Sicilian cooking is not just opulence and extravagance. This dish of chards with tomatoes, garlic and peperoncino (chili pepper) is a good example of cucina povera: a handful of a few basic, cheap ingredients delivers a hugely satisfying contorno di verdura (vegetable side dish). “Giri” is how chards are named in the dialect of Palermo and “Assassunare” derives from the French “Assaisonner” which means “to season”: in Sicilian culinary terms when something has been sautéed in oil and garlic, to get impregnated with that lovely flavor, they say it has been “assassunatu”.
Tag: anchovies
Anatra in salsa (grilled duck with chopped salame, anchovies, garlic and a little vinegar)
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)”
Puntarelle in insalata (Puntarelle salad from Rome)
Puntarelle (pronounced poon-ta-REL-lay) is a winter bitter green. It is a member of the chicory family and it is also called catalogna or catalogna spigata. The slender leaves must be boiled/steamed and can be eaten warm as a side dish, with a trickle of olive oil or ri-passate in padella – that is to say, sautéed in oil, garlic and peperoncino. It is the inner crunchy shoots though that is the real reason Italians buy puntarelle – they make one of the best winter salads. Continue reading “Puntarelle in insalata (Puntarelle salad from Rome)”
Italian home cooking 