Oct 04

Cookbook 50: The Top One Hundred Italian Dishes

A long time ago (about 1994), I discovered that DoubleDay would send you books fairly cheaply when you joined up, so I ordered this book, The Top One Hundred Italian Dishes, by Diane Seed.  It’s an interesting book, with all the pictures of food being hand drawn illustrations, which doesn’t help with some of the instructions on how to put the dishes together.

Overall this book was a big disappointment.  The non potato based gnocchi I made were completely flawed – I had to add additional flour to get them to bind, and the eggplant recipe nice but a bit bland.  The chicken dish was nice though.  All up, this book gets 2 out of 5 stars.

Spinach and Ricotta Dumplings

Ingredients:

  • 500g spinach
  • 100g fresh basil, if available
  • 350g ricotta cheese
  • 50g freshly grated parmesan cheese
  • 3 eggs
  • 3 tablespoons white flour
  • 1 teaspoon nutmeg
  • Salt
  • Black Pepper
  • Tomato Sauce (see separate recipe)

Method:

  1. Cook the spinach quickly so that it retains its bright green.  Add the basil leaves for the last 30 seconds before draining the spinach.  Stand under cold running water then press out all the moisture.
  2. Process the dried spinach with the other ingredients then put the mixture in the refrigerator for an hour.
  3. Using a forcing (pastry) bag, squeeze out long cylinders and cut into lengths of 3cm.  When they are all ready drop them into a large pan of boiling salted water.  They are cooked as soon as they float to the top.  Remove with a slotted spoon so that they do not break and serve very hot on individual plates containing a little warm tomato sauce.

Notes on this recipe:

  • “cooking quickly” probably is only about 2 minutes.  You want the spinach to just have started to wilt in the hot water.  This is one of the least helpful instructions I’ve come across.
  • Processing does indeed mean in a food processor.  This is also unclear.
  • We had to add a whole lot more flour to get these to be something other than cheese flavoured slop.  I’m not even sure that leaving it in the fridge for longer would have helped.  If I were to make these again, I’d just add some mashed potato.

Baked Sicilian Aubergines (Eggplants)

Ingredients:

  • 4 large eggplants (large Lebanese eggplants)
  • Salt
  • Plain Flour
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 60 ml olive oil
  • Black Pepper
  • 2 tablespoons chopped oregano
  • 250g mozzarella cheese, cut into thin slices
  • Tomato sauce (see below)

Method:

  1. Cut the aubergines into 1/2 cm thick slices, cover with salt and leave for at least an hour to purge their bitter juices.  Wash and dry the slices before dipping them in the flour and the beaten eggs.
  2. Fry a few slices at a time in hot oil and when they are golden brown put them to drain on kitchen paper.
  3. Oil an oven dish large enough to contain half the aubergine slices in one layer.  Season the first layer with salt, pepper and oregano then cover with the mozzarella.  Arrange the remaining aubergines over the cheese, season in the same way and brush with a little olive oil.
  4. Bake in a pre-heated oven, 170C, for 15 minutes.  Serve wedges accompanied by a little tomato sauce.

Notes on this recipe:

  • I picked 4 large Australian eggplants… that was the wrong type of eggplant.  The lack of clarity around that wasn’t very helpful.
  • This dish isn’t bad, it’s a bit bland.
  • Telling you that the oven should be pre-heated at the end of the recipe is bad recipe writing.

Tomato and Basil Sauce

Ingredients:

  • 15ml olive oil
  • 1 small onion, chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 400g canned Italian plum tomatoes
  • 8 basil leaves

Method:

  1. Heal the oil and gently fry the onion and garlic until they are transparent.  Add the tomatoes and cook quickly in a shallow uncovered pan so that the sauce thickens and remains a bright red.  Season to taste then puree with the basil leaves.

Notes on this recipe:

  • Telling you you need a shallow pan half way through the recipe, is bad recipe writing.

Chicken Roman Style

Ingredients:

  • 2 red sweet peppers (red capsicums)
  • 2 green sweet peppers (green capsicums)
  • 45 ml olive oil
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • 12 small chicken portions
  • salt
  • black pepper
  • 200 ml dry white wine
  • 400g canned Italian plum tomatoes, chopped

Method:

  1. Remove the seeds and tough fibres from the sweet peppers (capsicums) and cut into segments about 3cm wide.
  2. Heat the oil, add the garlic and when it begins to change colour put in the washed and dried chicken pieces.
  3. Brown the chicken on all sides then seasons to taste.
  4. Pour on the wine and simmer on a low flame for 5 minutes.  Now add the tomatoes and the sweet peppers (capsicum).  Cook slowly in a covered pan for 45 minutes.  Check the seasoning and serve.

Notes on this recipe:

  • The directions on cutting the capsicum are really unhelpful.  Cut them into strips, about 3 cm long, about 1cm wide.
  • If you want the cook to wash and dry the chicken, that should be one of the first steps, because if you discover that halfway through, you’re going to ruin the dish.  Also, you don’t need to wash and dry commercially bought chicken.
  • This can stay simmering on the stove for longer than 45 minutes if you are juggling other dishes, as I was.
  • Also small chicken pieces are really hard to get in Australia, so if you can’t find them, just get as many chicken pieces as people you are feeding, and consider adding another tin of tomatoes if necessary.