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Una Siciliana de la que Puedes VivirHome >> Recetas
Text-only version printed fromhttp://FXcuisine.com/default.asp?Display=102 Esta pasta horneada con berenjenas ha mantenido a la clientela haciendo cola en el restaurante italiano popular más exitoso de Ginebra durante 15 años. Ve como puedes ordeñar tu mismo esta productiva vaca siciliana. Hay 176 restaurantes italianos en Ginebra (Suiza) pero sólo uno en el que el propietario se puede dar el lujo de ser grosero con los clientes y aún así mantener su lugar lleno. La Trattoria, un restaurante popular Sur-italiano detrás de la estación de trenes. ¿Cuál es el secreto? No el atestado lugar, las mesas angostas ni el horrible servicio. No los precios altos. Ni siquiera las opniones políticas ultraconservadoras del propietario ni sus cambios de humor. A nada de ésto se le podría achacar que el lugar lleve lleno permanentemente durante 15 años. El secreto es el Penne alla siciliana, un platillo tan exitoso que aunque ni siquiera está en el menú ha sido el más vendido en el restaurante por alrededor de 20 años y es la razón por la que la gente vuelve una y otra vez. Y sólo reciben efectivo. Verdaderamente una máquina de hacer dinero, Durante 10 años he intentado hacer el plato con ingeniería de reversa y finalmente lo logré la semana pasada. Sigue mis instrucciones y haz este platillo que es un culto en Sicilia para tus amigos. Penne alla Siciliana A pesar de su éxito, unoentiende rápidamente que las berenjenas en la pasta se sumergen en aceite y son difíciles de digerir. Aunque los restaurantes encaran restricciones económicas que los hacen freir las berenjenas en cantidades enormes de aceite de relativamente dudosa calidad, los chefs caseros pueden hacerlo mejor. Lo que pasa es que las berenjenas absorverán tanto aceite como les avientes encima. El resultado es una esponja aceitosa que tomará una siesta de dos horas en digerir. Un cocinero casero conocedor utilizará poco aceite y le dará vueltas constantemente a la berenjena hasta que esté suave y dorada.
Hacer una salsa de jitomate es un asunto muy personal. ¿Frescos o de lata? ¿Carne o no carne? Todo depende del cocinero. Aquí tienes como la hago yo, con resultados consistentemente excelentes. Siéntete libre de adaptar la receta a tu gusto.
Para la salsas de jitomate:
Deja que la salsa de jotomate hierva a fuego bajo de 15 minutos a una hora. Le puedes agregar un poco de albahaca cortada muy fino y dejar que se cocine con la salsa, y luego añadir más como decoración. El penne siciliana de La Trattoria, no lleva pimientos, pero las recetas sicilianas tradicionales para este plato si los llevan. Para los pimientos:
Si la salsa de jitomate está demasiado espesa dilúyela con un vaso de agua. Agrega los pimientos y la berenjena y mezcla bien. Tápala y mantenla caliente. La ortodoxia culinaria italiana exige que siempre se descarte el ajo machacado que se frió en el aceite, porque la tradición dice que el ajo se pone amargo al freirse y que la parte buena del sabor ya se transfirió al aceite. Es cierto, y aún así, en La Trattoria dejan pedazos grandes de ajo frito en la pasta y el resultado es muy agradable, con explosiones del sabor del ajo dorado reventando en tu boca de vez en cuando. Sólo asegúrate de no dejar que el ajo se dore demasiado porque amargaría. Simplemente regresa el ajo que reservaste al preparar la berenjena y la salsa de jitomate a la salsa terminada.
Finalmente, pero muy importante - la pasta. Como puedes ver yo usé maccheroni mientras que La Trattoria usa penne. Pero los míos son mucho mejores - lo hago desde cero con huevos de granja y harina de semolina con un dado extrusor de bronce. Puedes comprar pasta extruida en bronce y lograr buenos resultados. Llena tu olla más grande con agua y añade sal pero por favor NO le pongas aceite. Cuece tu pasta hasta bastante menos que lista. La pasta se seguirá cociendo en la salsa y no hay nada pero que pasta sobrecocida. Utiliza el mejor mozzarella que puedas encontrar - en verdad se notará en el platillo terminado. Yo uso mozzarella del merecado local, importado de Italia y que viene en su poropio frasco con suero. you can find - it will really show in the finished dish. I used mozzarella from the local market, imported from Italy and stored in its own jar of whey. Corta en cubitos el mozzarella y resérvalo. Mezcla la pasta sin terminar de cocer con la salsa, agrega un poco de albahaca cortada y la mitad de los cubos de mozzarella, y coloca todo en un refractario plano. Esparce el resto del mozzarella encima y hornea en un horno caliente hasta que el mozzarella esté bien derretido. ¡Sirve de inmediato!
FXCUISINE VS LA TRATTORIA
Cocina un platillo como éste en un restaurante y estarás quebrado en dos meses. Como chef casero, yo busco el mejor sabor, pero un restaurantero inteligente como Antonio Porcedda de La Trattoria no va tras el mejor sabor a cualquier costo. Él quiere un flujo de efectivo saludable y a largo plazo. Freri berenjenas en poco aceite simplemente cuesta demasiadas horas-hombre. Y con todo y lo grasiento que es, el Penne Siciliana de La Trattoria's me ha hecho regresar por más de 20 años. Prueba el original en 325087 visitas |
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24 comentarios
- #1
- Comment by Katja
Hi Francois! Thank you so much for your site. I'm enjoying it for several months, and today will try this recipe. May I make a suggestion about the eggplants? Being fried, they really absorb too much oil. So I prefer to roast them in the oven, just like pepper. When they are ready, you cut them and mix with the garlic oil, or fry for a minute. What d'you think?And let me thank you again for lovely recipes, interesting stories and picturesque photos- #2
- Answered by fx
Hello Katja, yes indeed roasting the eggplants in the oven is an idea, but it's a bit hard to get the pulp to keep its shape, it kind of turns to a pulp in my experience. But the name of the game is tasty eggplants with as little oil as possible, so if it works use it.- #3
- Comment by Katja
Hi Francois,So I've done it! The meal was good enough (for the 1st time). And the eggplants were great. Just don't peel them before roasting; they will be ready a bit later than peppers (I checked the readiness with a toothpick). So it works.I'll be waiting for new interesting recipes from you! thanks- #4
- Comment by parshu.narayanan
Hey, FX. Watch out, the cosa nostra, will whack your oven.- #5
- Answered by fx
Thanks for your comments!- #6
- Comment by Beatrice
Francois, I made an almost identical dish for years when I lived in California. While mozzarella di buffala is a costly thing in the US, there is no substitute. I could get lovely Asian eggplants and gorgeous peppers at the farmers market, but I followed the process often used in Greek cooking--slicing the eggplants, salting them, and letting them drain on paper towels to remove any possible bitterness. Try roasting the peppers over a mesquite fire!- #7
- Comment by Michele
Long-time reader, first-time poster. I made this the other night and it was fantastic. Something about the baking process really makes it special - it's not the same if you just spoon the sauce and eggplant over cooked pasta. For the record I modified it to include some sauteed mushrooms and omitted the meat in the tomato sauce. I live in Erfurt, Germany, but my partner is from Basel, so I "get" a lot of where you're coming from. There is an amazing dish that local Italian restaurants make in the winter here (and surely everywhere else): Pasta aus dem Laib or Pasta della Forma. They dump hot pasta into a gigantic cheese wheel right at your table and then scrape the hell out of it. My arteries can only take it about once a year but the presentation is fantastic, dotted with porcini and finished with truffle oil. Not exactly highbrow but a delight to watch and eat - I'd love to see you food blog that. Would be interesting to talk about how much the cheese wheels are worth, how they are sometimes held in escrow in Swiss banks instead of cash, etc.- #8
- Comment by Richard
Hi Francois,I cooked this tonight. It was super (and supper!). Many thanks.
Great tip for the Sausage/Salami in the tomato sauce. I got some Milan salami (local supermarket) and it worked very well. A bit different from pancetta and it added a nice earthy/rustic quality to the dish that pancetta would not have.
Only one thing though: you state 1000 gr of pasta for 6 people. I think you might want to stress this is fresh weight and that if using dried pasta you want to be using about half that. Otherwise it'd be a hell of a dinner for 6 people!!
Another fab dish. Keep 'em coming!
- #9
- Answered by fx
Richard, thanks for trying this and glad it worked for your supper! Now I usually cook 1 kilogram of dried pasta for myself only, and when entertaining I never use less than 125gr of dried pasta per guest, which would work out like 725gr for 6, plus a little bit for the chef. You can definitely reheat this the next day in case you have a little too much.- #10
- Comment by Richard
Hi Francois,Agreed! It would make a generous meal, certainly. I used about 350gr of dried Penne and I still have a portion in the fridge. Today's lunch... marvellous!
I tend not to weigh the pasta and go by handfulls so it was a shock to see quite how much a Kg of Penne looked!
All the best
Richard
- #11
- Comment by ND
Hi Francois,Thanks very much as always for the exquisite pictures & writing! It would really be great if you could offer some sage pasta advice, though—I've tried making my own pasta a few times (the first two times were a disaster, but I've had slightly better luck recently). In any case, I've looked through the recipes here, and I'm a little confused: should I be using only durum wheat semolina flour, or regular white flour with a little semolina added? Also, does the dough need a lot of kneading (funny how that works if you read it out loud…), or should I just be rolling everything into a big ball? Sorry for the obtuse questions, but I grew up a bit too far from Italy to know this stuff (really love good pasta, though).
—thanks!
- #12
- Answered by fx
Nathan, please don't dispair if your pasta doesn't work at first. Fine semolina flour makes harder pasta that keeps better through cooking, so I recommend you start by using only semolina flour. If you use a pasta machine you don't really need to knead all that much, just combine the ingredients. But if you do it with a rolling pin (doesn't that sound funny too?) then you need to knead for a solid 10 minutes. In both cases you have to leave the dough, well covered, to rest at least 30 minutes before you laminate it. Good luck and let me know how it works!- #13
- Comment by caitlin
I LOVE the Trattoria's penne siciliana and I have seriously been trying to make this dish for about 3 years now and even tried last week without getting it right... I ended up carmelizing the eggplant in the oven. I think it has a deeper, richer flavour and I am happy with that. But I cannot get the combination or the sauce just right. Do you really think they add some sort of meat(i.e. salami, etc) to the sauce?? I have never added it...And also, don't you think they use more than 300g of mozz? Well, either way, I am definitely going to try it your way next!- #14
- Answered by fx
Caitlin, I really don't know the actual recipe, the boss in this restaurant is such a curmudgeon, a legend in his own right, I think I'd end up in the next batch of his sauce if I so much as asked him how much mozzarella he uses. But probably no meat in the tomato sauce, that much I know.- #15
- Comment by Herebus
Recipe was easy to follow and turned out fantastic. The flavors were a little disjointed to start with, however after settling for 20 minutes, improved with out doubt.Great tip on cooking eggplants and roasting Capsicums (Peppers) to remove the skin. Oven roasted Capsicum is just heaven, the flesh is so rich.
It is very filling and makes heaps....and almost vegetarian.
I did not bother to salt the eggplant, so could have done with a little more salt.
Great website.
- #16
- Answered by fx
Herebus I am glad the Sicilian Cash Cow delivered for you! The original is a bit on the greasy side but they don't add any meat, so you can make it fully vegetarian too.- #17
- Comment by Matthew
i wish i could see a picture of the real dish to comparebtw i cooked this last night and my mother said it was her favorite thing i have ever made. much thanks
- #18
- Comment by Sher
I used to eat there all the time but the rude service got just too much. I've found another great version of it at l'etna in acacias. My other go-to italian place is chez remy in pacquis. Their scilliana is rubbish though.I'm going to try this over the weekend, minus the meat.
- #20
- Comment by JoAnne Kamman
Love the two recipes I've looked at. The photos are wonderful, and I loved the background on pasta alla norma (of COURSE I had download Maria Callas singing). I'm telling all my foodie friends about this site - so happy I found it! I like Food Network, but you take food to a whole new level!!!- #21
- Comment by Richie L
I had this dish at La Trattoria a number of years ago, and indeed it was so memorable, I have been wanting to replicate it ever since, so to find your recipe referring directly to the restaurant itself was quite exciting! I think I was lucky to be there with an Italian Swiss friend who was more than a match for the owner, so the rudeness was actually more like banter. I keep meaning to go back there - funny, I don't remember it being greasy or anything, so I'll be interested to find out if your recipe produces better results... I think that perhaps the heaviness of the restaurant's version is tempered by a robust red wine!- #23
- Comment by Aras
Thanks a lot for this recipe! I've tried to reverse engineer the original dish a couple of times but never quite succeeded. I'll give it another try now!