Sicilian mandarine and orange jelly: light and refreshing!

Do you know how to make a lovely parfumed Sicilian mandarine and orange jelly? This is the easiest thing in the world, it's delicious and perfect to refresh your mouth especially after having eaten a big meal and it's the best way to give vitamin C to your kids when they are too lazy to peel an entire orange!

Ingredients and preparation for 4 people:

1/2 liter of fresh mandarine and orange juice (about 6 mandarines and 8 oranges, but really depends on how big and juicy they are)

2 spoons of sugar

25 gr. fish glue

First of all, you need to obtain 1/2 liter of fresh mandarines and oranges juice, so you have to squeeze them carefully removing the pulp afterwards. If the juice is already mixed to a large quantity of pulp you can use a small colander to strain the juice.
Once you have your half liter, leave it aside for few minutes and in a medium sauce pan put a glass of water at room temperature and the thin sheets of fish glue. This is an eatable substance that looks like a small transparent sheet of paper. When you buy it, is hard, then you leave it 10 minutes in the water and becomes like jelly.

Once it is so, on a medium heat put your sauce pan with the fish glue that has melted in the water and stir slowly, it will melt completely!

Now it's the time to add our lovely squeezed juice and keep stirring. When the juice is still liquid but hot (it doens't have to reach the boiling phase) we can remove it from the heat and pour it in our bowl and let it cool off, stirring from time to time.

As soon as it's cold let's put it into the fridge and leave it there for at least 3 hours. After one hour or so, go and check if the "thing" is actually becoming a real jelly. Normally it sure does and you can enjoy the freshness and lightness of our Mediterrenean fruits. Enjoy!

Ps - Don't forget that if your oranges are particularly sweet or you just try to avoid sugar as much as possible, you can eliminate it, I prepared it many times without it and the result is still excellent!

A delicious spring pasta: Bronte's pistaches pesto & speck

Do you know what the pesto of pistaches is? It is a sauce made of mashed pistaches from Bronte, a town near Catania, and it is mixed with some salt, pepper and oil of olive. It is a product that people normally buy in supermarkets but I don't think you find it anywhere else out of Sicily.

The recipe that I am going to put is something my mum and I created on a sunday morning, while we were thinking about an original nice way to dress our pasta. We like to try combining different ingredients so we decided to use not only a Sicilian pistaches pesto but also some speck, which is a smoked Parma ham typical of the region of Trentino Alto Adige, up in the north, added some creamy cheese as well and it was just fabulous! We couldn't have a better result! 

So with a little more imagination we can say that Italy is united in this dish also in our three colors of the flag :) 

Ingredients & preparation for four people:

380 gr. penne rigate (or any other type of pasta you like)
4-5 tablespoons of pesto

80 gr. speck thinly sliced and chopped in pieces

2-3 tablespoons of creamy cheese (like Philadelphia or similar)

3-4 leaves fresh mint

some grated lemon zest
black pepper

Cook the penne as usual, adding salt when the water boils. While they are cooking, in another sauce pan or frying pan, put the chopped speck on a medium heat, after a couple of minutes add the pesto of pistaches and some hot water taken from the pasta, add the creamy cheese as well, a bit of black pepper, the leaves of mint and some grated lemon if you like them all and... voilà the sauce is ready!
As soon as the penne are cooked, drain and sautè them in the sauce pan with the dressing, mixing well all together. Sprinkle with Parmisan cheese on top and the whole of Italy is served right on your table! Delicious!!!

Local Expert Award ? The Sicilian Cuisine Blog is in!!!

This short post is to thank the website Charming Sicily to have awarded me with the title of 'Sicilian Local Expert'. It's always nice when somebody you don't know drops you a few lines to say how much appreciates your blog, but it's even nicer when somebody actually thinks you are worth getting an award, even if a virtual one!

To be honest with you, I have never felt like an expert, so I am particularly honoured, therefore I will treat it as very valuable indeed! Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart :-)))

Exquisite fava beans mash: the Sicilian "maccu"

Do you know what is the so-called "MACCO DI FAVE"? In Sicilian the word macco becomes maccu and is used to name an exquisite dish we prepare with dried and peeled fava beans. It is a mix between a thick soup and a puree, because when you cook fava beans they mash up and become an homogeneous soup. You can also have it with pasta, as one of our 'minestra'.

Here comes the recipe for 4 people:

250 gr dried peeled fava beans

3 ts tomato sauce
a small bunch of wild fennel (like 20% of the one in the pic)
3 ts extra virgin oil of olive
hot chili pepper (a little piece or half of it)
salt

Preparation:

First of all, wash the fennel under running water. In a pot on a medium heat put some water (about 1 litre) with the fava beans. As soon as the water starts to boil add salt, fennel cut in small pieces and half of a little chili pepper and reduce the heat at the minimum.

Let the beans cook slowly, stirring from time to time so that they don't get stuck at the bottom. To obtain the mash they have to cook about one hour all together, but it also depends on how water you put. If it's too much wait until the majority of it is absorbed by the fava beans. 
After the first 25 or 30 minutes, add the spoons of tomato sauce and olive oil. Finally, serve hot with grilled slices of rustic bread spread with a clove of garlic.
It's simple, it's healthy and delicious, everyone loves it and is also perfect for vegeterians. Can we ask for more? :-))

The period of Carnival: costumes and sweets galore!

Do you know what the Italian Carnival is? The Carnival in Italy is the period of festivity dedicated to the children and it always comes before the Lent, the forty days of Penitence that lead to Easter. In Sicily the most famous Carnival festivities are in Acireale (near Catania, the pic above), in Sciacca (near Agrigento), and in Termini Imerese (near Palermo). Normally people, above all kids, wear particular costumes, so it's quite common in these days to see walking little Supermen, cowboys, Robin Hoods or princesses along the street with their parents. So cute! 
At the table the Carnival is the period in which you really can get fat and enjoy food, infact traditional sweets are usually fried and we call it with a general word: "frittelle".  Frittelle means something sweet and fried.

To be more specific though, we have lots of stuff that we prepare: the most renowned in the whole of Italy are definetely the 'CHIACCHIERE', that means 'chats'. This crunchy sweets are called so because you eat one after the other while chatting.

By the way, I have to warn you that even if they are made all over the country in every region of Italy have a different name (cenci, galani) and shapes (rectangular, little knots), which is interesting but sometimes a bit confusing. In Sicily we call it chiacchiere and especially if homemade, they are delicious, because we add some parfumed liquoer, Marsala is usually the best and make them really special!

Here comes the recipe:

200 gr flour - 2 eggs - 20 gr caster sugar - 20 gr soft butter - 2 spoons of Marsala - a pinch of salt - oil of olive for frying.

In a bowl mix the flour with all the other ingredients: salt and sugar, butter and Marsala, then the 2 eggs previously beaten. Make the dough little by little, until it becomes elastic and homogeneous. Give it the shape of a ball, wrap it up with a kitchen cloth and leave it aside for about 30 minutes. Then, using the rolling pin, roll it out, but not too thick, about 1/2 cm. Now, you can cut it and make all the shapes that you want.

In a frying pan put some olive oil, when is hot enough fry the chiacchiere until they become gold-ish. Finally sprinkle icing sugar on top and serve still warm. You will chat a lot! Ahah... just exquisite!

The stuffed rustic bread in Sicily is called "pane cunzato"

Do you know what "pane cunzato" is? And how can we make it? Pane cunzato in Sicilian dialect means literally stuffed bread. When we talk about this preparation which is easy and delicious, we have to find out which are the secrets to make a great pane cunzato.

The first is obviously the bread: we use the long-shaped rustic one that in Sicily is called "filone". It is perfect because is soft inside but crispy outside. The second secret is obviously the oil. It must be rigourously extra virgin olive oil, seasoned with some salt and black pepper. If you have fresh rustic bread and a really good olive oil your pane cunzatu will be absolutely amazing. But it's not just that!

We also add, traditionally, three more ingredients: anchovies that give a strong taste, some slices of tomato that give softness and freshness in the mouth and an abundant sprinkle of oregano, which makes the different! So, if you are hungry and fancy some genuine Mediterranean taste, don't have to wonder what to prepare anymore. You know the answer!  :-) 

Enjoy! 

Reviews: "Four Seasons", the brand new restaurant in Lascari

Yesterday I spent a lovely day in Lascari, a small village near the more famous Cefalù, where there is a new born restaurant called "Four Seasons" that opened last december. Nice colors on the walls, attention to details and a warm and pleasant atmosphere make the customers at ease, but obviously what people will appreciate the most, are the superb and innovative dishes prepared by the young and talented Chef Giuseppe Di Cristina.

"Tortino di cavolfiore e patate" (mini-pie with cauliflower and potatoes), "Ravioli alla crema di formaggio" (ravioli with cheese sauce) and an amazing fillet with fresh porcini served on a slice of rustic bread, just to name a few, but I would like to spend two more words on a delicious first dish created by the Chef himself some years ago: "Risotto with green apple and scamorza", which is a local smoked tasty cheese. Just perfect! 

The desserts were fresh made as well and really enjoyable. (Here on the left the fabulous semifreddo with pistaches and dark melted chocolate on top!)

Another thing that I liked was the menù. Infact being called 'Four Seasons' the place has not only a menù with things that may be found all year around but also a second menù according to the current season, created to use the fresh products of the four seasons. And prices are reasonable too!

What else can I say then? It's new, it's good, if you pass by, just go there, you will have a great time!

Four Seasons - Ristorante Pizzeria
Via Alcide De Gasperi 15/b,
Lascari (PA)
Italy