Insalata di Riso recipe

Yes, it's officially here.

Jumpers and overcoats get pushed to the bottom of the closet, with cool cotton and light linen beginning to forward in the frontline. Grassy patches are dotted with small daisies, and the balmy Roman air is swirling with pollen and sycamore fuzz (my heart is with you, allergic subjects. This time of year's not equally welcomed). I love spring. Clocks are wound forward, granting longer hours of sunlight; hormones surge and everyone looks happier on their scooters and bicycles.

I like to welcome the onset of primavera with exaggerated enthusiasm, spending lots of time outdoors, rolling around in damp grass with my toddler, and anticipating classic summer recipes.

Quintessence of these (and thrifty re-use of leftovers) is insalata di riso, a pasta salad that employs rice instead of pasta, and many finely chopped ingredients tossed in for flavor (and to clean the fridge).

Image © Corbis

I've made this recipe extra rich to give you an idea of what can go into Insalata di Riso. Feel free to tone it down, substitute other things, or adding more for variety, according to your taste. One ingredient I commonly find in this preparation is mozzarella. As much as I like the milky pasta filata cheese, and pair it to almost anything I can think of, I somehow find it inappropriate in this preparation. But that's just me.

300 g (1 1/2 cups or 5 fistfuls) parboiled rice (the grains should not stick)
Either: 250 gr(1 cup) oil-canned tuna, drained and shredded
Or: 2 franks, cooked and sliced in flat buttons
100 g (1/2 cup) slab of regular deli ham, diced
100 g (1/2 cup) Fontina or Swiss cheese, diced
50 g (1/4 cup) black olives, pitted and sliced
1 dill pickle, diced
2 ripe, peeled, seeded tomatoes, diced (optional)
50 g (1/4 cup) artichoke hearts in oil, diced (optional)
1-2 tbsp. cooked peas (optional)
One half yellow bell pepper, minced
2 hard-boiled eggs, sliced or quartered (optional)
1 tbsp. capers (optional)
1 tbsp. fresh basil, minced
50 g (1/4 cup) olive oil or light mayonnaise
1 tbsp. lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste


Cook the rice in lots of boiling, slightly salted water. Rinse it with cold water, drain and let it cool off. Meanwhile, assemble the remaining ingredients. Once the rice has cooled, combine all the chopped ingredients, rice and dressing in a large serving bowl, and chill the salad in the refrigerator.

My favorite variation is a posh rice salad made with rice, smoked salmon slivers, 2 types of caviar (red and gray) and steamed, shelled baby scampi. I toss everything with a bit of mayo and chill before serving. It's very good.

Insalata di farro recipe

Farro is a grain much like pearl barley, but it’s dried after harvesting in such a way that instead of being fluffy when cooked, it becomes chewy and nutty.

In Italy it's been a major staple since the ancient Romans began using it to make bread and soup before they "discovered" wheat. Nowadays it’s employed in salads, soups, stews, even paired to pastas. You should be able to find farro in Italian specialty stores, and supermarkets may have started to stock it in health food selection aisles.

This refreshing “carbful” vegetarian salad is always a hit at my summer lunches. The recipe reported here is just a base, so go ahead and add ingredients to suit your food fantasies and personal taste.

Ingredients for 4
8 fistfuls of farro (spelt)
1 medium Mozzarella di Bufala, diced – in winter I substitute the mozz with shaved Parmigiano
15 cherry tomatoes, halved
20 black olives, pitted
A pinch of salted capers, rinsed
1 carrot, diced
1 small red onion, finely chopped
5 fresh basil leaves
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Salt and cracked black pepper to taste


Soak the farro in cold water for 20 minutes, this will shorten cooking time. Get rid of the foamy soaking water and place the farro in a large stewpot, cover with 2 quarts of lightly salted cold water and bring to a boil.

Simmer for 30 minutes–or until tender–and drain well. Cool the grains by rinsing them in the colander under running water.

Halve the tomatoes directly into a large salad bowl to save their juice.

Add the rest of the ingredients, including the cooked farro, dress with olive oil and season to taste. 

Refrigerate for 30 minutes, toss again, adjust seasoning and serve with a carafe of chilled Fiano di Avellino.

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{♥}

heart-friendly 

Purpetielli Affogati - stewed Baby Octopus recipe

When I was a young girl, my beach friends and I used to go skin diving on shallow reefs along the Amalfi coast, just between Positano and Praiano, and came home with octopus almost every day. We’d set off early in the morning with our blue & red canvas materassini (inflatable rafts), snorkeling masks and a piece of white cloth tied to a string.

We'd swim what felt like 300 miles hugging the coastline to reach the designated fishing spot, elected by the group's elder, Gianluca. He was 13, and we were all still in the third grade. We'd arrive breathless and sweaty (odd the sensation of sweating in water), scanning the shallow rocks beneath us. Half clung to the materassino, head plunged below water's edge, we'd let the string unfurl and start playing with the octopi. Cephalopods are like kittens, wave anything at them, like a piece of white cloth tied to a string, and they'd float right out from under their rocky enclave to chase the billowing fabric.

We would farm an average 8 to 12 polpi each in a little under 3 hours, just in time to swim back to our beach, parade the catch across town, and get home for lunch.

Normally, I would never share this secret (yet very easy) recipe. Call me selfish, but some tricks are best kept unsaid. I however can't stay a day without pampering you all with my silly stories, my kitchen tips and my family recipes. It's what I do. I like to cook and then write about it. I love it when my food gets complimented, even if only savored in a virtual world. When a fellow blogger actually sends me feedback of proven recipes being a success, my heart flies. This is how I show my love.

So...

Here's the recipe for Purpetielli (Neapolitan for polpetti, little octopi) affogati, which is a cooking term used commonly for savory dishes stewed in flavorsome tomatoes and wine, which means drowned.

The ideal mollusks to use for this dish would be the tiny moscardini (8 tentacles, single line of suction cups on each), but any small, tender kind will work. The smaller the octopus, the lower chance of a chewy, rubbery outcome, once cooked.

Polpo in fact, requires long, slow simmering, so keep your temperatures low and give yourself plenty of time. I like to do this with the baby octopus you find frozen in Asian markets, but as I said before, you can use any kind. Serve with homestyle, crusty bread for sopping up droolworthy sauce and juices, and keep the wine bottle well chilled.

8 small octopi, weighing an average of 150gr each (5 oz)
500 g (2 1/2 cups) plum tomatoes, chopped
250 ml (1 cup) dry, white wine
2 garlic cloves
A small bunch parsley, minced (optional, I don't use it)
100 ml (1/2 cup) extra virgin olive oil
1 small fiery red peperoncino hot pepper, crushed
Salt to taste

Clean and trim any hard or non-edible parts of the polpetti, like the beak, entrails, stomach sac, eyes, gladius and bony innards. If you don't want to do all this, have your fishmonger clean and prepare them for you to take home.

Take a medium, high-sided pot, and put all the ingredients in it, adding a little water as well.

Cover the pot, bring it to a boil, and simmer the octopuses drenched in the sauce for 20 minutes, after about 10 minutes, check seasoning. Serve with the sauce and lots of bread for mandatory scarpetta (a divine Italian table custom I will post about in the near future).

Tip: A popular belief suggests that to make polpetti (or any other size of octopi for that matter) become more tender during cooking, they must be stewed with a cork stopper in the cooking pot.
It actually works, so take that smirk off your face.