Biba's Northern Italian Cooking - Biba Caggiano [68]
A few hours before serving, remove asparagus from refrigerator. Combine lemon juice and salt in a small bowl. Add oil; mix until blended. Taste and adjust for seasoning. Remove paper towels from platter.Arrange asparagus neatly. Spoon dressing over vegetables. Remove yolks from hard-cooked eggs. Press yolks through a strainer over asparagus. Serve at room temperature.
Variation
String Bean Salad with Oil and Lemon (Fagiolini all’Olio e Limone): Substitute 2 pounds cooked string beans for the asparagus. Use the juice of 2 lemons and ½ cup olive oil.
MIXED SALAD
Insalata Mista
A mixed salad is almost always present at the end of an Italian meal.
MAKES 4 TO 6 SERVINGS
1 large fennel
2 carrots
1 large red or green sweet pepper
1 small lettuce
2 medium tomatoes
Salt to taste
3 to 4 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
Cut off long stalks and bruised leaves from fennel. Slice end off bulbous base.Wash and dry fennel. Cut into quarters, then horizontally into thin slices. Cut carrots into thin rounds. Wash and dry pepper. Cut in half and remove pith and seeds. Cut into very thin strips.
Discard any bruised leaves from lettuce. Wash remaining leaves under cold running water. Pat dry with paper towels. Tear leaves into medium pieces. Place all vegetables in a salad bowl. Wash and dry tomatoes. Cut into slices and add to salad bowl.
When ready to serve, season with salt. Add oil and vinegar; toss gently. Serve slightly chilled.
Eggs and Sauces
An egg should have no nationality. What does one country do with an egg that another can’t? After all, hard-cooked, scrambled or fried eggs can be eaten in many places around the world. Other special ways of cooking eggs are peculiar to certain countries. Americans eat eggs with bacon.The French have savory omelets. Italians have the frittata.
A frittata can be made with herbs, vegetables, cheese, fish or meat. It can also be made with jam or honey. It is said that the Romans used to mix eggs with honey. Perhaps they were the originators of the first frittata. A frittata is perfect for a light evening meal. It is excellent served cold for a snack or appetizer. In this chapter you will find four frittatas. But don’t stop there; try your own variations. Don’t forget about leftover meat and vegetables.They go perfectly in a frittata.
Eggs are easy to prepare and economical.They are a complete food with vitamins, sodium, protein, calcium and fat.When an egg is fresh, the yolk should be compact and the white should be transparent and tight around the yolk. Eggs are often eaten hard-cooked in a salad.They can be fried or baked with vegetables or cheese. One of my favorite ways is eggs poached in a light tomato sauce.
Think of a lovely summer day. A day you want to spend outside, gardening, swimming or reading a good book. Cooking is the last thing you want to do. But you have a family to feed—so make a frittata. Maybe the one with fresh tomatoes and basil. It will only take 10 to 15 minutes. Serve it with a green salad, crusty Italian bread and chilled white wine. Then leave the dishes and go out again, pleasantly satisfied. Enjoy the rest of your beautiful summer day.
There are very few basic Italian sauces, but the sauces served with pasta are innumerable. These cannot be termed basic sauces because they are used only in specific dishes.
Italian cooks believe the pleasure of eating is increased by preserving the individual characteristics of ingredients. For this reason, the good Italian cook avoids the overuse of sauces. Sauces for meat, poultry and fish are usually only pan juices enriched with a little wine, broth or cream.
Basic common sense and a natural inclination toward balance guides the good Italian cook. If one course of a meal has a sauce, the chances are other courses will not.Very often sauces clash rather than complement each other. Keep this in mind when