Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking - Marcella Hazan [42]
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon garlic chopped fine
Salt
Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
1 tablespoon parsley chopped fine
1 tablespoon chopped capers
2 tablespoons chopped homemade roasted peppers
1½ tablespoons fine, dry, unflavored bread crumbs
4 scallop shells, available in most cooking equipment shops, OR 4 small gratin dishes
1. Wash the scallops in cold water, drain, and pat thoroughly dry with kitchen towels.
2. Put the olive oil and garlic in a small saucepan, turn on the heat to medium. Cook and stir the garlic until it becomes colored a pale gold, but no darker. Then put in the scallops. Add salt and a few grindings of pepper, and turn up the heat. Cook at a brisk pace, stirring frequently, for a few seconds, until they lose their shiny raw color. Turn off the heat.
3. Preheat the broiler.
4. Add the parsley, capers, chopped peppers, and 1 tablespoon of bread crumbs to the scallops and mix well. Distribute the contents of the pan among the 4 shells or gratin dishes. Sprinkle with the remaining ½ tablespoon of bread crumbs.
5. Run the shells or gratin dishes under the preheated broiler for about 1 minute, or no longer than it takes to form a light brown crust over the scallops. Serve promptly.
Arrosticini Abruzzesi—Skewered Marinated Lamb Tidbits
IN ABRUZZI, as in the other central Italian regions, Umbria, Latium, and Tuscany, the shepherd and his lambs are equally a feature of the landscape and of the gastronomic tradition. The recipe that follows is borrowed from the shepherds’ own outdoor cooking, when they camp out with their flocks. Although it can be done indoors in a home broiler, it would be wonderful over the hot embers of a wood fire.
For 4 servings
½ pound boned lamb shoulder
1 garlic clove
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Salt
Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
½ teaspoon dried marjoram OR 1 teaspoon fresh chopped
10 or 12 small skewers
1. Slice the meat into strips about ½ inch wide and 2 inches long. Do not trim away the fat, but try to have lean meat attached to some fat in as many pieces as possible. The fat will melt partly in the cooking, feeding the fire, and baste and sweeten the meat.
2. Mash the garlic with a heavy knife handle, crushing it enough to split it and loosen the peel, which you will remove and discard.
3. Put the meat in a bowl, adding the oil, salt, several grindings of pepper, marjoram, and garlic. Toss well, thoroughly coating the meat. Let the lamb marinate at room temperature for 2 hours, or in the refrigerator for 4 to 6 hours. Turn the lamb pieces from time to time. If refrigerated, take the meat out at least 30 minutes before cooking.
4. Preheat the broiler or light the coals or, even better, prepare a wood fire.
5. Turn the meat thoroughly one more time, then skewer it, piercing each strip in at least two places.
6. When the broiler or fire is hot, or the wood is reduced to hot embers, place the skewers as close as possible to the source of heat. If barbecuing, use very hot coals. Cook for 3 minutes on one side, then turn the skewers and cook for 2 to 3 minutes on the other. A small, fine crust should form on all sides of the meat. Serve at once.
SOUPS
ITALIAN SOUPS owe their character to two elements: the season and the place of origin.
The seasons determine the choice of vegetables, legumes, tubers, and herbs, which, except for those few fish soups that are more seafood courses than true soups, are usually prominently present, either as an accent or as the dominant ingredient.
The place shapes the style. A vegetable soup can tell you where you are in Italy almost as precisely as a map. There are the soups of the south, founded on tomato, garlic, and olive oil, often filled out with pasta; the soups of Tuscany and other central Italian regions that are fortified with beans and supported by thick slices of bread; the soups of the north, with rice; the fragrant ones of the Riviera, with lettuces and fresh herbs.
The one common link Italian soups have,