Ferragosto finds its origins at the time of Emperor Augustus, being born as a day of celebration and relaxation for the farmers after a long season of work in the fields.
It became a religious feast in 1950, when Pius XII proclaimed the dogma of the Assumption of Mary. But the gastronomic tradition was born in the twenty years with the first “out of town” trips. Short trips of one or two days that over the decades have been enriched with good company and great food to celebrate the lunch of August. Acrimonia offers you a menu based on the most representative products of the peninsula; cheap dishes, easy to prepare and joyfully tasty.
The appetizers
The dilemma for those who receive is to juggle the kitchen and the company of guests. Starting from the appetizers we offer dishes that are prepared with little effort, are presented at room temperature, are cooked alone or cooked to the mark, leaving all the time necessary to enjoy the company.
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Peperonata
You say bell pepper and it is immediately summer. Precious ingredient for dozens of dishes, in all our regional gastronomy.
Thinly slice a large white onion, pour it into hot olive oil, sweat it over it and then let it brown over low heat. Chop red, yellow and green peppers, after having cleaned and washed them; add them to the onion and after 2/3 minutes add an abundant splash of white wine vinegar, raising the heat. Evaporated the alcohol add the fresh tomato pieces, mixing well. A handful of pitted black olives and a few leaves of basil. Cook over medium heat for about twenty minutes, then cover the pan and cook for another ten minutes. Remove the lid and turn off the heat add another handful of olives and other basil leaves. Taste and add salt. It should be served at room temperature.
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Squid rings
Frozen foods are great, once thawed; plus they have the convenience that you can always add, if guests suddenly increase. They can be fried or baked and only a gourmet expert would notice the difference.
Grease the squids with olive oil and then brush them in flour, preferably corn. Put all the rings of squid on a baking sheet, salt and ground pepper, plenty of extra virgin olive oil and cook the rings of squid in the oven already hot to 200 ³ for about 25 minutes, until they are golden and crunchy. Garnish with chopped parsley.
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First courses
Anchovies are the protagonists in many dishes of our regional cuisine, with bread and butter, fried or gratinated in pasta, are the flagship of Lazio, Liguria and Sicily in particular. In pizzerias all over Italy the anchovy crouton is the natural alternative to pizza and right here the recipe for this simple and tasty pasta with butter and anchovies starts.
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Spaghetti with butter and anchovies
For three ounces of pasta, use 80gr. of butter and eight anchovies well washed. While the pasta is cooking melt the anchovies in butter, over low heat, without frying. Drain the pasta in the pan, a couple of minutes before cooking and stir well over medium heat. Pepper and a grated lemon rind; correct with cooking water and serve hot.
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The variant with the pennette is slightly more complex but definitely tasty. For three ounces of pennette rigate, use 80gr. of butter and eight anchovies well washed. Apart prepare a morsel of finely diced milk and red with half a light of a beaten egg. Once the anchovies are melted in butter, pour the pennette into the pan, strictly al dente and stir, keeping at hand some cooking water. Pour the mozzarella cubes stirring quickly. Remove from heat and pour the beaten egg, turning the dough quickly to avoid the omelette clot. Serve hot and pepper at will.
Pasta and beans
How not to take advantage of the fresh seasonal beans to present a tasty pasta and beans on the table, rested at room temperature. In this case we rely on Venetian cuisine, capable of transforming poor ingredients into dishes of fine gastronomy.
1 kg of fresh shelled beans, 1 medium potato, 2 stalks of celery, 200 gr. of dried maltagliati egg, salt and pepper, chili and excellent evo oil, baking dish high earthenware and wooden ladle. Yes, you need the earthenware for the beans, along with the wooden ladle, otherwise in contact with the metal the beans remain hard. Grease the baking dish with a little oil, pour the beans and cover them with water filling ¾ the baking dish. Clean the potato and celery stalks and put them whole in the baking dish. Bring to a boil and lower the heat almost to a minimum while keeping the water to simmer. Add some chili to taste and let go for an hour. Remove the celery stalks, mash the potato with a handful of beans and put them back in the earthenware. Let it go for another 30 minutes and at this point you have to keep an eye on the level of the broth (there are those who want it dry and who want it more brodosa), when you reach the desired density salt and throw the maltagliati and cook for three minutes turning. Once turned off, remove the crock from the plate and stop turning, the heat will continue to cook the maltagliati keeping them al dente. Once you get warm, taste it to see if it’s right with salt, you’re still in time to correct it. A nice sprinkling of pepper and a generous coat of olive oil of great quality, makes the difference. It’s good, but never as it will be the next day!
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The seconds
The choice is beautiful complicated for how many there are, not for nothing we are the nation that has the richest gastronomy in the world. Each of our regions boasts amazing dishes, both meat and fish. We chose, in line with "the poor cuisine", two dishes that represent a territorial continuity, sacrificing for once one of the cult dishes of August food, the chicken with peppers.
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The tripe
Needless to be here to explain if you want to Roman, Florentine or Piedmontese, the tripe is Italian and is part of that fifth/ fourth that for centuries has fed, taste, entire generations of classes less environments.
The rest is a difference of herbs (basil, parsley, mint) and beans. At the base there is a generous mixture of celery, carrots and onion, to which is added a whole clove of garlic that will rise before pouring the tripe into a pan with a high edge. Take some pre-cooked tripe and let it boil for about ten minutes. Meanwhile, sauté the beaten with a little 'chili pepper; remove the garlic and pour the tripe in the pan, season for five minutes over medium heat adding a bay leaf, blend with white wine, raising the heat. Evaporated the wine add the peeled and season well until they flake, cover with meat or vegetable broth to taste, lower the heat to a minimum, cover the pan and cook for a couple of hours, stirring occasionally. Let it rest for about ten minutes, add pecorino or parmesan cheese. A tip: do not be afraid to overdo the doses if it advances, the next day with a ribollita will be even better.
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Grilled swordfish
It’s the main dish of the mid-August lunch, along all the coast of the peninsula. Throughout the year, to be a fish dish, it is not particularly expensive but inevitably, on holidays, its price increases. Do not recommend the frozen one that is almost always palombo; it should be taken in the fish shop to have it cut on sight, requiring slices at least 3 cm high. Calculate a slice each plus two spare.
The first step is the marinating of the fish: take your slices and immerse them in extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, sliced garlic, parsley and peppercorns.
Emulsify well and leave the fillets immersed in the marinade for at least an hour. Heat the plate with a little oil and when it is boiling lay the swordfish, well drained from the marinade and cleaned of garlic slices. If you use the grill always hot, lay the slices on a sheet of foil.
Cook it for about 2 minutes on each side, until you see the classic streaks appear on the back. Do not exceed with cooking, otherwise the fish will be stubborn.
Separately prepare a vinaigrette based on lemon, olive oil, chopped parsley, salt. chilli pepper and drizzle on the plate.
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Contours
With this type of dishes are fine two classics: Green beans and baked potatoes.
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Fruit and dessert
To the delight of the children.
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Family cake
Apparently it is a common apple pie but it has its own peculiarity: the dough is free of butter. As for doses, in pastry you have to be mathematical and therefore:
Ingredients 1kg of apples (no delights) - 200gr. of flour - 150gr. of sugar - some butter flakes - 2 whole eggs - 12gr. yeast - 1 glass of milk - scraping of ½ lemon - breadcrumbs.
Preparation. Beat the eggs with 130g of sugar, add the flour and a couple of tablespoons of milk to obtain a soft dough. Add the yeast dissolved in the milk glass and the scraping of 1/2 lemon. Grease a pan with butter flakes and sprinkle with breadcrumbs. Pour the dough into the pan and cover with apple slices, not too thin. Spread the remaining 20gr on the surface. of sugar and a few flakes of butter. Bake in a very hot oven at 180 ³ per 35'.
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Anguriata
There is no mid-August without watermelon. Take a watermelon of at least 8 kg. Empty the pulp with a scoop, putting aside the watermelon balls. The empty fruit will serve as a container for a rich fruit salad where you can what you like. Meanwhile we create a minimum base, with the best seasonal fruit. An average melon, a couple of peaches, a generous dose of cherries, a medium pineapple, a lemon and an orange sliced plus the juice of a couple of lemons and oranges, to keep aside. To finish a bowl of blueberries, a raspberry, a small strawberry and about 40 gr. of sugar. Now take the orange and lemon juice and stretch it with some soda and sugar; if there are no children instead of gazzosa you can use a glass of prosecco or a glass of vodka. Pour into the empty watermelon and then add all the clean fruit and cut into cubes with the pulp into balls; finally put the blueberries and raspberries. Cover the watermelon with its cap and put in the fridge for at least two hours. Serve in a cup, perhaps with a scoop of ice cream.
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Have a great Ferragosto!
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