April 6th, 2009

one adventure in nonna anna’s kitchen

This dish is called orecchiette con le cime di rapa, it is a typical dish from Puglia. It looks so simple and it really does, and I have eaten this several times, but I never had one like this. As simple as it looks, Nonna Anna woke up in the morning and made them one by one with hands. We had the dinner at 8 and to eat one plate of orecchiette con le cime di rapa might take you only 15 minutes (I ate mine for 30 minutes, I am a slow eater) but the preparation took the whole day. Let me share my little adventure in Nonna Anna’s kitchen :)It was gray and windy and raining day few weeks ago and it seems like a good idea to stay at home and cook all day. Nonna Anna is Mrs. F’s mother, and my friend B’s grandmother, I gave her a s.o.s call about the lampascioni sometimes ago and after she arranged that I could meet Nonna Anna to cook lampascioni properly and also other recipes from Puglia. Of course, I accepted with excitement :)

We arrived at 3 in the afternoon, and Nonna Anna was such a friendly and kind lady. We started right away with lampascioni, because it will take 1,5 hours to cook and she is also a very organised lady that she has already calculate all the cooking timing. She taught me how to clean them: peel the skin and then cross the upper part so that they would cook thoroughly and faster.

While we were waiting for the lampascioni to boil, we start preparing the cime di rapa. Few tips to choose a good cime di rapa:

1. Read the label, make sure they are from Puglia, there is another variety from Naples, called friarielli which looks exactly the same but harder and less sweet, people usually use it to make contorno (side dish).

2. Make sure the leaves are hard and strong bright green.

3. Choose one with lots of flowers on the bottom (like pictured below).

Then how to clean it: pick only the leaves, not the stalk, and separate the florets. Then if it is very dirty, soak it with cold water and bicarbonate for 5-10 minutes to wash away the chemicals and dirt, they will become brighter in colours.

Then we started preparing other dish: some kind of flat prawns (I forget the name) that would be cooked with simple (but soooo good!) tomato sauce:

Starting with washing the prawns, put them in colander, Mrs. F was slicing the back while Nonna Anna was making the soffrito with onion, garlic and carrots (again, time effectiveness of Nonna Anna :) and I was…taking  my coffee and taking some photos :) I must say, it was hard to cook+shoot (with minimal light and kitchen angles)+remember all the recipes+ingredients all in the same time. I always thought I was a multi-tasking person, but it was hard! :)

Nonna Anna’s slicing tomatoes skill was hard to beat! I finished with one while she finished with all! :)

Then the lampascioni was ready, she drained the water and soak them with cold water for a while and transfer them to a bottle with fresh cold water

Then we prepared the batter to fry them (usually people eat lampascioni either fried with batter or with oil, salt and pepper like side salad)

Then, everything was prepared and we just need to wait for Marco to join us. What I learn was it did took lots of time to prepare good food, but it was nice when you do it together and with no rush in time.

and we close it with colomba pasquale (It is too early for easter) but I could not resist when I saw them just out from the oven at princi :) and malvasia di lipari…Such a wonderful evening :)

Recipes

Orecchiette con le cime di rapa alla Nonna Anna

Serve 5 with bis (second round :)

500g fresh orecchiette (or you can use dried one)

1 kg cime di rapa, take only the leaves and florets and discard the stalks then wash

1 medium potato

Sea salt and pepper

Pulglian extra virgin olive oil

Boil the potato (with skin) in salted water until soft, take out the potato, peel and mash, and set aside. Add first the leaves of cime di rapa to boiling water, then the florets for like 5-10 minutes then add the orecchiette and let boil for 2-3 minutes. Drain. Add the mashed potato and drizzle with olive oil and season to taste. Sprinkle with dried chili (optional)

Eat with the pane di altamura, very good!

 

Lampascioni Fritti - Fried Lampascioni

500g boiled lampascioni

4 eggs

2 handful of grated pecorino cheese

1 tsp of fresh yeast, mixed with tepid water

2 boiled potatoes, mashed

flour

salt and pepper

tepid water

1 tsp  baking powder

Mix very well the egg then add the grated cheese and mashed potatoes, stir until everything blends very well. Add the mashed lampascioni. Add the flour and yeast, and water until you reach a consistency of a thick yoghurt, season with salt and pepper and set aside for 30 minutes. Then after 30 minutes, add the baking powder to the mixture and mix well. Heat some frying oil in a frying pan, add a tablespoonful of the mixture and fry till golden brown. Drain the excess oil with kitchen paper.

 

Gamberi con salsa di pomodoro alla Nonna Anna - Prawn with tomato sauce alla Nonna Anna

Serve 5

1 kg of prawn or any crustaceans, wash and slice the back

4 clove of garlic, unpeeled

1 small onion, thinly sliced

500g fresh tomatoes, peeled and throw away the seeds and diced

sea salt and pepper

1 carrot, sliced round

Extra virgin olive oil

Heat the olive oil in low heat and fry the garlic, onion and carrot (soffrito) then after 20-30 minutes when they are soft, turn up the heat and add the tomatoes cook in medium-high heat for 5 minutes then turn down the heat to medium an cook for another 10 minutes. Add the prawns then cover with lid and cook for 10 minutes.

 

I did not expect this will be such a long post, I hope I don’t bore you. There are still some ’secret’ recipes that Nonna Anna shared with me, like how to make natural yeast at home, but I still need to try it and see how it works then I will share it with you.

Have a good start of the week!

Hugs!

Filed under: food, life