Erica De Mane

This picture is not how you should eat
when you’re on a diet.

Menu:

Warm Black Olives with Bay Leaves
Little Artichokes in Orange Sauce
Braised Calamari with Cinnamon, Tomatoes, and White Wine, served with Garlic Bruschetta
Escarole Salad with Pecorino Toscana and Shallots
Buttermilk Orange-Flower Sorbetto with Limoncello

An Italian-American meal has a very different flow or pace from a meal you’d be served in Italy. I was confused by this when I first visited Italy. Is this all I get, this little lump of veal on this big, empty plate? That’s not hospitality. When my generous Italian-American parents laid out a spread, it covered the table, everything at once, god forbid a guest think we were chintzy. At one meal we might conceivably have sausages, a bowl of jarred artichoke hearts, baked ziti, a plate of mozzarella and tomatoes, roasted peppers, sliced salami, a platter of grilled chicken just for the hell of it, salad, dressed, waiting, and wilting in the middle of the table, bottles of red wine, Diet Coke, milk, 7-Up, whatever, lots of bread, breadsticks, taralli, bowls of olives. Put all your cards on the table, show them what we’re made of. Bowls on the table, pots on the table, everything from the kitchen is on the table, just in case you need more or want more. Even if you don’t want more, you at least have the security of knowing it’s there.

Italians tend to make every offering an event, treating each dish with much more respect than Americans usually give to “side” dishes. In Italy vegetables usually get to the table before or after an unaccompanied fish or meat dish is eaten, especially in private homes. Salad comes last. Pasta (a small amount) or soup first. Simple vegetable dishes are sometimes served as contorni (with the main course), but anything special, like first-of-the-season asparagus, is savored all by itself. Then a dessert, if it’s part of the deal, and then, only after dessert, can you get your espresso. Not with. And then whatever type of liqueur you might wish. Cooks love this ritualistic procession. It makes us feel appreciated.

I’ve come to understand that the Italian style of eating is very good for naturally controlling how much I eat. If the only thing on your plate is a piece of fish, there’s just so much you can eat before you feel you’ve had enough fish. This is a very good thing for your taste buds. You focus on the fish, savor its flavors, and turn it over to your flavor memory with fondness. It’s the palate fatigue theory. If there are four or five things on your plate at once (think of Thanksgiving dinner), you take a bite of this, a little bit of that, and go back and forth, constantly refreshing your palate and renewing your appetite. Before you know it you’ve consumed a huge amount of food, and to make it worse, the serving bowls are usually on the table, so more is always at the ready (I’ve almost never seen serving bowls plopped down in any Italian home I’ve ever been invited to).

The obvious problem with Italian relay eating, from the cook’s point of view, is that you, the cook, are constantly jumping up and down to get the dishes ready and out of the kitchen one after another. What a bore that can be. But then, things can be made ahead and gently reheated (braised things, for instance), or served at room temperature, very traditionally Italian, especially in the antipasto department, and very convenient for the cook. I spend prep time in my kitchen with pleasure, but I don’t want to play sweaty line cook after my guests arrive. So I’ve worked out a menu, one suited for a little winter dinner party, that’s completely manageable from a cook’s perspective. Every dish stands on its own, everything low in fat and carbohydrates too, but that’s not even the main point here. Even when I’m serving starchy, cheesy, fatty dishes (which I still do from time to time), I try to serve them Italian-style, one dish at a time and in small helpings, so we can all savor every bit.

(All the recipes serve 4)

Warm Black Olives with Bay Leaves

Place about a cup and a half of black olives (Gaetas are a good choice) in a colander, and run warm water over them to remove excess salt and oil. Let them drain. Pour a tablespoon of extra-virgin olive oil into a medium sauté pan, and let it warm over medium heat. Add the olives, 2 peeled garlic cloves, 3 fresh bay leaves, a few strips of orange peel, and a few grindings of coarse black pepper. Sauté everything until the olives are warm, slightly plumped, and fragrant. Pour into a pretty bowl and serve right away.

Serve these as an antipasto, possibly accompanied by small, well-chilled gin martinis, with a twist. Serve a plate of sliced raw fennel as well, if you like.

Little Artichokes in Orange Sauce

Extra-virgin olive oil
2 dozen baby artichokes, the tough outer leaves trimmed away
2 garlic cloves, peeled and lightly crushed
2 anchovy fillets, minced
Salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup dry Marsala
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
The grated zest from 2 small oranges
Freshly ground black pepper
A handful of fresh mint leaves

In a sauté pan large enough to hold all the artichokes in more or less one layer, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat. When hot, add the artichokes, garlic, and anchovies, and sauté for a few minutes. Add a little salt and the sugar, and sauté for a minute longer. Add the Marsala, and let it reduce by half. Add the orange juice and the zest, cover the pan, and turn the heat down a bit. Simmer until the artichokes are just tender when poked with a knife, about 15 minutes. You should have a nice moist glaze left in the pan. If you’ve got too much liquid, just boil it down, uncovered, for a few minutes.

Transfer the artichokes to a serving bowl, and let them come to room temperature. Scatter on the mint leaves right before serving.

Serve the artichokes at the table as a first course.

Braised Calamari with Cinnamon, Tomatoes, and White Wine, served with Garlic Bruschetta

Extra-virgin olive oil
1 slice pancetta, cut into small dice
1 large shallot, cut into small dice
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1/2 cinnamon stick
2 1/2 pounds very fresh medium squid, cleaned and cut into thick rounds, the tentacles left whole
Salt
Black pepper
A splash of brandy
1/2 cup dry white wine (a light and not oaky one, like a Frascati, is best)
1 bay leaf, fresh if possible
1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes, lightly drained
1/2 cup homemade chicken broth (or good quality purchased broth)
A handful of basil leaves, lightly chopped

For the bruschetta:

4 large slices crusty Italian bread
1 garlic clove, peeled
Extra-virgin olive oil

Choose a large casserole fitted with a lid. Put about a tablespoon of olive oil in the casserole, and let it get hot over medium heat. Add the pancetta, and sauté until just starting to get crisp. Add the shallot, and sauté until softened, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic, cinnamon stick, and the squid. Season with salt and black pepper, and sauté until the squid turns opaque, stirring it around once or twice so it cooks evenly, about 2 minutes. Add the splash of brandy, and let it boil for a moment. Now add the white wine, and let it bubble for about a minute. Add the bay leaf, tomatoes, and chicken broth, cover the casserole, and turn the heat to low. Let this simmer at a very low bubble, figuring on about 30 minutes of cooking. After about 15 minutes, you’ll start to notice an incredibly sweet smell filling your kitchen; this indicates that the squid is cooking nicely and all the flavorings are blending. After about 25 minutes of cooking, taste a piece of squid for tenderness. When perfectly cooked it will be very tender and soft and will have shrunk in size from having given off water. It may need to simmer another 5 to 10 minutes, depending on the size of the squid (but you actually can overcook braised squid, making it a little dry, since the longer it cooks, the more liquid it gives off).

Add the basil, and check to see if the dish needs more salt. Add a few grinding of fresh black pepper and a drizzle of fresh olive oil (raw extra-virgin olive oil added at the end of cooking adds great flavor).

To serve, toast the Italian bread slices on both sides. Rub one side with the garlic, and then brush with olive oil. Reheat the squid if necessary, and then ladle it into large soup bowls, sticking a bruschetta in each bowl.

This is your second course, accompanied only by the bruschetta and a glass of white wine. Fiano di Avellino would be a really good match.

Escarole Salad with Pecorino Toscana and Shallots

Get rid of the calamari bowls and bring out this simple salad.

Tear up a medium head of escarole. Wash and dry it. Separate a large endive into leaves. Place the escarole and endive in a large salad bowl. Slice one red shallot very thinly, and scatter it over the salad. Add a handful of toasted pine nuts. Whisk together 3 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil with about a tablespoon of lemon juice, adding salt and black pepper and a few scrapings of nutmeg. Shave the pecorino over the top, pour on the dressing, and give it a gentle toss. Serve right away.

Buttermilk Orange-Flower Sorbetto with Limoncello

Take a little breather after the salad, maybe play a few Amy Winehouse tunes (someone who, I’m sure, has never been on a diet this interesting), and then get everyone back to the table and serve this light but flavor-packed dessert.

1 3/4 cups sugar
1 cup fresh orange juice
1 quart buttermilk
The grated zests from 1 lemon and 1 orange
1/2 teaspoon high-quality vanilla extract (the best is from Madagascar)
1/4 teaspoon orange-flower water
2 shots of limoncello

Pour the sugar into a small saucepan. Add the orange juice. Bring to a boil, turn the heat down low, and simmer until the sugar dissolves, about 2 minutes. Add the lemon and orange zest, and give the syrup a stir. Let it cool down for a few minutes.

Pour the buttermilk into a large bowl. Add the vanilla, the orange-flower water, and the sugar syrup, and give it a good stir. Chill until very cold, a few hours at least. Pour into an ice cream maker, and freeze according to the instructions.

When ready to serve, scoop the sorbetto out into small martini glasses, and pour about a half a shot of limoncello over top of each one. Serve right away.