New Tricks in my Kitchen

From my recent trip down south, I learned a few new recipes.

The first one was outside Benevento where we went for a wine-tasting lunch at the La Guardiense Cooperative. I had been before and was so taken by one of the dishes the local women made for us.

It is a handmade pasta, made but sprinkling water on hard wheat flour and creating little dough pieces, they reminded me of Spaetzle. The pasta is then cooked in minestrone soup. It was so wonderful, I wanted to recreate it at home.

Here is my Migl’fant that I made today.

I will cook it in the minestrone I made yesterday.

The other recipe I adored, was the spaghetti with Colatura di Alici, an extract from anchovies. The anchovies are deheaded and deboned and layered in salt. The first water that comes off is removed and then they are left in the wooden barrels that they are layered in for a long period of time.
When it is ready, they drill holes in the bottom of the barrel and the liquid is drained off.

I picked up a bottle while at Eataly in Rome. The best comes from the village of Cetara, famous for their anchovies.

It is a sauce that is not cooked. It needs to be prepared ahead of time to let it infuse.

Pasta con la Colatura

Cut raw garlic into large slices. 
Add some sliced chili peppers and parsley.
Place the ingredients in  extra virgin olive oil and the colatura. Use 2 soupspoons of olive oil to 1 soupspoon of colatura.

I place in a jar with a lid and shake to create an emulsion.

Cook spaghetti or linguine in unsalted water.

Mix a small ladle of the pasta water with the colatura mixture.

Remove the garlic when the pasta is cooked.

Drain the pasta into a bowl where you have already put the colatura mixture and mix well.
The pasta will absorb the sauce.

Thanks so much to Sergio Cinque who came and shared his recipe!

sergio cinque of Pastificio Faella in Gragnano

It is fabulous. A similar recipe used in Sicily is to saute garlic in olive oil with several oil packed anchovies and stir the anchovies until they dissolve. Add chili pepper and saute the cooked pasta in the sauce for a minute before serving.

Both are even better topped with breadcrumbs instead of parmesan cheese.

Enjoy!
I will have more recipes coming soon from the trip.

Don’t forget to check out my Market Boys Calendar for 2013. Order here!
Look for the discount before ordering!!!