and cloves. Peel the eggplants. Slice the eggplant and coat in flower. Drizzle a baking tray with plenty of olive oil and add a layer of eggplant. Sprinkle with fresh herbs, cinnamon (powdered), cloves (powdered), sugar and salt. Drizzle more oil. Add another layer of eggplant. Sprinkle more herbs (if you have, the top of fennel), a splash of vinegar and more oil. I also used some fennel seeds. Bake until soft. Be careful not to burn the herbs, the whole dish will taste bitter.