My mum’s dishes are very simple but extremely tasty.
She sticks to two basic rules in her cooking mode/approach: give it time and
don’t make it too elaborate. Here are a few recipes she taught me in my recent
visit to Italy.
Pasta e ceci (pasta with chickpeas)
Soak 400 g of chickpeas for 36 hours or use a canned
product. Boil them in salty water for
about one hour. Warm some extra virgin olive oil in a saucepan with a clove of
garlic. When the garlic become lightly brown remove it and add the chickpeas
and the water. Let it boil and add some rosemary, three tbsp of passata and 200
g of pasta (macaroni). Let the pasta cook and serve it warm.
Coda alla vaccinara (oxtail stew)
This is an old recipe typical of Rome. You need about
a kilo of chopped oxtail (or better veal tail) and plenty of celery. First boil
3-4 celery stalks in 2 litres stock for half an hour. In a pan fry some
pancetta cubes in extra virgin olive oil and add some chopped celery, a carrot,
an onion, one clove of garlic and parsley, add the oxtail, salt and let it
cook. After half an hour add a glass of white wine, when it evaporates add 4
tbsp of passata. Finally add the water where you had cooked the celery stalks
till it covers the oxtail. After half an hour add the celery stalks chopped.
Let it simmer and the water evaporate. Serve warm with mashed potatoes.
Carciofi
alla romana (artichokes in the Roman way)
The most difficult thing here is to find the artichokes,
good tender ones. There’s plenty in Italy in December and my mother can pick
the right ones just pressing her fingers on the outer leaves. Once you have
them (let’s say from 5 to 10 pieces) you need to get rid of some of the outer
leaves and cut the upper part to get rid of the thorns. Ideally only the stem
and the most tender leaves around the choke should be left. Once it’s clean,
pass half a lemon around it or soak it in water and lemon. Place a piece of
garlic (a quarter of a clove) and some leaves of parsley inside, add salt and
pepper. Cook in a pan head down with plenty of oil and some water. Cover the
pan with a lid and put a paper (kind of bread bag paper) under the lid so the
water doesn’t evaporate otherwise the artichokes will burn. It needs about half
an hour to cook.
Minestrone
soup
You can make this dish with the vegetable you like,
my mum uses carrots, courgettes, broccoli, celery, cauliflower, potatoes,
spinach and onions. She chops them and boils them in water for about two hours.
She adds stock to the water, salt and some passata as well. She usually has it
without pasta but you can add some macaroni if you like or you can also puree
it if you prefer. She only adds some extra virgin olive oil and parmigiano once
she serves it.
Spaghetti ai frutti di mare (spaghetti with seafood)
We had this dish on Christmas Eve when we usually
have fish. Cook the sea food (mussels, king prawns and squid) on a frying pan
with some extra virgin olive oil and a clove of garlic. Add salt, pepper,
chilli, parsley and 3-4 tbsp of passata. Add some black olives as well if you
like. Let it simmer for half an hour. Cook 250g of spaghetti in salty water,
drain it and mix it with the seafood in the frying pan. Toss it and let it warm
for five minutes. Serve it warm.
Torta di mele (cake with apples)
This is a special cake with apples cooked in white
wine my mum and I made during Christmas holidays. You need to peel, core and
slice the apples (about 800 g), then cook them in 150 g of white wine and 100 g
of water with 80 g of sugar. When they are soft set them on a plate and pour
the juice of one lemon on them. Let the wine and water boil till it thickens to
make a sort of syrup. Prepare the cake by mixing 280 g of flour, 1 tsp of
baking powder and half a tsp of bicarbonate of soda, 70 g of melted butter, 4
yolk of eggs, the juice and grated zest of a lemon, 120 g of sugar and the
whites of the eggs whipped till stiff. Pour half of the mixture in a greased
tin cake, spread half of the sliced apples on it, then pour the rest of the
mixture on top and finish with the remaining apples. Bake the cake for about
half an hour at 180 °C. When it is still warm pour the syrup on it and let it
cool before serving.
