|
|
|
|
|
Nibbles
from Naples
|
Treat
your family and friends to a taste of Naples and
discover there's more to making coffee than boiling
water...
|
 There's
more to Naples than pizza. Indeed Neapolitan
cuisine distinguishes itself for creating
magnificent dishes from the simplest ingredients.
Here are three classics from the Neapolitan repertoire,
with a twist - they're easy to pack up and bring
with you so you can enjoy a feast on the slopes
of Vesuvius
. . . all courtesy of ItaliaPlease!
Neapolitan meatballs
500 g of minced meat
breadcrumbs
grated parmesan cheese
1 egg (beaten)
milk
garlic (crushed)
parsley (finely chopped)
80 g of raisins
pine nuts
salt and pepper
500 g of tomatoes
onion
olive oil
teaspoon of sugar
Soak the breadcrumbs in the milk then work
in the meat, parsley and garlic. Add the egg,
raisins and pine nuts, then season. Work the
ingredients together with your hands until
soft and leave aside for 20 minutes. Use the
time to make a quick tomato sauce with the
onion, salt, sugar, oil and skinned tomatoes
(leave tomatoes in previously boiled water
for approx. 1 minute then skin). Shape the
meat into balls and fry in the oil. Add the
meatballs to the tomato sauce and cook for
10-15 minutes. Serve with a bottle of Ischia
rosso, a red wine from Campania.
Cherry pie
Pastry:
1 kg of flour
250 g of softened butter
grated lemon rind
1/2 kg of sugar
5 egg yolks
a pinch of salt
Cream filling:
6 level dessertspoons of flour
6 spoons of sugar
6 egg yolks
300 g of dark chocolate
1 glass of milk
500 g of cherries/cherry jam
icing sugar
400 g of almond paste/soft, crushed almond
biscuits.
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Sift the flour
and sugar together. Make a well in the centre
and add the butter (cut into small pieces),
lemon rind, yolks and salt. Rub the dough
together quickly and shape into a ball. Cover
with cling film and leave aside in a cool
place for 30 minutes. Roll the pastry out
and use it to line a 20 cm round cake tin.
Cover with the almond paste. Now make the
confectioner's cream. Beat the yolks and sugar
together. When you've finished add the flour,
one spoon at a time, then drizzle in the cooled
boiled milk. Melt the chocolate in a bowl
over boiling water and add to the cream, heating
the cream over a low heat to thicken, if necessary.
Cool then pour over the almond paste. Finish
off with a layer of pipped cherries, or cherry
jam and top with the pastry. Cook in the preheated
oven for 45 minutes.
|
And the perfect cup of coffee
For a real cup of Neapolitan coffee you need
a "napoletana", no, not your very own Neapolitan
mamma but a Neapolitan coffee machine. Traditional
Neapolitan drip-pots are made from metal (although
you can choose from a variety of - mainly ornamental
-pottery, silver and even glass ones) and are made
up of two parts which are separated by a coffee
filter. You fill the bottom of the machine with
water, place around 6 grams of fine to medium ground
coffee in the filter and heat. As soon as the water
boils, turn off the gas, turn the coffee machine
upside-down and wait for the water to pass through
the ground coffee.
While the coffee is filtering through a caffettiere
worth his salt (you still see coffee-sellers wheeling
their wares through the streets of Naples) will
make a "coppetiello", which is little
more than a sheet of dampened newspaper, rolled
into a cone and then inserted into the spout as
soon as the coffee is flipped over. Doing so he
ensures that none of the coffee's distinctive aroma
and flavour is lost and guarantees you one of your
best cups of coffee ever.
Traditions
If you're in Positano
during August don't miss the traditional celebrations
of the Saracen Landing, commemorating
the events from June 13th, 1558.
The festival is held in the town of Meta and
the Landing is reproduced as authentically
as possible, avoiding, as you may imagine,
the bloody deaths of the local inhabitants.
Narrators guide you through the event and
musical interludes offer relaxation between
battles.
Cherries for your heart
According to American researchers, the
chemical compounds which give wild black cherries
their dark red colour are also powerful painkillers
(stronger than aspirin). They also are highly
effective anti-oxidants comparable to many
vitamin E supplements currently on the shelves
of your health food shop. Regularly eating
wild cherries could therefore reduce chronic
heart problems. For more information read
the report written by the American
Chemical Society and published in
the Journal
of Natural Products.
|
|
| |
| by
MARIA LINARDI |
|
June
2001
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
THE SURVIVOR'S 
