On July 31st, at 12 noon in the town where I met the Sicilian butcher two years ago, we got married.
And the past year and a half have been spent starting and stopping our lives every three months or so as we had to fly back and forth between the States and
I am not complaining. Just telling the truth. No excuses, just a modest attempt to fill in the gaps.
I glanced at the blog today, convinced that it had fallen off the web lost forever in cyberspace. And wasn't I surprised to see that these pages actually had over 860 views this month!
Thank you whomever you are, for your interest.
I am inspired and flattered enough (doesn't take too much to flatter me) to resurrect this journal.
Over the past 20 months or so, I have relied heavily on a particular webforum.
There are many, many other english language speakers who have made the leap across sea and sand to get lost in
They have all been hugely helpful.
The past months have been filled with bureaucracy both in the States and in
The Sicilians don't really have a lot of money, but they have tomatoes for 5o centesimi (about 60 cents
Fagiolini con aglio
the key to these melt in your mouth, vibrant, screaming with life little French beans (although don't tell the Sicilians they are "French") is to find them as fresh as possible from as close by as possible.
I was studying some homeopathic remedies when my husband came in around lunch time and he plopped this hugh bag of string beans on the table. There must have been 2 kilos. At first I thought, oh great, we won't eat them fast enough, and they will get bitter and mushy.
Which is what happens when these delicate beans are left around.
As a point of interest, I have noticed that the Sicilians like their vegetables well cooked, not what Americans are used to, forever steaming our veggies to preserve their nutrients, all the while tossing out the steaming water and all those minerals
Recipe:
500 grams haricots verts (fagiolini con boccucia nera)
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic, sliced thin
2 quarts of boiling water
salt to taste
1. blanch the beans in the water till dark green and still holding their shape, but not crunchy
2. drain in a collander and set aside. Save the water to water your plants!
3. in a medium saute pan add the oil, heat to medium , add the garlic.
4. saute the garlic till it lets off an aroma, but before it turns brown. You want to avoid it hardening up leaving you with little hard chips by the end of the preparation.
5. add the beans and saute well, don't be afraid to break the beans. This is not neat looking dish of photo perfect string beans. While they saute, toss them around in the pan, to mix well with the oil and garlic. They should be well coated and hot throughout when you take them off the heat. They will be limp and very soft in texture.
6. Add salt to taste, toss once more and sit down to life, deep and rich kissed by the sun and seasoned by the sea.
I squeezed a little lemon on them and a breadcrumb coated thin steak.
Whew, I exaggerate not, I felt as though I was eating nothing less than the depth of life sprung fresh from the earth.
I must warn you , this recipe is really about the beans. I am incredibly lucky, ours were picked this morning. If you can find them at a farm stand, buy them, run home and throw them in the already boiling water, and enjoy!
All rights reserved.
No comments:
Post a Comment