Erica De Mane

Recipes:

Fried Zucchini Blossoms with Mozzarella and Sun-Dried Tomatoes
Wheat Berries with Zucchini, Pine Nuts, and Ricotta
String Bean and Tomato Salad with Celery and Bottarga
Baked Eggplant with Parsley Pesto
Grilled Sardines with Hot Pine Nut Vinaigrette
Grilled Leg of Lamb with Tomatoes, Mint, and Honey
Cantaloupe with Marsala
Peach and Basil Pizza

If you love to cook, summer can make you tense with excitement. There are days I walk through the Union Square Greenmarket in Manhattan feeling overwhelmed by the abundance and choices. Greed mixed with confusion can be productive for a cook. I want everything, and often enough I buy everything. The colors are electric: eggplants in five different shades of purple, zucchini blossoms in day-glow yellow, plum-colored tomatoes, tomato-colored plums, huge bunches of green basil, thyme with little lavender blossoms, pink radishes, orange peppers, huge bins of garnet-colored cherries. It’s like trying to choose from a display case of 150 different lipstick shades. I lug my big bags home and lay my purchases out on the kitchen counter and stare, trying to make sense of it all. I play mix and match, making piles of things I might like to cook together, eventually sorting everything. Here are a few summer recipes I came up with after the sorting. They are all from my forthcoming book, Creating Southern Italian Flavor, which will be published by Wiley next year. I hope they will help jump-start your summer cooking.

Fried Zucchini Blossoms with Mozzarella and Sun-Dried Tomatoes

One night when I was a kid my family was eating over at the home of our neighbor Gloria Mastellone, an excellent cook whose family is from Sorrento in Campania, and she fried up a batch of stuffed zucchini blossoms and brought them to the table. My father took a bite of one of the hot blossoms, and a big, mad bumble bee flew out and buzzed around the dining room. Since then I always check the insides of the blossoms for any bugs that might be hiding in them.

A classic filling for these beautiful yellow blossoms is mozzarella and anchovy. I love that, but for my version I’ve chosen to include sun-dried tomatoes, which add their own brand of saltiness, and fresh marjoram.

(Serves 4 or 5 as an antipasto offering )

About 20 fresh zucchini blossoms
A small ball of mozzarella (about 1/2 pound), cut into medium cubes (just big enough to comfortably fit inside the blossom)
8 sun-dried tomatoes (preferably ones preserved in oil), cut into strips
A few sprigs of marjoram, the leaves lightly chopped, plus a few whole sprigs for garnish

For the batter:

1 cup all-purpose flour
A tiny pinch of baking powder (a little less than 1/8 teaspoon)
A generous pinch of salt
A few scrapings of fresh nutmeg
About 3/4 cup cold water
Extra-virgin olive oil for frying (an inexpensive, bulk supermarket brand is a reasonable choice here)

Zucchini blossoms should be very fresh and unwilted when you buy them. They are quite perishable and will keep for only about a day, so plan on using them right away. Sticking their stems in a small glass of water in the refrigerator will sometimes prolong their freshness for an extra day. To clean the blossoms for this recipe, open each one up and pinch off its stamen, checking while you do for any dirt (or bugs) that might be trapped inside. Then wipe their surface with a damp paper towel. I try not to actually wash zucchini blossoms (they easily become waterlogged), but if they’re really dirty, dunk them very briefly in a sink full of cool water, lift them out right away, and drain them on paper towels.

Gently place a piece of mozzarella in each blossom. Add a few pieces of sun-dried tomato and a few marjoram leaves. Twist the tops of the blossoms to close them up. You can refrigerate the filled blossoms for a few hours before frying them.

To make the batter, put the flour in a medium mixing bowl. Add the baking powder, salt, and nutmeg and stir well to blend all the ingredients. Add the cold water and whisk until the batter is smooth (it should be a little thicker than heavy cream). Let sit while you set up the oil.

I don’t always love frying at home, but these can be done in only a few inches of oil, so they’re not really deep fried, and it’s not such an ordeal. I like using a straight-sided sauté pan, about 4 inches deep, for this frying. It contains the oil in a way I’m comfortable with (much better than a sloping pan). Fill the pan with about 2 inches of oil and set it over a medium flame (ideally 360 to 365 degrees, but I honestly never use a thermometer; I just wait until the surface shimmers from the heat and then add a few drops of batter). If the batter bubbles and turns golden right away I know the oil is ready. If the batter sits in the pan with no movement, the oil is too cold; if it burns quickly, it’s too hot.

Dip the blossoms in the batter, letting excess batter drip off. Fry them in batches, probably about five at a time; crowding the pan will lower the oil temperature. Turn them when they look golden and crispy. They should take about 4 minutes or so. Pull the blossoms from the pan with tongs and set on paper towels for a moment to soak up excess oil. Place the blossoms on a serving dish and sprinkle with salt and black pepper and the marjoram sprigs. Serve right away.

Wheat Berries with Zucchini, Pine Nuts, and Ricotta

Whole wheat berries are used in Southern Italy to make all sorts of salads and soups and for cuccia, a mix of wheat berries, ricotta, and something sweet like sugar or cocoa. Make sure to buy hard wheat berries (usually labeled Hard Spring Wheat); soft winter wheat ones cook up a little too mushy. You can find wheat berries at health-food stores and at Middle Eastern markets.

To make a summer wheat berry salad with tomatoes and basil, drain the cooked wheat berries from this recipe, pour them into a large serving bowl, and drizzle on a little olive oil; chop up two large summer tomatoes, seed them, and let them drain in a colander for about 15 minutes, just to get rid of excess juice; add the tomatoes, a handful of lightly chopped basil, a few gratings of Grana Padano cheese (not too much, as you just want a taste, and excess will make the wheat gummy), and a thinly sliced garlic clove to the bowl; season with salt and black pepper, add a fresh drizzle of oil, and toss it gently; and serve at room temperature. This salad definitely tastes best made fresh and not refrigerated, as chilling flattens the taste of beautiful summer tomatoes.

(Serves 4 as a first course or side dish)

1 1/2 cups hard wheat berries
1 bay leaf, fresh if possible
Extra-virgin olive oil
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
3 thin slices of pancetta, cut into small dice
4 or 5 scallions, thinly sliced, using some tender green
5 tiny young zucchini, cut into small cubes
A splash of dry white wine
The grated zest from 1 lemon
A handful of pine nuts, lightly toasted
A generous handful of basil leaves, lightly chopped
1 cup fresh ricotta

Place the wheat berries in a large pot and cover them with about 4 inches of cold water. Add the bay leaf and bring the water to a boil. Adjust the heat to medium-low and cook the wheat, uncovered, at a low boil (a bit more vigorous than a simmer but not a rolling boil) for about 45 minutes. Add hot water if the water diminishes to less than an inch above the wheat. When done, the grains will have swelled to about twice their size, and they’ll be tender to the bite with just a bit of resistance. Some of the grains will have started to burst, but this is normal. Drain well and pour the wheat berries into a large serving bowl. Remove the bay leaf. Drizzle with a few tablespoons of olive oil and season lightly with salt and black pepper. Give it a gentle mix.

In a large skillet, heat about 3 tablespoons of olive oil over medium flame. Add the pancetta and sauté until crisp, about 4 minutes. Add the scallions and the zucchini and sauté until the zucchini is just tender, about 5 minutes (if you have really young, tender zucchini it will cook quickly). Season with a little salt and black pepper. Add the white wine and let it bubble for a few seconds (the wine will loosen up juices on the bottom of the skillet so they can be incorporated into the dish, adding a lot of flavor). Add the zucchini with all the skillet juices to the wheat berries. Add the pine nuts, lemon zest, and basil. Add a drizzle of fresh olive oil and toss everything gently. Taste for seasoning. You may want to add a little fresh lemon juice to pick up the flavors. Serve warm in small pasta bowls with a dollop of ricotta on top of each serving.

String Bean and Tomato Salad with Celery and Bottarga

We had a lot of string-bean salads when I was a child, and I never found them too exciting, especially the limp, vinegary ones that came from Italian delis. I dress mine just before serving so everything stays crisp. A few chopped anchovies are a classic addition, but here I use bottarga, the pressed tuna or gray mullet roe famous in Sicily and Sardinia, which gives this simple summer dish an exciting, salty bite.

(Serves 4)

3/4 pound tender summer string beans, trimmed but left whole (if they’re not in season, use haricots verts, which you can find in good shape year-round at gourmet shops)
3 tender inner stalks of celery, thinly sliced, plus the leaves from about 5 stalks, lightly chopped
1 large red shallot, thinly sliced
1 pint red cherry tomatoes, cut in half
A few large sprigs of marjoram, the leaves lightly chopped
Extra-virgin olive oil
A tiny splash of champagne vinegar
A pinch of salt
Freshly ground black pepper
About 12 scrapings of bottarga (preferably gray mullet roe from Sardinia)

Set up a medium-size pot of water and bring it to a boil. Add the string beans and blanch them for about 3 minutes. Scoop them from the water with a large strainer into a colander and run cold water over them to preserve their green color. Let them drain.

When you’re ready to serve the salad, place the string beans, celery, celery leaves, shallot, cherry tomatoes, and marjoram in a large salad bowl. Pour on about 3 tablespoons of fruity extra-virgin olive oil and the tiniest splash of champagne vinegar (you don’t need much on top of the acidity of the tomatoes). Add the smallest pinch of salt (remember that the bottarga is very salty) and a few grindings of black pepper. Toss everything gently. With a sharp vegetable peeler, shave about a dozen or so scrapings of bottarga into the bowl and give it another gentle toss. Divide the salad onto small plates and serve right away.

Baked Eggpplant with Parsley Pesto

If you really love parsley, as I do, make a parsley pesto, where its flavor can really shine. I rub the pesto into the flesh of halved eggplants and bake them in a hot oven. For something so simple, the dish has really rich flavor.

I use very small eggplants for this, about four inches long and dark and purple Larger ones bake up a little mushy in the center. I also make it with the long, skinny Japanese variety.

(Serves 4 or 5 as a side dish)

1 large garlic clove, peeled
2 salt-packed anchovies, filleted, soaked in cool water for about 20 minutes, and drained
1 medium shallot
A large handful of flat-leaf parsley leaves
Extra-virgin olive oil
Black pepper
Salt
4 small eggplants, cut in half lengthwise

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Make the pesto: Place the garlic, anchovies, and shallot in the bowl of a food processor and pulse to a paste. Add the parsley, about 1/4 cup of olive oil, and a little salt and a more generous amount of black pepper. Pulse a few times until everything is just blended and not yet becoming a purée.

With a thin, sharp knife, score the eggplants through the flesh in a large diamond pattern, cutting about halfway down (be careful not to cut into the skin). Spread a generous amount of the pesto on each eggplant, working it down into the cuts. Place them on a lightly oiled sheet pan and bake until they’re lightly browned and tender, about 1/2 hour (depending on the size of the eggplants).

You can serve these hot, but the flavors may be more vibrant if you eat them at room temperature.

Grilled Sardines with Hot Pine Nut Vinaigrette

I love the pungent smell of sardines on a grill, and when I find really fresh sardines in the market I always like to grill them. I usually find them flown in from Portugal. They’re best the day they arrive. If you see them at your market, ask when they usually arrive (mine come in every Thursday). That way you can get them at their best. The creaminess of the pine nuts marries very well with the rich oiliness of the little fish.

About cleaning sardines: For this recipe all you really need to do it gut and scale them. I leave the backbone, head, and tail intact. You can ask your fish seller to do this, but it’s pretty easy. While running the sardine under cool water, rub the scales away with your fingers (they come off easily and don’t need to be scraped off like the ones on larger fish). Stick a small knife into the middle of the belly and make a one-inch lengthwise slit. Pull out the insides with your fingers and wash each fish inside and out with cool water. That’s it.

(Serves 4 as a first course or a light meal)

For the vinaigrette:

1/2 cup very fresh pine nuts
Extra-virgin olive oil
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
The zest and juice from 1 large lemon
A pinch of sugar
A tiny splash of white wine
A handful of flat leaf parsley leaves, chopped

12 sardines, gutted and scaled, but with the heads left on (see above)
Salt (preferably sea salt)
Freshly ground black pepper
Extra-virgin olive oil
The juice from one lemon
1 head chicory or frisée, cleaned and separated into long leaves

Place the pine nuts in a medium skillet and toast them over low heat, stirring them around occasionally until they are nicely golden. Add about 1/2 cup of olive oil, a pinch of salt, black pepper, a pinch of sugar, the zest and juice of a lemon, and a splash of white wine. Let this bubble for a minute and then turn off the heat, leaving the skillet on the turned-off burner.

Set up a stove-top grill plate (or an outside grill) and get it very hot. Toss the sardines lightly in olive oil, a little salt, black pepper, and lemon juice. Grill them until good char marks appear, about a minute or so, and turn once, grilling the other side, about another minute or so. This should cook them through, but large ones will take a little longer. Line a large serving plate with the chicory or frisée. Lift the sardines from the grill with tongs and place them on the serving plate. Reheat the pine-nut sauce for a few seconds, just until it’s hot, adding a splash of water to loosen it up if necessary. Scatter the parsley leaves over the sardines, and pour on the pine-nut sauce. Serve hot.

Grilled Leg of Lamb with Tomatoes, Mint, and Honey

Lamb is often flavored with fennel seeds or rosemary in Sicily as in other parts of Southern Italy. For this quick grill, however, I’ve chosen for the main flavoring mint, another herb used frequently in Sicilian cooking. As the British have long known, mint goes beautifully with lamb. I’ve blended it with tomatoes and a touch of honey, which not only adds sweetness but gives the meat a crisp crust. Black pepper is an important ingredient because it balances the acidity and sweetness of the other ingredients.

My butcher almost always has boned leg of lamb ready to buy in large or small pieces. If yours doesn’t, ask him to bone and butterfly a leg (butterflying flattens the meat out to a more-or-less even thickness, usually about two inches at its thickest but always be a little uneven from the nature of the cut).

Leftover grilled lamb makes excellent sandwiches. To prepare them I usually toast Italian bread, brush it with olive oil, and layer on the lamb and any remaining tomatoes. Sometimes I add crumbled Ricotta Salata or Feta cheese before closing it up.

(Makes 6 main-course servings)

For the lamb:

An approximately 4-pound piece of boned and butterflied leg of lamb (see above)
About 4 garlic cloves, peeled and cut into slivers
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 bay leaves
A few large marjoram or oregano sprigs, the leaves lightly chopped
A handful of mint sprigs, the leaves lightly chopped
1 medium wineglass dry Marsala wine
About 2 tablespoons of honey (a wildflower honey is nice for this)
Freshly ground black pepper
Extra-virgin olive oil
Salt

For the tomatoes:

2 pints of cherry tomatoes, stemmed but left whole
About 3 scallions, cut into thin rounds, using some of the tender green part
A drizzle of honey
A few large mint sprigs, the leaves lightly chopped
A few large marjoram or oregano sprigs, the leaves lightly chopped
Freshly ground black pepper
Salt
A drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil

Place the lamb in a shallow dish. Make a few little cuts into the surface in various places and insert the garlic slivers. Sprinkle the cinnamon over the lamb. Add the bay leaves, marjoram or oregano, and mint. Drizzle on the honey and pour the glass of Marsala over the meat. Pour on a little olive oil, grind on a generous amount of black pepper, and turn the lamb over a few times in the marinade so all the flavors are well distributed. Ideally this should sit for a few hours or even refrigerated overnight, but if you’re pressed for time, just let it sit unrefrigerated while you set up your grill.

Start your fire and let it burn down until you have hot, whitish coals but no flame (if the fire is too hot and active, you’ll wind up burning the outside of the lamb while the inside remains raw). Pull the lamb from the marinade and season it well on both sides with salt. Start grilling the lamb, fat side down, about 5 inches from the heat. Grill until it’s well crusted, about 10 minutes. Turn and grill the other side, about 8 to 10 minutes longer. If at any time you sense it is getting too black, move it over to the side of the grill where the heat is milder. Since boned leg of lamb is uneven in thickness, you will always wind up with some pink and some more well-done meat (something for everyone), so aim for the thickest parts to be medium-rare (about 130 degrees if you want to measure the temperature with a meat thermometer). Take the lamb from the grill and place it on a cutting board that will catch all the juices. Let it rest for about 10 minutes before cutting into it.

While the lamb is resting, grill the tomatoes. You can use a wire grill basket to prevent the cherry tomatoes from dropping into the fire; I usually just poke a few holes in a piece of aluminum foil and pile them onto that. Put the tomatoes on the grill and cook them, shaking them around a bit, until they just start to burst and take on a little color, about 3 or 4 minutes. Place them in a small bowl and add the scallions, the honey, and about half of the mint and marjoram or oregano. Season with salt and black pepper and a drizzle of olive oil. Toss gently.

Carve the lamb into thin slices and arrange it on a serving platter in a circular pattern, leaving a little space open in the center of the platter. Pour the tomatoes into the center. Pour any lamb juices that have collected over the lamb. Give everything a fresh grinding of black pepper, maybe a little salt if you want it, and a drizzle of fresh olive oil. Scatter on the remaining herbs and serve right away (it will also taste really good at room temperature).

Cantaloupe with Marsala

When I first smelled these two fragrant ingredients together, I knew how good this was going to taste. They’re a classic Sicilian pairing of flavors that works best with a really ripe summer cantaloupe and a high-quality Marsala like Florio.

(Serves 4)

1 large, ripe cantaloupe
1 large wineglass sweet Marsala wine (if you have only dry Marsala, add about a tablespoon of sugar)
A drizzle of honey
A few short strips of lemon peel
A pinch of salt
A few mint sprigs for garnish

I usually don’t get fussy about using kitchen gadgets in my recipes, but I have to say that using a melon baller here makes a big difference in the presentation of this dessert. So halve the cantaloupe, remove the seeds, and then scoop out all the insides with the melon baller into a pretty serving bowl. Pour on the Marsala, and add the honey, lemon peel, and a tiny pinch of salt (the salt heightens the flavor of the melon in a subtle but worthwhile way; my grandfather always ate cantaloupe wedges heavily sprinkled with salt). Give it all a few good stirs, cover the bowl, and refrigerate until everything is chilled, stirring occasionally. Serve cool, garnished with the mint sprigs.

Peach and Basil Pizza

Flavoring peaches with basil is an idea I got from my grandmother’s cousin Tony when I went to visit him in Campolattaro, a small town in Campania to which he moved in the 1980s after spending most of his adult life in Westchester County, New York. His cellar, filled with an amazing assortment of preserved fruits and vegetables, contained jars of peaches with a few basil leaves stuck into each one. I had thought basil leaves were used to flavor only preserved tomatoes, and I didn’t ask him about it at the time. However, though I never sampled those peaches I thought about them from time to time over the years, wondering how they would taste. I finally got to putting peaches and basil together and realized that Tony had been on to something.

Several things go by the name pizza in Southern Italy, including open-face sweet tarts like this one. Pizza dolce like this usually includes fresh or candied fruit and nuts.

For the crust:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
A generous pinch of salt
1 tablespoon sugar
About 2 or 3 tablespoons chilled dry white wine
1 large egg
The zest from about 1/2 lemon
1 stick unsalted butter, cold and cut into small dice

5 ripe peaches, unpeeled and cut into thin wedges
4 tablespoons sugar
The zest from 1 lemon
A splash of Amaretto liqueur
A handful of whole, blanched almonds, lightly toasted and roughly ground in a food processor
A small handful of basil leaves, lightly chopped
Powdered sugar for garnish, if you like

To make the crust, put the flour in the bowl of a food processor. Add the salt, sugar, and lemon zest and pulse once or twice to blend everything. In a small bowl whisk the egg together with the white wine. Add the butter to the food processor and pulse two or three times, just until the butter is broken up into little pea-size bits. Pour the egg-and-wine mixture over the dough and pulse once or twice more, just to blend it. The dough should just start to come together and look crumbly and moist.. Turn the dough out onto a counter and press it into a ball. Give it a few brief kneads with the palm of your hand to make sure it holds together. Wrap it in plastic wrap, and refrigerate it for about 30 minutes

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Place the peaches in a bowl and toss them with the sugar, lemon zest, and Amaretto.

Take the dough from the refrigerator and sprinkle a work surface with a little flour. Roll the dough out into a large round, about 12 inches, trimming the edges to make it rounder. Sprinkle the ground almonds over the surface, leaving a 3-inch border. Scatter on the basil. Pile the peaches into the center of the circle and let them spread out in a natural way, leaving a 3-inch border all around. Now fold the edge up and around the fruit, giving the dough little tucks to hold it in place and create a ruffly border. You should have a large opening in the middle where the peaches stick out.

Bake until the crust is a deep golden brown, about 35 to 40 minutes.

Let cool for about 1/2 hour and then dust with powdered sugar if you like.