There are a countless ways to dress a rice salad. We’re seen a few on this blog, including one wtih seafood and another with meat. But there’s another, less obvious way to create variety, and that’s the changing up the rice. One of the most visually striking possibilities is a black rice romantically monikered riso Venero, literally meaning “Venus rice”. It is an excellent rice for salads as it stays firm and separate even when it’s fully cooked.

In this lovely rice salad, riso Venere is tossed with quickly sautéed shrimp and zucchini, fruity olive oil, mint, lemon zest and just a few drops of freshly squeezed lemon juice. The black (actually a dark violet) rice provides a striking contrast to the pink crustacean and green vegetable. It’s a dish that’s bound to impress your guests.

And it tastes as good as it looks. Riso Venere has a pleasing nuttiness that pairs beautifully with the briny shrimp and sweet zucchini, there’s just enough lemon and herbs to brighten things nicely.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6 as a first course, more as part of a buffet

• 450 g (1 lb) riso Venere (Italian black rice)
• 300 g (10-1/2 oz) baby shrimp, shelled
• 450 g (1 lb) zucchine, cut into dice
• 1 clove of garlic, peeled and slightly crushed, or one shallot or small spring onion, finely minced
• the zest of one lemon
• freshly squeezed lemon juice, to taste
• a few sprigs of fresh mint, torn up or minced
• olive oil
• salt

Directions

Cook the rice

Boil the rice in well salted water until tender but still al dente, about 30 minutes.

When the rice is al dente, drain it in a colander and rinse it with cold running water to stop it cooking.

Lay the rice out on a large baking sheet or other flat surface. Spread the rice out as thinly as you can. Let it cool completely.

Prepare the condimento

Meanwhile, in a skillet gently sautê the garlic or shallot or spring onion, until the garlic is just beginning to brown or the shallot or spring onion has turned soft and translucent. This should in both cases take only a minute or tow. If using garlic, discard it.

Raise the heat and add the diced zucchini, tossing it from time to time and seasoning it lightly. Drizzle in a few drops of water to speed cooking and prevent browning.

When the zucchini is almost tender, add the shrimp and toss again, Continue only until the shrimp turn pink, usually just a minute or so more. Remove from the heat. Taste and adjust for seasoning.

Transfer the shrimp and zucchini, along with its cooking fat, to a bowl and set aside until needed.

Dress your rice

Once cool, transfer the rice to a large mixing bowl.

Pour in the sautéed shrimp and zuccchini, the lemon zest, minced mint and mix.

Drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice, then mix again. Taste and adjust for seasoning, including more oil and/or lemon juice if you think it needs it.

Let the rice sit for a hour or so to let the flavors meld. Any longer than that, place in the fridge.

Serve cold or at room temperature.

Notes on riso Venere con gamberetti e zucchine

When judging portions, do bear in mind that riso Venere doesn’t expand nearly as much as regular rice after cooking, so when calculating portions, use a bit more rice than you would normally. That said, it does absorb lots of water, so be generous.

And speaking of water, do be aware that it will turn a dark violet and will stain your hands and cloths, so take some care when draining your rice!

More about riso Venere

Riso Venere is a hybrid rice varietal developed in the late 1990s by Sapise, a Sardinian-Piemontese agriculture research centure. They crossed an Asian black rice called Oryza sativa originating in the Yangtze River valley with native white rice from the Po Valley, where Riso Venere is principally grown today, around Novara and Vercelli in the Piemonte region, as well as around Oristano in Sardinia.

Riso Venere gets its distinctive color from anthocyanin. the same pigment that colors certain fruits and vegetables like blackberries, black beans, plums and concord grapes. Depending on its ph value, it can also turn plants dark red or purple, as in cherries and purple corn and red cabbage. It is also used as a food coloring.

Besides being delicious, riso Venere quite a healthy choice as well, being high in fiber and antioxidants, as well as a good source of Vitamin B and iron.

Riso Venere is a whole grain rice, so it take a bit longer to cook than other rice varietals, usually between 30 and 40 minutes. It has a distinctive savory nutty, savory flavor. It is most commonly used in rice salads like this one, where its ability to stay firm works so well, but you can also use it to make risotto or pilaf.

It’s not as easy to source as other Italian rices, but it is becoming more popular. Where I live, one of our local upscale supermarkets near me carries it, and you can purchase it online.

Variations

Measurements for this recipe are all over the map, but an easy to remember approach is going with the same amount of rice, shrimp and zucchini by weight. To my mind, this produces a nice balanced dish, neither too heavy not too light on the dressing. Once you’ve made this once, of course, you can adjust the measurements as suits your taste.

There are many variations on the dressing for this rice salad. You can use a medley of summer vegetables including cherry tomatoes and bell peppers rather than just the zucchini. For a lighter dish, you could poach the ingredients rather than sautêing them. Or just the vegetables raw. Switch out the shrimp in favor of some best quality canned tuna. And feel free to experiment with other fresh herbs; basil and marjoram are popular choices.

And of course, if you can’t find riso Venere, you could make this same dish with regular white rice. See this post for recommended varietals.

Making ahead and leftovers

You can make riso Venere con gamberetti e zucchine up to a day or two ahead, and keep it in the fridge. You could serve it cold right fro the fridge, but I think it has more flavor if you let it come back to room temp or near that. If you have leftovers, it even freezes decently well, vaccum packed.

Print

Riso Venere con gamberetti e zucchine

Italian Black Rice with Shrimp and Zucchini

Course Antipasto, Primo

Cuisine Italian

Keyword salad

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 45 minutes minutes

Servings 6

Calories 399.8kcal

Ingredients

• 450 g riso Venere (Italian black rice)
• 300 g baby shrimp shelled
• 450 g zucchine cut into dice
• 1 clove garlic peeled and slightly crushed, or one shallot or small spring onion, finely minced
• 1 lemon, zest of
• freshly squeezed lemon juice to taste
• a few sprigs of fresh mint torn up or minced
• olive oil
• salt

Metric – US

Instructions

Cook the rice

• In a large pot, boil the rice in well salted water until tender but still al dente, about 30 minutes.
• When the rice is al dente, drain it in a colander and rinse it with cold running water to stop it cooking.
• Lay the rice out on a large baking sheet or other flat surface. Spread the rice out as thinly as you can. Let it cool completely.

Prepare the condimento

• Meanwhile, in a skillet gently sautê the garlic or shallot or spring onion, until the garlic is just beginning to brown or the shallot or spring onion has turned soft and translucent. This should in both cases take only a minute or tow. If using garlic, discard it.
• Raise the heat and add the diced zucchini, tossing it from time to time and seasoning it lightly. Drizzle in a few drops of water to speed cooking and prevent browning.
• When the zucchini is almost tender, add the shrimp and toss again, Continue only until the shrimp turn pink, usually just a minute or so more. Remove from the heat. Taste and adjust for seasoning.
• Transfer the shrimp and zucchini, along with its cooking fat, to a bowl and set aside until needed.

Dress your rice and serve

• Once cool, transfer the rice to a large mixing bowl.
• Pour in the sautéed shrimp and zuccchini, the lemon zest, minced mint and mix.
• Drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice, then mix again. Taste and adjust for seasoning, including more oil and/or lemon juice if you think it needs it.
• Let the rice sit for a hour or so to let the flavors meld. Any longer than that, place in the fridge.
• Serve cold or at room temperature.

Nutrition

Calories: 399.8kcal | Carbohydrates: 62g | Protein: 13.1g | Fat: 11.4g | Saturated Fat: 2.1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1.1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 6.9g | Cholesterol: 63mg | Sodium: 1465.5mg | Potassium: 256.2mg | Fiber: 6.2g | Sugar: 3.3g | Vitamin A: 240.5IU | Vitamin C: 14.9mg | Calcium: 42.1mg

The post Riso Venere con gamberetti e zucchine appeared first on Memorie di Angelina.

As the name implies, lardo, a kind of cured pork fat back, is the defining ingredient of the sauce. It’s minced together with onion and garlic, then slowly rendered until it is meltingly soft and transparent. Fresh cherry tomatoes, are added, perhaps with a splash of passata, to simmer briefly, just until they melt into a chunky yet silky sauce.

After such a short cook time, the sauce still tastes of fresh tomato, but it has surprising depth and complexity, with a beguiling blend of flavors and textures. It’s savory and sweet at the same time, with a hint of heat if you add the optional pinch of hot pepper. And the mouth feel combines a slightly chunky texture from the cherry tomatoes with a velvety richness from the lardo. You would never expect such rich complexity from a dish with only a handful of ingredients and such a short cook tme.

I think it’s defintely a dish you’ll want to try at least once. And with fresh tomatoes finally beginning to appear in our markets, this is a lovely way to celebrate the arrival of summer’s bounty.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

• 500g (1 lb) ziti
• salt

For the soffritto:

• 1 onion, peeled and cut into small dice
• 1-2 cloves of garlic
• 250g (8 oz) lardo, trimmed of its skin and cut into small dice
• olive oil or lard (optional)

For the sauce:

• 500g (1 lb) cherry tomatoes, split in half
• 100-200ml (1/2 – 1 cup) tomato passata, preferably homemade
• a handful of fresh basil leaves, with larger leaves torn up
• salt
• a small pinch of red pepper flakes (optional)

For topping the pasta:

• pecorino-romano cheese, freshly grated

Directions

Mix the diced lardo and onion on a cutting board, then mince them together into a fine paste with a knife or, even better, a mezzaluna.

Place the resulting mince in a saucier, sauté pan or flat bottomed wok, along with a drizzle of olive oil or a dollop of lard if using. Sauté the mince very gently until the lardo has rendered its fat and turned transparent, and the onion is soft and translucent. Take care not to brown the ingredients; if need be, add a few drops of water to stop it browning.

Add the cherry tomatoes, passata, a good pinch of salt and, if you like, a pinch of red pepper flakes. Simmer for 15-20 minutes, until the tomatoes have melted into a velvety, glossy sauce but still a little chunky. Add the fresh basil leaves towards the end of cooking.

While the sauce is simmering, bring a large pot of well salted water to a boil. If using traditional long ziti (see Notes below), break them into lengths. Boil the ziti until just slightly underdone.

Transfer the ziti to the pan with the sauce, along with a ladleful of the pasta water. Simmer for another minute or two, until the pasta is al dente. Add more pasta water if things get too thick or dry.

Serve right away, topped with the grated cheese.

Notes on ziti lardiati

This is a quick and simple dish. You just need to take your time with the soffritto, so the lardo can render its richness into the sauce and the onion to develop its natural sweetness.

Otherwise, as always, the choice of ingredients is key:

On lardo

The name lardo is something of a false friend for Anglophones. It doesn’t mean lard (rendered pork fat) but rather unrendered pork fat back, which has been cured with salt, rosemary, garlic, and other spices, and aged for several months.

Besides its use in cooking, lardo is also served, sliced paper-thin as a kind of salume (charcuterie), often on still-warm toasted bread, which ever so slightly melts the lardo and gives it a lovely silky nouthfeel. You may know it in that form as it has become fairly trendy as of late.

Perhaps the best known variety is the prized lardo di Colonnata from the eponymous Tuscan village near Carrara. although Campania, where this dish is from, also produces its own fine lardo.

Since lardo is basically pure fat, you can add it directly to a dry pan and let it render slowly on its own. But adding a drizzle of olive oil or, better yet, a dollop of actual lard, does help things move along.

On ziti

Ziti is the pasta for this dish—it’s right in the name! It is a tubular pasta, not quite as thick as rigatoni but rather thicker than most penne. And perhaps most importantly, it is smooth, which gives it a slippery quality that pairs perfectly with this velvety sauce.

Back in the day, ziti was typically sold in long tubes, which you would break up into your preferred lengths, usually either 3 or 4 per zito. You will seeziti lardiati made with rather longer lengths than standard cut ziti from a box, which makes the dish fun—if a little messy—to eat. Here in North America, you can buy long ziti at a well stocked Italian delis or online. That said, boxed cut ziti will work just fine.

These days, despite the popularity of Italian-American dishes like Baked Ziti, sometimes even cut ziti can be a challenge to find here in North America. You should seek it out, as nothing quite replicates its mouth feel which pairs perfectly with this velvety sauce. But in a pinch, you could substitute another tubular pasta like penne or rigatoni or paccheri. Truth be told this tasty sauce goes with just about any shape.

On the tomatoes

The tomatoes, of course, bring everything together. Most recipes for ziti lardiati call for fresh cherry tomatoes, sometimes alone or sometimes supplemented as here with some (or a lot of) passata.

But there are recipes that simply call for pelati (canned tomatoes). If you go this route, just break them up a bit with your hands before adding them to the saucepan or add them whole and break them up with a fork in the pan. This produces a more interesting texture than milling or blending. In some recipes you add some tomato concentrate to the sauce, something I personally don’t care for as it produces a heavier sauce. And too tomato-y, so to speak. But if your tomatoes lack flavor, it can help.

The amount of sauce can vary, which is why I’ve given a range for the passata. You could also increase the cherry tomatoes. Be aware, however, that drowning your pasta in sauce is not the Italian way.

A word to the wise about the hot pepper

It’s optional but a nice extra layer of flavor, provided you don’t overdo it. I just add a small pinch to provide an almost imperceptible aftertaste. Too much hot pepper would throw the other flavors off balance. Like most Italian dishes, ziti lardiati isn’t meant to be super hot and spicy.

Variations

In some recipes, you skip the step where you mince the lardo together with the alliums. You simply render the lardo, then add the onion and garlic to gently sauté in the rendered fat. This saves some effort, but I find the mince really helps the lardo and onions to better infuse into the sauce for maximum depth of flavor.

Speaking of alliums, you will note the inclusion of both garlic and onion here. That gives lie to the notion that Italians never use both in the same dish. That said, some recipes do omit the garlic so feel free to do so if you prefer. The onion, on the other hand, is a must!

For a more savory but less fresh tasting sauce, add a bay leaf or two instead of the basil. Some recipes have you add white wine to the soffritto and cook it off before adding the tomatoes, which adds a touch of acidity that helps cut the richness of the sauce. For me, though, the richness is the main point of this sauce.

If you prefer a milder flavor, you can top your ziti lardiati with a mix of pecorino and parmigiano-reggiano. Or even just the latter. Personally, though, I think this robust sauce needs the more assertive pecorino.

Making ziti lardiati ahead and leftovers

You can make the sauce ahead of time, more or less as far ahead as you like. It will last several days in the fridge. The sauce even freezes fairly well. Of course, you need to boil and dress the pasta right before serving.

Any leftover ziti lardiati make a fine frittata di maccheroni avanzati.

Print

Ziti lardiati

Ziti pasta dressed with a lardo, onion and tomato sauce

Course Primo

Cuisine Campania

Keyword pasta, quick

Total Time 30 minutes minutes

Servings 6

Calories 690.2kcal

Ingredients

• 500 g ziti
• salt

For the sauce:

• 1 onion peeled and cut into small dice
• 1-2 cloves of garlic
• 250 g lardo trimmed of its rind and cut into small dice
• 500 g cherry tomatoes split in half
• 100 ml tomato passata preferably homemade
• a handful of fresh basil leaves with larger leaves torn up
• a small pinch of red pepper flakes optional
• salt

For topping the pasta:

• pecorino-romano cheese freshly grated

Metric – US

Instructions

• Mix the diced lardo and onion on a cutting board, then mince them together into a fine paste with a knife or, even better, a mezzaluna.
• Place the resulting mince in a saucier, sauté pan or flat bottomed wok, along with a drizzle of olive oil or a dollop of lard if using. Sauté the mince very gently until the lardo has rendered its fat and the onion is soft and translucent. Take care not to brown the ingredients.
• Add the cherry tomatoes, passata, a good pinch of salt and, if you like, a pinch of red pepper flakes. Simmer for 15-20 minutes, until the tomatoes have melted into a velvety, glossy sauce but still a little chunky. Add the fresh basil leaves towards the end of cooking.
• While the sauce is simmering, bring a large pot of well salted water to a boil. If using traditional long ziti (see Notes below), break them into lengths. Boil the ziti until just slightly underdone.
• Transfer the ziti to the pan with the sauce, along with a ladleful of the pasta water. Simmer for another minute or two, until the pasta is al dente. Add more pasta water if things get too thick or dry.
• Serve right away, topped with the grated cheese.

Nutrition

Calories: 690.2kcal | Carbohydrates: 69.1g | Protein: 14.5g | Fat: 39.3g | Saturated Fat: 14.2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 4.9g | Monounsaturated Fat: 17.9g | Cholesterol: 27.2mg | Sodium: 2390mg | Potassium: 504mg | Fiber: 3.9g | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 517.8IU | Vitamin C: 22.4mg | Calcium: 72.7mg | Iron: 2.1mg

The post Ziti lardiati appeared first on Memorie di Angelina.

Being a non-baker, my knowledge of the cookies is pretty much limited to a few of the ‘greatest hits’ like cantucci, mostaccioli and, of course, Angelina’s taralli dolci, which in our family we used to call ‘Nana’s cookies’. I had a lot to learn, so when I heard Domenica had just published a book on the subject, you know I snapped it up immediately. And ever since I’ve been practically devouring the recipes in this fascinating book, no doubt the most comprehensive treatment of the subject you’ll find in English.

With Domenica’s kind permission, I’m sharing with you one of her recipes.* It was a difficult choice, as there are quite a few I want to try out. Of course, it had to be something I hadn’t blogged about before. And something easy enough for a neophyte baker like me to pull off.

When I stumbled on serpette, I knew I’d hit pay dirt. The recipe comes from from my erstwhile hometown of Rome, or more precisely from the hilltop town of Monte Porzio Catone in the nearby Castelli Romani, an area perhaps best known for Castel Gandolfo, the Pope’s summer residence, and to foodies for Ariccia’s excellent porchetta. It’s also home to some gorgeous white wines. But I digress…

Serpette remind me quite a bit of the taralli dolci Angelina used to make, though serpette are rather more delicate as they are enriched with butter rather than oil, and scented with orange and lemon zest rather than anisette. And of course, rather than rings or twists, serpette are formed into a snake-ish S shape that lends them their name. Light and crumbly, sweet but not too sweet, they are definitely my kind of cookie!

Like my Nana’s cookies, serpette are delicious on their own, but even better enjoyed inzuppate—dunked in coffee or a sweet wine, classically the local Cannellino di Frascati.

Ingredients

Makes about 16 cookies

• 100g (½ cup) granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 100g (3½ ounces or 7 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• Finely grated zest of ½ lemon
• Finely grated zest of ½ orange
• 240g (2 cups) unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for the work surface
• 120g (1 cup) pastry flour or soft 00 flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• fine salt

To finish:

• 1 large egg
• granulated sugar, as needed

Directions

Preheat the oven to 190C/375° F.

Whisk together the sugar and eggs in a large bowl until lightened and foamy. Then whisk in the melted butter, a little at a time, followed by the lemon and orange zests.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder and a tiny pinch of salt. Pour this into the wet ingredients and stir with a spatula until well incorporated. Knead briefly with your hands to form a cohesive dough.

Divide the dough into 16 pieces weighing about 40g (1½ ounces) each.

On a lightly floured work surface, roll each piece into a fat finger about 16cm (6 inches) long, then bend each finger it into an S shape.

Arrange the cookies on the baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Brush the cookies with the egg, beaten together with a tablespoon of water. Then sprinkle them with sugar.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the serpette are set and golden in color, with a few light cracks on top.

Let your serpette cool, still on their baking sheet, for about 20 minutes, then transfer them cookies from the baking sheet to a wire rack to cool completely.

Notes on serpette

Domenica calls this an ‘unplugged’ recipe since you should mix the pasta frolla by hand. With a standing mixer, you risk overworking the dough. She says you could use a standing mixer to mix the wet ingredients if you wanted, but for these quantities there’s no real need. It took me well under a minute whisking by hand.

As with any pasta frolla, if you’re working in a warm environment the dough can become a bit hard to work with. If this happens to you, then just pop it in the fridge for a few minutes and start again.

Cooling the cookies completely after baking is key. Right out of the oven, they are so delicate they could lose their characteristic S shape or even fall apart if you try to handle them. As they cool, they firm up, taking on their characteristic light and crumbly texture, perfect for dunking.

A note on flours

If you don’t have pastry flour or soft 00 flour on hand, I would imagine that you could use all purpose flour only. I remember that Angelina made her taralli dolci that way and they were quite fine. Of course, the texture won’t be quite as delicate. Or use perhaps half the amount of cake flour, which is even softer than pastry flour, and increase the amount of all purpose accordingly.

Variations

I’ve found a few minor variations in other recipes for serpette. One is adding some limoncello to lean into the citrus flavor or, like Angelina’s cookies, some anisette. Some substitute oil for butter. And sprinke a bit of cinnamon on top the cookies along with the sugar.

A Short History of Serpette

According to tradition, serpette originated from the town of Sermoneta a bit further south near Latina. The story goes that they were first prepared in 1571 to celebrate the victory of the alliance of Catholic powers called the Holy League in the Battle of Lepanto against the Ottomans. The lord of Semoneta, Duca Onorato IV Caetani, having commanded one of the ships of the allied fleet, was feted with great pomp upon his return home. The cookies’ characteristic S shape recalls the snakes that appears in the Caetani family crest, meant to symbolize how the Caetani devoured their enemies. The victory, attributed by locals to the intervention of the Virgin Mary, is still celebrated annually in Sermoneta on the second Sunday in October.

It wasn’t until 1900 that S shaped cookies named serpette started to be made, apparently independently, in Monte Porzio Catone, where they were prepared for celebrating special occasions like baptisms and weddings. Today, serpette are practically synonymous with the town, and in particular with the Antico Panificio Egidi, a historic bakery in town that has been operating since the 1600s, run by the family matriarch Graziella and her sons.

Making serpette ahead

The serpette will keep in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

More on Domenica’s Italian Cookies

Domenica’s new book is a real gem. As I said at the top, with over 100 recipes from every region in the country, I’m sure it’s the most comprehensive treatment of Italian Cookies in English. I’m also sure it will become an instant classic for lovers of Italian cookery and cookies more generally.

I’ll let Domenica herself tell your more about her book:

ITALIAN COOKIES, my ninth cookbook, is a grand tour of Italy through its cookies. It is a deep dive into a seemingly frivolous subject that turns out to be not frivolous at all! The book was years in the making, and my research took me to country villages, towns, and cities in all 20 regions of Italy. What I discovered as I traveled from Piedmont to Calabria and to the islands of Sicily and Sardinia, is that much like Italian food and Italian wine, the cookies of Italy are regional in character, their recipes rooted in the land and the culture, and in local ingredients that tell a story. Butter in the north, olive oil and wine in the south; rich hazelnuts in Piedmontese Baci di Dama, and sweet, buttery Romano almonds in Sicilian amaretti.

There are cookies with histories dating back centuries, and cookies whose popularity attract travelers from all over. There are elegant, piped cookies, and fat, generous biscotti da inzuppo ~ delicious dunking cookies (and everything in between). I set out to discover their stories…

What struck me more than anything, as I worked on this project, is the fact that wherever I went in Italy, whether it was a tiny bakery tucked away in a village or a large, well-known producer, the most important ingredient was this: the human touch. In Italy, cookies are in large part still made by hand: hand mixed, hand shaped. It was meeting the people–the bakers and the artisans—who continue to produce these beloved cookies—that made this project so meaningful to me and worthy of a deep exploration.

The book is available in major bookstores as well as all the main online sources, including amazon.com and Apple Books.

* The recipe in this post has been ever so slightly ‘frankified’. I’ll let you guess how.

Print

Serpette (Little Snake Cookies)

Course Dessert

Cuisine Lazio

Keyword baked

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes minutes

Cool time 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour

Servings 16

Calories 160.9kcal

Ingredients

• 100 g granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 100 g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• Finely grated zest of ½ lemon
• Finely grated zest of ½ orange
• 240 g unbleached all-purpose flour plus more for the work surface
• 120 g 1 cup pastry flour or soft 00 flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• fine salt

To finish:

• 1 large egg
• granulated sugar as needed

Metric – US

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 190C/375° F.
• Whisk together the sugar and eggs in a large bowl until lightened and foamy. Then whisk in the melted butter, a little at a time, followed by the lemon and orange zests.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder and a tiny pinch of salt. Pour this into the wet ingredients and stir with a spatula until well incorporated. Knead briefly with your hands to form a cohesive dough.
• Divide the dough into 16 pieces weighing about 40g (1½ ounces) each.
• On a lightly floured work surface, roll each piece into a fat finger about 16cm (6 inches) long, then bend each finger it into an S shape.
• Arrange the cookies on the baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
• Brush the cookies with the egg, beaten together with a tablespoon of water. Then sprinkle them with sugar.
• Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the serpette are set and golden in color, with a few light cracks on top.
• Let your serpette cool, still on their baking sheet, for about 20 minutes, then transfer them cookies from the baking sheet to a wire rack to cool completely.

Nutrition

Calories: 160.9kcal | Carbohydrates: 23.2g | Protein: 3.6g | Fat: 6.2g | Saturated Fat: 3.5g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1.6g | Cholesterol: 44.1mg | Sodium: 79.3mg | Potassium: 56.3mg | Fiber: 1.2g | Sugar: 6.3g | Vitamin A: 201.7IU | Calcium: 25.9mg | Iron: 1.1mg

The post Serpette (Little Snake Cookies) appeared first on Memorie di Angelina.

If you’re not aware, a sformato is something like a savory flan. Or perhaps a soufflé without the puff. The basic recipe could hardly be simpler—you make a batter of puréed or finely minced or diced main ingredient, typically but not always a vegetable, mixed with béchamel and eggs, then bake it until set.

Practically any vegetable you fancy is fair game for sformato making, so you can serve it all year round: peas or asparagus in the spring, zucchini or green beans in the summer, pumpkin or mushrooms in the autumn or winter, and so on. For this week’s post I decided I’d make a sformato di spinaci. Spinach makes an especially fine sformato, as its flavor lends itself beautifully to pairing with cheese and béchamel. These days you can find spinach all year long, but with fresh young spinach is in the markets—but not for long—now’s the perfect time for sformato di spinaci.

Serve it simple or fancy, your choice…

Classically, a sformato is baked in a loaf or ring pan and served unmolded, then sliced and sometimes napped with a sauce. (Hence the name, which means ‘unmolded’.) Served like this, it makes an elegant antipasto fit for the fanciest dinner party. Back in the day, in fact, it was often served this way as an intermezzo between the first and second courses during extravagant multicourse banquets. These days it could also be a light vegetable-centric main course.

But for everyday cooking, it’s not uncommon to bake a sformato in baking dish or cassrole and then serve it by the spoonful directly from its cooking vessel. In this homey incarnation, a sformato can serve also as a side dish, though admittedly a rather rich one, best reserved for accompanying simply roasted or gilled meats or fish.

Ingredients

• 500g (1 lb) young spinach, trimmed of its stems
• One half recipe of béchamel sauce
• 3 eggs
• 100g (3-1/2 oz) of grated Parmesan cheese
• Salt and pepper
• butter, as needed

Directions

Prep the spinach

Wash the spinach leaves well in a large mixing bowl and pour out the water. If you find any grit at the bottom of the bowl, repeat. Otherwise, transfer the still wet spinach leaves to a large sauté pan or rondeau. Cook, covered, over moderate heat, just until they wilt. This should take no more than a couple of minutes.

Transfer the spinach to a colander and run them under cold water. Then let them drain.

When the spinach has thoroughly drained, take them by the handful and squeeze it dry. Mince them rather finely.

Prepare the béchamel

Following the directions in this recipe, prepare a half batch of béchamel sauce.

Let cool.

Mix and bake the batter

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the spinach and bechamel. Then add the cheese, salt and pepper. Taste and adjust for seasoning, then add the eggs.

Pour the batter into a well buttered baking dish. Dot the top with bits of butter.

Place the baking dish on a large roasting pan or baking sheet and add water all around.

Bake in a moderate (180C/350F) oven for 30-45 minutes, or until cooked through and lightly browned on top. Test doneness by inserting a small knife into the sformato. If the knife comes out clean, it should be done.

If not browned on top to your liking, you can run the sformato under the broiler for a minute or two.

Let cool for a few minutes before serving.

Notes on sformato di spinaci

As mentioned at the top, the recipe involves a bit of work to prep the spinach and the béchamel, but other than that it’s about as straightforward as it gets. Just mix the batter and bake. Normally the trickiest part of a sformato making is the unmolding, and this homey way of serving it eliminates even that bother.

Prepping the spinach

It used to be that spinach was sold very mature. That kind of spinach, with crinkly dark green leaves and thick stems, required pulling the leaves off their stems. And lots of washing to eliminate its massive amounts of grit. Nowadays, we are lucky. Spinach is usually sold young and pre-washed. Sometimes even pre-trimmed of their stems.

So adjust your approach accordingly. Trim off any stems, unless they’re very slender. And I would still give the spinach a rinse regardless just to be on the safe side. Young spinach only needs a quick wilting as described in the recipe above. Older spinach is tougher, and should be boiled in lots of water.

And if you want to eliminate this prep work, you could use frozen, already chopped spinach. Just defrost it before adding it to the batter.

Preparing the béchamel

In Italy they sell premade, shelf-stable béchamel sauce, something I haven’t seen in North American markets except online at rather unreasonable prices. So it’s best to make your own. It can be a bit tricky to achieve a lumpfree béchamel, but if you use Wondra flour (or its equivalent) it’s very simple indeed. See our post on béchamel sauce for details.

You can dispense with the béchamel and use ricotta instead. For this recipe, you could use as little as 250g (1/2 lb) or as much as 500g (1 lb) the eqvuilvent of a small tub, depending on your taste. Most recipes, however, land on the lower end of this scale. Your sformato won’t be quite as creamy as it would be if you use béchamel, but it will be a bit lighter and plenty tasty. Spinach and ricotta get along famously and appear frequently in Italian cookery.

Variations

Recipes for sformati are all over the map when it comes to the number of eggs and how thick the bechamel should be.

For this recipe, which is meant to produce a soft and spoonable sformato for serving straight from the casserole as a side dish, I’ve gone light(ish) on the eggs and made a bechamel of standard thickness. If you really want to lean into the veg for a rather lighter dish, you can double the amount of spinach (or half the amount of bechamel).

Sformato di spinaci as an antipasto

If you want to serve your sformato di spinaci in the classic way as an antipasto or even a light main course, then add another egg or even two, and/or double the amount of flour in the béchamel. That should produce a sformato stiff enough to retain its shape when it’s unmolded.

As mentioned at the top, you bake the batter in a loaf pan or ring mold rather than a baking dish (without dotting the top with butter) for 30-45 minutes. There’s no need for the top to brown, as it will wind up on the bottom of your unmolded sformato, but the batter needs to be fully cooked. For an extra fancy presentation, you can bake sformatini (little sformatos) in individual ramekins, They only take 15-20 minutes baking. (See this post for details.)

When it’s done, unmold your sformato onto a serving platter and slice it up. Or turn your sformatini onto individual plates.

And if you really want to gild the lily, nap your sformato or sformatini with a sauce made from parmigiano-reggiano or another meltable cheese like perhaps taleggio melted with heavy cream. You can find the recipe here.

Other variations

For a richer, more substantial sformato di spinaci, you can add other melting cheeses to the batter like a cubed gruyere or Emmanthal. And for carnivores, a handful of cubed cooked ham would turn this into a very substantial antipasto or a light main course.

Finally, if you enjoy a bit of crunch, you can line the baking dish with breadcrumbs and top it with breadcrumbs as well.

Making sformato di spinaci ahead and leftovers

This recipe leands itself well to making ahead. Just reheat it gently in a low oven for about 10-15 minutes, just long enough to warm it up a bit. It is also not bad at room temperature. Do the same with leftovers.

Print

Sformato di spinaci

Spinach Flan

Servings 6

Calories 405.8kcal

Ingredients

• 500 g young spinach, trimmed of its stems
• One half recipe of béchamel sauce
• 3 eggs
• 100 g grated Parmesan cheese
• Salt and pepper
• butter as needed

Metric – US

Instructions

Prep the spinach

• Wash the spinach leaves well in a large mixing bowl and pour out the water. If any grit is left at the bottom of the bowl, repeat. Otherwise, transfer the still wet spinach leaves to a large sauté pan or rondeau. Cook, covered, over moderate heat, just until they wilt. This should take no more than a couple of minutes.
• Transfer the spinach to a colander and run them under cold water. Then let them drain.
• When the spinach has thoroughly drained, take them by the handful and squeeze it dry. Mince them rather finely.

Prepare the béchamel

• Following the directions in this recipe, prepare a half batch of béchamel sauce.
• Let cool.

Mix and bake the batter

• In a large mixing bowl, stir together the spinach and bechamel. Then add the cheese, salt and pepper. Taste and adjust for seasoning, then add the eggs.
• Pour the batter into a well buttered baking dish. Dot the top with bits of butter.
• Place the baking dish on a large roasting pan or baking sheet and add water all around.
• Bake in a moderate (180C/350F) oven for 30-45 minutes, or until cooked through and lightly browned on top. Test doneness by inserting a small knife into the sformato. If the knife comes out clean, it should be done.
• If not browned on top to your liking, you can run the sformato under the broiler for a minute or two.
• Let cool for a few minutes before serving.

Nutrition

Calories: 405.8kcal | Carbohydrates: 7.6g | Protein: 12.5g | Fat: 37.3g | Saturated Fat: 22.6g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2.1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 9.5g | Cholesterol: 191.1mg | Sodium: 411.4mg | Potassium: 605.7mg | Fiber: 1.8g | Sugar: 2.9g | Vitamin A: 9309.4IU | Vitamin C: 23.9mg | Calcium: 297.5mg | Iron: 2.8mg

The post Sformato di spinaci (Spinach Flan) appeared first on Memorie di Angelina.

But Puglia is no slouch in the meat department, either. I won’t soon forget my first encounter with bombette pugliesi during a recent trip to Puglia. Literally meaning “little bombs”, these delicious parcels of pork filled with pancetta, caciocavallo cheese and minced garlic and parsley, then grilled until golden brown, really do live up to their name. They virtually explode with flavor in your mouth.

Bombette are an absolute must try for your next trip to Puglia. Gastronomically they are perhaps most closely associated with the town of Martina Franca and the surrounding Valle d’Itra, about an hour’s drive south from Bari. But their popularity means you can find them elsewhere in the region—I had my introduction to bombette in Lecce—and indeed all over the country.

That said, there’s no need to wait until your next trip to experience this little flavor bombs. The recipe for bombette is really quite simple to make at home, involving just a handful of ingredients. Now that grilling season is here, it’s the perfect time to give them a try. And if you don’t have a grill, no worries. You can make these in the oven or on the stovetop as well.

The classic cut of meat used for making bombette is the capocollo, the same neck cut used to make the eponymous cured cold cut, another specialty of Martina Franca. It’s usually called pork collar or coppa in English. Pork shoulder butt, from just next to the neck, makes a decent subsitute.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

• 1 kilo (2 lbs) pork collar or well marbled pork shoulder, cut into thin slices
• salt and pepper

For the filling:

• 200 g (7 oz) pancetta, thinly sliced
• 200 g (7 oz) caciocavallo cheese, cut into cubes or thin slices
• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• A few sprigs of fresh parsley

Directions

Mince the garlic and parsley with a knife or mezzaluna together until you have a rough paste. Set aside until needd.

Take the pork slices and place a sheet of parchment or wax paper over them. Pound them gently to flatten them out, taking care not to break them up. Season them on both sides with salt and pepper.

Lay a slice or two of the pancetta on top of each pork slice, then a piece of the caciocavallo, leaving a margin on the sides. Sprinkle with some of the garlic and parsley mince.

Tucking the sides inward, roll each slice up tightly to form little parcels no bigger than about 5 cm (2 inches) wide.

Skewer the parcels with toothpicks to keep them together or use a long skewer to hold several parcels together (as pictured below).

Grill the bombette on all sides for about 12-15 minutes or so, until cooked through and golden brown on all sides.

Serve right away.

Notes on bombette pugliesi

One or two bombette can be served as a snack—they were traditionally a street food sold in paper cones—or an antipasto. In large portions, they make for a fine main course. Or make them part of a mixed grill at your next cookout.

The key to making bombette is to make sure to roll them up tightly, with the sides tucked inward, so the cheese doesn’t ooze out while they cook. (Ask me how I know…) It can be a bit fussy but it’s not hard work.

If you are using skewers, make sure to pass them close to the fold and pack the bombette tightly on the skewer so they help each other stay closed. If you are using toothpicks, make sure to close the sides as well as the folds.

As mentioned, the bombette should be quite small, no more than 5 cm (2 inches) wide, so they cook through relatively quickly. If need be, you can cut your pork slices in half.

I find it’s best to grill bombette over indirect heat so they have time to cook through. Then, if they’re not browned to your liking, give them a moment or two directly over the coals, turning them to brown evenly. If you want to grill them over direct heat, do make sure that they are not too close to the coals. These little bombs have lots of fat that can cause flare ups.

If you don’t have a grill…

As mentioned at the top, if you don’t have an outdoor grill or the weather isn’t cooperating, or if you would simply rather not grill your bombette, you could use a stove top grill pan. Or pan fry them gently in a little olive oil, turning them from time to time. (Covering the skillet helps them to cook through.) You can also roast your bombette in a hot (200C/400F) oven for about 20-30 minutes. Of these alternative methods, I find oven roasting the most satisfying. And also the easiest.

That said, grilling really does provide the best looking and best tasting bombette. There’s nothing like that faintly smoky taste and gorgeous color that grilling lends to the meat. You can even see the difference… Just take a gander:

The grilled bombette are in the front, behind are the oven roasted ones. I know which ones I’d rather eat!

Sourcing and choosing the pork

Pork neck, aka collar or coppa, or capocollo in Italian, is the cut you ideally want to use here. Pork collar (as opposed to neck bones) can be hard to find here in North America, but several online butchers carry it.

Asian markets often sell thin slices of pork collar for use in barbecue and hot pot. The slices are paper thin so there’s no need to pound them. They are quite economical and actually make decent bombette, but they are very delicate, so you need to handle them very gingerly.

A decent substitute for pork collar is the well marbled front section of the pork shoulder right next to the neck called the butt or sometimes Boston butt.

Where I live both pork collar and pork shoulder are generally sold as a roast, so I do my own slicing. It slices more easily if the roast is semi-frozen. A 30 minute spell in the freezer should do the trick. Try to get them just as thin as you can manage, ideally no more than say 30mm (1/8 inch).

You can also ask your friendly local butcher—if you’re lucky enough have one— to do the job. If you don’t need the whole roast for bombette, no worries. Pork collar makes an absolutely succulent roast thanks for its extravagant marbling, while pork shoulder can be ground for use in meatballs and meatloaf, or cubed for stew.

Unless your slices are paper thin, pounding is an imporant step to tenderize the meat and also provide more surface area for the filling. But do take care not to overdo it. You want to thin the slice, not pulverize it!

Finding caciocavallo and its substitutes

Caciocavallo is not the easiest cheese to source, but it’s available at better Italian delis or online at sources such as (in North America) igourmet, Murray’s Cheese, Alma Goumet or amazon.com. Otherwise, you could substitute a mild provolone or even another meltable cheese.

Pancetta

Where I live you can buy packets of pre-sliced pancetta. They work perfectly in this recipe. Otherwise you can ask for thinly sliced pancetta at the meat counter.

Variations

I haven’t come across too many variations on the original recipe other than the cooking method. The main one I’ve seen involves rolling the bombette in breadcrumbs before cooking.

I’ve also seen some recipes that call for another cured pork instead of the pancetta, such as Speck or even, in a slightly jocular vein, cured capocollo.

Making bombette pugliesi ahead

You can prepare the parcels well ahead of time, then grill them when you’re ready to eat. They only take a few minutes. Bombette are best right off the grill, but that said, they are quite tasty at room temperature, though you lose that special mouth feel from the melted cheese. They can also be gently reheated.

Print

Bombette pugliesi

Course Antipasto, Main Course

Cuisine Puglia

Keyword grilled, pan-fried, pork, roasted

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 30 minutes minutes

Ingredients

• 1 kilo 2 lbs pork collar or well marbled pork shoulder, cut into thin slices
• salt and pepper

For the filling:

• 200 g 7 oz pancetta, thinly sliced
• 200 g 7 oz caciocavallo cheese, cut into thick slices
• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• A few sprigs of fresh parsley

Instructions

• Mince the garlic and parsley with a knife or mezzaluna together until you have a rough paste. Set aside until needd.
• Take the pork slices and place a sheet of parchment or wax paper over them. Pound them gently to flatten them out, taking care not to break them up. Season them on both sides with salt and pepper.
• Now lay a slice or two of the pancetta on top of each pork slice, then a slice or two of the caciocavallo, leaving a margin on the sides. Sprinkle with some of the garlic and parsley mince.
• Tucking the sides inward, then roll each slice up tightly to form little parcels no bigger than about 5 cm (2 inches) wide.
• Skewer the parcels with a toothpick to keep them together or use a long skewer to hold several parcels together.
• Grill the bombette on all sides for about 12-15 minutes or so, until cooked through and golden brown on all sides.
• Serve right away.

The post Bombette pugliesi appeared first on Memorie di Angelina.

When we were living in the center of town, close to the Campo de’ fiori, we’d often go up the Gianicolo, a high hill just across the river with a lovely view of the city, for our May Day picnics. When we moved to a country setting on the outskirts, we could just sit outside on the terrace or camp out in the garden. And we would often come across strangers picnicking just down the hill from our house. Technically speaking they were trespassing but hey, it was May Day after all…

The contents of our picnic basket would vary, but there was one item that never failed to make an appearance: fave e pecorino, or raw fava beans and pecorino. Not really a proper dish at all, you just set out the fava beans, still in their pods, and a hunk of pecorino cheese. Each picnicker opens the pods for themselves and eats the raw fava beans they find inside with a bit of pecorino, washed down with a well-chilled dry white wine, preferably a crisp Frascati from the nearby Alban Hills. Odd as it may sound at first, once you try it, you realize it’s a combination that was just meant to be.

Fave e pecorino as a dressing for pasta

This week’s featured dish, pasta con guanciale fave e pecorino, uses this classic duo as a dressing for pasta, supported by a flavor base of guanciale, the quintessentially Roman cured pork jowl that turns up in just about every iconic Roman pasta other than cacio e pepe.

There are are a few different ways to prepare pasta con guanciale fave e pecorino. The following recipe is the one I think is probably the biggest crowd pleaser, as it produces a proper sauce and, since in this recipe the fava beans are puréed, you can dispense with the rather tedious task of peeling the fava beans. But if you’re interested, you can learn more about those other methods in the Notes below.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

• 500g (1 lb) pasta of your choice (see Notes)
• 250 g (1/2 lb) guanciale, cut into cubes or strips
• 500 g (1 lb) de-podded fava beans
• 125g (4-1/2 oz) freshly grated pecorino romano cheese
• salt and pepper
• olive oil

Directions

In a large braiser or sauté pan, sauté the guanciale very gently in a small amount of olive oil until it has lightly browned and rendered most (but not all) of its fat. Remove and set aside until needed. Do not discard the rendered fat.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Throw in the fava beans and parboil them for about 3-5 minutes, depending on their size. Remove them with a slotted spoon and plunge them immediately into a bowl of ice water, then drain. Do not discard the cooking water.

Setting aside a few fava beans for garnish, place the rest in a blender along with the rendered guanciale fat, a small ladleful of your cooking water (enough to make the purée thick but pourable) and a pinch of salt.

Blend until perfectly smooth, then pour the resulting purée into the pan where you sautéed the guanciale. Keep warm over the barest flame while you cook the pasta.

Bring the water you cooked the fava beans in back to a boil and throw in your pasta. Cook until slightly under al dente.

Transfer the pasta with a skimmer to the pan with the fava bean purée. Turn on the flame and simmer the pasta, along with another ladleful of pasta water, in the purée for a minute or two, until the pasta is fully cooked and the purée coats the pasta nicely.

Off heat, add the grated cheese and toss well, adding a bit more of the cooking water if needed. Taste and adjust for seasoning.

Serve right away, topped with the guanciale and reserved fava beans.

Notes on pasta con guanciale fave e pecorino

There aren’t too many ways to wrong in this easy pasta. I’d just take care salt the cooking water and purée lightly, as both the guanciale fat and especially the pecorino are quite salty. Better to undersalt at first, then adjust if you need to right before serving.

Choosing your pasta

You will find recipes for pasta con guanciale fave e pecorino with both long and short pasta shapes. To my mind, a short pasta like rigatoni or mezze maniche are ideal for catching this sauce. But you will find recipes that call for fettuccine, tonnarelli (the Roman version of spaghetti alla chitarra) or just plain old spaghetti. Truth be told, you can use just about any shape you fancy.

Choosing and prepping your fava beans

Fresh fava beans can be hard to find where I live. There are a couple of supermarkets near me that carry it. You’ll more likely to find them at health/organic oriented markets as well as Latino ones. They are also available from my old standby Alma Gourmet. If you can’t find fresh ones, Melissa’s Produce sells pre-shelled and steamed fava beans, in which case you need not parboil them, of course. You could also use frozen fava beans. And in a pinch, edamame, butter beans or baby liman beans could serve as substitutes.

To peel or not to peel?

Fresh fava beans come in large pods, which of course, you need to remove to get at the beans. The beans themselves also have a skin that can be rather tough, especially on more mature, larger beans. Usually in a bunch of favas you’ll find a whole range of sizes, from very small (almost the size of a pea) to quite large. Take a look at the photo to the left. One tell tale sign that a fava needs peeling is that dark stripe down its side.

To peel fava beans easily, blanch them quickly in boiling water, then plunge them in cold water. Peel away an opening in the skin and you should then be able to pop the bean out easily.

As mentioned at the top, however, since most of the favas are puréed, you don’t need to peel them, so long as you have a powerful enough blender (such as a Vitamix) that can pulverize the skins. If not, you could pass the purée through a fine sieve to catch any stray bits of skin. Use your judgment for the favas you use for garnish.

Guanciale

Guanciale is a must to give your pasta that true Roman taste. With the recent popularity of Roman pastas, it’s becoming easier to find in better supermarkets, Italian delis and, of course, online. That said, you could use pancetta if that’s all you’re able to source. I sometimes even use salt pork, which I’ve covered with pepper and other spices and left to ‘cure’ in the fridge for a few days, as a substitute.

If you are using guanciale, go easy on the olive oil. I find it does help get things going but, since guanciale is quite fatty, you only need a few drops, really. Many Roman recipes have you render the guanciale in a dry pan, but for me that often results in a smokey kitchen. Also make sure to go low and slow with the guanciale. Because of its high fat content, guanciale has a tendency to smoke and burn if you use too high a flame.

Finally, you want to only lightly brown your guanciale. Enough to render most of the fat but leaving the inside of your cubes or strips still fairly soft.

Variations

Variations on the recipe for pasta con guanciale fave e pecorino include adding the grated cheese to the blender when you make the fava purée. This gives the purée a creamier texture. But if you go this route, you should avoid cooking the purée too much at the end. as the pecorino turns unpleasantly sharp when subjected to high heat.

You can also add some fresh herbs if you like. Mint—especially the prized mentuccia aka nepitella so prized by Romans—is especially nice, I think. Add it to blender or, for a more assertive flavor, toss it in at the end with the pecorino.

Other methods for making pasta guanciale fave e pecorino

As mentioned at the top, there are various to ways to make this dish that don’t involve puréeing the fava beans.

One method is to braise the fava beans directly in the pan with the guanciale along with, if you like, some chopped shallot or onion. Sometimes you a dizzle in some white wine, sometimes just water to braise your beans. For this method, since the fava beans remain whole, you should use very young ones or, if they’re large, parboil and peel them first. The pasta is then tossed with the braised beans and lots of pecorino.

There’s yet a third option: Braise half your fava beans, then use the other half to make your purée. This is the most elaborate method but you get the best of both worlds, so the speak.

Yet another method has you use the fava beans raw, or nearly so. You quickly blanch the fava beans, then peel them and use them as a topping for pasta with tossed with sautéed guanciale and pecorino.

Making pasta con guanciale fave e pecorino ahead

Like most pasta dishes, this dish is best made at the last minute. But you can certainly make it partially ahead, up to the point where you’ve browned the guanciale and prepared the fava purée, leaving only the cooking of the pasta to the last minute.

Print

Pasta con guanciale fave e pecorino

Pasta with Guanciale, Fava Beans and Pecorino Cheese

Course Primo

Cuisine Lazio

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 30 minutes minutes

Servings 6

Ingredients

• 500 g pasta of your choice
• 250 g guanciale cut into cubes or strips
• 500 g fava beans de-podded
• 125 g pecorino romano cheese freshly grated
• salt and pepper
• olive oil

Metric – US

Instructions

• In a large braiser or sauté pan, sauté the guanciale very gently in a small amount of olive oil until it has lightly browned and rendered most (but not all) of its fat. Remove and set aside until needed. Do not discard the rendered fat.
• Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Throw in the fava beans and parboil them for about 3-5 minutes, depending on their size. Remove them with a slotted spoon and plunge them immediately into a bowl of ice water, then drain. Do not discard the cooking water.
• Setting aside a few fava beans for garnish, place the rest in a blender along with the rendered guanciale fat, a small ladleful of your cooking water (enough to make the purée thick but pourable) and a pinch of salt.
• Blend until perfectly smooth, then pour the resulting purée into the pan where you sautéed the guanciale. Keep warm over the barest flame while you cook the pasta.
• Bring the water you cooked the fava beans in back to a boil and throw in your pasta. Cook until slightly under al dente.
• Transfer the pasta with a skimmer to the pan with the fava bean purée. Turn on the flame and simmer the pasta, along with another ladleful of pasta water, in the purée for a minute or two, until the pasta is fully cooked and the purée coats the pasta nicely.
• Off heat, add the grated cheese and toss well, adding a bit more of the cooking water if needed. Taste and adjust for seasoning.
• Serve right away, topped with the guanciale and reserved fava beans.

The post Pasta con guanciale fave e pecorino appeared first on Memorie di Angelina.