Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking - Marcella Hazan [256]
11. When you put on the tomatoes also put the eggplant on the grill, its scored side facing the fire. Let that side become colored a light brown, then turn it over. Brush generously with olive oil, working the oil in between the cuts. You should soon see the oil begin to simmer. From time to time, drizzle a few drops of oil into the cuts. When the eggplant flesh feels creamy at the point of a fork, it is done. Transfer it to the serving platter.
12. At the same time that you put the eggplant on the grill, put on the endive, cut side facing down. If there is no room, put it on as soon as some opens up. When the cut side of the endive becomes lightly charred, but not deeply blackened, turn it over. Sprinkle with salt, and brush it generously with olive oil, working it in between the leaves. You need do nothing else with the endive except test it from time to time with a fork. When it feels very, very tender, transfer it to the platter.
13. When you see that the eggplant is nearly done, and you have room on the grill, put on the sliced zucchini. These easily become burned, so you have to watch them. The moment the side facing the fire becomes mottled with brown spots, turn it over, and when the other side becomes similarly pockmarked, transfer it to the platter. Season immediately with salt, cracked black pepper, and olive oil.
14. By now, the peppers you’ve put in the plastic bag should be ready to be peeled. Take them out of the bag and have plenty of paper towels available for your hands, because the peppers will be very moist. Pull off all the charred skin, split the peppers open, remove the pulpy core with all its seeds, and add the peppers to the platter. Season with salt and a little olive oil.
Ahead-of-time note All the grilled vegetables are good at room temperature or the temperature of a warm day outdoors. They can be cooked, therefore, before whatever meat or fish you are planning to do on the grill.
SALADS
The salad course The literal meaning of the Italian for a salad—un’insalata—is “that to which salt has been added,” but the word also enjoys popular metaphorical usage, applied disparagingly when describing, for example, an interior decor or a set of thoughts that appears to be rather mixed up. Then there is L’insalata, which specifically refers to the salad course, a course with a clearly defined role in an Italian meal’s classic sequence. L’insalata is served invariably after the second course to signal the approaching end of the meal. It releases the palate from the grip of the cook’s fabrications, leading it to cool, fresh sensations, to a rediscovery of food in its least labored state.
The principal, and usually only components of the salad course, are vegetables and greens, either raw or boiled, on their own or combined. The choice changes as the season does: raw finocchio or shredded Savoy cabbage or boiled broccoli in fall and winter; in the spring, boiled asparagus and green beans, followed by zucchini or new potatoes; in the fullness of summer, raw ingredients prevail, with tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, lettuces, and an assortment of small greens. The broadened availability of many vegetables through much of the year has, of course, blurred some of the seasonal distinctions, but we still want the salad course to speak to us of the season that produced its components.
There are certainly a great many other kinds of salads, such as rice and chicken salads, rice and shellfish, tuna and beans, or any number of dishes that contain cold meats, fish, or chicken mixed with legumes or with raw or cooked vegetables. Such salads may be served as an appetizer, as a first course instead of pasta or risotto, as the principal course of a light meal, or as part of a buffet table. In fact, they may be served as anything except as L’insalata, the salad course.
Dressing the salad course Italian dressing is extra virgin olive oil, salt, and wine vinegar.
Many variations on the same proverb give us the formula for a perfectly seasoned