Ligurian Recipies…

500 gr soft wheat flour / 25 gr brewer’s yeast/ 1 and 1/2 glass warm water / peanut oil / table salt

Flake the brewer’s yeast into the warm water. Sift the flour into a mound on a pastry board, pour the yeast water into the centre and add 1/2 teaspoon salt. Mix in the flour, knead well and let rise in a warm place for about 2 hrs. Knead again and roll out to a thickness of 1-2 cm. Cut into lozenges, let rise for 20 min. and then fry in abundant peanut oil, turning occasionally. When the sgabei are golden, drain on absorbent paper, sprinkle with salt and serve hot.

500 gr soft wheat flour / half cube of brewer’s yeast/ 250 ml water / olio extra vergine d’oliva / 15 gr table salt

Knead the flour with the brewer’s yeast, previously dissolved in the lukewarm water and the table salt. Put the mixture, which will be slightly sticky, in a baking tray greased with 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and let it rise in a warm place for about 40 min. Spread the dough with your hands slightly oiled, without removing it from the baking tray. Whisk 1/2 teacup of extra virgin olive oil with the same quantity of water and spread 2/3 of this mixture onto the focaccia surface. Let rise 1 more hour. Take the oven temperature to 250°C and with your fingertips make the typical focaccia holes on the dough, then wet it with the remaining oil and water emulsion, sprinkle with salt and put immediately in the oven. Cook for about 15-20 min. until the focaccia is golden brown.

340 gr checkpea flour / 1 lt water / 10 gr table salt / extra virgin olive oil

Sift the chickpea flour into a mixing bowl, add the water slowly and whisk, making sure that no lumps form, then add the table salt and let th mixture sit for 4 hrs. Skim the mixture, add 5 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and mix well. Oil a tinned copper baking tray, which shouldn’t be too large, with 5 more tablespoons of oil, pour the chickpea mixture, which must be approximately 5-10 mm thick. Cook in the wood-fired oven at a very high heat for about 10-15 min until a golden brown crust forms. 

4 courgettes / 4 onions / 2 peppers / the inside of 2 bread rolls / 3 eggs / 1 slice of mortadella minced / milk / 1 clove of garlic / greated Parmesan cheese / breadcrumbs / 1 sprig of marjoram / extra virgin olive oil/ table salt

Wash 4 courgettes, 4 onions and 2 peppers. Halve the courgettes and peppers lenghtwise and the onions horizontally. Boil the vegetables in salted water for about 3 min and then immerse them in cold water. Use a spoon to gently scoop out the flesh of the courgettes and onions, put it in a bowl, add egges, mortadella, a handful of Parmesan, the cleaned garlic, a few chopped marjoram leaves and the breadcrumbs soaked in milk and squeezed dry. Mix well and season with salt. Add some breadcrumbs if the filling is too soft. Stuff the vegetables with this mixture and place them on a greased baking sheet. Drizzle with some extra virgin olive oil and bake at 200°C for about 30 min.

1 glass of  Sciacchetrà / 230 gr soft wheat flour / 130 gr sugar + 2 tablespoons / 100 gr butter / 2 eggs / 2 small apples from the countryside / 2 tablespoons of pine nuts / 1 tablespoon of raisins/ 1 dose of baking powder for cakes / 1 pinch of table salt

Wash and finely slice the apples, put them in a mixing bowl to infuse with the glass of Sciacchetrà, with the raisins and the pine nuts: let the mixture sit for at least half an hour. In the meantime, separately beat the eggs together with 130 gr of sugar, add the flour, the lukewarm melted butter and a pinch of salt. Drain the apples, keeping the infusion together with the sifted baking powder and mix well. Grease and dust a cake pan with flour. Pour the mixture into it. Add 1 tablespoon of sugar to the infusion Sciacchetrà, beat witha fork and distribute on the surface of the cake. Finish by sprinling with the pine nuts and dusting again with the remaining sugar. Put in the oven at 180°C for about 40 min. Let the cake cool and serve it accompained by a shot glass of Sciacchetrà.

500 gr cleaned anchovies from Monterosso / 100 gr inner crumb / 70 gr grated Parmesan chees / 2 egges+1 for the breadcrumb coating /2 slices Mortadella minced / 1 glass of milk/  half tablespoon of garlic / extra virgin olive oil from Liguria / marjoram / breadcrumbs / table salt

Soak the bread in the milk. Remove the bone of the anchovies and carefully open them like a book. Choop 3-4 anchovies into small pieces in a bowl, add the eggs, the Parmesan cheese, the mortadella, the garlic, the majoram and the inner crumb that has been previously soaked and wrung out. Mix everything well and check the flavour as well as the consistency of the mixture, which must be soft, but not flabby. Holding the anchovies on the palm of your hand, stuff them two at a time with a spoonful of stuffing. Roll them in beaten egg and then in the bred crumbs, fry them in a generous amount of extra virgin olive oil and serve them hot. As an alternative, they can also be arranged on a baking tray and cooked in the oven at 180-200°C for about 35 min.

1 kg big mussels from the Gulf of La Spezia / 2 eggs / 50 gr mortadella / 30 gr grated Parmesan cheese / 300 gr ripe tomatoes / 2 cloves of garlic / 1 bread roll / milk / extra virgin olive oil / parsley/ thyme / marjoram / white wine / table salt

Wash the mussels, remove the byssus and open the mussels with a knife, making sure that the valves do not come off. Preapre the stuffing mixing 10 shelled mussels, chopped garlic, thyme, parsley and marjoram, the inner crumb of the bread roll previously soaked in the milk and then wrung out, the greated Parmesan cheese, the eggs and the minced mortadella. Add pepper, table salt and mix well. Stew chopped parsley and garlic in a pot, sprinkle with white wine and add the peeled and chopped tomatoes. Fill the mussels with the stuffing and cook them in the sauce over low heat for about 30 min, keeping the pan covered.