09/20/05 Insalata Pesce di Spada from OreganoFromItaly.com
"Buona giornata a tutti i nostri cari lettori!" Welcome to another recipe edition from Angela's Oregano Farm!
This week's Italian recipes:
-Insalata Pesce di Spada
-Spaghetti con Calamari
-Mostaccioli
This issue is dedicated to all seafood lovers. Enjoy the complimentary news article report from "Only In Italy.com".
Thanks again for subscribing!
Yours Truly,
Angela Reina
Recipe: Insalata Pesce di Spada
Insalata Pesce di Spada
Swordfish Salad
Ingredients:
4 boiled potatoes, sliced
4 boiled zucchini, sliced
1 curly lettuce
2 slices sword fish grilled or fresh tuna
4 anchovies conserved in oil
parsley
salt
extra-virgin olive oil
Directions:
Wash and dry the salad and cover the bottom of a large serving dish.
Layer with potatoes, then zucchini.
Grill the sword fish, cut into pieces and place it on top.
Whisk the olive oil with the crushed anchovies, salt and chopped parsley and dress the dish. Serves 4.
Note: Boil the zucchini/courgettes briefly so that they remain firm and do not go soggy.
That's it!
Recipe: Spaghetti con Calamari
Spaghetti con Calamari
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon butter or virgin olive oil
2 pounds Italian plum tomatoes, peeled & coarsely chopped
1/2 large onion, coarsely chopped
1 pound squid, cleaned, tentacles intact, body in bite-size
1/4 teaspoon fresh thyme
2 teaspoons fresh oregano, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh marjoram, chopped
2 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped
1 pound spaghetti or perciatelli (tubular spaghetti)
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
Heat butter or oil in large saucepan. Add tomatoes and onions and cook for 20 minutes over medium heat, stirring occasionally until tomatoes break apart easily and onion is soft. Add squid, reduce heat to low, and cook for 10 minutes more.
Add herbs and cook for 5 minutes.
The squid should be very tender. Add salt and pepper and serve over pasta. Serves 4.
That's it!
Recipe: Mostaccioli
Mostaccioli
Also called "nzudda" is of Arab origin. It comes in many shapes; hearts, animals, letters, dolls. It should be eaten after a few days as it needs time to soften.
Ingredients:
500 grams honey (preferably runny)
500 grams plain flour
2 tbsp anise-seed liqueur (Pastis)
butter
Directions:
Put the flour on a cold work surface in a mound. Make a dent in the centre and pour in the anise-seed liqueur and the honey.
Work the flour into a dough, kneading it well. Flatten it out with a rolling pin to about 1.5 cm (1/4in.) thick and cut it into the shape you desire and decorate with small lines to improve the aspect.
Place it on a buttered oven tray and bake at 300F – 150C. They are ready when they are golden brown.
Store them in the larder for a few days before eating them. Serves 6.
That's it!
Only In Italy!
"Only In Italy" is a daily news column that translates & reports on funny but true news items from legitimate Italian news resources in Italy. Each story is slapped with our wild, often ironic, and sometimes rather opinionated comments. And now, for your reading pleasure, a sample of today's edition:
Four Go on Trial for Murder of God's Banker.
The Guardian – John Hooper and Philip Willan in Rome – March 17 – More than 20 years after the death of the banker Roberto Calvi was dismissed as suicide, four people, including a jailed Mafia boss, went on trial yesterday in Rome, charged with his murder.
The case of the man known as "God's banker" remains one the most extraordinary of recent decades – a whodunit involving the Vatican, Cosa Nostra, rogue freemasons, financiers and politicians.
Only one of the four defendants, Flavio Carboni, was in court to hear the charges. The Sardinian businessman told reporters: "I know as much about Calvi's murder as I do about the killing of Jesus Christ."
Two other people who were with the doomed banker on his final journey, Mr. Carboni's then girlfriend, Manuela Kleinszig, and a Rome underworld boss, Ernesto Diotallevi, are also charged with murder.
The convicted Mafia boss, Pippo Calo, followed proceedings over a video link to his prison. According to documents leaked last year, the prosecution will seek to prove that he ordered Calvi murdered, for bungling the laundering of Cosa Nostra's funds and to stop him blackmailing powerful former associates in the Vatican and Italian society.
Mr Calvi was chairman of Banco Ambrosia no, which was about to collapse with debts of £800m when he died. Some of the losses were the result of reckless offshore investments in association with the Vatican's bank, the Institute for the Works of Religion.
At the same time, Mr. Calvi drew assistance from the maverick P2 masonic lodge. He was found hanging under Blackfriars bridge in London in June 1982. Bricks were found stuffed into his pockets and down the front of his trousers – an apparently symbolic detail that prompted speculation of a masonic link.
(This story is dedicated to all our readers who should know more of what goes on in that pearly-white Vatican.) We have a few questions for the Italian prosecutors in reference to the death of God's banker:1.) When did God become involved in offshore investments?
2.) What in God's name (pardon the expression) did the Vatican recklessly invest in?
3.) Does the name "Blackfriar" have anything do with the bridge chosen to hang God's banker?
4.) Where were God's financial analysts while this went on?
5.) Which sounds shadier, "offshore investments" or the Vatican's "Institute for the Works of Religion"?