Preserving Italy

This is the latest book I have purchased from Amazon. (this is not an advert by the way just my own personal view) by Domenica Marchetti ISBN978-0-544-61-162-7. It has been on pre-order for months and arrived on Saturday.  It has some very interesting recipes in.  I can see at this rate I am going to end up have a fridge solely for keeping preserves in and a freezer for the home made liqueurs.

I have always had the greatest respect for Italians they garden and grow their own produce which is often a family thing and a way of keeping the family close and carrying on family traditions. They also preserve as much of their food as they possibly can - and I love Italian food.  I have yet to play with the recipes and there are quite a lot - in fact it is a lovely book.

It is sub-sected into different chapters.

A general section encompassing , the introduction, safety, water bath canning and pressure canning.

The main sections are then:

Foods preserved in Oil.

Baby Artichokes in oil, Oil preserved Asparagus, Grilled mixed mushrooms in oil, Eggplant in Oil, sweet and sour roasted Peppers and capers, Oil preserved Butternut Squash with mint.  Its like walking into a huge Delicattessen but here you have the choice of what you make.  There are also a few suggestions on how to use the bottled treasure as well.

Foods preserved in vinegar.  Classic Giardinaria, pickled beets and spring onions, spiced pickled mushrooms, sweet, sour and spicy pickled melon, hot and sweet pickled peppers.

Sweet preserves, conserves, jams, jellies and Marmalades.

Apricot Anise Jam, Sour cherry spoon fruit, Brandied Chestnut cream jam, Fig jam with orange zest, peach and almond conserva.

Tomatoes and Sauce.

Bottled whole tomatoes, Passata di Pomodoro, Small batch tomato sauce, Classic meat sauce, Bottled beans in tomato sauce, home made meat broth, Zuppa di Pasta e fagiolli, Oven dried tomatoes, Oven roasted tomatoes in oil.

Infused oils, vinegars and condiments.

Citrus salt, Porchetta salt, Peperoncino Garland and cream, Hot pepper oil, Lemon olive oil, Apple and pear paste, Quince paste, mixed nuts in honey, Pear Mostarda, Pesto, Caponata, curing olives,

Fresh cheeses and simple cured meats.

Buttermilk Ricotta, Ligurian Prescinseusa, State of the Artisan Mozzarella, sausages and simple Salami, Sweet Italian Sausage, Garlic, cheese and wine sausage, making pancetta and guanciale, Slab pancetta, Salumi in the family.

Syrups, Liqueurs and fruits preserved in alcohol

This section is one of the sections I was most curious about.  There are recipes for:

Mint syrup, Orzata (almond syrup), blood orange syrup, Classic limoncello, Three citrus liqueur, Crema di Limoncello, Strawberry cream liqueur, Zabaglione cream liqueur, Nocina, Grapes in spiced Grappa.  Mostocotto, Coffee Cream liqueur.

Finally but not least Confections.

I have a sweet tooth and am very partial to proper Torrone.  Now I have a recipe.

Under this section there are recipes for sweet almond paste, sweet hazelnut paste, Fig and walnut salami, Panforte di Siena, Torrone, Croccante (nut brittle), almond Gelato and Hazlenut cream crostata.

There are certainly some lovely recipes there to have a go at, some of which I will have a go at in due course. Especially with the promise of a canner on my horizon.

So overall I am very pleased with this book it will go well with those preserving books already on my shelf and which also get a lot of use, but I love the little tips and side comments like keeping the cream liqueurs in particular as well as the Lemoncello in the freezer.  Its always those little additional bits of advice that are always worth their weight in gold.

This year I have grown some artichokes from seed so next year will be their first cropping and it would be lovely to put those down for winter to eat on pizza, etc during those colder months or for use with an antipasti.  Yum.  My mouth is watering at the thought.

Catch you later.

Pattypan

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