I made pasta!

Pictures from my cooking class:










1. Appetizer: Caponata di Melanzane (Fried eggplant sicilian style caponata)

Ingredients: (4 servings)
2 large eggplant
2 tbsp coarse salt
2 cup sunflower oil for frying, or any type of frying oil
1 red onion, thinly sliced
3 zucchini
3 carrot
2 potatoes
2 red peppers
4 tomatoes
3 stalk celery (try to get the heart of it because as I told you leaves contains magnesium, which is a very important nutrient for your diet)
1 cup green spicy olives
2 tbsp Extra virgin Olive Oil
1 cup white vinegar
3 tablespoons granulated sugar

Instructions:
It’s a traditional sicilian dish that is sold by vendors on the street and served into cans or glass containers. It’s a sweet-and-sour Sicilian version of ratatouille. Because eggplant readily absorbs other flavors, it’s particularly good in such a pungent dish. Caponata should be served at room temperature, but it’s good cold and tastes even better if left overnight. Caponata makes a great topping for bruschetta.
Chop seasonal vegetables like potatoes, carrots, eggplant, zucchini, onion and red peppers (you might call them bell peppers). Don't forget to chop them in small pieces of the same size (I'd suggest to chop potatoes smaller sizes), otherwise they'll never get cooked at the same time! Add extra virgin olive oil in a large sauce pan and let cook onions first. Add water and one after the other add celery and potatoes (they need the longest time to get cooked), zucchini, red peppers, tomatoes, fried eggplant, diced and pitted olives. Cook on medium heat for 30 minutes, adding vinegar after 20 minutes and sugar too. Stir them every now and then, and your side dish will be ready.

Note: Almost every Italian lunch or dinner features vegetables, usually are appetizers, salads or side dishes. This recipe accomplish every taste and needs, and it’s suitable as an appetizer or side dish as you like. For best results with this recipe, be sure to use only the freshest in-season vegetables; it is pointless, for example,to use zucchini or bell peppers or even to fry eggplant imported from far away in mid-winter. In this case it’ll be quite tasteless! So I’d suggest you to use the vegetables from each season, preferably brought at farmer’s market.

2. First Course: Pasta alla Norma (Fresh pasta with fried eggplant and tomato)

Ingredients: (4 servings)
1 large eggplant, thinly sliced
2 tbsp coarse salt
2 cup sunflower oil for frying, or any type of frying oil
1 red onion, thinly sliced
1 small bunch of fresh basil
2 tbsp Extra virgin Olive Oil
1 lb fresh pasta (we made pasta with semolina flour and water dough, but if you want you can either use pasta from a bag)
½ cup freshly grated baked ricotta cheese (even parmesan or pecorino)

Ingredients for the dough (4 Servings):
14oz all purpose flour
7oz Water
1 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 tbsp salt

Instructions:
Place the eggplant slices in a colander and sprinkle with the coarse sea salt. Let drain for 1 hour (we skipped this in the class, because we didn’t have time, but it’s okay because the eggplant you can get in the States are not as sour as the ones used in Sicily). Heat the oil in a large deep frying pan until very hot. Shake the salt off the eggplant and frying small batches until golden brown, 5-7 minutes per batch. Drain onto paper towels. Stir onion into extra virgin olive oil in a medium sauce pan, add water and cover with a lid to let steam and cook for 15 minutes. Then add chopped or diced tomatoes for about 15 minutes and in the end transfer the fried eggplant for the last 10 minutes. Switch off the heat and add basil leaves while the sauce is still warm.
To make the dough you have to mix 450gr/14Oz of flour 00 with about 220gr/6-7Oz of water. Then roll the dough in little tiny long noodles (like the one we did in class). To cook the pasta, put a large pot of boiling water over high heat. When the water is boiling, toss in few tablespoons of salt with the pasta. Stir to keep the pasta from sticking. Cook for 5 or 6 minutes, until a piece of pasta tastes cooked or "al dente".
When the pasta is cooked, drain it and add it to the frying pan with the sauce mixture. Turn on the heat and stir in grated ricotta cheese baked to coat the pasta. Season your dish with salt and garnish with pepper if you like, and serve immediately. It's gonna be delicious!!!

Note: This recipe comes from Sicily and is named after Bellini’s masterpiece, the opera Norma. It’s considered the most popular recipe all over the island, which is renowned as Trinacria because of the logo of it (just google it and you’ll find out the wonderful story of this land and of the empire of the King Federico II!).

3. Involtini di manzo alla siciliana (Sicilian Style stuffed rolls)

Ingredients for 4 people:
- 1 lb (500gr) beef scaloppine
- 16 bay leaves
- 2 tablespoons E.V. olive oil
- 2 onions
- 3 oz (90gr) left over white bread
- 2 cups fresh organic milk
- 1 cup breadcrumbs

- 1 cup capers

- 1/2 cup raisins

Lay the slices of beef out flat. In the meantime you have to get ready with the stuffing. In a frying pan start frying onions, then add breadcrumbs, capes and raisins. Add salt and pepper to season, then remove from the heat and ass 3Oz (about 90gr.) of left over white bread from the day before and remove the crust from it and soak in about 2 cups of fresh organic milk for 5 minutes. Then squeeze it very well and place the bread in the mixing bowl. Roll the beef up and secure with toothpicks and adjust a leaf of bay leaves on top.
Add the beef rolls in the same frying pan where you have previously sauteed the filling, and simmer over medium heat for about 10 minutes to brown. Add white wine and let it cook in the sauce for about 5 more minutes, and season with coarse salt. If you like you can pour in tomatoes, partially cover the pan, and simmer until the tomatoes reduce and the meat is tender, for about 10 more minutes. Remove all the fresh herbs and serve hot.

P.S: you can use this recipe with veal scaloppine as well!

4. Dessert: Semifreddo di ricotta e caffè (frozen cake of ricotta cheese and coffee)

Ingredients: (4 servings)
2 cups of strong coffee, espresso is recommended
½ cup + 2 Tbs. Sugar
2 lb. Fresh ricotta cheese
1 lb. biscuits (like the flat ones I brought for you in class)
1 orange zest
6 squares unsweetened chocolate (for the topping)
1 cup nuts or almonds

Instructions:
Combine the coffee with 1 Tbs. sugar in a wide flat bowl. Set aside. To make the cream mixture, in a mixing bowl with a whisk beat the ricotta with half of the sugar until very thick and light in color. Add orange zest and stir with a wooden spoon.
To assemble, dip the biscuits, one at a time, in the coffee mixture and line a long flat serving dish with them. Spoon a layer of the cream mixture over these. Add another layer of dipped ladyfingers and spoon the remaining cream over the top. Cover the whole thing with a thick layer of grated nuts (that you have to bake first, then peel and chop) and unsweetened chocolate. Don’t forget to melt chocolate in a double sauce pan over low heat and use it as a topping. Chill in the fridge. This dish can be made up to one day in advance.