Crema di pistacchi / Pistachio cream!

Anna's version / La versione di Anna

Lei l'ha fatto di nuovo. Ha deturpato la mia bacheca di Facebook. Scherzo: la mia amica blogghista Anna Benedetti (autrice di “Kiss the Cook”) mi conosce troppo bene. Quando sa che una ricetta mi conquisterà, lei la posta sulla mia bacheca, sapendo che mi distrarrà, una distrazione che potrò curare solo traducendola sul blog mio! Ancora una volta mi levo il cappello ad Anna. Questa ricetta è incredibilmente facile da fare, ed è incredibilmente gustoso. Un assaggio, e butterete via ogni barattolo di burro di arachidi in casa tua! CREMA DI PISTACCHI Ricetta di Anna Benedetti (“Kiss the Cook”) tradotta in inglese da Leonardo Ciampa Preparare in casa la crema di pistacchi non è per nulla difficile o complicato. Con poca fatica è possibile ottenere una crema buonissima, da utilizzare per farcire torte, brioches o semplicemente spalmare sul pane. Ingredienti 100 g di pistacchi non salati e pelati (oppure granella di pistacchi) 25 g di farina di mandorle 50 g di zucchero a velo (potete prepararlo in casa semplicemente frullando lo zucchero semolato con un frullatore o con un macinino da caffè elettrico) 1 bicchiere d’acqua [Io ho usato 125 ml, perché non ho dissolto lo zucchero prima. Altrimenti, usate 250 ml. – LC] 2 cucchiai di olio di arachidi o girasole [io olio di pistacchi! Costoso ma fenomenalmente gustoso! – LC] Preparation Preparatevi tutti gli ingredienti. Preriscaldate il forno a 150 C°. Foderate una teglia con carta da forno. Se avete acquistato pistacchi non pelati, prima di utilizzarli dovete metterli in acqua bollente per un minuto (solo immergerli, non cuocerli) e potrete così togliere con facilità la pellicina. Tostate i pistacchi nel forno per circa dieci minuti. (Sentirete un buon profumo di pistacchi.) Fate prima riscaldare e sciogliere lo zucchero in una padella insieme all’acqua, poi aggiungete i pistacchi tostati e fateli cuocere per tre minuti, mescolandoli. Mettete nel frullatore i pistacchi cotti (freddi) e la farina di mandorle. Frullate, a velocità media, per due minuti. Aggiungete l’olio e continuate a frullare per cinque-sei minuti. Ogni due minuti circa interrompete di frullare, e, aiutandovi con una spatola, togliete dalle pareti del bicchiere la “farina” di pistacchi. Frullate finché la crema avrà raggiunto la consistenza che vi piace, granulosa oppure liscia e cremosa. La crema si conserva in frigorifero per circa una settimana. [Io l'ho preparata in modo veloce: ho semplicemente messo tutto nel frullatore e l'ho frullato per alcuni minuti. Ed è uscita ancora delizioso! Questo dimostra che la ricetta di Anna è a prova di errore. – L.C.]

She did it again. She defaced my Facebook wall. I jest: my amica blogghista Anna Benedetti (author of "Kiss the Cook") knows me too well. When she knows that a recipe will captivate me, she posts it on my Facebook wall, knowing that it will distract me, a distraction that I can cure only by translating it on my blog! Once again I tip my hat to Anna. This recipe was incredibly easy to make, and it is indescribably tasty. One taste, and you will throw away every jar of peanut butter in your house! PISTACHIO CREAM Recipe by Anna Benedetti (“Kiss the Cook”) translated to English by Leonardo Ciampa Making homemade pistachio cream is not at all difficult or complicated. With very little effort, you can get a delicious cream, to be used to fill cakes or pastries, or to simply spread on bread. Ingredients 100 g unsalted pistachios, shelled (you can buy them already shelled and peeled) 25 g almond flour 50 g powdered sugar (You can make it at home simply by blending regular sugar in a blender or an electric coffee grinder.) 1 glass of water [I used 4 oz., because I didn't dissolve the powdered sugar beforehand. Otherwise, use 8 oz. – LC] 2 tablespoons peanut oil or sunflower oil [I used pistachio oil! Expensive, but phenomenally tasty! – LC] Preparation Get all the ingredients ready. Preheat the oven to 300° F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. If you have unpeeled pistachios, before using them you have to put them in boiling water for a minute (just dip them, don't cook them), so that you can easily remove the thin skins. [The skins are edible, however. – LC.] Toast the pistachios in the oven for about ten minutes. (You will smell a wonderful pistachio aroma!) In a skillet, heat and dissolve the powdered sugar in the water. Then add the roasted pistachios and cook for three minutes, mixing them. Into a blender, put the cooked pistachios (cold) and the almond flour. Blend at medium speed for two minutes. Add the oil and continue to blend for five to six minutes. Every two minutes, stop blending, and, using a spatula, scrape the pistachio mixture from the sides of the glass. Blend until the cream reaches the consistency you like, be it chunky or creamy The pistachio cream will keep in the refrigerator for about a week. [I did it the quick way: I simply put everything in the blender and blended for several minutes. And it was still delicious! Thus, Anna's recipe is foolproof. – L.C.]

Costoso, ma gustosissimo! Expensive, but extremely delicious!

Olli "Napoli": the Ultimate Salame

Photo: www.olli.com

Today, I made an extraordinary culinary discovery: a salame, made here in the US, that not only surpasses any other domestic salame that I've tried, but rivals the salami imported from Italy. 

That may seem like a large claim, but there are two reasons why it is credible:

(1) The company uses 160-year-old recipes and techniques of its founder, Oliviero "Olli" Colmignoli.

(2) Understand that any cold cuts that are allowed to enter the US must, alas, contain a certain amount of chemicals. Otherwise, the FDA would not allow them into this country.  Italian companies like Beretta, wonderful as they are, cannot export as pure a product as Olli offers.

Olli seeks to use the best available pigs in America. They are humanely raised. They are vegetarian. They are antibiotic-free. And the meat is slow-cured at very low temperatures which never exceed 72º F.

The word that came to mind when I first bit into this "Napoli" salame was balance.  The subtle smokiness (the salame is applewood-smoked), the wine (Sangiovese), the peppercorns, and the fennel are an ideal quartet of flavors.  There is no such thing as "perfect"; but this salame comes dangerously close.

Could I take issue with the name "Napoli"?  Sure.  Apple trees are not plentiful in warm Naples, where salami are smoked with chestnut wood, sometimes with the addition of hay for extra flavor.  If Neapolitans added wine to their salami, it certainly would not have been a Tuscan Sangiovese. And it is curious that the company recommends pairing Napoli not with Caciocavallo or Scamorza, but Taleggio, a famous soft cheese from the Alps!

But the name is the only criticism that could fairly be made of this outrageously delicious salame. There are good products, and there are products that improve the quality of your gastronomical life. Olli's salami fall in the latter category.

Olli™ Salumeria

Mechanicsville, Virginia

1-877-OLLI-YES

http://www.olli.com

Semolina Polenta!

(Cliccate qua per la versione italiana di questo post.)

Every so often, a culinary idea hypnotizes me and takes me to a place of utter distraction — a 19th-century place.

It happened to me a month ago, when the excellent foodblogger from Catania, Peppe Sidoti (cibidicasa.com), told me about "the spontaneous plants that our grandparents picked in the field and that were as important part of their daily diet as the plants in their garden. ... In general the various greens were all stewed together in a soup called ’a minestra servaggia ('wild soup'), ... [which] was my mother's dinner almost every night."

For several days, my poor wife listened to nothing other than dreams about wild greens!

Today I went into another trance.

A few months ago, I had read that one could make polenta with flours other than cornmeal. Rice flour, buckwheat flour, or ... semolina.

Today was the day.  The house was quiet.  And I made my first semolina polenta.

I made it in the normal way, with water, salt, and a tablespoon of butter in the water.  (Instead of butter, my ancestors used ’a sugna, i.e. pork lard.)

I made only a small quantity of polenta, which when finished I transferred to a Pyrex dish.  (There is no need to grease the dish, because of the butter inside the polenta.) 

You let it cool, then what do you do with it?  Raw slices?  Grilled slices?  Slices fried in oil?  Scagliuozzoli (little fried pieces)?

I decided to make it all different ways!  I was so excited that I didn't have the patience to let it cool in the fridge.  Thus the "interesting" shapes:

 

 

I would have liked to try two other ways: baked in the oven, and fried in lard.  However when all was said and done, I think I liked the raw polenta best.  The union of the two flavors, semolina and butter, brought back to me a huge nostalgia.  When I was but a picciutteddu my Sicilian grandmother made me pastina.  She used either acini di pepe or broken vermicelli (i.e., capellini.  In Italy, vermicelli are thicker than spaghetti, similar to spaghettoni. What Americans call “vermicelli” is a thin pasta, thinner than spaghettini but thicker than angel hair). Pasta, egg, milk, and butter.  THAT'S IT.  NOTHING else. Not even a grain of black pepper or salt (other than what was in the water and in the butter). (I learned only many years later (2016) that my other grandmother, Maria Ciampa, made the very same recipe for my cousins, only the pastina she used was orzo.)

You can see how much I enjoyed the raw polenta:

Now, how should I adorn this polenta?  Neapolitan style, with tomato sauce?  Avellinese style, with savory cabbage?  No, Spanish-American style!  Lo and behold!  Vermont cheddar with very hot habañeros inside, made by a world-class cheese maker, Cabot.  The fiery pepper, with the innocent taste of the polenta — a celestial pairing! 

I make homemade lard!

(This post has been updated and moved here.)