Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking - Marcella Hazan [236]
Variation 1, with Onion and Tomatoes
The fried patties made using the basic recipe above
1½ cups onion sliced very fine
⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil
1½ cups canned imported Italian plum tomatoes, chopped, with their juice
Salt
Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
1. Choose a saute pan that can subsequently contain all the patties snugly, but without overlapping. Put in the onion and the olive oil, and turn on the heat to medium low. Cook the onion, stirring, until it becomes colored a deep gold, then add the chopped tomatoes. Continue to cook until the oil floats free from the tomatoes, about 20 minutes. Add salt and pepper, and stir thoroughly.
2. Add the fried eggplant patties to the pan. Turn them a few times in the onion and tomato sauce, and when they are completely reheated through and through, transfer the entire contents of the pan to a warm platter and serve at once.
Variation 2, Baked with Mozzarella
The fried patties made using the basic recipe above
An oven-to-table baking dish
Butter for greasing the baking dish
Mozzarella, preferably buffalo-milk mozzarella, cut into as many ¼-inch slices as there are eggplant patties to cover
1. Preheat oven to 400°.
2. Choose a baking dish that can accommodate all the patties without overlapping, smear it with butter, and put in the fried eggplant patties. Cover each patty with a slice of mozzarella.
3. Place the dish on the uppermost rack of the preheated oven. When the mozzarella melts, take the dish out of the oven and bring to the table promptly.
Baked Escarole Torta
IN ITALIAN this might be called a pizza—pizza di scarola—but torta, “pie,” is a more accurate name for it.
Escarole is related to chicory, with crisp, open, wavy leaves that form a pale green at their ruffled tips and fade to a creamy white at the base. While rather bland when raw, it acquires an appealingly tart, earthy taste cooked. (See this soup.) In the filling for this torta, escarole is sautéed with olive oil, garlic, olives, and capers, then anchovies and pine nuts are added. The shell is a simplified, savory bread dough that goes through one rising. The traditional shortening for the dough is lard, which produces the finest texture, but if the choice of lard causes concern, you can substitute olive oil. The 10-inch pan I like to use yields a torta about 2 inches deep.
For 8 servings
FOR THE DOUGH
2⅔ cups unbleached flour
1 teaspoon salt
Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
⅓ package active dry yeast, dissolved in 1 cup lukewarm water
2 tablespoons lard, softened well at room temperature, OR 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
FOR THE FILLING
3 pounds fresh escarole
Salt
⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons chopped garlic
3 tablespoons capers, soaked and rinsed if packed in salt, drained if in vinegar
10 black, round Greek olives, pitted and each cut into 4 pieces
7 flat anchovy fillets (preferably the ones prepared at home), cut into ½-inch pieces
3 tablespoons pignoli (pine nuts)
TO BAKE THE TORTA
Wax paper OR kitchen parchment
A 10-inch springform pan
Butter for smearing the pan
1. To make the dough, pour the flour onto a work surface and shape it into a mound. Make a hollow in the center of the mound and put into it the salt, a few grindings of pepper, the dissolved yeast, and the softened lard or olive oil. Knead it for about 8 minutes. It is best if the dough is kept soft, but if you have difficulty handling it, either add another tablespoon or two of flour, or knead it in the food processor.
2. Shape the kneaded dough into a ball, and put it into a lightly floured bowl. Cover the bowl with a damp, doubled-up cloth towel, and