Italy Part 2

Joe finished his first night shift at the hospital on Friday morning. While he slept, I was happily buzzing around in the kitchen. I wanted to make something special for him that would be refreshing and fun. I decided to go with four recipes from Italy, listed below. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking for this entry.

Napolentana Crostini (p. 95)

Olive Crostini (p. 95)

Tuna and Cannellini Bean Salad (p. 101)

Chimneysweep's Gelato (p. 149)

Premature Napolentana Crostini consisting of a generous frosting of
butter and two slices of bocconcini cheese. They need further assembly with halved
anchovy fillets, peeled and seeded tomato slices, dried oregano, and fresh
cracked pepper before going into the oven (350 degrees for about 15 minutes). 

The lonesome remaining Bocconcini. This recipe introduced me to this type of cheese.
I stood in front of the cheese cooler at the supermarket for about half an hour reading cheese labels to find it.
Turns out, Bocconcini is an unripened cheese packaged in whey
 (a liquid milk protein solution you see in the picture), nicknamed "baby mozzarella."
The texture is very smooth and creamy, and oddly, a bit juicy.
The taste is super mild, almost like solid milk without any singing notes of sour, salty, or sweet. 

Napolentana Crostinis ready for tasting. See how the bocconcini melted into a
 creamy goo that sort of binds the other ingredients to the bread? Neat. 

Admiring the tranquility of this scene.

The finished Olive Crostini. These required a different preparation. The bread was
toasted in the oven first (375 degrees for about 3 minutes each side), and then
topped with an olive spread. The spread consisted of blending Kalamata olives,
anchovies, capers, garlic, basil, and olive oil until finely chopped but not smooth.
I sprinkled them with a bit of sea salt to finish. 

There were four crostini recipes altogether but I figured I would make two this evening.
I like the balance of color and texture with these two recipes. 

Now onto the tuna salad! This was my first time trying to grill without having a grill!
I decided to take a chance and use my cast iron panini press grill. I let it heat up in the oven while
the crostini baked, then placed it over low heat on the stove top to sear the tuna.
The tuna steaks were marinated with olive oil and cracked pepper for about an hour before "grilling."
I was biting my nails as to not overcook them. This pictures shows the last steps of getting the edges seared. 

O.K. so they are a bit over done but not a terrible first attempt at seared tuna on a stove top!
Even so, Joe was a bit hesitant at trying this pink meat. I assured him that they are
100% safe since we cooked all outer surfaces. In fact, the ideal tuna steak is seared
so minimally that the inner meat appears dark purple (raw raw raw).  

Final steps of assembly required laying a fresh bed of arugula, and topping with pre-mixed spices and
freshly chopped red pepper, tomatoes, cannellini beans. The dressing was served warm after simmering on the stove.
 It consisted of lemon juice, olive oil and honey. Garnish the plate with fresh cracked pepper, salt, and lemon zest! 

Aerial view of the Tuna and Cannellini Bean Salad. How refreshing does that look?
I read that the tuna industry in Sicily is very important for the economy of southern Italy. 

Final course was a sort of "gelato" cocktail, the Chimneysweeper's Gelato.
For this, we used one of our new favorite wedding gifts: the Cuisinart ice cream maker.
I'll blog about ice cream later but for the base of this recipe, we made a very rich ice cream
consisting of mostly whipping cream and sugar with a slash of vanilla and a pinch of salt
 (the recipe calls for vanilla gelato but it noted that a premium ice cream could be used also).

The Cuisinart at work! It takes only 15-20 minutes for the sweet dairy concoction to solidify.
Our apartment was so warm that evening that seconds after dishing up the frozen treat,
it started melting into a sloppy slush. Quickly, we drizzled the ice cream with whisky
and sprinkled with finely ground coffee beans. Unfortunately I don't have a decent
 picture (probably didn't snap one since it was so sloppy).  But you must realize that this is the most delicious
finish to a busy day! We enjoyed ours while watching Avitar in front of two floor fans...