My Italian food
Zaeti is Veneto dialect for the Italian gialletti, literally “the little yellow ones”. They are buttery, crumbly polenta (maize or cornmeal) biscuits, plump with raisins and you will spot them in patisseries and bakeries in Venice, Padua and other Veneto towns.
There are many versions, more or less rich, but they all share a charming culinary humbleness, which is one of the key marks of genuine Italian cooking. Continue reading “Zaeti (polenta and raisin biscuits from Veneto)”
This is dish from Veneto. The duck should be whole, roasted and then bathed with a lively garlicky, mildly vinegary sauce. I rarely “do” whole birds and I decided to use (easily available and convenient) duck breasts instead and to cook them a la piastra, i.e. on a griddle stone. This is almost a ten minutes dish: little work & high rewards on the taste front. Continue reading “Anatra in salsa (grilled duck with chopped salame, anchovies, garlic and a little vinegar)”
“Paparot”: This must be the most charming name for a dish – a substantial, garlicky soup from Friuli Venezia Giulia: spinach, corn/maize flour and sausage meat. It is one of those dishes where the final result is far greater than the list of its ingredients might suggest. The spinach is first cooked and chopped, then it is added to a base of lardo (or pancetta or butter), garlic and/or sausage meat. When the spinach has absorbed all these lovely, porky flavours (in Italian cookery terms, we call this all-important step insaporire, which translates as “to make tasty”), corn or maize flour is added and then water (or broth, if you have it). The soup is then cooked for a good hour. It’s quite basic, as you can see, and not much to look at, perhaps, but the flavour is very good, if you like this kind of rustic, elementary food. Continue reading “Paparot (Polenta and spinach soup from Friuli Venezia Giulia)”
One of the great pleasures of cooking Italian is that it offers an amazing array of culinary styles and it is not unusual even for the experienced cook to stumble across completely unheard of foods, recipes and dishes. Continue reading “Mlinci, an unusual corn pasta that is grilled and boiled”
I am not a great fan of potato gnocchi – I love to make them but I always find them dull to eat. I much prefer spinach gnocchi, ricotta gnocchi, bread gnocchi (called canederli) …and these delightful little carrot gnocchi, which I discovered few years ago in Marcella Hazan’s Marcella Says. Her recipe makes for wonderfully cheesy, bright orange morsels and it is a winner. Over time, however, I have strayed from it, Continue reading “Gnocchi di carote (Carrot gnocchi)”
Italian home cooking 