Rather like the oven roasted chicken and potato dish we featured some time back, you simply cut up baby lamb and potatoes, then toss them with garlic, rosemary, olive oil and salt and pepper. Laid on a baking dish or sheet and drizzled with a bit of white wine, it all goes into a moderate oven for 45 minutes to an hour. If you have the time, it’s a nice idea to marinate the lamb overnight, as it enhances the flavor and tenderizes the meat, but that’s totally optional.

The only real challenge to reproducing this Roman classic is finding the abbacchio or baby lamb. It’s basically impossible where I live now, and indeed difficult to find even in outside central Italy. I make do with bone in shoulder chops cut into serving pieces, which at least appropriates the mouth feel if not the sweet delicate taste of the original.

Even with that substitution, I love abbachio al forno con patate. It’s a great choice for Easter dinner if you’re serving a smaller group, as you can scale it up or down for the number of guests. But it’s a fine choice for lamb lovers any time you feel like something toothsome you call pull off with minimal effort.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

• 1 kilo (2 lbs) baby lamb, or shoulder blade chops, cut into serving pieces

For marinating the lamb:

• 1-2 cloves of garlic, finely minced
• 1 sprig of fresh rosemary, just the leaves, minced
• salt and pepper
• olive oil

For roasting:

• 1 kilo (2 lbs) yellow potatoes, peeled and cut into wedges
• 2-3 cloves of garlic minced
• 2-3 sprigs of fresh rosemary, left whole
• salt and pepper
• olive oil
• white wine

Directions

Cut the lamb into serving pieces and place in a mixing bowl.

Marinate the lamb

Add the garlic, rosemary, salt, pepper and a small drizzle of olive oil. Mix everything together so the lamb pieces are well coated with the marinade.

Cover the foil with plastic wrap (cling film) or transfer the lamb and its marinade to a well sealed plastic bag. Leave to marinate at least an hour or, even better, overnight. Refrigerate if marinating for more than an hour or two.

Roast

In a large mixing bowl, mix the potato wedges with the garlic, salt, pepper and a good glug of olive oil. Do be generous with the seasonings.

Now lay on the seasoned potato wedges on a baking pan or sheet, then nestle the lamb pieces among the wedges. Place the rosemary springs on top.

Drizzle a bit of white wine over everything.

Place the baking dish in a pre-heated moderate (180C/350F) oven for 45 minutes to an hour, or until the lamb is cooked through and the potatoes are perfectly tender. Both should be lightly brown, as pictured, and most but not quite all of the cooking juices should have evaporated.

Turn the lamb and potatoes once or twice during the roasting so they brown evenly.

Rest and serve

Remove the baking dish from the oven and let it rest for about 10-15 minutes before serving.

Notes on abbacchio al forno con patate

As mentioned, the marination is optional. If you don’t have the time, you can start by cutting up the lamb and potatoes, then tossing them together with the seasonings.

If the meat exudes a lot of liquid in the oven, as it sometimes does, you can raise the oven heat to 200C/400F for the last 15-20 minutes or so. And let it go a bit longer if need be.

If on the other hand, your oven runs a bit hot and you find the lamb browning too quickly, you can cover it in aluminum foil for the first half hour or so, then uncover so its browns.

The rest is quite important as it lets the dish compose and the potatoes soak up those delicious cooking juices. Many people (including me!) find those savroy potatoes are the best part of the dish. When I’m serving a full on Itaian style meal, I just remove the baking dish from the oven and serve the primo while this secondo rests.

Choosing the Lamb

As mentioned at the top, in Rome abbacchio al forno con patate is traditinoally made with baby lamb no more than 40 days old. These lambs are so small that a whole lamb can be cut up like a chicken. Even the youngest spring lamb you can find here in North America is at least 3-5 months old, and most lamg is older than that, grown too big for that treatment.

I find the best cut for oven roasting is the shoulder. It has enough marbling to stand up to a fairly long roast without drying out. And I especially like bone in shoulder blade chops. Not only is the meat tasty, but the bone in pieces remind me (vaguely) of abbacchio. You should cut it along the muscle separation in the middle of the chop, then cut each resulting half crosswise. You’ll need a sturdy cleaver to cut the bone. If you don’t have one, then just leave the halves as is.

Boneless lamb shoulder, though less tasty, is another option for those who don’t like bone in meat. I’ve even made this dish with boneless leg of lamb, cut into bite sized pieces. But in all honesty I find it a bit lacking in character.

Choosing the Potatoes

For the potatoes, you want a variety with waxy yellow flesh that won’t fall apart during its hour long stay in the oven. In North America, Yukon Golds are an ideal choice. It procuces a very different effect, but you could also use baby potatoes or fingerlings, left unpeeled.

If you’re working with any other kind of potato, you could do what some recipes call for and hold the potatoes back for the first half hour or so of roasting. Some recipes even have you parboil the potatoes then add them only for the final few minutes to brown up.

Variations

If you like, the recipe works well with thinly sliced onion instead of the garlic. Angelina used to like to add freshly grated pecorino (just a litlte bit, not enough to make it cheesy) along with parsley. And scatter some cherry or canned tomatoes in the baking dish.

And speaking of herbs, you could add a few bay leaves or fresh sage as well as the rosemary.

Making abbacchio al forno con patate ahead

You can prep and assemble the dish a hour or two ahead, then roast it about an hour or so before you want to eat. The dish can rest up to a half hour as well out of the oven. If you really have to, you can make the dish entirely ahead and re-heat it very gently in the oven when you’re ready to eat. The dish will be perfectly edible but the taste and texture of the meat, I find, suffer.

Print

Abbacchio al forno con patate

Oven Roasted Lamb and Potatoes

Course Main Course

Cuisine Lazio

Keyword roasted

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 7 hours hours 31 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour

Servings 4

Calories 251.8kcal

Ingredients

• 1 kilo baby lamb or should lamb chops cut into serving pieces

For marinating the lamb:

• 1-2 cloves garlic finely minced
• 1 sprig of fresh rosemary just the leaves, minced
• salt and pepper
• olive oil

For roasting:

• 1 kilo yellow potatoes peeled and cut into wedges
• 2-3 cloves garlic minced
• 2-3 sprigs of fresh rosemary left whole
• salt and pepper
• olive oil
• white wine

Metric – US

Instructions

• lamb into serving pieces and place in a mixing bowl.

Marinate the lamb

• Add the garlic, rosemary, salt, pepper and a small drizzle of olive oil. Mix everything together so the lamb pieces are well coated with the marinade.
• Cover the foil with plastic wrap (cling film) or transfer the lamb and its marinade to a well sealed plastic bag. Leave to marinate at least an hour or, even better, overnight. Refrigerate if marinating for more than an hour or two.

Roast

• In a large mixing bowl, mix the potato wedges with the garlic, salt, pepper and a good glug of olive oil. Do be generous with the seasonings.
• Now lay on the seasoned potato wedges on a baking pan or sheet, then nestle the lamb pieces among the wedges. Place the rosemary springs on top.
• Drizzle a bit of white wine over everything.
• Place the baking dish in a pre-heated moderate (180C/350F) oven for 45 minutes to an hour, or until the lamb is cooked through and the potatoes are perfectly tender. Both should be lightly brown, as pictured, and most but not quite all of the cooking juices should have evaporated.
• Turn the lamb and potatoes once or twice during the roasting so they brown evenly.

Rest and serve

• Remove the baking dish from the oven and let it rest for about 10-15 minutes before serving.

Nutrition

Calories: 251.8kcal | Fat: 28.1g | Saturated Fat: 3.9g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 20.5g | Sodium: 1.1mg | Potassium: 10.9mg | Calcium: 4.4mg

The post Abbacchio al forno con patate (Oven Roasted Lamb and Potatoes) appeared first on Memorie di Angelina.

Sure, these days you can find asparagus all year round, and I know peole who don’t hesitate to serve it in the dead of winter. But not me. There are lots of reasons for eating in season, but for me the most important one is emotional. When I eat what’s in season, I feel more attached to the natural world around me. And ‘depriving’ myself of out of season vegetables makes their arrival in season even more special.

Many recipes for asparagus highlight the elegant slender form. Asparagi all’agro, asparagus served whole with a lemon and oil dressing, or asparagi alla milanese—perhaps the best known asparagus dish in Italian cookery, come to mind. In today’s post, however, I want to share with you a more home style way to prepare asparagus, one that is sure to win your heart, frittelle di asparagi or Asparagus Fritters. After all, as the saying goes, fritte son bone anche le scarpe–even a shoe tastes good when it’s fried. And that goes for asparagus, too.

The recipe is simplicity itself. You steam or boil the asparagus, chop it up and mix it with an egg batter, which you fry in spoonfuls until golden brown. It’s something you can throw together in well under 30 minutes. And if you make the batter ahead, it only takes literally seconds to fry these frittelle up when you’re ready to eat.

Frittelle di asparagi make a lovely home style antipasto or savory finger food for enjoying with a glass of wine or cocktails before dinner. In large batches they could even serve as a vegetable based main course. They would also be right at home as part of a fritto misto.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6 as an antipasto or snack

• 500g (1 lb) green asparagus
• salt, to taste

For the batter:

• 4 eggs
• 3-4 Tbs all purpose flour, or as much as needed
• 25g (1 oz) freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano (or more to taste)
• freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 tsp baking powder (optional)
• salt and pepper

For frying:

• Vegetable and/or olive oil

Directions

Prepare the batter

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs and cheese.

Add the flour a spoonful at a time, until you have a medium dense batter, about the texture of a pancake mix. Then add the baking powder and season with salt and pepper, and a good scrape of nutmeg.

Mix well and let the batter rest for at least 30 minintes.

Cook the asparagus

While the batter is resting, trim the asparagus stalks of their tough bottoms and, if on the thick side, peel their skins.

Boil or steam the asparagus in well salted water until fully tender, about 10 or even 15 minutes for thick stalks.

Drain the asparagus and let cool.

Batter and fry the asparagus

When the asparagus is cool enough to handle, chop the stalks into short lengths.

Add the chopped asparagus to the bowl with the batter and mix well.

In a skillet or sauté pan, heat enough oil to come up at least 1 cm (1/2 inch) from the bottom.

When the oil is hot but not smoking, drop in the battered asparagus in spoonfuls, spacing them well so they have room to fry rather than steam.

Once golden brown on one side, turn the fritters over and brown the other side. Proceed in batches until you’ve used up all the batter.

Serve while still warm, sprinkled with salt to taste.

Notes on frittelle di asparagi

All the [usual tips] on frying apply here. In particular you want to heat the oil until it is quite hot but not smoking, hot enough so that the oil bubbles up in a lively fashion around any food you drop into it. Not so hot, however, so it smokes. Be aware that with the oil this hot, these fritters will brown up very quickly. You really only need seconds on each side, so they don’t turn too dark. They are thin enough that they will cook through. And of course, you should avoid overcrowding the pan.

Prepping and cooking the asparagus

As noted in the recipe, for this dish you should cook the asparagus until fully tender, but not mushy. Not the crisp tender texture that many of us moderns prefer. Asparagus is famously hard to cook evenly as unless you’re working with pencil thin stalks, the tips cook faster than the base.

Those purpose made asparagus cookers (which also work well for boiling long pastas) are ideal for the job. You only add as much water as you need to cover the base of the stalks, they boil while the tips gently steam. If you don’t have one, that’s alright, as you’ll be chopping the stalks anyway. You could also trim off the tips and cook the stalks for a few minutes before adding them.

In any event, do trim off the base of the asparagus, the part that isn’t green. And unless you’re working with very thin asparagus, it’s a good idea to peel the stalks starting perhaps a quarter of the way down from the tip.

Variations

If you want something a bit more substantial, you could add cooked ham, either shredded or cut into cubes, to the batter along with the chopped asparagus.

You could also try using a few spoonfuls breadcrumbs instead of flour to thicken the batter. If you add enough breadcrumbs to form a very thick batter, then let it rest for say 15 minutes, you could from patties you can then fry like a hamburger. Omit the baking powder.

If you prefer, you can make a eggless batter with 200g (7 oz) flour and enough fizzy water or beer to achieve the right consistency. You can omit the baking powder here, too, as the carbonation provides enough lift. Leave the pre-cooked asparagus stalks whole, then dip them in the batter and fry them until golden brown on both sides, and you’ll have asparagi fritti sometimes called asparagi in camicia (asparagus in a shirt) rather than frittelle.

If you like a cheesier fritter, the ricotta batter used in our recipe for zucchini blossom fritters also works very nicely with chopped asparagus.

And speaking of which, this recipe works beautifully with other spring vegetables such as fava beans or peas. Braise them with butter and shallot until tender, adding water as needed, then, after they’ve cooled off a bit, add them to the batter and proceed per the main recipe.

Making frittelle di asparagi ahead

Like all fried food, these frittelle are at their best if fry them right when you’re ready to eat and serve them up nice and hot. Here another old (Neapolitan) saying comes to mind, frijenne e magnà! or fry and eat. There’s wisdom in that old saying, as fried foods are at their crispy best right off the skiilet. You can of course make the batter and cook the asparagus in advance so you have everyting ready for frying beforehand. The actual frying only will take a few minutes.

That said,while they will have lost their crispy texture, any leftover frittelle will still be very tasty indeed. You could also try ‘waking them up’ by airfrying them for a coule of minutes before serving.

Print

Frittelle di asparagi

Asparagus Fritters

Course Antipasto, Snack

Cuisine Italian

Keyword fried

Total Time 30 minutes minutes

Servings 6

Calories 109.2kcal

Ingredients

• 500 g 1 lb green asparagus
• salt to taste

For the batter:

• 4 eggs
• 3-4 Tbs all purpose flour or as much as needed
• 25 g 1 oz freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano (or more to taste)
• freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 tsp baking powder optional
• salt and pepper

For frying:

• Vegetable and/or olive oil

Instructions

Prepare the batter

• In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs and cheese.
• Add the flour a spoonful at a time, until you have a medium dense batter, about the texture of a pancake mix. Then add the baking powder and season with salt and pepper, and a good scrape of nutmeg.
• Mix well and let the batter rest for at least 30 minintes.

Cook the asparagus

• While the batter is resting, trim the asparagus stalks of their tough bottoms and, if on the thick side, peel their skins.
• Boil or steam the asparagus in well salted water until fully tender, about 10 or even 15 minutes for thick stalks.
• Drain the asparagus and let cool.

Batter and fry the asparagus

• When the asparagus is cool enough to handle, chop the stalks into short lengths.
• Add the chopped asparagus to the bowl with the batter and mix well.
• In a skillet or sauté pan, heat enough oil to come up at least 1 cm (1/2 inch) from the bottom.
• When the oil is hot but not smoking, drop in the battered asparagus in spoonfuls, spacing them well so they have room to fry rather than steam.
• Once golden brown on one side, turn the fritters over and brown the other side. Proceed in batches until you’ve used up all the batter.
• Serve while still warm, sprinkled with salt to taste.

Nutrition

Calories: 109.2kcal | Carbohydrates: 6.7g | Protein: 7.4g | Fat: 6.3g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1.9g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1.9g | Cholesterol: 112mg | Sodium: 1344.6mg | Potassium: 217.1mg | Fiber: 1.9g | Sugar: 1.7g | Vitamin A: 820.9IU | Vitamin C: 4.7mg | Calcium: 126.8mg | Iron: 2.6mg

The post Frittelle di asparagi (Asparagus Fritters) appeared first on Memorie di Angelina.

Once a poor man’s food, Italian cookery—the traditional kind at least—is replate with all sorts of ways of preparing it. We’ve seen a few here on Memorie di Angelina: lesso (simply boiled and dressed with olive oil), mantecato (simmered and puréed), alla napoletana, simmered in tomato sauce with garlic, capers and olives, battered and deep fried, in guazzetto (simmered in tomato sauce with raisins and pine nuts), in zimino (simmered with greens) and con ceci (paired with chick peas)… the list is practically endless.

Here’s yet another way to prepare baccalà, this one from Naples: baccalà con i peperoni, a particularly toothsome pairing of salt cod with roasted bell peppers. You fry fillets of salt cod until golden brown, then braise them with strips of roasted pepper in a simple tomato sauce for just a few minutes, until everyting gets acquainted.

At today’s prices, salt cod is no longer a poor man’s dish. Maybe that’s why, at least here in North America, it has almost disappeared from our tables. But even if it’s become a rare treat, baccalà still has a special place on my table, because it’s absolutely delicious.

And if baccalà is not your thing, no worries. The recipe works beautifully with fresh cod fillets or, for that matter, any other fish that tempts you.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

For frying the salt cod:

• 1 kilo (2 lbs) salt cod, pre-soaked
• All purpose flour, as much as you need
• Vegetable oil, as much as you need
• salt and pepper

For roasting:

• 6-8 bell peppers

For making the sauce:

• 1 small (400g/(7 oz) can of tomatoes, passed thtough a food mill
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, peeled and lightly crushed
• olive oil
• salt

Optional:

• A few fresh basil leaves
• A handful of black olives

Directions

Prep and fry the salt cod

Rinse the salt cod of its surface salt and then leave it to soak overnight in several changes of cold water, in the fridge. (See Notes below for details.)

Rinse the salt cod well and pat it dry. Cut it into serving pieces. Season them with salt and pepper.

Lightly flour the cod pieces and shallow fry them in oil until golden brown on both sides. Set aside until needed,

Roast the peppers

Roast the peppers on a rack in a hot (200C/400F) oven (use convection if you have it) until the peppers are lightly charred on all sides, about 15-20 minutes, turning them from time time.

Remove the peppers from the oven. (Use tongs as they will be very hot). Wrap them in aluminum foil, seal up the foil, then cover with a towel. Let rest for about 10 minutes.

Remove the towel and open the aluminum foil, then split the peppers open to release the steam inside. Let them rest until coll enough to handle.

Cut the peppers in half and remove the inner core and seeds. Then gingerly scrape off their skins, taking care not to tear the flesh, and cut them into strips.

Make the tomato sauce

In a sauté pan or casserole, very gently sauté the garlic cloves in abundant olive oil until they are just beginning to brown around the edges.

Add the tomato and a good pinch of salt. Simmer until the tomato has reduced into a saucy consistency, about 10-15 minutes. Add the basil leaves about 5 minutes before it’s done.

Finish the dish

Lay the salt cod pieces in the sauce along surrounded by the pepper strips. Sprinkle in the olives if using.

Simmer everything together for about 10-15 minutes, turning the salt cod pieces over just once.

Serve hot.

Notes on baccalà con peperoni

There are a number of steps involved in this recipe, as we saw above, but each step is really quite easy. The roasting of the peppers is perhaps the only fussy bit, and even that isn’t terribly hard once you’ve done it a couple of times.

Salt Cod

Where I live salt cod is getting ever more dificult to find, but there is still one supermarket (and one Spanish deli) in the area that carries it. It can also be purchased online. Once dirt cheap, salt cod is rather expenisve these days. It costs close to $20 a pound at stores near me and $30 online.

Soaking times for salt cod can vary wildly, but typically 24 hours in cold water will do the trick. Or 48 hours if you prefer a milder flavor. But do check the packaging or ask you fish monger to be sure. Some lightly salted baccalà require a much shorter soak. Once it has soaked overnight, taste a tiny bit of the fish every 8 hours or so to see if it’s to your liking. It’s ready when the flesh is flexible (but still rather firmer than fresh cod) and palatable but still a bit briny.

Peppers

This summer vegetable can be had all year round these days. But of course this dish will be at its very best when peppers are in season. You can use all red peppers, or both red and yellow, or, my preferance, a colorful combination of different colors. The choice is really up to you. If you’re roasting your peppers, they should be quite fleshy. If you’re worknig with thinner peppers, it’s a better idea to fry them (see below).

You can also use store bought roasted peppers and save yourself the trouble of roasting them yourself. But if you do, look for peppers that are not packed in vinegar—unless you’re fond of acidic tastes. In truth, even without vinegar store bought roasted peppers taste a bit acidic since they are treated with ascorbic acid. A good rinsing helps.

Variations

Francesconi has a recipe for baccalà con i peperoni where you add the pre-soaked cod pieces directly into the sauce to braise without prior frying. Personally I find the frying adds a lovely rich flavor, but feel free to skip that step if you like.

She also has you slice and fry the peppers (separately) instead of roasting them.

Valentina Harris in her lovely cookbook Recipes from an Italian Farmhouse, also has a rendition of this dish. Her tomato sauce has an onion soffritto rather than a garlic one.

And speaking of the sauce, recipes vary quite a bit on how much sauce to use. Personally I go easy on the tomato so as to let the peppers shine. But if you want a saucier sauce, there are recipes where you use double the amount called for here or more. You can use leftover sauce to dresss pasta.

Making baccalà con i peperoni ahead

This is a dish that lends itself well to making ahead. When you’re ready to eat, just thin out the sauce a bit with water and bring the dish back to a gentle simmer for say, 5 minutes. You can also save time by roasting the peppers ahead. I usually do the day before while I”m soaking the salt cod. Once you’ve done those two steps, you can whip the dish up the next day in less than 30 minutes.

Print

Baccalà con i peperoni (Salt Cod with Bell Peppers)

Course Main Course

Cuisine Campania

Keyword braised, fried, roasted

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour

Servings 4

Calories 173.2kcal

Ingredients

For frying the salt cod:

• 1 kilo salt cod pre-soaked
• All purpose flour as much as you need
• Vegetable oil as much as you need
• salt and pepper

For roasting:

• 6-8 bell peppers

For making the sauce:

• 1 small can tomatoes passed thtough a food mill
• 2-3 cloves garlic peeled and lightly crushed
• olive oil
• salt

Optional:

• A few fresh basil leaves
• A handful of black olives

Metric – US

Instructions

Prep and fry the salt cod

• Soak the salt cod overnight in several changes of cold water, in the fridge. (See Notes below for details.)
• Rinse the salt cod well and pat it dry. Cut it into serving pieces. Season them with salt and pepper.
• Lightly flour the cod pieces and shallow fry them in oil until golden brown on both sides. Set aside until needed,

Roast the peppers

• Roast the peppers on a rack in a hot (200C/400F) oven (use convection if you have it) until the peppers are lightly charred on all sides, about 15-20 minutes, turning them from time time.
• Remove the peppers from the oven. (Use tongs as they will be very hot). Wrap them in aluminum foil, seal up the foil, then cover with a towel. Let rest for about 10 minutes.
• Remove the towel and open the aluminum foil, then split the peppers open to release the steam inside. Let them rest until coll enough to handle.
• Cut the peppers in half and remove the inner core and seeds. Then gingerly scrape off their skins, taking care not to tear the flesh, and cut them into strips.

Make the tomato sauce

• In a sauté pan or casserole, very gently sauté the garlic cloves in abundant olive oil until they are just beginning to brown around the edges.
• Add the tomato and a good pinch of salt. Simmer until the tomato has reduced into a saucy consistency, about 10-15 minutes. Add the basil leaves about 5 minutes before it’s done.

Finish the dish

• Lay the salt cod pieces in the sauce along surrounded by the pepper strips. Sprinkle in the olives if using.
• Simmer everything together for about 10-15 minutes, turning the salt cod pieces over just once.
• Serve hot.

Nutrition

Calories: 173.2kcal | Carbohydrates: 11.3g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 14.5g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1.8g | Monounsaturated Fat: 10.2g | Sodium: 1769.4mg | Potassium: 387.4mg | Fiber: 3.8g | Sugar: 7.5g | Vitamin A: 5591.4IU | Vitamin C: 229mg | Calcium: 16.9mg

The post Baccalà con i peperoni (Salt Cod with Bell Peppers) appeared first on Memorie di Angelina.

Iconic as it may be, the dish is actually quite straighforward to make. You prepare risotto alla milanese much as you would a basic risotto in bianco. But it has two defining ingredients that give it its unique flavor and character. Famously, one is saffron, which lends it a beautiful gold color, as well as its knickname risotto giallo or yellow risotto.

Fewer people know, however, that a traditional risotto alla milanese also includes beef marrow. The marrow lends a beefy background flavor to the dish, as well as a subtle richness and unctuousness. The ingredient is so characteristic of the dish that I have seen it listed on menus in Milan as risotto al midollo. (The word ‘midollo‘ being Italian for bone marrow.)

Risotto alla milanese is commonly served together with ossobuco, as a piatto unico. It’s one of the very few examples of rice serving as a side dish in traditional Italian cookery. But it is equally wonderful on its own as aprimo piatto.

Ingredients 

Serves 4-6 people

For making the soffritto:

• 40-50g (3 Tbs.) butter (plus a bit more for the mantecatura)
• 40-50g (1-1/2 or 2 oz.) bone marrow, removed from the bone (see Notes) and finely chopped
• 1 onion or 2 shallots, finely chopped

For toasting the rice:

• 400g (14 oz.) rice for risotto, preferably Carnaroli or Vialone Nano (see Notes)
• A splash of white wine

For the simmer:

• 1 liter (1 qt.) broth, approximately, as needed
• A pinch of saffron threads or two small packets of saffron powder

For the mantecatura:

• 50-60g (2 oz) grated parmesan cheese, plus some more to serve at table
• A good knob of butter

Instructions

Grind the saffron threads in a mortar and pestle, then add warm water or broth. Let infuse for at least 15 minutes, better if longer. (See Notes) If using saffron powder, smply dissolve it in warm water or broth.

Prepare the soffritto

Sauté the onion or shallots and chopped bone marrow very gently in the butter until the marrow has melted and the onion has softened and turned traslucent.

Toast the rice

Raise the heat to medium and add the rice. Let it sauté in the soffritto until it turns a chalky white. Take care that neither the onion or the rice browns.

Add a splash of white wine and let it evaporate.

Simmer the rice in broth

Proceed with the risotto in the usual way, adding a ladleful of broth to the rice and simmering until it evaporates. Then add another ladle at a time, repeating the process until your rice is al dente.

About halfway through the cooking process (or if you prefer a more assertive flavor, about 5 minutes before the rice is done) add the saffron and its soaking liquid. Continue to cook as usual.

The final mantecatura (butter and cheese enrichment)

While the rice is stlll fairly brothy, turn off the heat and add the grated parmigiano-reggiano and a knob of butter.

Stir the rice around vigorously for a minute or two, until the butter and cheese have completely melted into the rice and the rice has developed a creamy texture.

Pour on to a serving dish and serve right away.

Notes on risotto alla milanese

The usual tips on making risotto apply. See our post Risotto: The Basic Recipe for details.

I personally prefer my risotto alla milanese—all risotti if I’m honest—quite loose or all’onda as the Italians call it. But if you like a tighter texture, you can let your risotto rest covered for a minute or two before serving.

Choosing your rice

As for the rice, we’ve covered the three main varieties before, but to recap: Arborio, which is the easiest to find here in North America and usually least expensive of the three, will certainly work. But Carnaroli is the more typical choice. You will also find recipes calling for Vialone nano, which is an excellent risotto rice typical of the Veneto but also grown around Mantova in Lombardy . For details on the different types of risotto rice, check out my post on the Italian Pantry and Risotto: The Basic Recipe.

On Saffron

Saffron, as we all know, it very expensive, but a little goes a long way. It is sold in threads (the stigma of the crocus flower) or ground into powder. For purists, threads are the way to go, but for best results don’t add them directly to the dish. Per the recipe above, grind them first in a mortar in pestle. Then soak the resulting powder for at least 15 minutes in hot water or broth. The long the better. Several hours is typical. In fact, some cooks recommend overnight, though that strikes me as overkill.

If you go with store bought saffron powder, do be sure it’s actually saffron. Some powders are plain fake or include extraneous ‘filler’ or substitute ingredients. While not strictly necessary, I usually dissolve the powder in hot water or broth before adding it, though unlike the threads it doesn’t need soaking.

Bone marrow

All bones have marrow, of course, but there are particular good marrow bones (also often called soup bones). You can buy them sawed in half to expose the marrow. With the increasingly popularity of bone broth and the trendy appetizer roasted bone marrow, it is easier to find marrow bones than it once was. Still. where I live, I need to either ask my butcher to split a marrow bone for me or go to an Asian supermaket to find them.

To prepare bone marrow for use in risotto, I like to simmer the marrow bones for just a minute or two to loosen the marrow a bit. You can also roast it in a hot (200C/400F) oven for say 5-10 minutes. Then, using a small spoon or knife, scrape out the marrow from the bone. Depending on how long you’ve simmered or roasted the bone, the marrow may also just slip out on its own.

Now for those of you who may be a bit squeamish about bone marrow, it can be left out of the dish. I’d recommend adding some additional butter during the mantecatura to make up for it. What you will have made is more properly called risotto allo zafferano rather than a true risotto alla milanese—but it will still be delicious.

Broth

In a risotto as simple as this one, homemade broth is (almost) a must. Traditionally the broth is made from beef, but I actually prefer a slightly lighter broth. made with mix of chicken and beef. Its lighter color also lends a brighter gold color to the risotto.

Cooking fat

The traditional cooking fat for making a risotto alla milanese is butter. That said, many modern recipes call for oil for making the soffritto, with a knob of butter for the mantecatura at the end. The difference in taste is pretty negligible.

Using a Pressure Cooker

Like other risotti, risotto alla milanese lends itself nicely to pressure cooking.

You proceed as above until the point where you add the wine and let it evaporate. Then, instead of adding the broth little by little, you add all the broth in one go—a good rule of thumb here is two parts broth for each one part rice by volume—then cover and pressure cook the rice for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and let it rest for 2 minutes, then release the pressure.

You then proceed to the final mantecatura. If the rice has absorbed all the broth, add a small ladleful or so to loosen it, along with the butter and cheese.

Now, of course, with this method you can’t add saffron midway through simmering. I usually add it along with the broth, so the saffron has a good chance to infuse the rice, but for a more saffron-forward risotto alla milanese, you could add it when you open the pot after pressure cooking, perhaps letting simmer for a minute or two before the final mantecatura.

Variations

While the basic recipe for risotto alla milanese is quite stable across recipes, there are a good number subtle variations to this dish you can try out as you like:

The broth

• The broth is typically a rich beef broth. But I usually use a mixed meat broth. You could also use a chicken broth or a vegetable broth, or even lightly salted water.

The soffritto and toasting the rice

• I’m also quite fond of using shallot instead of onions for the soffritto.
• To avoid burning or browning, some chefs toast the rice and sauté the onion separately. They then add the sautéed onion to the rice (or vice versa) before proceeding with the wine. With this method, the rice is sometimes toasted dry, i.e. without any fat.
• In a variation on the above, the famed Milanese chef Gualtiero Marchesi would sauté the onion separately, adding white wine and allowing the onion to simmer in the wine until creamy. He would then add the resulting onion cream to the rice just before serving. He said it lent ‘acidity and aroma’ to his risotto.
• According to some sources, the original recipe for risotto alla milanese omits the wine.

The bone marrow

• As noted above, not all recipes for risotto alla milanese call for bone marrow. But if you omit it, purists will say you should call your dish a risotto allo zafferano.
• A foodie friend told me about a deliciously different way to use the bone marrow: Rather than adding it to the soffritto, you roast the bone marrow in a very hot (230C/450F) oven for 10-15 minutes, then use the roasted marrow instead of butter during the mantecatura. This lends a rich and beefy umami flavor to the risotto.

And, for a really different take on risotto alla milanese, you could try composer Giuseppe Verdi’s version. Among other things, he added his cheese midway through simmering and the saffron at the very end of cooking, just before serving.

Video Recipe

Now if you want to see me and my fellow blogger Lolly Martyn (Weeknights in Italy) demo two different methods for making risotto, you can check out our video on Substack.

A Brief History of Risotto alla milanese

Risotto alla milanese is an ancient dish, with its origins going back to the Middle Ages.

One legend has it that it was invented during the construction of the Duomo, by a glassmaker named Valerio di Fiandra. He was nicknamed ‘Zafferano’ (Saffron) because he used to color his stained glass using that spice. Well, one day he decided to flavor his risotto with his favorite spice—and the rest is history. Other sources trace the recipe further back, to the Middle Ages and kosher cookery imported to Milan by Sicilian merchants.

The first written recipe we have dates only to 1829, in a cookbook entitled Nuovo cuoco milanese economico, written by Giovanni Felice Luraschi. His recipe includes, in addition to saffron of course, beef both bone marrow and sausage. He called it risotto giallo in padella, a knickname which, as noted at the top, is still used.

Making ahead and leftovers

Like all risotti, you should eat your risotto as soon as you make it. Even after a few minutes, it loses its lovely creamy texture. That said, if you must, you can prepare the rice halfway through simmering, while the rice is still very underdone. Remove the saucepan from the heat and lay the rice out in a thin layer on a baking sheet so it cools down quickly. When you’re ready to eat, put the rice back in a saucepan along with a ladleful of hot broth and finish the dish. It will probably have cooked further as it cools, so it may not need much if any further simmering. In that case you can proceed directly to the final mantecatura.

Leftover risotto alla milanese can be made al salto, which is to say fried in butter on both sides to form a kind of pancake.

Print

Risotto alla milanese

Milanese Style Risotto

Servings 6

Calories 378.1kcal

Ingredients

For making the soffritto:

• 40-50 g butter (plus a bit more for the mantecatura)
• 40-50 g bone marrow, removed from the bone finely chopped
• 1 onion or 2 shallots finely chopped

For toasting the rice:

• 400 g rice for risotto preferably Carnaroli or Vialone Nano
• A splash of white wine

For the simmer:

• 1 liter broth approximately, as needed
• 1 pinch saffron threads or two small packets of saffron powder

For the mantecatura:

• 50-60 g freshly grated parmesan cheese plus some more to serve at table
• 2 Tbs butter

Metric – US

Instructions

• Grind the saffron threads in a mortar and pestle, then add warm water or broth. Let infuse for at least 15 minutes, better if longer. (See Notes) If using saffron powder, smply dissolve it in warm water or broth.

Prepare the soffritto

• Sauté the onion or shallots and chopped bone marrow very gently in the butter until the marrow has melted and the onion has softened and turned traslucent.

Toast the rice

• Raise the heat to medium and add the rice. Let it sauté in the soffritto until it turns a chalky white. Take care that neither the onion or the rice browns.
• Add a splash of white wine and let it evaporate.

Simmer the rice in broth

• Proceed with the risotto in the usual way, adding a ladleful of broth to the rice and simmering until it evaporates. Then add another ladle at a time, repeating the process until your rice is al dente.
• About halfway through the cooking process, or if you prefer a more assertive flavor, about 5 minutes before the rice is done, add the saffron and its broth. Continue to cook as usual.

The final mantecatura (butter and cheese enrichment)

• While the rice is stlll fairly brothy, turn off the heat and add the grated parmigiano-reggiano and a knob of butter.
• Stir the rice around vigorously for a minute or two, until the butter and cheese have completely melted into the rice and you’ve developed a creamy texture.
• Pour on to a serving dish and serve right away.

Nutrition

Calories: 378.1kcal | Carbohydrates: 56.9g | Protein: 7.7g | Fat: 12.8g | Saturated Fat: 7.3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3.1g | Cholesterol: 30.2mg | Sodium: 870.4mg | Potassium: 88mg | Fiber: 2.2g | Sugar: 2.3g | Vitamin A: 705.9IU | Vitamin C: 1.4mg | Calcium: 107.6mg | Iron: 3mg

The post Risotto alla milanese (Milanese Style Risotto) appeared first on Memorie di Angelina.

It’s a dish where ingredients that often turn up in southern Italian cookery as supporting flavorings—anchovies, capers and olives—take on the starring role as a savory dressing for pasta. You could see this dish as a kind of tomatoless spaghetti alla puttanesca. But it goes a step further—once dressed, the pasta is fried on both sides, just like an egg frittata, until it forms a golden crust. With tons of umami and a lovely contrast of textures between the crunchy crust and delicate interior, frittata di scammaro is simple but delicious. Fasting never tasted so good…

The following recipe comes from Jeanna Caròla Francesconi’s classic La cucina napoletana. She got her recipe for frittata di scammaro from the famed 19th century Neapolitan gastornome Ippolito Cavalcanti’s La cucina teorica-pratica, one of the most important compendia of Neapolitan cookery and our first written source for this recipe. It’s said to have been a favorite of actor and playwright Edoardo de Filippo, who I’ve written about in this post.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

• 500g (1 lb) vermicelli, spaghetti or spaghettini
• 1-2 cloves of garlic, peeled and lightly crushed
• 50g (2 oz) anchovy fillets
• 75g (2-1/2 oz) black Gaeta style olives, roughly chopped
• 50g (2 oz) capers, well rinsed and squeezed dry
• A few sprigs of fresh parsley, finely minced
• olive oil
• salt

Optional:

• 25g (1 oz) pine nuts
• 25g (1 oz) raisins, soaked in warm water until soft and squeezed dry

Directions

Cook and dress the pasta

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to the boil. Add the pasta and cook until al dente.

Meanwhile, in a skillet, gently sauté the garlic until just lightly brown around the edges. Remove and then add the anchovies, capers and chopped olives, and (if using) the pine nuts and raisins. Let them sauté gently as well, just until the anchovies have melted. Then turn off the heat.

When the pasta is done, transfer it to the skillet and toss, together with the minced parsley.

Fry the frittata

Now heat another skillet preferably non stick of seasoned carbon steel. When it’s hot, drizzle in some olive oil, then add the pasta and its dressing.

Even out the pasta as much as you can, then let it fry undisturbed until it forms a golden brown crust on the bottom, just like you would an egg frittata. Try to brown the bottom as well as the sides as evenly as you can manage, tipping the skillet if need be to brown the sides if the pasta is particularly thick.

When the bottom has browned nicely, flip the frittata over and, after adding another drizzle of oilve oil to the skillet, brown it on the other side as well.

Serve

Slide the frittata onto a serving plate and serve while still warm or at room temperature.

Notes on frittata di scammaro

The usual tips on making a frittata also apply here. See this post for details.

While you don’t need to worry about cooking the insides as you would an egg frittata, do try to judge the heat so the pasta forms a nice golden crust without actuallly burning. So as with an egg frittata, low to moderate heat in best. And while you should mostly leave the pasta alone as it browns, you can peek underneath from time to time by lifting the edge with a spatula.

Francesconi provides rather detailed instructions about how to brown this frittata evenly, telling you to tip and rotate the skillet so each part of the bottom and sides gets direct contact with the flame. Obviously this isn’t strictly necessary if you’re cooking on an induction cooktop or have a gas cooktop with ringed burners. But if your frittata is rather thick, you may still find you need to tilt the skillet to brown the sides.

The only real tricky part of making a frittata di scammaro, just like an egg frittata, is flipping it over once it’s browned on the bottom. There are a few different ways to go about it. See my pointers in this post, but I would not use the broiler method for this kind of pasta.

As for the measurements, take them with the proverbial grain of salt. When it come to the anchovies, olives and capers in particular, I’ve given you Francesconi’s measurements as a reference, but I’d just eyeball it to your taste. And speaking of salt, do be careful to salt the pasta water only lightly in this case, as the flavorings are all quite savory.

Pasta

You make this frittata with long pasta shapes like vermicelli, spaghetti or spaghettini aka ‘thin spaghetti’. Francesconi’s recipe calls for vermicelli, a pasta shape typical Neapolitan cookery. It is very much like spaghetti but for those who only know it abroad, be aware that in Naples vermicelli are actually a bit thicker, not thinner, than regular spaghetti.

Do not attempt to make a frittata di scammaro with short pasta. It would no doubt taste good, but without egg to bind it, the frittata will just fall apart.

Anchovies

Anchovies come packed either in salt (sotto sale) or olive oil (sott’olio). Salted anchovies are packed whole, they generally come in large cans They need to be rinsed of their salt, then filleted. Oil packed anchovies come in fillets, so you can use them right out of the jar or can, drained of their excess oil.

Either kind of anchovy will do for making a frittata di scammaro. There are those who say salt packed anchovies are superior to those packed in olive oil. But while there are admittedly some poor quality canned anchovies around, I don’t find there to be much difference—provided you look for oil packed anchovies from a quality brand like Delfino or Agostino Recca. Here in North America, you can also find some excellent Spanish anchovies in oil, like those from Ortiz. One telltale sign: better quality anchovies usually come in jars rather than cans.

Capers

In Italian cookery, the most famous capers come from the small volcanic island of Pantelleria between Sicily and Tunisia, which enjoy indicazione geografica protteta or IGP status.

Capers come packed in salt or brine. Here I find that the ones in salt, though harder to find, really are superior for most uses, including this one. The prized Pantelleria capers are always sold sotto sale. Salt packed capers taste, well, of themselves while brine packed capers taste mostly of their brine, quite vinegary. While both will do, if you can find salt packed capers go for them. Here in North America, you can find a large 1 kilo jar of salted Pantelleria capers on this website and a smaller half kilo packet from my old reliable resource, Alma Gourmet. They’re not cheap, but they will last you for quite a while.

Variations

I haven’t been able to identify too many variations on the recipe, other than the optional addition of pine nuts and raisins. Personally I’ll go with Francesconi and leave them out, though she says that the original Cavalcanti recipe had them. Here’s the text of his recipe, little changed from today’s recipe:

Scauda tre rotole de vermicielle, ma teniente, teniente (ben al dente), li scule e li buote dinto a no tiano (recipiente) co tre mesurielle d’uoglio zoffritto co miezo quarto d’alice salate e pepe, quanno l’aje mbrogliate e asciuttate, ne miette na mità dinto a la tiella (padella) e nge miette na mbottonatura (ripieno) d’aulive senza l’osse, de chiapparielle (capperi), d’alice salate a meza a meze, passe e pignuole (uvetta e pinoli), nge miette l’auta mmità de li vermicielle e nge farraje fa la scorza (crosticina) sott’e ncoppa (sotto e sopra), facennola friere co la nzogna (sugna) o co l’uoglio.

I’ve made a few minor adjustments to Francesconi’s recipe. She tells you to sauté the olives and capers as well as the parsley before adding the anchovies. Personally, I don’t think they need to extra cooking.

By the way, the pasta itself is perfectly delicious dressed and left unfried. And if you add some tomato and perhaps a bit of hot red pepper and let them simmer together with the seasonsings before throwing in your pasta, as alluded to at the top, you’ll have a lusty dish of spaghetti alla puttanesca.

About that name ‘scammaro’

The name of this dish has an interesting monastic back story. Back in the day, Lent was a time for Catholics to abstain from meat and other rich foods. That was, of course, also true in monasteries. Older and sick monks were exempted from the fast but they had to stay in camera—in their cells—so as not to tempt the others.

Well, in old Neapolitan dialect the word for the standard Italian word camera was cammaro (camera in standard Italian). And if you’ve studied Italian, you’ll know that an initial s- in a word often (but not always) is a negative signifier a bit like dis- in English (to which it is related). So a scammarato was a monk who wasn’t confined to his cell—in other words, among those who were obligated to observed the Lenten fast. Over time, the word scammaro came to mean Lenten foods in general.

Making frittata di scammaro ahead

You can make this entirely ahead and serve at room temperature if you like. In fact, I find it tastes even better after a short rest.

Print

Frittata di scammaro

Neapolitan Lenten "Omelette"

Course Primo

Cuisine Campania

Keyword fried, meatless

Servings 6

Calories 463.8kcal

Ingredients

• 500 g 1 lb vermicelli, spaghetti or spaghettini
• 1-2 cloves of garlic peeled and lightly crushed
• 50 g 2 oz anchovy fillets
• 75 g 2-1/2 oz black Gaeta style olives, roughly chopped
• 50 g 2 oz capers, well rinsed and squeezed dry
• A few sprigs of fresh parsley finely minced
• olive oil
• salt

Optional:

• 25 g 1 oz pine nuts
• 25 g 1 oz raisins, soaked in warm water until soft and squeezed dry

Metric – US

Instructions

Cook and dress the pasta

• Bring a large pot of well salted water to the boil. Add the pasta and cook until al dente.
• Meanwhile, in a skillet, gently sauté the garlic until just lightly brown around the edges. Remove and then add the anchovies, capers and chopped olives, and (if using) the pine nuts and raisins. Let them sauté as well just until the anchovies have melted. Turn off the heat.
• When the pasta is done, transfer it to the skillet and toss, together with the minced parsley.

Fry the frittata

• Now heat another skillet preferably non stick of seasoned carbon steel. When it’s hot, drizzle in some olive oil, then add the pasta and seasonings.
• Even out the pasta as much as you can, then let it fry undisturbed until it forms a golden brown crust on the bottom, just like you would a frittata. Try to brown the bottom as well as the sides as evenly as you can manage, tipping the skillet if need be to brown the sides if the pasta is particularly thick.
• When the bottom has browned nicely, flip the frittata over and, after adding another drizzle of oilve oil to the skillet, brown it on the other side as well.

Serve

• Slide the frittata onto a serving plate and serve while still warm or at room temperature.

Nutrition

Calories: 463.8kcal | Carbohydrates: 67.1g | Protein: 13.6g | Fat: 15.9g | Saturated Fat: 2.1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3.2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 9.3g | Cholesterol: 5mg | Sodium: 1603.7mg | Potassium: 287.9mg | Fiber: 3.8g | Sugar: 2.5g | Vitamin A: 66IU | Calcium: 43.1mg | Iron: 2mg

The post Frittata di scammaro (Neapolitan Lenten Pasta “Omelette”) appeared first on Memorie di Angelina.

As simple as it is, this salad produces a beguilingly complex combination of contrasting colors, textures and flavors—the crunch and slight bitterness of the scarlet red radicchio, the sweet/sour of plump orange wedges, the chewy nuttiness of the walnuts and the silky, peppery bite of the olive oil.

It’s a salad I make often this time of year. I made it the other day for a friend who came for lunch, and it occurred to me that I’d never bothered to blog about it. Maybe because it’s so utterly simple, almost a non-recipe. But the combination is worth noting and, like many simple dishes, there are still some a few pointers to keep in mind including your choice of ingredients.

And if you like to mix things up, there are multiple ways to dress it up with additional components, dressings and toppings. 

Ingredients

Serves 4-6 as an antipasto or side

• 2 heads of radicchio
• 2 oranges
• A handful of walnuts, to taste

For the dressing:

• best quality olive oil
• salt, preferably fine sea salt

Directions

If using radicchio Treviso tardivo as pictured here, trim off the bottom and separate the slender leaves. If using the round Chioggia or most other varieties of radicchio, cut the head in quarters, trim off the core, then cut the leaves into strips.

Arrange the radichio leaves on individual serving plates or in a salad bowl.

Peel the orange and trim off any stray filaments and pith. Separate the sections (you can cut each section in half lengthwise if very large) and arrange them on top or in between the radicchio leaves.

Crumble the shelled walnuts in your hand and sprinkle them here and there.

Drizzle with the olive oil, then sprinkle with salt to taste.

Serve right away.

Notes on insalata di radicchio arance e noci

There’s a saying in Italian that to dress a salad properly, you should be spendthrift with the oil, miserly with the vinegar and judicious with the salt. The saying certainly applies here, though you can be such a miser that you omit the vinegar altogether if you like. The oranges already provide the touch of acidity that vinegar would bring to the table, so to speak. And for me at least, it is enough. But if you do want a bit more acidity, do be discreet.

For more on dressing salads all’italiana, see this post.

Otherwise, as with any recipe as simple as this, the result will depend on your choice and the quality of ingredients.

Choosing and prepping the radicchio

Any type of radicchio you please will work, including the commonly found round Chioggia radicchio. But personally I love this salad made with Treviso, which has more delicate leaves. This time of year, you’re likely to find the unusual Treviso tardivo, with its slender leaves pictured here. They make for an even more visually striking salad.

As detailed in this post, radicchio comes in all sorts of shapes and sizes. You will prep each type slightly differently but the aim is always to end up with leaves that will blend well with your orange sections. The slender leaves of a Treviso tardivo need only be cut from the core and separated, but the larger leaves of a Treviso precoce or the common Chioggia will need to be cut into pieces. A Castelfranco, on the other hand, can be handled very much like a head of lettuce, with the leaves left whole or, if very large, torn with your hands.

Choosing and prepping the orange

Again, any type of orange will do. Orange varietals tend to be very local, but here in North America I find that the Sumos or Cara Caras are both lovely choices. They have lovely sweet favor and also peel and separate easily. You could also go with clementines or mandarin oranges.

But good old standard Navel oranges will also work just fine—but since their peel won’t come off easily, you’ll need to peel them with a knife. Trim off a bit of the top and bottom, then place the trimmed orange on a cutting board and trim off the skin by running the blade right under the sking from top to bottom. See this video for a demonstration.

Speaking of which, especially if you’re working with an orange that doesn’t separate easily, you can slice them across the grain into rounds if you prefer rather than separating the sections. Or use a knife to remove the sections by inserting the blade between sections. It’s fussy work but not difficult. Here’s a quick demo.

It’s important to remove most if not all of the pith (the white stuff under the zest) that clings to the peeled orange, as it is very bitter. But for me at least, I find a little bit of pith adds character, so I’m not meticulous about it.

Choosing the olive oil

Best quality extra virgin olive oil is critical to the success of the dish. The oil won’t just add a silky texture, but also flavor. You can follow your personal preference here, but I like a fruity oil with a rather peppery finish, which compliments well the radicchio and orange. My favorite olive oil tend to come from Puglia and Sicily.

Variations

Switching up the type of radicchio and orange already makes this a pretyy variably salad. But there’s more you can do to vary this salad:

• You can add more components to the dish. A few green lettuce leaves, for instance, or perhaps some watercress, add yet another color to the palette. A few strips of fennel adds white and a lovely anice scent.
• You could also vary the topping. Instead of or in addition to the walnuts, you could sprinkle of some pomegrante seeds.
• As for the dressing, if you want a bit more acidity, you could sprinkle a bit of white wine vinegar (not too much) or freshly squeezed lemon or orange juice. Some recipes have you make a proper vinaigrette. Freshly ground pepper adds a bit of spice. Best of all in my book, a drizzle of balsamic vinegar marries beautifully with the taste of radicchio and orange and lends a visually striking touch.

Making the salad ahead

You can arrange the components for your insalata di radicchio arance e noci ahead of time, then dress it right before serving. A few recipes will actually have you macerate the radicchio in a vinaigrette, something that doesn’t appeal to me, but I imagine that the sturdy leaves of a Chioggia would stand up fairly well to that treatment, at the cost of some of their crispness.

Print

Insalata di radicchio arance e noci

Radicchio Orange and Walnut Salad

Course Antipasto

Cuisine Italian

Keyword easy, quick, raw

Total Time 15 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Calories 105.9kcal

Ingredients

• 2 heads of radicchio
• 2 oranges
• A handful of walnuts to taste

For the dressing:

• best quality olive oil
• salt preferably fine sea salt

Instructions

• If using radicchio Treviso tardivo as pictured here, trim off the bottom and separate the slender leaves. If using the round Chioggia or most other varieties of radicchio, cut the head in quarters, trim off the core, then cut the leaves into strips.
• Arrange the radichio leaves on individual serving plates or in a salad bowl.
• Peel the orange and trim off any stray filaments and pith. Separate the sections (you can cut each section in half lengthwise if very large) and arrange them on top or in between the radicchio leaves.
• Crumble the shelled walnuts in your hand and sprinkle them here and there.
• Drizzle with the olive oil, then sprinkle with salt to taste.
• Serve right away.

Nutrition

Calories: 105.9kcal | Carbohydrates: 8g | Fat: 8.4g | Saturated Fat: 1.1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1.7g | Monounsaturated Fat: 5.3g | Sodium: 1744.4mg | Potassium: 129.3mg | Fiber: 1.7g | Sugar: 6.2g | Vitamin A: 147.9IU | Vitamin C: 34.9mg | Calcium: 29.4mg

The post Insalata di radicchio arance e noci appeared first on Memorie di Angelina.