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Made in Sicily. Giorgio Locatelli
Читать онлайн.Название Made in Sicily
Год выпуска 0
isbn 9780007457229
Автор произведения Giorgio Locatelli
Жанр Кулинария
Издательство HarperCollins
Traditionally snails would be purged, then blanched in boiling water, then put into a fresh pan of boiling water and simmered for an hour. Then they would be drained and eaten either with zogghiu, a light sauce of garlic, mint, lemon juice and olive oil (zogghiu), or alternatively just with olive oil, parsley and garlic; or olive oil with lemon juice or vinegar, seasoned with sea salt, freshly ground black pepper and a little oregano.
The whole Sicilian pleasure seems to come from sucking the snails from the shells, and licking the greasiness from the shell. I remember when some English people were sitting in Vittorio’s restaurant, delicately trying to eat with toothpicks and forks. Ever the showman, he went over and said, ‘no, you don’t do it like that’. He picked up a snail, cracked a little hole with his teeth on the other side of the snail from the opening, so that the air would come through, then sucked the snail straight out. He was so proud of his trick and everybody loved it. But I did see him behind the restaurant afterwards spitting out bits of shell!
This recipe is originally from Palermo, where snails are the traditional street food served on the feast day of St Rosalia, the patron saint of the city.
Serves 4
a little flour, wheat or oats
900g small edible land snails (Helix aspersa)
4 ripe plum tomatoes
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
a pinch of dried chilli flakes (optional)
2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley or basil
If the snails have not already been purified, put them into a large basket with a net over the top that will let them breathe, but stop them escaping. Put some flour, wheat or oats into the basket. The snails eat this, and if you leave them for 24–36 hours, anything from the ground they have been eating will pass through their systems and they will excrete all the impurities. Wash them carefully, then put them into a pan, cover them with cold water and bring to the boil. Once they have boiled, take the pan off the heat and drain the snails in a colander.
Put the tomatoes into a pan of boiling water for 10 seconds, then drain them under cold water and you should be able to peel them easily. Cut them in half, scoop out the seeds with a teaspoon, and chop the flesh.
Heat the olive oil in a pan and cook the onion gently until soft but not coloured. Add the snails, still in their shells, and stir them around a little, then add the tomatoes, salt, black pepper, chilli flakes if using, and parsley or basil. Stir carefully, cover with a lid and cook for 30 minutes.
Arancini Rice balls
Northern Italians pride themselves on producing the rice that feeds Italy; however, rice was actually introduced to Europe through the Arabs in Sicily and Spain. There were paddy fields around Sambuca and Sciacca, where the river Verdura gave good swampy conditions, until the Spanish transferred the major production to northern Italy where there was more water and the perfect habitat.
The paddy fields are not there any more, and there is very little rice in Sicilian cooking. Risotto, the staple of northern Italy, with its technique of making a base of onions, toasting the rice, adding wine, stirring in the stock ladleful by ladleful, then beating in cheese and butter, doesn’t really figure at all, perhaps because rice cooked in this way is more of a warming food against the colder weather in the north. The only traditional kind of risotto you are likely to see in Sicily is a seafood one (Risotto alla marinara). However, Sicilians love arancini: balls of rice, made golden with saffron, moulded around a filling of fish or meat and peas, and deep-fried. The name, which means ‘little oranges’, comes from their shape and golden colour, and they have that sturdiness and self-contained look of an orange that conceals its beauty inside.
There is an idea that arancini reflect the Arab influence, in that this is the way they would have eaten, taking some rice with their hands, and using it to scoop up some meat or fish, but I can also imagine that as time went on the arancino fulfilled the same function as the Cornish pasty: it was a meal inside a casing, one that was easy to transport with you when you went to work in the fields or on the fishing boats, and it was easy to eat too … so these arancini would have been quite big. However, if you are making them at home, especially as an antipasto, you don’t want to spoil everybody’s dinner, so it is best to make little ones.
As always all over the island you will find variations in the filling. Mostly you would just use whatever you had, such as chopped leftover roast meat and vegetables, but traditionally in Catania they like to use ragù, with peas and a little cheese – my favourite. In Enna, arancini might be filled with chicken livers in a white wine and tomato sauce, and in Ragusa they mix some tomato sauce into the rice, and then put cheese and peas inside – these are known as arancini rossi.
In my region of Italy, Lombardy, we have adopted arancini, but we make them with leftover saffron risotto, whereas the Sicilian way is to boil the rice in water with saffron added. It is just a different way of arriving at a similar result. When you make a risotto, you are constantly moving the grains of rice around the pan and by doing this you scratch the surface and help to release the surface starch, known as amylopectin, which makes the rice creamy and can sometimes change the shape of the grains. The way the Sicilians do it, the starch stays inside a bit more, and the rice retains its ‘soul’, its inner shape, but by boiling it in the right quantity of stock or water it will absorb all the liquid as it cools down gently, and by the time it is completely cold it will be very sticky – it is a similar idea to Thai sticky rice, made with jasmine rice.
The ‘due zie’, the two aunties in the Planeta family (our friends at the wine and olive oil estate), who are in charge of the cooking for big events, and are really accomplished, very knowledgeable and academic cooks, insist that it takes two days to make good arancini. You must cook the rice and the meat one day, and the rice must cool down naturally and rest for at least twelve hours so that it becomes glutinous.
One time when I was at Planeta I asked one of the aunties: ‘What is the right ratio of water to rice?’ She took down the big pan that is always used for arancini and, pointing at it, she said, ‘This much rice, and this much water.’ ‘But have you never tried to weigh it, so you know how much water you need?’ ‘No, why would I?’ she asked. ‘This is the only pan we ever use.’ What is more, sometimes they cook for 600 people when they are entertaining at Planeta, and if they are making arancini, do they use lots of pots? No, the same one, about twenty-five times!
Note: The Sicilian way is to dip the arancini into pastella (batter) before dusting them with breadcrumbs, which gives them a really crunchy outside once they are deep-fried. I know a kilo of breadcrumbs for coating the arancini seems a lot, and you won’t use them all, but you really need a big mound of them in order to roll the arancini in them and get them properly encrusted.
Seafood rice balls
Makes about 10
It’s best to cook the rice the day before you want to use it – once it has cooled, keep it in the fridge.
1.6 litres fish stock or water
500g arborio rice
5g salt
a pinch of good-quality saffron threads (about 15)
60g pecorino cheese, grated
about 1kg fine breadcrumbs