One of the tastiest and Mediterranean cuisines in Italy. There are many typical recipes of each bell province, which is difficult to make a choice. Let’s start, however, with the best-known starter, the Mussels. It’s a really easy recipe to prepare and for sure effect.
Mussels
Necessary for mussels
- Kg 1 of mussels
- black pepper just enough
- chopped parsley just enough
- sliced lemon just enough
Preparing mussels
The mussels used for this recipe must be very fresh. They should be washed very well under running water throwing away those already open or broken, in which the mollusk is dead. All fouling should be removed with a toothbrush. When they are clean, put in a pot with lid on the heat and cook until the valves have all opened.
Serve warm with a sprinkling of finely chopped parsley, freshly ground black pepper and a slice of lemon that will serve to wet the mussels of its juice.
La Pizza
We can’t talk about Campania and its typical dishes without talking about pizza. A true delicacy known all over the world. The pizza was invented in Naples when a pizza maker made this in honor of Queen Margherita of Savoy, combining the 3 colors of the Italian flag, red and green white. White mozzarella, red tomato and basil green. The recipe pleased the queen so much that since then this pizza is called pizza Margherita. The recipe is very simple and the ingredients genuine. It should be baked in the wood oven, but it also comes well in the home oven.
Necessary for a Margherita pizza about 30 centimeters in diameter
- 250 grams of flour
- grams 1 of fresh brewer’s yeast
- sea salt just enough
- water just enough
- 300 grams of tomato purée
- 300 grams of buffalo mozzarella
- a few basil leaves
- olive oil just enough
- oregano just enough
Preparing Margherita pizza
Knead the flour with salt and fresh yeast, add water until a firm and elastic dough is formed. This procedure will last about 10 minutes because the dough has to be worked a lot, kneading with your hands. When it is ready to cover it with a damp cloth and put it in a closed place and not cold for about 2 hours. The dough at this point has doubled in volume, then resume to work it with your hands and form a ball that will still be made to rise covered by a damp cloth for about 6 hours.
The original recipe does not involve the use of the rolling pin to roll out the pizza, but it should be pulled by hand, that is, it is rotated and spread slowly with your hands until you get a pizza with a diameter of about 30 centimeters, in which the central part should have about half centimeter streme and edges at least 1 centimeter.
Let’s make the tomato now. In a bowl put the tomato purée, season with a pinch of salt a couple of teaspoons of olive oil. Put the pastry on the pizza disc evenly spread out. Add the buffalo mozzarella cut into pieces, a few basil leaves, a drizzle of oil put in a spiral all over the pizza and to finish a pinch of oregano.
Bake in a very hot oven for 4 – 5 minutes checking the degree of cooking often. This is about the classic oven of our kitchen. If we have a wood oven, the temperature of the oven should be much higher, around 450 – 480 degrees and then the pizza is cooked very fast, a minute and a half maximum two minutes.
Pasta beans and mussels
This is one of the first dishes preferred by the Bells, a recipe that combines the taste of the sea with that of the land, creating a very particular combination and an intense taste.
Necessary for pasta beans and mussels
- 500 grams of cannellini beans
- 1,800 kilograms of mussels
- 300 grams of chopped tomatoes
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 small onion
- olive oil, chopped parsley, chilli and salt just enough
- 500 grams of short pasta
Preparation of pasta beans and mussels
First, if you use dried cannellini beans, they should be soaked in plenty of water and left at least 12 hours. After this period they should be cooked in abundant water for about 1 hour. Do not throw away the bean cooking water that will be used in the preparation of the recipe.
In the meantime, prepare the mussels that should be cleaned very well and put in a very large pot with lid and on the fire until the shells have all opened. Remove from the heat, let them cool and toss the shells. The remaining water in the pot where the mussels are cooked is then used to flavor the beans during cooking.
In a large pot we put a drizzle of olive oil and after chopped the onion very finely add it to the oil along with the 2 cloves of peeled garlic. The garlic is left whole because it is removed at the bottom of the cooking. At this point add the chopped tomatoes, adjust the salt and pepper and cook with the lid for about ten minutes. At this point add the beans and a ladle of cooking water of the same and let cook about half an hour adding little at a time the cooking water to prevent the sauce from drying out too much. After this time combine the mussels and cooking water of the mussels.
Meanwhile, cook the pasta very al dente. Once the water is removed and drained, put the pasta in the pot where the beans and mussels are cooked. Leave to season for a couple of minutes, stirring well and often. Add a pinch of chopped parsley and remove from the heat. Tradition would like this pasta to be eaten the next day, putting it on a fire for a couple of minutes in a frying pan, but not getting it too hot.
Luciana octopus
A particular recipe that tradition wants created by humble fishermen of the suburb of Santa Lucia in Naples. It is a rather long recipe for cooking, but on the other hand the octopus cooking sauce can be used to season the pasta, so the Luciana octopus is considered a great unique dish.
Needed for the Luciana octopus
- 800 grams / 1000 grams of octopus or meatballs
- half a glass of white wine
- 1 garlic clove
- 130 grams of black olives
- 400 grams of chopped tomatoes
- 1 tbsp capers
- a few chopped parsley leaves
- chilli, olive oil, black pepper and salt just enough
Preparing the Luciana octopus
Clean very well the octopus or meatballs that can be left whole. In a large saucepan, put a few tablespoons of olive oil and the whole garlic clove to fry. When the clove turns golden, it takes off. Remove the garlic clove, add the chilli, black olives and capers and after the ingredients have combined put the octopus and cook it turning often until it turns red. At this point add the white wine and let it evaporate completely. Put the peeled tomatoes into small pieces and cook for about an hour with the lid. Check that the whole thing does not become too dry, which it should not do as the octopus releases a lot of water during cooking. When cooked, put chopped parsley on top of the table before taking it to the table. Serve warm.
Neapolitan pastry
Let’s move on to the cakes. The most famous and known in the world is the Neapolitan pastry chef, a dessert not easy to perform, but the result of which is a real delight. But there are other sweets well known for their goodness, like puff pastries, rum babis and more.
Necessary for the Neapolitan pastry
shortcrust pastry:
- 350 grams of flour 00
- 150 grams of butter
- 130 grams of sugar
- 2 eggs
- the grated zest of a lemon
- 1 packet of baking powder
For the filling:
- 300 grams of sheep’s cottage cheese
- 300 grams of precooked wheat
- 220 grams of sugar
- 200 grams of milk
- 4 eggs
- the peel of 1 lemon and an orange
- 1 tbsp millefeuille aroma
- a pinch of cinnamon
Preparation of the Neapolitan pastry
First we prepare the shortcrust pastry by working the butter with the sugar, eggs, the peel of a grated lemon. Slowly add the flour and baking powder sachet until firm and elastic. Let’s set it aside and prepare the grain. Pre-cooked wheat is already ready in all supermarkets. It is more difficult to find the whole grain to prepare, also because then the preparation time is very long, so I recommend the ready one.
Then in a saucepan put the pre-cooked wheat, milk, a teaspoon of cinnamon and the peel of a lemon. Cook until the grain has absorbed all the milk, remove the lemon peel and remove from the heat.
Add the ricotta and sugar to the wheat, stirring well to combine all the components.
In another bowl divide the egg yolks of 4 eggs from the egg whites. The beaten yolks should be added to the grain, the egg whites should be whipped to snow and added to the grain by mixing slowly so as not to disassemble them.
Now let’s take the shortcrust pastry again and after working it for a couple of minutes we stretch two-thirds with a rolling pin until we get a round pastry that we will put in a cake tin with flared edges to cover both the top and the edges. The cake tin is first buttered and floured. Cut with a knife the excess of dough that comes out of the edges and put inside the ricotta and wheat filling. With the remaining shortcrust pastry after lying it with a rolling pin cut many strips that should be placed on the surface of the tart-type filling.
Place in the oven already hot for 50 minutes about 170 degrees and then another 20 minutes to 150. Remove from the oven and cool completely before serving. Tradition has it that it is made at least one day before eating it.
Baba with rum
necessary for the baba al rum
- 350 grams of flour
- 20 grams of sugar
- 15 grams of brewer’s yeast
- 6 eggs
- salt as needed
- 120 grams of butter (this as far as ingredients for the baba
- half a litre of water
- 200 grams of sugar
- 200ml rum
- the peel of a lemon (ingredients for wetting)
Preparing rum babaas
In a rather large bowl beat the eggs with sugar salt and brewer’s yeast and butter and with an electric beater work everything for a few minutes. Slowly add the flour until the dough is smooth and firm and attaches to the bowl. Cover the bowl and leave to rise at least 3 hours.
To make babais you need special molds, or a single mold. For the molds should first be buttered and floured and taking the mixture that we had put to rise work a little with the hands, make many pieces and put them in the molds filling them for two-thirds. Place the moulds thus filled in a rather high baking space and covered with a cling film leave them until the mixture has risen out of the mold to form the classic mushroom shape. It will take about an hour after which put them in the oven already hot at 200 degrees for about 30 minutes. Allow to cool completely before removing them from the moulds.
Now let’s prepare the wet in which the baboons already cooked will be immersed. In a saucepan, melt the sugar in the water, adding a lemon peel. When the sugar has dissolved completely add the rum. In this wet soak the babais a couple of times by gently wringing them to eliminate the excess wet. To finish the babais should be brushed with apricot jelly and served cold.
