SICILIAN ORANGE SALAD — A simple, yet refreshingly wonderful recipe for any time! Serve as an appetizer or side-dish

(Serves about 6)

Toss 3 thinly sliced, peeled, pitted, sweet oranges (Washington Navel, e.g.) and 1 freshly shaved fennel heart into a bowl. This slicing style is preferable if serving this dish as an entrée. If served as a side-dish, you should choose to dice all ingredients in small cubes, which, in terms of texture and flavor combination, also works wonderfully.

Drizzle a generous amount of Olio Verde, sprinkle with freshly ground sea salt and black pepper, and bits of brine-cured green olives or dry-cured black olives (not pizza-style black olives!). Add a touch of vinegar (preferably Sicilian balsamic, of the Laudicina brand*, available in the USA via Attavola.it). Add toasted Sicilian pine nuts (not Chinese ones, though Californian are good too).
Last but not least, if so inclined, add slices of brined herring or red, fleshy salt-packed sardines (not oil packed sardines, nor anchovies) with a sprinkle of just squeezed lemon juice.  And… now truly last, if pomegranates are in season, consider sprinkling a few ruby red seeds over your salad for an extra touch of health and beauty. ENJOY!

* Here’s some recent information regarding retail locations for Sicily’s only vinegar, and one of the world’s best vinegars…in our modest opinion!

• Shop: Dorothy Lane Market – 6177 Far Hill Avenue Dayton Ohio
• Shop and restaurant: Il Buco – 47 Bond Street New York
• Shop: Arvella Imports – 710 N. Van Ness Ave Los Angeles California
• Shop: Sickles Market – Little Silver New Jersey
• More here: http://www.condiaroma33.it

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PASTA AL VINO E OLIO NUOVO  – first course

(Serves about eight)

This is a recipe borrowed from Chef Celsa Carissimi and her good friend Marco Gargiulo, both from Genova. It is a Ligurian traditional oil mill recipe, quickly put together over a fire by the frantoio… once upon a time.

Pour 1 bottle of GOOD white wine in a deep nonstick pan or pot. Preferably use anything but chardonnay, and nothing sweet… think fruity and acidic, dry and mineral… say inzolia, cataratto, grillo (here depicted: Barraco’s biodynamic monovariatal Cataratto from Marsala, less than an hour away from us - www.vinibarraco.it). Add 1 peeled whole clove of the freshest garlic and, if no fresh laurel of bay leaf is available, then 2 dried bay leaves, and 1 generous pinch of sea salt (yes, we are partial to Sicilian Trapani sea salt). Start on high heat, and add 1.5 to 2 lbs of dry pasta from the start (choose a Ligurian cut such as trofie, or strozzapreti, or Sicilian busiate; or a large, short cut such as Neapolitan paccheri or pennone, or a long flat cut such as candele or festoni www.rustichella.it is our favorite in terms of easily located, high quality pasta, worldwide).

Cooking it like you would a risotto, allow it to simmer, and add at least 2 tbs of Olio Verde Novello (a spicy fresh-pressed olive oil with personality is what you want) and gradually more white wine (another bottle may suffice) until all of it is absorbed by the pasta. In other words, you keep tasting the pasta for texture and add only as much liquid as needed for the pasta to reach an al dente stage, at which point it is done. Do not oversalt while cooking, given that at the end you will add a cup of grated semi-aged pecorino and parmigiano cheese to season. Toss vigorously and finish with 2 more tbsp of Olio Verde Novello and quite a bit of freshly ground black pepper. Remove clove of garlic and bayleaf before serving. Enjoy as hot as possible! Drizzle some more Olio Verde Novello on pasta while serving to keep it from sticking.

- GaB & MaV