L'Italo-Americano

LA BUONA TAVOLA RECIPES COOKING TIPS SEASONAL DISHES THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2020 www.italoamericano.org 32 L'Italo-Americano dients. • First and foremost, use medium to small egg- plants if you can find them. They tend to be more tender and contain fewer seeds than the usual gigantic ones. • U s e f r e s h h o t r e d peppers, if you can find them, although as you will have seen, I used dried ones for this post as that's what I had in the house (and I don't do single item shopping these days for obvious reasons!) • If you do use dried peperoncini, use a bit less as they tend to be hotter than the fresh variety. • White wine vine- gar is, for some reason, har- der to find than red, but it's important for this dish as it won't discolor the veg. In a pinch, you can substitute apple cider vinegar. And if, like me, you prefer a milder f l a v o r , y o u c a n u s e a 2 : 1 water to vinegar ratio rather than the 1:1 ratio mentioned here. • The olive oil, of cour- se, is perhaps the most cru- cial ingredient besides the eggplant, so use the best qua- l i t y o i l y o u c a n f i n d a n d afford. Personally I prefer fruity southern Italian oils from Puglia and Sicily for this dish, but again, what I had on hand was a milder oil from Liguria. It was still delicious. Variations The basic sott'olio techni- que is remarkably consistent across recipes, but there are a few variations worth mentio- ning. First off, to salt or not to salt? These days most egg- plants don't really need sal- ting to remove their bitter- ness, as they used to tell you in the old days. But salting is still helpful for preserving eggplant sott'olio, in my opi- nion, as it helps soften the eggplant to better absorb its flavorings. And, of course, the salt itself seasons the egg- plant. But if you want to skip this step, increase the parboil time to 3-5 minutes. And you'll be in fine company: my muse Jeanne Caròla France- sconi doesn't salt her melan- zane sott'olio. If you do opt not to pre-salt the eggplant, do make sure to season the parboiling liquid. Then there's the oil curing time. The majority of recipes call for at least a week's cure before consuming the egg- plant. A few tell you to cure t h e e g g p l a n t a s l o n g a s a month. Truth be told, the eggplant will be perfectly edi- ble in just a couple of days, although the flavor and tex- ture both improve with time. L e t y o u r o w n t a s t e ( a n d patience) be your guide. Recipes vary on the choice of herbs, mostly calling for oregano or mint. Each has its charms. Oregano produces a "spicier" result, while mint p r o v i d e s a f r e s h e r t a s t e . Some recipes call for both, which sounds confusing to the palate. Yet others call for bay leaf, basil or parsley. And it seems to me that you could play around with other herbs as suit your taste. And, it should go almost without saying, the measurements given here for the garlic and herbs are notional. It's really all just to taste. Preserving other veggies sott'olio A variety of other vegeta- bles can be preserved using the same oil cure. Here are tips on some of the most typi- cal: • Peppers: The pep- pers can be preserved sott'o- lio two ways. Method 1: Trim red or yellow bell peppers as indicated in this post and cut them into strips. Cook par- boil them three minutes in vinegar and water and pro- ceed as in the above recipe. Method 2: Roast the pepper, then proceed to layer them with the garlic and herbs and cover with oil as above. • Mushrooms: Small mushrooms like pioppini or chiodini can be left whole. Otherwise, cut them into hal- ves or quarters depending on size. Parboil in vinegar and water, 3 minutes for very small mushrooms, otherwise 5-7 minutes. Then proceed as above. • Zucchini: Cut them into round slices or batons, s a l t t h e m b u t o n l y f o r a n hour or two. (Or skip the sal- ting if you prefer.) Then par- boil the rounds or batons in vinegar and water for 3-5 m i n u t e s a n d p r o c e e d a s above. • B a b y a r t i c h o k e s : Trim the artichokes as indi- c a t e d i n t h i s p o s t , t h e n depending on their size and your preference, leave them w h o l e o r c u t i n h a l v e s o r q u a r t e r s . P a r b o i l f o r 5 - 7 m i n u t e s i n v i n e g a r a n d water, then proceed as above. With the artichoke's delicate flavor, you may want to omit t h e p e p e r o n c i n o a n d u s e black peppercorns instead. NB: Some recipes have your lightly grill the artichokes rather than parboil them. None of these vegetables absorb water quite like egg- plant, so there's no need to squeeze them dry. (In fact, the delicate zucchini would turn to mush if you tried.) Rather, just pat them dry with paper towels after sal- ting (for the zucchini) and after parboiling (for all of them). And so remember to season the parboiling liquid since you will not have pre- salted the veg. In Puglia they apply the sotto'olio technique to lam- pascioni, the bulb of the tas- sel hyacinth, a kind of flowe- ring wild onion plant typical of the region. Eggplants preserved in oil can be used as a side dish with meat, or as a starter (© Istetiana | Dreamstime.com) Continued from page 30

• Cover