Insalata Caprese

I guess I would be missing the boat, with a big picture of tomatoes at the top of this blog, if I didn't post one of those "here's what to do with some of those late-summer tomatoes" recipes.  But here's one of those "here's what to do with some of those late-summer tomatoes" recipe.  It's just a little recipe. Insalata Caprese is so refreshing and so simple you can make it with your eyes closed.  But I wouldn't do that because it involves a knife.  So keep your eyes open and your taste buds perked.  First a little background...

The lore of this salad: it was apparently invented on the Isle of Capri (hence the name) in the early 1950s.  But here the story thread diverges.  Some reports say the dish was designed at a local trattoria as a simple but tasty homage to Italy and it’s red, white and green flag. Another legend has it that the dish was made in honor of King Farouk who was living in exile in Italy during that time.  But non importa.  It belongs to all of us now!

Here in our family we put together this little jewel both at home in the U.S. and at our house in Italy.  We also order it in restaurants in Italy as a primo or first course. Though we prefer to have the cheesed served sliced, some restaurants in Italy serve Insalata Caprese with sliced tomatoes surrounded by a big ball of cheese.  Like this.

They really make you work for your dinner.

I’ve seen people add balsamic vinegar to this dish.  I’ve seen people sprinkle oregano on this dish.  To each his own.  But I think these additions compete with the subtle flavor of the tomatoes and mozzarella. Here’s how this dish is served most often in Italy and the way we serve it at home and have grown to love it.  

Ingredients

2 firm but ripe tomatoes

1 ball of mozzarella, the freshest available

6 - 8 fresh basil leaves

olive oil poured to taste

salt and pepper to taste

Directions 

Slice the tomatoes and mozzarella into 1/4-inch slices.  Arrange them alternately and overlapping on a plate.  

Wash and gently pat dry the basil leaves.  Sprinkle them over the tomatoes and mozzarella.

Pour olive oil over the salad.  Then salt and pepper it to taste.

Enjoy this dish with some sliced bread for mopping up the lovely juice that left.

This wonderful dish is about as simple as you can get.

Don't Forget Outdoor Entertainment

"All right...all right...but apart from better sanitation and medicine and education and irrigation and public health and roads and a freshwater system and baths and public order...what have the Romans done for us?"

                            ~Monty Python's "Life of Brian"

Saltimbocca alla Romana

Saltimbocca means "jump in your mouth" because the dish is just so good, that's what this recipe seems to do.

In this dish, thin slices of veal are "married" (maritati) with thin slices of ham, usually prosciutto, and a sage leaf.  All held together with a wooden toothpick.  They are then sauteed in oil, butter and white wine and that's when it just jumps in your mouth!  Simple as that.

 


The Romans consider saltimbocca a quintessential Roman dish.  However, the veal/ham marriage has popped up in various other regions of Italy in various other versions in the history of Italian cuisine.  I'm content to let these regions duke it out for claims as to the origin of this dish.  In the meantime, enjoy making this delicious 6-ingredient main course.

INGREDIENTS

1 pound of veal scalopini

1/4 pound of prosciutto

8-10 fresh sage leaves

1 tablespoon of butter

3 tablespoons of olive oil

1 cup dry white wine

salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

Place the veal between two sheets of plastic wrap and pound it thin with the smooth side of a meat pounder.  Cut the veal into separate pieces about the size of a playing card.   Then cut the prosciutto into similar size pieces.

Place a slice of prosciutto over a slice of veal and fasten a sage leaf to the top using a wooden tooth pick.

Melt the butter and oil in a frying pan.  Brown the saltimbocca quickly on both sides.   Since the meat is thin, browning time is short.  Salt and pepper the meat and add the wine.  Simmer for about 8 minutes.  

Remove the meat from the pan and boil down the liquid by about half.  Pour the pan juices over the meat and serve.

VARIATIONS:  This recipe is often made by rolling up the meat and then inserting the toothpick.  Also, if you like a thicker sauce, throw a pinch of flour into the pan as you boil down the juices.

In Vino Veritas

I recently remembered a small restaurant in Hollywood I used to go to years ago...okay, decades ago...with friends.  I cannot remember its name but I can reproduce the wine list from memory and here it is:

                                                            WINE LIST

                                                      1. Red

                                                      2. White
                                                     
                                                   Please order by number.



If anyone remembers this place too, please let me know.

                                         

ITALY CELEBRATES EASTER

My favorite café in Florence is Gilli, situated in Piazza della Repubblica.  The café was founded in 1733 as a confectionary shop and still sells wonderful pastries.  It’s a great and elegant place for a morning cappuccino and cornetto, a light lunch or people watching later in the day over an aperitivo.  It is not cheap.  But it is so wonderful to sit here and watch humanity stroll by.  Especially on a sunny day.

I love sitting here.  This is a picture of the back of one of the café’s outdoor chairs.

This vintage picture is so evocative, even though this young woman looks distinctly uncomfortable.

It’s the front picture of Gilli’s menu.  Here’s the full menu cover.  And a few lunch items inside.  I ordered the pici sienese.

  

I know it’s a little after-the-fact but I have some pictures of the way the Florentines celebrate Easter.   I took these photos at night through the window of Gilli’s.  My husband and I were charmed by these chocolate eggs.

 

And the baby chic with mom and dad tableau.  Sorry about the photo flash but my photography skills are evolving.

And these other delectable Easter treats.

I'll have to come back when the store is open!

Tuscan Beans and Tuna

Fagioli al Tonno

 

So the simple story goes something like this.  The Italians didn’t know beans about white beans until explorers brought them back from the New World, probably Mexico, in the 1500s.  Prior to that, the ancient Romans had cultivated black-eyed peas and Renaissance Italians enjoyed the broad bean or fava.  But the white fagioli, now know as cannellini beans, were new and considered fairly exotic.  The Italians were probably the first Europeans to eat them.

Clement VII received some of the first seeds because, well, he was the pope.  They were planted in Tuscany.  The story goes that when Clement’s relataive, Catherine de’ Medici (age 14), left for France in 1533 to marry Henry II (also age 14), her brother Alessandro gave her some cannellini beans to take with her as a wedding present.  No silver candelabra for her.  But these beans were very new and special and Catherine was a foodie.  She introduced the white bean to the French.  Question: would there be no cassoulet without Catherine?

Back in Italy, cannellini beans were such a hit they quickly became a staple in Tuscany.  Not just for the royal table, they were perfect as peasant food, la cucina povera. They were easy to cultivate, very nutritious and served simply with olive oil, garlic and sage.  The Tuscans were in love. And to this day the rest of Italy refers to Tuscans as i mangiafagioli, the bean-eaters.

This bean and tuna salad requires few ingredients and little time to prepare.  I made a double batch once for my daughter’s International Day at school and there wasn’t a bean left on the dish.  You can use dried beans and soak them overnight but that wouldn’t be simple and simple is what we’re all about. 

INGREDIENTS

2 1-pound cans of cannellini beans

1 6-ounce can tuna fish, preferably packed in olive oil (but if packed in

           water or vegetable oil then drain the can)

¼ cup slivered red onion

¼ cup olive oil

1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 tablespoons parsley, preferably flat-leaf

salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

Rinse and drain the beans, then spoon them into a shallow dish.  Fold in the tuna, breaking up the chunks as you fold.  Add the red onion and gently stir.

Mix the olive oil and lemon juice, pour over the bean/tuna mixture and again gently stir.

Salt and pepper to taste.  Sprinkle the parsley over the salad. Served chilled or at room temperature.

Note: If you want to cook dried beans, one pound of dried beans makes about 5 ½ to 6 cups of cooked beans.  Measure accordingly.

We barked up the right tree...

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Al Fresco dining at La Palazzina

Once there was a slab of tree that became a beautiful, well-used outdoor dining table. It now sits under the pergola at our home in Sansepolcro in eastern Tuscany, Italy. We asked master cabinetmaker, Arnaldo Granci, from an Umbrian town down the road Citta di Castello, to make us a table that would seat the whole family. When I first saw the wood, it was resting on two saw horses as an enormous slice from the center of a giant tree, bark still attached to the sides as you can see. Two days later, Arnaldo delivered it to our house complete with 12 chairs and a smile of triumph.  We can actually seat 14. We live around this table in the summer.