This is a very summer dish here in Italy: with the heat and sultriness people prefer having fish instead of meat. Fish is much easier to digest and recalls to light sea breeze and refreshing swimming...
Anchovies are the most poor fish among many, but this fish is absolutely not poor in taste and nutritious value. It is true that anchovies are rich in Omega-3 fatty acids that so important for , our brain also benefits a lot from Omega-3. So much benefit with a really modest price (I paid about 3 € )...
Anchovies are mostly used in Mediterranean region, but this doen't mean that they don't have anchovies in the Northern countries, they just have other recipes... For example, in Russia anchovies are usually prepared marinated in brine or canned with oil or tomato sauce.
INGREDIENTS:
Servings: 2-3
650-700g raw anchovies
4tbs bread crumbs
3tbs grated Parmigiano
1tbs capers
1 garlic clove
parsley
salt
1/2 lemon
EVO oil
Always rely on your trusted fishmonger for the freshness of the fish and if it is possible ask him to clean anchovies for you.
Not every person is willing to clean the fish... for me it has never been a problem (just maybe when I was a child, to tell you the truth)...
1. To clean anchovies, tear out the fish head starting from the fish's back, then pull the intestines together with the head.
2. Keep anchovies aside and when you have finished with all of them, wash them under the cold running water.
3. Next you need to remove the fish spine, just tear it off ad keep the fillets on a clean plate.
4. Cover an oven tray with the baking paper and pour some oil over it.
5. Place all the anchovies fillets one next to the other over the paper.
6. Season with some salt, lemon juice and oil.
7. Finely chop parsley and capers.
8. In a medium bowl mix together bread crumbs, grated Parmigiano cheese, capers, parsley and squeezed garlic clove.
9. Cover the anchovies fillets with the mix and cook in a preheated oven at 220C for 5-7 minutes, or till the surface becomes gold in colour.
10. Serve as a main dish for 2-3 people or as a starter for 4-6.
Buon Appetito!!!
This is really a full-flavour dish... Very poor in calories but substantial . You may serve it as a main course or as a sauce for short pasta, the best type of pasta for this dish is Paccheri.
INGREDIENTS:
Servings: 2
600g calamari rings
handful of black olives
couple pinches of capers
8 cherry tomatoes
2 garlic cloves
1/4 lemon
OR
50ml white wine
salt
chilli
oregano
EVO oil
1. Remove the bones from the olives. If the olives are soft you may just press them gently to separate the bones from the meat and then it will come out by itself.
2. Cut tomatoes into halves or if they are quite big into quarters.
3. In a large bowl marinate calamari rings with either 1tbs of lemon juice or same quantity of white wine for 5 minutes.
4. Add tomatoes, olives and capers. Season with some salt and oregano. You may also add some lemon peel for flavour.
5. In a frying pan heat some EVO oil and add garlic cloves cut into halves and chilli to taste.
6. Add calamari with other ingredients and cook for 5 minutes.
7. There will be too much sauce , so drain calamari with a skimmer and put them in a bowl in which you will serve them.
8. Reduce the sauce in the pan for about 5 minute.
9. Add the sauce to the bowl with calamari to season.
Note: In case you want to use the dish as a sauce for pasta, cook any short type of pasta, like Penne, Farfalle, Tortiglioni, Rigatoni... But the best one for the dish is Paccheri.
In this case the quantities of Ingredients will become for four people.
Mix calamari with pasta and serve without cheese.
Buon Appetito!!!
Open the fridge, check for the ingredients and then decide about the recipe - that's my cooking motto. Some basic ingredients are always there, the others change. Today I have fresh cuttlefish as it was on offer at my trusted fishmonger's.
INGREDIENTS:
Servings: 2
300g cuttlefish (1 small or half a big one)
160g Penne pasta
50g black olives
3-4 pinches of capers
2 garlic cloves
200-250 ml canned chopped tomatoes
some white wine
half veg stock
chilli
oregano
salt
sugar
EVO oil
1. First we cook the sauce. For that cut garlic cloves into halves and fry them till they're gold in some EVO oil.
2. Cut cuttlefish body into very thin stripes and leave the tentacles as they are, we'll use them as a decoration.
3. Add cuttlefish to the frying pan with oil and garlic and add a splash of white wine. When the alcohol is evaporated add half a glass of water and half a veg stock, capers and olives and cook for 10 minutes.
4. Now it's time for tomatoes: add tomato pulp from a can or if you have fresh tomatoes you may add 3 middle tomatoes cut in cubes (you need to emerge the whole tomatoes into boiling water for a couple of minutes and then into cold water, then peel them accurately and cut).
5. Tomatoes contain acid so we need to balance it with some sugar: add couple of pinches of sugar to the sauce and some salt to taste. Add also some chilli and oregano.
6. Cook the sauce for 20 more minutes adding some water when it becomes too dry.
7. Meanwhile boil water for pasta and cook penne pasta until "al dente".
8. Mix pasta with the sauce and serve. You may decorate your plate with the cuttlefish tentacles from the sauce...
The name of this dish is really bizarre !!! Translated it literally means "Spaghetti in a whore style" Yeah!!! That's right... hmm... exactly!
The origin of this name is not sure but they say that it comes either from the whorehouses in Naples where this dish was frequently served to the clients or to the prostitutes after their "hard work"... Or, as a nice story tells, it was invented by an owner of a restaurant in Ischia, and island near Naples shore. Now I'll tell you the story.
One night at the restaurant called Rancio Fellone, when the chef was already gone home, a group of friends appeared. The owner, who was not a chef but an architect, advised that the kitchen was already closed. So the fellows, who were really hungry, asked him to bring any possible "puttanata", that in Italian means kind of "piece of nonsence", but comes from a word "puttana", that, I bet, doesn't need to be translated... In short, they asked for any kind of simple dish, just to have something to soothe their hunger. So the owner checked in the kitchen and found these simple ingredients that are always stored in any restaurant, out of which he invented this dish, that was called Spaghetti alla Puttanesca.
This dish is not famouse only in Italy, it became a classical Italian recipe known worldwide.
INGREDIENTS:
Servings: 2
160g spaghetti
handful of black olives
2-3 pinches of capers
3-4 anchovies
2 garlic cloves
10-12 cherry tomatoes
chilli
oregano
salt
EVO oil
1. Pour some oil into a frying pan and add garlic cloves a bit smashed and anchovies and adding by a wooden spoon let the anchovies melt
2. Add chilli, olives, capers and oregano, splash everything up with some wine.
3. At the end add cherry tomatoes cut in halves and heat everything up.
4. Cook spaghetti "al dente", drain and add to the sauce.
5. Mix gently and serve.
Note: Please remember: Pasta = Fish - Yes => Cheese - NO
4tbs bread crumbs
