"piano - piano " news
In
these gloomy, gray, cold days, we desperately need some sun rays !!!!
What
better than going back to Sorrento, then ??? The
limoncello, Capri, Pasquale and Marisa, pizza ???
Don’t
you feel already better ??
Well, maybe we cannot physically go there right now, but it’s easy to reproduce a bit of Sorrento sunshine :
let’s
go to the kitchen !!!!
SCIALATIELLI !!!!
First
of all, the SCIALATIELLI
(
pronounce = shalatallee ) it’s a typical Sorrento home made pasta.
They look like a sort of “ fettuccine “ but they are shorter ( about 4 - 5 in. long ), wider (about 0.4 in. wide ), a bit thicker and – obviously – they have to be fresh.
It’s easy to prepare them :
Ingredients
for 4 people : 
14
oz of regular white flour ( the one for pizzas )
4 oz of milk
1
egg
3
fresh basil leaves
3-4
extra virgin olive oil spoons
2-3
teaspoons of parmesan cheese
2
pinches of regular salt
1
pinch of black pepper
1
generous glass of chilled, Italian white wine
On a clean table, heap flour and dig a hole in the center. Drop there egg, milk slowly and start to knead.
After a minute, add the basil very thinly cut ( remember the curved Italian knife “ mezzaluna “ ? ,
USE
IT !!!! No mixers !!! ), salt,
pepper, olive oil and cheese.
Keep working the dough for another couple of minutes, then let it rest for half an hour, covered with a clean cloth.
Wash
your hands, seat down and treat yourself with the generous glass of chilled
white wine. Very important ingredient. Occasionally,
red is tolerated.
Return
to the dough, possibly on your feet.
Make
sure the rolling pin you are now going to use has no traces of husband’s
organic cells ( skin, hair, etc. ) as
in this part of the world this tool is very often used to settle family matters.
Flatten the dough with the rolling pin ( maybe spread a bit of flour under dough, just to make sure it doesn’t stuck ) in order to reach a regular oval shape about half centimeter thick ( say about 0.2 in.). Fold it about 5 in. wide.
Whit
a large knife, cut stripes about 1 cm ( 0.4 in ) wide. Shorten the longer
stripes to 4 - 5 in.
So,
you have the SCIALATIELLI !!!!
To
dress them you have about half a million sauces, everything depends on your
taste and on how much wine you have left in the bottle to think about.
I
offer you a choice : BOSCAIOLA
( with
vegetables ) and AMALFITANA
( with seafood ).
BOSCAIOLA
(
vegetables ) sauce :
Ingredients
for 4 people :
3
oz of chopped onions or garlic
4
oz extra virgin olive oil
5
oz porcini mushrooms
5
oz fresh or canned peas
5
oz zucchini
10
oz chopped fresh tomatoes
1,5
oz chopped celery
1,5
oz parsley
a
couple of fresh basil leaves
half
glass of white whine ( for the sauce )
1
generous glass of white wine ( for yourself )
1
pinch of red chilly ( if desired )
salt to taste
Fry gently the garlic ( or onion ) and red chilly in a pan with the olive oil. When turned into beige color, add one by one in the following order : porcini mushrooms, peas, zucchini, celery, tomatoes, basil, parsley, white wine.
Salt
according to your taste.
Let
it go – gentle fire – for 15/20 mins.
In
a large pot, heat plenty of water. When boiling, add sea salt and drop the
scialatielli an cook them with strong fire for 3 – 4 mins.
Rinse
them and mix with the sauce in a large bowl.
You
can choose yourself when drinking your glass of whine.
If you forgot exactly when that happened, have a second one and note it down.
AMALFITANA
(
seafood ) sauce:
Ingredients
for 4 people :
1,4
Ib of fresh mussels and clams ( with shells !!!)
5
oz of cleaned fresh shrimps
9
oz of fresh clean young cuttlefish
10
oz cherry tomatoes
0,8
oz salted capers and green olives ( your dentist would suggest with pits, I
would go for no )
1-2
spoons of extra virgin olive oil
2-3
cloves of chopped garlic
fresh
chopped parsley
half
glass white wine ( for sauce )
1 generous glass white wine ( for yourself )
On
a very large pan, fry garlic on gentle fire in the oil. Add all sea food and
cuttlefish cut in small pieces.
Then
drop the cherry tomatoes and let it go for 2-3 mins covered. Add capers and
chopped olives.
Add
white wine and let it go for 4-5 mins open.
By
then, have the Scialatielli just rinsed and drop them in the pan and let
it go for 1 more minute.
Spread
fresh thinly cut parsley.
Serve very hot.
If
your guests are not ready, well, too bad for them. Eat it all and de-freeze a
pizza for them.
They
do not deserve any better.
White wine for yourself right at the beginning. Just to make sure not to forget it.