1 seven-ounce can imported tuna packed in olive oil
Extra virgin olive oil
Choice quality red wine vinegar
Black pepper, cracked fairly coarse
Put the beans and onion into a serving bowl, sprinkle liberally with salt, and toss. Drain the tuna and add it to the bowl, breaking it into large flakes with a fork. Pour on enough oil to coat well, add a dash of vinegar and a generous quantity of cracked pepper, toss thoroughly, turning over the ingredients several times, taste and correct for seasoning, and serve at once.
Seafood Salad
IN SUMMER, in Italy, seafood salads are everywhere, on every buffet table, on every fish restaurant’s list. They are hard to pass up because when they are good, they are very, very good. Unfortunately, they are sometimes trotted in and out of refrigerators more often than one would rather know, and are totally lacking in that vibrant, fresh taste that is their whole reason for being. The only road a seafood salad should travel is directly from the kitchen to the table with no overnight stops or detours through the icebox. The best reason for making it yourself at home may just be to be able to control that.
For 6 to 8 servings
½ pound whole squid
1 pound octopus tentacles (see note below)
2 medium carrots
2 medium onions
2 stalks celery
¾ pound unshelled small to medium shrimp
Wine vinegar
Salt
¼ pound sea scallops
1 dozen littleneck clams
1 dozen mussels
1 sweet red bell pepper
1 large garlic clove
6 black, round Greek olives and 6 green olives in brine, pitted and quartered
¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
Extra virgin olive oil
Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
Marjoram, ½ teaspoon if fresh, ¼ teaspoon if dried
Note Of the ingredients listed, octopus tentacles is the only one not regularly available at most fish markets. Fishmongers in Italian neighborhoods have it, and so do those who supply Oriental cooks. If possible, try to include it in your salad because its fine, firm consistency adds considerably to the variety of the dish. It is not indispensable, however, and if unavailable, proceed without it.
1. Clean the squid as described, then cut the sacs into rings ½ inch wide or slightly less, and separate the tentacles into two clusters.
2. Separate the octopus tentacles into single strands, soak them in cold water, and peel off as much of their skin as will come off. Cut them into disks a little narrower than ½ inch.
3. Peel and wash the carrots, peel the onions, wash the celery.
4. Wash the shrimp in cold water, but do not shell it.
5. Using two separate pots, put 1 quart water, 2 tablespoons vinegar, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 carrot, 1 onion, 1 celery stalk into each pot, cover, and bring the water to a boil. When the water is boiling rapidly, drop the squid rings and tentacles in one pot, the octopus in the other. Drain the squid when its color changes from shiny and translucent to a flat white, which will take just a few minutes. The octopus will take a little longer. Drain it when it too is flat white in color, but first cut into one of the thicker pieces to make sure it is that flat color throughout.
6. Put 2 quarts water in a saucepan together with 2 tablespoons vinegar and 1 teaspoon salt, cover, and bring to a boil. Drop in the shrimp, and when the water resumes boiling, cook for 1 minute, or a few seconds less if they are very small. Drain, and as soon as they are cool enough to handle, shell and devein them. If they are very small, leave them whole; otherwise cut them into rounds about ½ inch thick.
7. Wash the scallops in cold water. Into a small saucepan put 2 cups water with 1 tablespoon vinegar and ½ teaspoon salt, cover, bring to a boil, and drop in the scallops. After the water resumes boiling, cook for 1½ to 2 minutes, depending on their size. Drain and cut into ½-inch cubes.
8. Wash and scrub the clams and mussels as described. Discard those that stay open when handled. Put them in a pan broad enough so that they don’t need to be piled up more than 3 deep, cover the pan, and turn on the heat to high. Check the mussels and clams frequently, turning them over, and promptly remove them from the pan as they open their shells.
9. When all the clams and mussels have opened up, detach their meat from the shell. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the shellfish meat to a bowl. Tip the pan, gently spoon off the liquid from the top without stirring that on the bottom, and pour it over the clam and mussel meat. Add enough to cover.
10. Allow the clams and mussels to rest for 20 or 30 minutes, so that they may shed any sand still clinging to them, letting it settle to the bottom of the bowl. In the meantime, prepare the sweet pepper and the garlic. Split the pepper open to expose and remove the pulpy core with all the seeds. Skin the pepper raw with a swiveling-blade peeler, and cut it into strips about ½ inch wide and 1 inch long. Mash the garlic with a knife handle, splitting and removing the skin.
11. Retrieve the clam and mussel meat with a slotted spoon, and put it in a serving bowl together with the shrimp, squid, octopus, and scallops. Add the bell pepper, the quartered olives, the lemon juice, and enough oil to coat well, and toss thoroughly. Taste and correct for salt and lemon juice, add several grindings of pepper, the mashed garlic clove, and the marjoram. Toss again very thoroughly. Allow to steep at room temperature for at least 30 minutes. Before serving, take out the garlic, and toss the salad once or twice, turning over all the ingredients.
Rice and Chicken Salad
For 4 to 6 servings
Salt
1 cup long-grain rice
1 teaspoon mustard, Dijon or English style
2 teaspoons choice quality red wine vinegar
⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil
½ cup imported fontina cheese OR Swiss cheese diced very fine
½ cup round, black Greek olives, pitted and cut into fine dice
2 tablespoons green olives in brine, pitted and cut into fine dice
1 red or yellow sweet bell pepper, core and seeds removed, and cut into fine dice
3 tablespoons sour cucumber pickles, preferably cornichons, cut into fine dice
1 whole boiled breast of chicken, skinned and diced into ½-inch cubes
1. Bring 2 quarts water to a boil, add 1 tablespoon salt, then drop in the rice. When the water resumes boiling, cover, and adjust heat to cook at a gentle, but steady simmer. Stir the rice occasionally and cook until it is tender, but firm to the bite, about 10 to 12 minutes. Drain the rice, rinse in cold water, and drain well once more.
2. Put the mustard, salt, and vinegar into a serving bowl. Blend them well with a fork, then add the oil, beating with the fork to incorporate it into the mixture.
3. Add the drained rice and toss it with the seasonings. Add all the other ingredients, toss thoroughly, turning over the salad components 4 or 5 times, and taste and correct for seasoning. Serve at cool room temperature, but not out of the refrigerator.
Leftover Boiled Beef Salad
As FAR AS I am concerned, no beef dish is tastier than cold, leftover boiled beef. It may not satisfy quite the same wants as does a rib roast, a T-bone steak, or even the same cut when it was steaming in its broth, but it is light and fresh, and its flavor is wonderful.
For 4 servings
1 pound leftover boiled beef
Salt
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon wine vinegar OR freshly squeezed lemon juice
Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
1. Trim the meat of all loose bits of fat and skin. Put it in an airtight container just large enough to hold it, and refrigerate it. If the meat has already been sliced, fit one slice neatly above the other before putting it away, to leave as little surface exposed to the drying effects of air as possible. You can store it for as long as 3 days.
2. Take the beef out of the refrigerator at least 2 hours before you are going to u
se it. If the meat is still in one piece, slice it the very thinnest you can. Spread the slices on a serving platter, and season with salt, olive oil, turning the slices to coat them well, vinegar or lemon juice as you prefer, and several grindings of black pepper. Turn the slices over again, and serve when the beef has fully returned to room temperature.
Other Ways of Serving Sliced Leftover Boiled Beef
• Over a bed of raw finocchio or celery sliced very, very thin. Season as described above.
• Over a bed of arugula and peeled orange or grapefruit sections. Season as described above, using lemon juice.
• With lukewarm cannellini beans. Season as described above, omitting the vinegar and lemon.
• With ¼ cup tuna and capers mayonnaise in the style of Vitello Tonnato.
• With one of the green sauces, this recipe and this recipe, or Horseradish Sauce. Let the meat steep in the sauce for 2 to 3 hours before serving.
• With mayonnaise and mustard.
DESSERTS
Croccante—Italian Praline
Croccante is the darkest, crunchiest, and least sweet of pralines, an irresistible candy that outshines most desserts and is astonishingly easy to make at home. Serve it alongside the after-dinner coffee, or to visitors at any time they may drop in, stash some in a bag when you are going on a trip, or crush it and grind it and use it as topping for ice cream or to mix with the frosting of other desserts. You can store it for weeks in a tightly closed jar or wrapped in aluminum foil, but once you start nibbling it doesn’t last very long.
4 to 6 servings as candy, about 2½ cups if crushed
6 ounces, about 1½ cups, shelled almonds with their skins on
1 heaping cup granulated sugar
A large sheet of heavy-duty aluminum foil, spread flat on a counter and smeared with 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
A peeled potato
1. Drop the almonds into a pot of boiling water. Drain after 2 minutes, enclose them in a rough cloth dampened with cold water, and rub briskly for a minute or two. Open up the cloth, remove those almonds that have been skinned along with all the loose peels, and if there are still some nuts with their skins on, repeat the operation until they have all been peeled clean. Discard all the peels and chop the almonds very fine, using a knife, not the food processor, into pieces about half the size of a grain of rice.
2. Put the sugar and ¼ cup water into a small, preferably light-weight, saucepan. Melt the sugar over medium-high heat without stirring it, but tilting the pan occasionally. When the melted sugar becomes colored a rich tawny gold, add the chopped almonds and stir constantly until the almond and caramelized sugar mixture becomes a golden brown. Pour it immediately over the oiled aluminum foil. Cut the potato in two and use the flat side to spread the hot praline out very thin, to a thickness of about ⅛ inch.
3. If you want to use it as candy: Cut it into 2-inch diamond shapes before it cools. When completely cold, lift the pieces off the foil and put them in a screw-top jar, or into packets of foil, wrapped tightly, and store in a dry, cool cupboard.
If you want to use it for toppings: When it is completely cold, break it up into pieces, and grind them fine in the food processor. Store in an airtight jar, but do not refrigerate.
Bolognese Rice Cake
In Bologna, rice cake used to be made only at Easter, an occasion for lively rivalry among those families that claimed to have the most delicious and authentic recipe. The one given here came to me from those well-known Bolognese bakers, the Simili sisters, who unhesitatingly assured me theirs was the most delicious and authentic version. I leave the question of authenticity to those more willing than I to discuss it, but it is a fact that I have never had a better-tasting example of rice cake.
For 6 to 8 servings
1 quart milk
¼ teaspoon salt
2 or 3 strips lemon peel, the skin only, with none of the white pith beneath it
1 ¼ cups granulated sugar
⅓ cup rice, preferably imported Italian Arborio rice
4 eggs plus 1 yolk
½ cup almonds, blanched, skinned, and chopped, as described
⅓ cup chopped candied citron
A 6-cup square or rectangular cake pan
Butter for smearing the pan
Fine, dry, unflavored bread crumbs
2 tablespoons rum
1. Put the milk, salt, lemon peel, and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a moderate boil.
2. As soon as the milk begins to boil, add the rice, stirring it quickly with a wooden spoon. Adjust heat to cook at the slowest of simmers, and cook for 2½ hours, stirring from time to time. When done, the mixture will have become a dense, pale-brown mush. Most of the fine lemon peel should have dissolved, but if you find any pieces of it, take them out. Set the rice mush aside to cool.
3. Preheat oven to 350°.
4. Beat the 4 eggs and the yolk in a large bowl until all the yolks and whites are evenly blended. Add the rice mush, beating it into the eggs a spoonful at a time. Add the chopped almonds and the candied citron, mixing them in uniformly.
5. Generously smear the bottom and sides of the cake pan with butter. Sprinkle the pan with bread crumbs, then turn the pan over and give a sharp rap against the counter to shake off loose crumbs. Pour the mixture from the bowl into the pan, leveling it off. Place the pan on the middle rack of the preheated oven, and bake for 1 hour.
6. As soon as you take the pan out of the oven, while the cake is still hot, pierce it in several places with a fork, and pour the rum over it. When the cake is lukewarm, turn the pan over onto a serving platter and shake or tap it against the counter to work the cake loose. Serve rice cake no sooner than 24 hours after making it; if you let it mature for 2 to 3 days longer, its flavor will become even deeper and richer. To serve it in the traditional Bolognese fashion, cut the cake, before bringing it to the table, in a diagonally cross-hatched pattern that will produce diamond-shaped pieces about 2½ inches long.
Glazed Semolina Pudding
For 6 to 8 servings
Granulated sugar, ½ cup for the caramel plus ⅔ cup for the pudding
A 6-cup round, flameproof metal baking mold
2 cups milk
¼ teaspoon salt
⅓ cup semolina
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon rum
¼ cup assorted candied fruit, chopped into ¼-inch pieces
The grated peel of 1 orange
Heaping ⅓ cup seedless raisins, preferably of the muscat variety, soaking in enough water to cover
All-purpose flour
2 eggs
1. Put ½ cup sugar and 2 tablespoons water in the mold, and bring to a boil on the stove over medium heat. Do not stir, but tilt the mold forward and backward to move the melted sugar until it becomes colored a light nut-brown. Take off heat immediately and quickly tip the mold in all directions, while the caramelized sugar is still liquid, to coat the mold evenly. Keep turning the mold until the caramel congeals, then set aside.
2. Preheat oven to 350°.
3. Put the milk and salt in a saucepan and turn on the heat to low. When the milk comes just to the edge of a boil, add the semolina, pouring it in a thin stream, and stirring rapidly with a whisk. Continue cooking, stirring constantly, until the semolina and milk mixture comes easily away from the sides of the pan. Take off heat, but continue to stir for another half minute or so until you are sure that the semolina mixture is not sticking to the pan.
4. Add the ⅔ cup sugar, stir, then add the butter and rum and stir thoroughly. Add the candied fruit and grated orange peel, stirring to distribute them evenly.
5. Drain the raisins and pat them dry in a cloth towel. Put them in a strainer and sprinkle them with flour while shaking the strainer. When the raisins have been evenly and lightly coated with flour, add them to the mixture in the pan.
6. Break the eggs into the semolina mixture, beating them in rapidly with a whisk. Pour the mixture into the caramelized mold and plac
e it on the middle rack of the preheated oven. Bake for 40 minutes.
7. Take the pan out of the oven and allow the pudding to cool down. Then refrigerate it overnight. The following day, place the mold briefly on the stove over low heat, just long enough to soften the caramel. Take off heat, place a dish over the top of the mold, grasp the two tightly together with a dish towel, turn them over, and give the pan a few abrupt jerks against the dish until you feel the pudding loosen. Pull the pan away, unmolding the pudding onto the dish.
Glazed Bread Pudding
For 6 to 8 servings
Granulated sugar, 1 cup for the caramel plus ⅓ cup for the pudding
An 8-cup rectangular flameproof, metal cake pan or loaf pan
2½ cups good-quality stale white bread, trimmed of its crust, lightly toasted, and cut up
4 tablespoons (½ stick) butter
2 cups milk
½ cup seedless raisins, preferably of the muscat variety, soaking in enough water to cover
All-purpose flour
¼ cup pignoli (pine nuts)
3 egg yolks
2 egg whites
¼ cup rum
1. Put 1 cup sugar and 3 tablespoons water in the pan, and caramelize it, following the directions in Step 1 of the preceding recipe for Semolina Pudding.
2. Preheat oven to 375°.
3. Put the cut-up bread and the butter in a mixing bowl.
4. Put the milk in a small saucepan, turn the heat on to medium, and as soon as the milk forms a ring of tiny bubbles, pour it over the bread and butter. Do not stir, let the bread steep in the milk, and allow it to cool. When cool, beat it with a whisk or a fork until it becomes a soft, uniform mass.
5. Drain the raisins and pat them dry in a cloth towel. Put them in a strainer and sprinkle them with flour while shaking the strainer. When the raisins have been evenly and lightly coated with flour, mix them with the beaten bread mass.
Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking Page 63