Shrimps in White Wine with Black Olives and Cherry Tomatoes

Ingredients for 4 persons

-  3 to 5 shrimps per person, depending on size.
-  cherry tomatoes: about 24
-  black olives: 1/2 cup
-  salt, pepper, a clove a garlic
-  dry white wine: one or two glasses
-  olive oil
- chopped parsley

These are the olives I used, dried in salt, they come from my olive grove in Umbria. I did them myself (takes 2 weeks in a jar) and added some lemon peels for taste:

But you can use any kind of olive you like, provided they're tasty.


Method

1. Cook the shrimps whole (unpeeled) in a pan over a fast fire, with a clove of garlic and one glass of white wine - covered, about 5 minutes, until done (they turn a nice pink).

2. Lift the shrimps out of the pan (and the garlic too) and clean them. Of course you can also serve them whole and let your guests peel them but I prefer to do the work for them - once cooled off, it's really very easy to do:

3. Meanwhile, start cooking the sauce in the pan you used to cook the shrimps (that way you start off with the shrimp cooking juices), adding again some wine, the cherry tomatoes cut in pieces, and the olives (whole):

 For extra taste, I add a spoonful of fish broth (Knorr makes a good one in powder form) but that's optional. If you do that, go easy with the salt (or it will result too salty). Add pepper.

4. When the tomatoes are cooked (they turn soft in about 5 minutes), I turn off the heat and go to the trouble of removing the tomato skins, pulling them off with a fork:

See? They're piled up in the lower right corner. But you don't need to do that if you don't want to - but in that case, you had better chop up the tomatoes more than I did (I only cut them in half).

5. Now you put the shrimps back in the sauce and warm them up on a medium heat (not too long or too strong or you'll dry up the shrimps). Add the chopped  parsley too. If the sauce looks insufficient, add a little wine until you have it nice and creamy:

6. Now you're ready to prepare the dish - laying the shrimps around rice you've previously cooked (I used Thai rice, bu any kind will do as long as it's simply boiled) and pouring the sauce over the shrimps:

This dish should be accompanied with white wine, cela va sans dire. Since I live in Italy, I drink Vermentino di Sardegna (in the picture above, it's an Aragosta, the best one in my opinion). But of course any good dry white wine will be perfect!

Eggplant and Mushrooms Sautéed

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I just made an incredible discovery! Eggplant and mushrooms go together as if they were made for each other! If you cook mushrooms in a skillet, I'm sure you've noticed they release water as they cook.

If you cook eggplants you're confronted with the problem that eggplants will burn before they're cooked unless you use oil - frying them in deep oil is best to ensure they don't go dry on you. And anyone who's tried to grill eggplant slices in order to avoid all that oil (and all the calories!) will agree with me: okay, your eggplants are cooked in a calorie-less way, but boy do they taste dry!!

The solution? Simple, cook mushroom and eggplant slices together in the same skillet! The water released by mushrooms is absorbed by the eggplants (they really drink it up, real sponges!) and the two cook together at the same time and reach a perfect point of softness! I did notice that it tended to dry up towards the end, so in the last 5 minutes you're well advised to drop in a few pieces of peeled tomatoes - fresh and very red.

Et voilà, perfect vegetables to accompany grilled meat, in particular chicken or pork. Super simple to prepare and delicious. Being soft, they add just what's necessary to your grilled and sauce-less meats...

Ingredients for 4

• 2 eggplants peeled and sliced - if the eggplants are market-bought, it is advisable to sprinkle the slices with salt at least 1/2 hour to ensure that the bitter liquid in them comes out; pat them dry with a paper towel  
• 2 cups of raw sliced mushrooms (you can often find packages already prepared at the supermarket)
• one medium-sized tomato, very red, peeled and cubed or a dozen cherry tomatoes, sliced in two and no need to peel them
• one tablespoon of vegetable broth in powder  (Knorr is a good brand)
• one tablespoon olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste 

Method

1. Warm up a broad skillet or frying pan with a little olive oil and when it's hot put in the slices of mushrooms and eggplants together. The fire has to be medium-high.

2. Sprinkle the powdered Knorr broth over the vegetables, salt and pepper. Careful with the salt because you've already got the Knorr broth in there.


3. It will take about 10 minutes to cook. Better stir to avoid burning. Before it actually burns (!), add the tomatoes in pieces: they will release just enough juice to ensure the cooking is finished without damage to the vegetables.


NOTE: I checked on Internet, there are plenty of recipes for eggplant and mushroom casseroles but all of them include onion, garlic, herbs, even cheese and eggs. Of course you can add all these ingredients but the result won't be the same.
(1) eggplants have a very mild, subtle taste and onions etc don't improve them - in fact such strong ingredients tend to overpower them in my humble opinion;
(2) cooking the eggplants separately - or even as in some recipes, frying them - defeats the purpose: the idea is that the liquid released by mushrooms as they cook helps in turn cook the eggplants.



 

Gnocchi alla Greca, Greek-style with Feta Cheese and Tomatoes...mmmm!

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Yesterday for dinner, it was too late to buy anything and I was stuck with potato gnocchi, a big slice of Feta cheese and a bunch of garden tomatoes ripe and red, the best variety, the one that comes straight from one's own garden...



Perhaps "stuck" is not the right word, because putting these ingredients together I stumbled on a marvellous way of accomodating gnocchi! Really, a super simple recipe that is guaranteed to surprise your friends! Ok, in this case I'll admit I'm not modest and I'm quite pleased with the result. Believe me, you should try it too: the tart taste of the feta cheese is nicely smoothed out by the fresh tomatoes and herbs and they both do wonders for the gnocchi that are, after all, a rather bland, non-descript affair...

Ingredients for 4 persons

750 g  (close to 2 pounds) potato gnocchi (if you want to make them yourself, I've attached below a useful recipe but I confess that I simply buy them at the supermarket)
750 g tomatoes, very red, peeled
300 g of Feta cheese or more if you so desire: use it grated very roughly or crumbled
Herbs to taste: oregano (a tablespoon), sage, marjoram
Salt and pepper to taste


Method

Note there's no olive oil, indeed no fat at all in the ingredients. You get all the fat you need from the cheese. Of course, if you insist, you can add a little oil at the moment of mixing the gnochi in the tomato sauce but I don't do it because I feel it detracts from the fresh taste of the tomatoes: after all, oil puts a film between your taste buds and the tomatoes!

Note there's no onion or garlic either. Of course you can put them in (finely chopped) but I don't because, in my opinion, they detract from the tomato taste and are wholly unnecessary. Gnocchi are a delicate food and don't go well with an overwhelming sauce.

Start with a large pot of boiling water in which to drop the tomatoes, fish them out with a spoon and peel them. Don't throw the water away: you can use it to boil the gnocchi (once you've added the necessary salt). Mash the tomatoes up and put in a teflon-lined pot (I use earthenware but then I live in Umbria and such pots are traditional here). Place on a medium flame and reduce the tomatoes, mashing them occasionally with a wooden fork (no metal! It spoils the taste). It should take you about 10 minutes or less. In any case, don't cook your tomatoes too long (15 minutes is a maximum) or they'll become difficult to digest and loose their fresh taste. Your sauce will look lumpy and that's all right (more tasty!) but if you hate lumpiness, you can always put it through the blender (I don't).

Add herbs, salt and pepper to your tomato sauce. Taste it: it may be too acid if your tomatoes are not properly sun-ripe. In that case add a teaspoon of sugar or more, to taste.

Now boil your gnocchi and when they float up, spoon them out into your pot with the tomato sauce. Warm up the whole lot on a low flame and mix. Pour into a warm serving dish and sprinkle generously with crumbled or grated Feta cheese all over the gnochi. DON'T mix it at this point. People as they serve themselves will find the tomato sauce and gnocchi underneath the cheese and it will get naturally mixed in their plate. This is important because mixing in advance destroys the cheese's flavour. Incidentally, that is also the way Sicilians prepare their famous Pasta alla Norma: with dried salted ricotta cheese sprinkled all over the pasta and NOT inside (in spite of what some Internet chefs say).

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