Baked eggplants with oregano

It is not necessarily that the preparations must be very elaborate to be good; rather, in truth, I have a preference for the simple dishes in which is able better to appreciate the taste of the ingredients. The kitchen for eveyday, moreover,must be suitable besides to the contemporary style of life that asks for a moderate quantity of calories, considering that our days develop sedentarily.

In this article, I propose you a recipe that sees how protagonist the queen of the Sicilian summer tables: 'a mulinciana (the eggplant in sicilian language).

I have made the Guacamole in the South of United States...because I like the difficult challenges!

To prepare the Guacamole, recipe hailing from Mexico but very diffused and appreciated in the whole South of USA, to Jacksonville Beach (Florida) for my American friends, it has been an hazard, an irresponsible choice made on the emotional wave of the desire to cook something that reentered in their alimentary habits, however without to consider that the parterre "judging" it had good knowledge of the dish. But here as it has gone...narrated in third person (better maintaining the anonymity and to take the distances, one never knows...hihhihhi).

That morning she woke up soon, well soon relatively to the time to which they had gone to bed. That morning was not an wichever morning, it was the 4^th of July, the Indipendence Day, the day of the Stars and Strips pride. The day in which, on the contrary than can be believed, the national identity becomes the pretext to turn everything into a great anarchic circus, where there are not rules and commandments with the exception of the respect for the others.

Ho fatto il Guacamole negli Stati Uniti del Sud...perchè mi piacciono le sfide difficili!

Preparare il Guacamole, ricetta originaria del Messico ma molto diffusa e apprezzata in tutto il Sud degli USA, a Jacksonville Beach (Florida) per i miei amici americani, è stato un azzardo, un'incosciente scelta fatta sull'onda emotiva del voler cucinare qualcosa che rientrasse nelle loro abitudini alimentari, senza però considerare che il parterre "giudicante" aveva buona conoscenza del piatto. Ma ecco com'è andata...narrato in terza persona (meglio mantenere l'anonimato e prendere le distanze, non si sa mai...hihhihhi).

Tomato sauce

In past times it was use and custom to prepare, with the home grown summer fruits, the preserves for the winter. The tomato, for example, was transformed in: "chiappe[1]"; peeled tomatos; "strattu" (tomato paste home-made) and naturally in sauce. It could not miss in the pantry a consistent stockpile of the tasty sauce of the juicy and red vegetable.

Today some willing housewife still prepares "a sarsa[2]". I am among these, so much that many my friends believe I am nut.

Well, perhaps I also will be also so a little, but the taste of this sauce is hardly comparable to that of the commercial tomato purée.

The recipe that I write you I have learned from the mother of my mother, the Nonna Nella[3] - which called Francesca Margherita in truth, but in the large families is accustomed to give some nicknames to differentiate the cousins, that often had the same name of baptism - polished woman, delicate drawer and great cook.

Not you must necessarily cook a lot quantity of it to make preserve. You can do few quantity of it and serve it with the spaghetti or with the shape of pasta that more you like, even adding fried dices eggplants, basil and the salt-cured ricotta cheese. So you will realize one of the first more famous Sicilian dishes, a real artwork: the "Pasta alla Norma"[4].

With the ingredients indicated in the recipe you will realize around two bottles of 800 ml each one.

Lukewarm salad of fava beans

It is time of fava beans still!

Passionate and "wedded" - over that to the Santuzza[1] - to a kitchen that uses products of the territory and seasonal, today I propose you a recipe of the tradition of the Sicilian popular cuisine. A very simple preparation, of country origin, that however it exalts the good taste of the green legume above all if it accompanied with some good oil of olive.

Before passing to the recipe, I reiterate the only my true recommendation: use fresh products and of first quality, always!

The Panelle

Today it does so much "cool" to go around for the world to try the street food, natural father of the most modern fast-food. Needless to say you that in Sicily, where we are ahead always, we have been serving it for centuries: we have invented fast-food, practically. I know, you will be thinking that I am a flag-waving terrona[1], an extremist of the terrone’s thought. Well, a fund of truth there is perhaps, the certainty however it is in the fact that I madly love my earth and above all my city Palermo, an old stretched out lady between a mountain (Monte Pellegrino[2]) and the sea, noble, indolent, magnificent despite the marked signs of the time, that it still emanates a strong aura, memory of her shines of Liberty époque and of all of her ancient history.

Carciofi alla "Villanella" - Artichokes at the "villanella" (farmer mode)

Ogni famiglia siciliana e palermitana ha la sua ricetta. Io l'ho imparata da mia nonna Nella, madre di mia madre, la quale, dopo averli nettati delle foglie più dure e delle punte, li faceva spaccati a metà e messi in un sol strato in una padella, conditi con aglio a pezzetti, prezzemolo, sale, pepe e abbondante olio extravergine d'oliva e circa mezzo bicchiere d'acqua. Io ho apportato una piccola variante: spolverata di pangrattato tostato ("muddica atturrata" in Siciliano) e li lascio cuocere coperti per circa 20 minuti, o fin quando non risultano morbidi infilzandoli con una forchetta, senza mescolare.

In Palermitano, il carciofo diventa femmina: "a cacuocciula". L'"abitudine" linguistica di declinare alcune parole al femminile è un'eredità lasciataci anche in questo caso dalla dominazione araba. In Arabo, infatti, si dice "Al Kharsuf".

Artichokes[1] to the "Villanella[2]" (farmer mode)

Every sicilian and palermitan family have their own recipe. Well, I have learned it from my grandmother Nella, my mother's mom, which, after to have eliminated the harder external leaves and the extremity, did them broken to half and envoys in a only layer in a frying pan, seasoned with bits garlic, parsley and abundant extravergine olive's oil and a half glass of water. I have brought a small variation: dusting of bread crumb toasted ("muddica atturrata" in Sicilian language) and I let them to cook covered about 20 minutes, or until when they don't result soft pierced them with a fork, without mixing.

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[1] “A cacuocciula” in Palermitan language. Many of the palermitans’ words are inflected to female. This linguistic "habit" drift from the Arab language. For example, "a cacuocciula" derives from "Al kharshuf."

[2] U viddanu (villano, in Italian), he who worked the earth and he generally lived in small villages. It was a simple person and without culture. In the common language the word has become synonymous of "boor".

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[1] U viddanu (villano, in Italian), he who worked the earth and he generally lived in small villages. It was a simple person and without culture. In the common language the word has become synonymous of "boor".