Sicily has always been known for their vast amount of seafood.This Island has always fed millennia of visitors and conquerors it['s rich ,briny bounty.Nowadays it's easy to recreate this meal along with adding a dessert and nibbles reflect the island's harvests.
Regular contributor David Tamis used a recent trip to the famed island to recreate a dinner for his column in yesterday's New York Times Wednesday Food section. He first had it when Sicilian friends took him to a waterside eatery and he was able to pick out his fish. The fish was roasted in a wood burning oven and then tossed with pasta and a quickly made sauce,It is easy to replicate here.The salad is almost like salad crudi with fresh onions and red peppers quickly sauteed in olive oil. Tomatoes and white wine are added and then pieces of boneless roasted fish are added.Saffron is also added for color and more flavor.Tanis had his with bronzino but he also made it with cod and haddock.Any firm fleshed fish will do such as rockfish sea bass or Covina. A chunky pasta is needed here so try a papparadelle rigatoni or even penne. The original recipe called for paccheri, a sturdy chewy kind of tube pasta.
As for the before dinner nibbles Mr Tanis had and made zucchini eggplant caponata toast, a riff on true caponata which has more tomato and no zucchini. He wanted a lighter flavor for this which is eggplant fried in an olive oil then simmered in a sweet sour sauce of tomatoes vinegar and sugar along with capers,green onions.,celery and sometimes raisins. He uses only a tablespoon of tomato paste but more of celery and white onions.Sugar sweetens it while red wine vinegar gives it a tang. Onions and celery are fried and then these ingredients are added to it along with vinegar capers, dry white wine and Castelvetrano olives.Its then served on toasted baguette slices. Dessert also represents the Sicilian harvest. he roasts pears flavored with a bit of powdered fennel seed. Sliced pears are first tossed with fennel powder, vanilla lemon juice and brown sugar and then dotted with butter cubes before roasting in a 400 degree Farenheit oven for half an hour. Zabaglione, that dreamy mixture of egg yolk , Marsala and sugar is m ade over a double boiler and then ladled into bowls. The pears are then placed in this and served with a dusting of chopped pistachios.
Sicily is known for it;s amazing array of both fish and farm . Make these recipes to celebrate the marriage of land and sea.It's a lovely way to preserve a summer.
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