warning: foodie post below
Recipe:
My anchovy and flat bean salad is marvelous. I have to share how I did this. But first, I must admit I ate a version of this out last week at Cavour 313, this is a reproduction, not an original.
First I blanched about a kilo of coralli, very long flat beans that I’d cleaned and sliced on a diagonal to 3 inch pieces. Within 5 minutes these were tender, and the produce lady tells me she makes a salad of them raw with just tomatoes and onions.
I dressed the beans while still warm in olive oil, salt, and the juice of two lemons. I let this cool for at least a half hour, so the anchovies wouldn’t get too hot, then tossed in pieces of marinated anchovy fillets – the silvery kind that are 4 inches long or so, both fillets still together, butterflied, cleaned and de-boned but with the skin on the outside. They’re filleted so cleanly you could reassemble the little fishes by putting the bones back in and sticking on a head and tail. The marinade from the anchovies is wonderfully sour and a little sweet: next time I’ll ask the grocer to leave more juices in for the salad (draining them is a courtesy since they’re expensive and sold by weight). These are nothing like the kind preserved in salt and oil we usually think of. I love the fact that they’re called alici – I think of little fishes named Alice.
You could try this with green beans since finding Italian bean varieties in the US is probably difficult.
Other cooking news: I’ve reached a new point in my culinary development. Whether it is a high point, I don’t know. I made a pasta sauce the other night with guanciale, smoked hog jowl, a typical Roman ingredient. I realized this was the first time in my life that I’d used a pork product from which I had to remove bristles (or more accurately, a pork fat delivery system). I did, however, some years ago, learn how to burn the remaining feathers off a freshly plucked chicken.
Anyone interested in cooking lessons in Italy, working on a farm for the olive harvest, truffle festivals, wine festivals and the vendage, etc. should let me know. I have a growing list of connections, especially of people wanting to trade free room and board for labor on an organic farm.
My anchovy and flat bean salad is marvelous. I have to share how I did this. But first, I must admit I ate a version of this out last week at Cavour 313, this is a reproduction, not an original.
First I blanched about a kilo of coralli, very long flat beans that I’d cleaned and sliced on a diagonal to 3 inch pieces. Within 5 minutes these were tender, and the produce lady tells me she makes a salad of them raw with just tomatoes and onions.
I dressed the beans while still warm in olive oil, salt, and the juice of two lemons. I let this cool for at least a half hour, so the anchovies wouldn’t get too hot, then tossed in pieces of marinated anchovy fillets – the silvery kind that are 4 inches long or so, both fillets still together, butterflied, cleaned and de-boned but with the skin on the outside. They’re filleted so cleanly you could reassemble the little fishes by putting the bones back in and sticking on a head and tail. The marinade from the anchovies is wonderfully sour and a little sweet: next time I’ll ask the grocer to leave more juices in for the salad (draining them is a courtesy since they’re expensive and sold by weight). These are nothing like the kind preserved in salt and oil we usually think of. I love the fact that they’re called alici – I think of little fishes named Alice.
You could try this with green beans since finding Italian bean varieties in the US is probably difficult.
Other cooking news: I’ve reached a new point in my culinary development. Whether it is a high point, I don’t know. I made a pasta sauce the other night with guanciale, smoked hog jowl, a typical Roman ingredient. I realized this was the first time in my life that I’d used a pork product from which I had to remove bristles (or more accurately, a pork fat delivery system). I did, however, some years ago, learn how to burn the remaining feathers off a freshly plucked chicken.
Anyone interested in cooking lessons in Italy, working on a farm for the olive harvest, truffle festivals, wine festivals and the vendage, etc. should let me know. I have a growing list of connections, especially of people wanting to trade free room and board for labor on an organic farm.
posted by Miss Adventure at 12:44 PM
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