Spring on table
MACCU
The recipe for Maccu is very easy to prepare, has ancient orgins and is well known throughout all of Sicily, above all in the mountain communities. The name has Latin origins, from the verb "maccare" which means "to squash, reduce to mush". There are small variations in the recipe from town to town... but the main components are always the same, broad beans, the only ingredient together with some good olive oil and an onion. Either dried or fresh broad beans can be used. With a touch of imagination, a thousand different dishes can be created using "macco" as a base. It is delicious, and commonly used as a pasta dressing. Following is the recipe with a small variation: wild fennel!
Ingredients, serves 4:
• 1 1/2 dried broad beans (or the equivalent of shelled fresh broad beans)
• 1 medium onion
• extra virgin olive oil as desired
• wild fennel
• salt and pepper as desired
• hardened bread
Procedure
Place the dried broad beans in a saucepan with some water for approximately 12 hours until they soften (if using fresh beans, it is sufficient to shell them, cover them with some water and immediately place the saucepan on the flame without waiting). Take two saucepans: in one you will place the onion and lightly fry, in the other, you will place the fennel, once it has been cleaned, in 1 litre of water to boil. Take the broad beans and pour them into the saucepan together with the onion, allowing them to brown for approx 5 minutes before covering the broad beans with the water in which you have cooked the fennel, having taken care when extracting it from the water. Turn the flame to medium, and if the beans should dry out too much then add extra water. As soon as the beans begin to soften, add the fennel and with a wooden spoon, begin to crush the mixture until it becomes a mash tun. Leave it to cool, add salt and pepper with croutons fried in hot oil.
photo: macco_web.jpg
TUNA "AMMUTTUNATO" (stuffed)
In Sicily, fish plays the very important role of meat. It's impossible to ignore the fact that Sicily is the only Italian region surrounded by three seas (the Ionic, the Tyrrhenian and the Mediterranean), or ignore the subsequent abundance and variety of seafood. Below we introduce you to a recipe based on the so called "meat of the poor", tuna. In Sicilian gastronomic history, the distinction between poor and rich cuisine is now only of conventional significance. This is because many "common" dishes have in fact passed over to the superior category and vice versa. This is the very case for tuna. "Tunnina", or the female tuna, is considered to be more valuable than the male tuna.
This is a recipe of very ancient traditions, with perhaps a slightly long and bothersome procedure, however it's well worth the experiment.
Ingredients, serves 6:
• 1.5 kg of red tuna
• 1 spoon of tomato purée
• 400g of tomato concentrate
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 onion
• 2 bunches of mint
• 200 mL extra virgin olive oil
• 1 glass of white wine
• pepper as desired
• chilli as desired
• salt as desired
procedure
Clean the tuna well, removing the skin and bones. Clean the two cloves of garlic and mint bunches. Take the tuna and, in order to stuff it, make slight but deep incisions of approximately 5/6cm throughout its entire body. Using your finger, push into the grooves one or two cloves of garlic which have been salted, peppered and wrapped in the mint. Sprinkle the tuna with salt and pepper and massage it into the flesh. Now place a large saucepan with some oil on a live flame, browning the tuna and turning it until a brown crust is formed.
Once the tuna has been removed, in the same saucepan place the chopped onion and chilli. As soon as the onions have reduced, allow the extract to melt with a glass of white wine and leave it to evaporate. Add the tomato concentrate, a few cloves of garlic and the remaining mint, and an abundant glass of water. Bring to boil, add salt and pepper as desired and add the tuna, which should cook on a very low flame for approximately 2 hours, taking care not to turn it too frequently, or the flesh may come apart. We now have our "female" tuna "ammuttunata”, ready to serve either as a main meal, or as a pasta sauce.
photo:tonno rosso.jpg
JASMINE GELATO
Ingredients, serves 6:
• 50g of Jasmine (flowers only)
• a few mint leaves
• 1/2 litre of water
• 150g of caster sugar
• 1 glass of rum
• 4 egg whites
procedure
Place the freshly collected jasmine to marinate in the water for a couple of hours and then filter the water. Place the now aromatised water in a pot and bring it to boil. Pour in the sugar and allow it to set, mixing continuously. Remove from the flame, leave to cool and add egg whites and rum, amalgating well by gently mixing. Place the cream in a storage container in the freezer until a soft sorbet has formed. Serve with a decorative mint leave and jasmines.