Liquore di Fichi d'India - Cactus Pear Liqueur

Southern Italians use the fruit of the prickly pear cactus in sweets and desserts where they are called fichi d'india - literally, India figs. They also make (typically at home) a liqueur with them by infusing the fruit in alcohol, similar to how limoncello is made. In Calabria it is called liquore di fichi d'india. The original home of the prickly pear cactus, by the way, is the desert states of the United States and Mexico! They were brought to Italy by the Spanish explorers in the New World and found a perfect new home in southern Italy which, at the time, was ruled by Spain. The explorers also brought tomatoes and peppers and potatoes. 
Mille grazie, Cristoforo Colombo!!!

Liquore di fichi d'india recipe

15 ripe cactus pears
4 cups 151 proof grain alcohol 
2 cups sugar syrup

Use the amounts above as a base. They can be adjusted for different quantities of cactus pears.

Procedure -  

Peel cactus pears and cut in half. I wear rubber gloves when doing this because sometimes there are hair-like almost invisible thorns left on the surface of the pear that can get into the skin on your fingers and drive you crazy with itching. 

Let the cut fruit steep in the grain alcohol in a large sealable glass container for 10 days. The solution will turn a dark orange to red color. 

After 10 days, remove fruit and add sugar syrup. Age for 20 days.

For the sugar syrup

2 cups water
2 cups sugar

Bring the water to a boil in a pot and add the sugar. Stir to dissolve the sugar and take off the heat to let cool. Pour into the glass container with the liqueur and reseal.

After 20 days, pour the liqueur into sanitized bottles through a fine mesh sieve and funnel to remove any remaining bits of fruit. Seal or cork. Keep in the freezer or in the refrigerator. Enjoy!

My family's ancestral home, the town of  Vazzano, in Calabria, Italy, holds an annual Fichi D'India Festival. Here are some videos of the event.  

Stuffed Shells

Stuffed jumbo pasta shells with roasted cherry tomatoes and an Italian sausage link. So freakin' good! Take a look. Nothing else needs to be said.

Oven roast the cherry tomatoes in a parchment paper lined cast iron skillet with olive oil, garlic and herbes de provence at 475 for 20 minutes.

The filling for the shells is ricotta cheese, sauteed garlic, parsley, lemon zest and red pepper flakes.

Boil the shells until they are just pliable enough to work with about 4 - 5 minutes.  Drain in a colander.

Make a simple tomato sauce with chopped tomatoes and onion. We used a combination of red and yellow tomatoes. Put half the sauce in a casserole dish.                          

Stuff the shells with the ricotta mixture and place on top of the tomato sauce.

Top the shells with the rest of the tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese and fresh oregano - not dried. Drizzle with olive oil.

Bake covered at 375 for 20 minutes, then take the foil off and bake for 10 more minutes or until the cheese looks nice and golden.

Serve with the roasted cherry tomatoes and a side of grilled Italian sausage. 

Mediterranean Chicken with Tagliatelle

"Beautifully juicy chicken basted in a thyme and basil oil and layered over fresh pasta in a roasted tomato and garlic sauce. Simple ingredients that are bursting with flavor", is how Jamie Oliver describes this wonderful dish. I watched his video below and knew at once we had to make it and share with you all. The video may sound a little complicated at first look, but after thinking it through and watching it again, it's not that difficult and I'll give you some tips that will make this easier without affecting the end result and I will list out the ingredients and amounts. This is so worth making. 

Tip #1 - It would be great if you can find cherry tomatoes on the vine, but don't worry about that. If you can't get them/find them, use off the vine cherry tomatoes. 

Tip # 2 - If you don't have the time or inclination to make homemade pasta, use a good brand of dried - DeCecco brand is very good and you can use their linguine or fettucine.

Tip #3 - Use fresh herbs, just like in in video. Don't use dried herbs. We are fortunate in that we grow a lot of different cooking herbs in our garden. 

Getting The Most Out Of A Humble Backyard Vineyard - 2015

Our little vineyard - 2015

In February of 2012 we planted four one year old Norton wine grape vines. They grew well but didn't produce any grapes that year, we didn't expect any. 

2013 produced enough grapes for us to be able to make almost a gallon of wine. 

The 2014 vintage gave us 2 gallons - a good rich red and a rose'. The rose' was a second wine or a second run wine made by reusing the grape must - the left over grape skins and pulp from the first pressing.

This year, 2015, the vines produced a bumper crop of grapes but they ripened inconsistently - some grape bunches were ripe enough to crush but others still green. So we divided things up and made Norton grape marmalade and grape liqueur with the early ripeners and later when they were ready,made wine with the late ripeners. Maybe we'll get just a gallon, but having fun and it's damn rewarding.

Norton Grape Marmalade 

Norton Grape Liqueur

Norton Grape Wine

Herbed Cherry Tomatoes Roasted in a Cast Iron Skillet

How can you not want to make these roasted cherry tomatoes after seeing how cool they look, how easy they are to make, how versatile they are and especially how delicious they are. Roasting these tomatoes low and slow concentrates their flavor and marries the herb seasonings to them. Plus you will fill your house with a wonderful aroma.

You can play around with the herbs substituting rosemary or thyme for the herbs de Provence, adding some lemon zest or some basil when the tomatoes are done baking.

Ingredients:

2 pints cherry tomatoes

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 tsp. herbs de Provence 

1/2 tsp. ground (or 1 tsp whole) fennel seeds 

1 tsp. minced garlic

1/2 tsp. kosher salt

1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes

Instructions:

Line a large cast-iron skillet with parchment paper

Add cherry tomatoes and drizzle with olive oil; sprinkle with herbs de Provence, garlic, salt, and red pepper flakes

Bake at 275 for 2 to 3 hours, stirring occasionally

What can you do with them - 

One way, we sliced some leftover strip steak, put them over arugula, squeezed a little lemon juice, added these wonderful olive oily herby tomatoes, some blue cheese crumbles and toasted bread crumbs. YES!!!!  This was so good!

Or......

Use them in a pasta sauce or as a pasta sauce

Use on pizza t

Use on grilled bread as a bruschetta topping

Spoon over grilled fish or chicken or a steak

Put in a sandwich

As a side to scrambled eggs

As part of an antipasto plate

Eat out of hand

Making Grape Marmalade and Grape Liqueur

We grow three different types of grapes - Norton wine grapes and red and white Concord grapes. Our Nortons have ripened in a very odd way this season. They have produced more grapes than in past years but some berry clusters have ripened early and others are still very green. So, sadly, since we have only four vines and not enough are ripening at the same time to harvest enough of them to make a decent amount of wine, we are going to try something a little different this year and make grape marmalade and grape liqueur with them. 

For information on Norton wine grapes and their interesting back story - 

The Fascinating History Behind America's Oldest Native Wine Grape 

Born in the USA - America's Norton Grape 

Here is how we made the marmalade. It has a delicious earthy sweet berry tartness and rich deep dark red maroon color - just like a good Norton wine! We used Norton grapes because we grow them but you can use Concord grapes which are more available and are a slip skin grape.

Procedure - for 3 cups of skinned grapes

Step 1 - Grow some grapes

Step 2 - Harvest the grapes - we cut what was ripe enough to use, without knowing what the end amount would be. It came to a little over 3 cups of skinned grapes. 

Step 3 - Wash the grapes while still attached in clusters.

Step 4 - Pull the grapes off their stems and discard any unripe or problem grapes. Place the rest in a colander.

Step 5 - Nortons are a slip skin type grape, as are concords, so skins are easily removed by pinching one side of the grape and gently squeezing, the inside with the seeds will pop out the opposite side. Place the skinned grapes in a skillet or pot. Put the skins in a bowl.

Skins on the left, nude grapes on the right

Step 6 - Put the grape skins in a food processor with a little water and process until they form a smooth slush.

Step 7 - Meanwhile add 1/2 cup of  water to the skinned grapes in the skillet. Bring to a boil for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool.

Step 8 - Pour the cooled grapes into a mesh sieve over a bowl and press down mashing with a spoon so the juice separates from the seeds. Discard the seeds.

Grape seeds to be discarded

Step 8 - Combine the skins and the grape juice in the skillet with 1/2 cup of water. Bring to a boil and stir in a packet of Sure Jell. Add 3 cups of sugar (1 to 1 ratio of sugar to skinned grapes) stir continuously for one minute. Take off heat and let cool for 10 minutes

Step 9 - Ladle into sanitized canning jars and add lids and rings

Step 10 - Place them in a large pot with enough water to cover by an inch and boil for 10 minutes.  Remove and let cool.

Step 11 - Enjoy

____________________________________________

Making Norton Grape Liqueur

General instructions - 

3 lb. fresh ripe grapes
9 cups 80-proof vodka (or 4.5 cups pure grain alcohol + 4.5 cups water)
Granulated sugar

Rinse the grapes.

Pull each grape off its stem cluster, pinching each grape as you do so, just enough to split the skin. This will allow the color and taste to infuse better into the alcohol. 
Put them into a container that can be weighed easily. An inexpensive food scale works well here.

Dump the grapes into a sanitized glass container, we used a screw top gallon jug.

Add the vodka.

Cap and store in a cool, dark place, stir once a week for 2 - 4 weeks.

Strain through mesh sieve into a new container and note the amount.

In this ratio - for each 3 cups of unsweetened liqueur add 1 1/4 cup granulated sugar.

Let age for at least three months.

Carefully pour the clear liqueur through cheese cloth into individual smaller bottles and cap. Taste and add more sugar if necessary.

Note: Save and freeze the grapes spent to make the liqueur. They can be used in desserts. Mix with sugar and use with ice-cream or on top of pound cake, etc.

Our process - 

We harvested all the Norton grapes that looked ripe enough to use. Our grapes cleaned, came to 3 1/2 pounds. 

Pinch each berry open as you pull them off their stems. Then weigh them. We have a simple food scale we use. Each cupful came to 8 oz. It is important to get the exact weight so you can determine the correct amount of alcohol and sugar to add later.

Put the grapes in a sanitized glass jug.

We used 100 proof vodka, added 7 cups plus a little water.

Day 1 - Kind of a murky gray.... Not very appetizing.

Day 2 - After just one day, the color has changed to a nice red maroon. The grapes are turning pale as the color bleeds out into the alcohol. The color should get richer over time.

Eggplant With Uncooked Tomato Sauce and Pecorino Cheese

See, this is why you should have a vegetable garden, or at least grow a couple tomato plants, a couple eggplants and some basil in containers. We are fortunate to have a nice flat back yard that gets a lot of sun. This time of year here in Georgia so many herbs and vegetables are getting to their peak of flavor ready to be picked. Pulled three nice black beauty eggplants and three Cherokee purple tomatoes out of the garden this morning with the idea of using them to make eggplant parmigiana. I love eggplant but too many "eggplant parmesan" dishes are heavy, gloppy tomato-ey, cheesy messes. I wanted the eggplant to stand out and the tomatoes and cheese simply condiments for it. This dish is based on a recipe in the book - Franny's Simple Seasonal Italian (thanks again Brittany!). But I made a few changes, deciding to use an uncooked raw tomato sauce instead of cooked and Pecorino Romano cheese instead of mozzarella or parmesan.  

This really turned out great. The eggplant slices were nice and crisp and a little al dente. The simple raw tomato sauce was very aromatic with the individual ingredients keeping their identity.  You could clearly smell and taste the separate components - the sweet/tart Cherokee purple tomatoes, the lemony fresh basil, the pungent raw garlic, the background heat from the Calabrese pepper and the grassy olive oil. The salty pecorino cheese was perfect shaved on top. And on the side, savory grilled Italian sausage and sliced melon. Yah!       

Black Beauty Eggplants

Meaty Cherokee Purple tomatoes

Fresh Basil and a hot Calabrese pepper

For the uncooked tomato sauce:

Make sure to get the freshest ingredients possible. You won't be disappointed. Don't even try this with pale supermarket tomatoes. If you don't grow your own tomatoes and basil, wait until you can find some heirloom tomatoes and good basil at a farmers market. This will be your go-to pasta sauce for special occasions every summer. 

3 ripe home grown or heirloom tomatoes finely chopped. (Let their juices go into the sauce too.)

3 large garlic cloves finely chopped, not minced

1 nice handful of fresh basil hand torn into small pieces

1/2 cup of a good quality extra virgin olive oil

Optional - small hot chili pepper finely chopped

Pinch of salt and pepper

Combine the tomatoes, garlic, salt and pepper (and hot pepper if using) in a bowl. Pour in the olive oil and then the basil. Make this several hours ahead of when you are going to use it. Cover with plastic wrap and let it stand at room temperature so the flavors can mingle and develop. Stir every now and then and taste. Do not refrigerate. 

Slice the eggplants lengthwise into 1/4 inch pieces

Sprinkle with salt and let sit in a colander for about half an hour. Then wash off and blot dry.

Dredge each piece in flour and shake off excess, then dip in beaten eggs.

And then into breadcrumbs.  I used Progresso but you could use panko or make your own. Don't over bread, though, it will just come off in the oil and burn.

Pan fry the eggplant on medium high heat until browned about 3 min per side. Use inexpensive supermarket store brand extra virgin for pan frying the eggplant here. It will still give a good olive flavor. Save your better olive oil for other purposes, like the tomato sauce above. 

Spoon out a thin later of the tomato sauce on each plate.

Divide up the eggplant slices and spoon a little of the sauce over each piece, shave some Pecorino Romano cheese over top and a few basil leaves. 

Serve up a link of grilled Italian sausage on the side and some sliced melon.