The taste
of coffee is not overwhelming. Rather, it blends beautifully with the other
ingredients conveying just a hint of smoky flavour. Served slightly warm this dish
will demonstrate that it’s possible to enjoy tasty “comfort food” in the heart
of summer.
Baked Black
Beans and Coffee
-
4
– 6 servings
Ingredients:
400 g black
beans
40 ml EVO
oil
1 garlic
clove, finely chopped
Celery – 10
cm of stalk plus leaves, chopped
3 onions,
peeled and halved
½ onion,
chopped
3 tomatoes,
peeled and chopped
1 tbsp
white wine vinegar
1 – 1 ½ tbsp.
brown sugar
300 ml light
coffee
Salt and
pepper
Soak beans
8 to 10 hours. Drain off water, rinse and put beans in a pot with plenty of
fresh water. Bring to a boil, lower heat, cover and cook gently for 20 – 25 minutes.
Drain beans saving the cooking water.
Preheat
oven to 160°C. Using an earthenware pot, heat oil over moderate heat. Add celery,
garlic and chopped onion. Cook until onion becomes translucent. Add tomatoes
and cook for 2 – 3 minutes more. Mix in brown sugar and vinegar. Add beans,
coffee and enough cooking water to just cover. Add salt and pepper to taste. Combine
gently with a wooden spoon. Place the
onion halves into the mixture with the cut side up. Cover pot and put in oven. Cook
for 1 ½ hours or until beans and onions
are tender. Serve with crusty bread.
Versione Italiana
Pasta with Potatoes is a simple dish of
humble origins invented in Naples. The original recipe dates back to the XVII
century and owing to its tastiness has become a very much appreciated classic
of Neapolitan cuisine. After the New World was discovered many plants were
imported to Europe and among these was the potato. The aristocracy and high
society were averse to this new aliment; instead the poor social classes, in
need of filling food, would cook it with tomatoes and pasta creating a delicious
and hearty dish.
Pasta mista has been used from the very
beginning –
a tradition that has been handed down from one generation to another – but
seeing the creaminess of the soup, tubetti or ditalini pasta are excellent
choices also.
(Pasta mista is a mixture of leftover pastas of different
types and shapes that by themselves are not sufficient for cooking a whole pot
of soup.)
In other
Regions of Italy it’s customary to boil the pasta separately adding it already
cooked to the prepared condiment resulting in a watery soup. On the contrary,
in Campania the pasta is cooked directly in the broth. The frequent stirring
that mashes the potatoes and the starch released from the pasta tends to
thicken the cooking liquid creating a thick velvety dish. To put it briefly, in
Naples Pasta with Potatoes is not a “brothy” soup but an almost pasta asciutta, i.e. a “dry” pasta dish.
My Signature Pasta with Potatoes
Ingredients:
3 medium
yellow potatoes (or 2 large)
1 onion
4 – 5 cherry
tomatoes
Celery –
about 15 cm of stalk plus leaves
EVO oil
Salt and pepper
200 g tubetti or ditalini pasta
100 g Provola cheese (not Provolone)
30 – 35 g Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, grated
Extra
grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese for plating
A handful
of basil leaves, shredded
Peel the
onion. Accurately clean the celery under running water, remove the fibrous
strings and roughly chop it with the onion. Wash the tomatoes and cut in
halves. Wash and peel the potatoes and cut into small cubes. In a saucepan,
heat 30 ml of oil, add the celery, onion and tomatoes and stir-fry a few
minutes over medium heat. Add the potatoes and continue to stir-fry a few more
minutes before adding 1 liter of water. Bring to a boil, cover the saucepan,
lower the heat and let simmer until the potatoes are tender, stirring
occasionally. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Bring broth
to a boil, add the pasta and cook over medium heat stirring frequently. If necessary,
add extra water but in small quantities at a time. When the pasta is “al dente”,
turn off the heat, add the diced Provola, basil, Parmigiano Reggiano and a
drizzle of EVO oil. Mix well, cover and let rest a few minutes before serving.
Once plated, sprinkle with extra Parmigiano Reggiano.
Octopus is
considered a star-status delicacy in many cuisines the world over, especially
Asian and Mediterranean. It is rich in essential minerals such as iron,
calcium, potassium and phosphorus but low in fat containing less than 70
Calories per 100 grams.
Cooked properly,
octopus is deliciously tender, sweet and juicy, vaguely reminiscent of the sea
and tending to make you think of lobster.
Cook it in
a simple manner using few ingredients as to not overwhelm its unique flavour,
and voilà, there it is Grilled Octopus in all its splendour.
Grilled
Octopus
Ingredients:
- Octopus –
cleaned and ready to cook
- Potatoes,
medium-sized
- Lemon
- Garlic, 1
clove – peeled and crushed
- Parsley,
finely chopped
- EVO oil
- Salt
- Pepper
(optional)
Rinse the
octopus and put it in a pot with boiling water. Cover, turn the heat to low and
simmer for 40 – 45 minutes for an octopus that weighs about 1 kg or for 20 – 30
minutes if it weighs less. Pierce with a fork to test for doneness being
careful not to overcook it otherwise it will become rubbery.
When the
octopus is cooked, turn off the heat and leave it in its cooking water. When cool,
take it out of the pot, divide the tentacles and put them in a bowl with the clove
of garlic. Drizzle with oil and leave to marinate stirring or tossing from time
to time.
Wash and
peel the potatoes. Cut each one lengthwise into 4 thick slices. (Allow 2 slices
per person.) Filter the cooking water through a strainer and use it to cook the
potatoes until just tender. Drain and transfer to a platter. Brush both sides
with oil.
In a bowl
prepare the dressing using 1 part lemon juice, 3 parts oil, parsley, a pinch of
salt and, if using, a pinch of pepper.
Drip off excess
marinade from the octopus and grill 3 minutes, flip it over and cook another 3
minutes. As soon as it’s cooked and still hot, put it in the bowl containing
the dressing. Toss well to thoroughly coat the tentacles. (Important: Dressing
the octopus while it’s hot will determine the success of the dish.) Now grill
the potatoes until they form a light crust on both sides.
To serve: Put 2 slices of potatoes on a plate. Place
the octopus on top and drizzle with the remaining dressing.
