23-12-2013
Insalata di rinforzo as interpreted by Viviana Varese, chef at Alice - Eataly Milano, which should open on March 4th 2014. The same dish can be found (for the price of 11 euros) at Alicette - Eataly Roma, until tomorrow, together with other take away Christmas recipes: Avocado and prawns, Octopus salad, Fish lasagne... (photo by Brambilla Serrani)
In Campania, Christmas means fish on Christmas Eve and meat on Christmas day. On the evening of December 24th, every family prepares Insalata di rinforzo, which is called thus because on that occasion it is tradition to eat a light meal, waiting to gorge oneself the following day. However, a “reinforcement” is still necessary not to eat “too” light. Usually, so much of this salad is prepared that it lasts until New Year’s Day and beyond. This dish can last for 10 days. In my version, cauliflower and salted codfish, which are traditionally boiled, are prepared in a different way: the cauliflower is a warm cream, the salted codfish is a confit. Here is the recipe.
“Insalata di rinforzo” – new version
Recipe for 4 people
INGREDIENTS For the codfish 400 g desalted salted codfish 33 cc double malt beer 10 g extra virgin olive oil
For the cauliflower cream 1 cauliflower 1 onion 40 g extra virgin olive oil salt to taste pepper to taste aromatic herbs
The Insalata di rinforzo, traditional way (photo by Alimentipedia)
For the pickled vegetables 1 yellow pepper 1 red pepper 4 Tropea onions 1/2 cauliflower 4 carrots
For the marinade 500 g water 200 g white wine vinegar 160 g sugar 50 g salt 10 black peppercorns Juice of 1/2 lemon
For the parsley sauce 50 g parsley 30 g extra virgin olive oil 20 g boiled potato 50 g vegetable stock 1 garlic clove salt to taste pepper to taste aromatic herbs to taste
On the book published by Giunti, the Insalata di rinforzo and many other recipes
For the anchovy sauce Fry the anchovies and the garlic in extra virgin olive oil. Cook for one minute and then blend with the other ingredients.
For the marinade Mix all the ingredients and boil them. Dice the peppers and put them into vacuum packs. Cut the carrots and the cauliflower and cook them in two separate pans for 6 minutes in unsalted water. Put them into vacuum packs and add the boiling marinade mixture to every pack. Seal the vacuum packs three times. This procedure will allow the hot marinade to go inside all the vegetables, cooking them well while keeping them crispy. Leave to reach room temperature. Instead of vacuum packs, you can use jars but in this case the vegetables need to be cooked with the marinade for at least 10 minutes and then put into the jars. Freeze the beer. After that, put the codfish into the vacuum pack and add 10 g of extra virgin olive oil and a tablespoon of iced-beer. Seal the vacuum packs and cook at 58°C for 8 minutes.
Viviana Varese and Sandra Ciciriello (photo by Brambilla-Serrani)
FINISHING THE DISH Put the cauliflower cream on the base of the dish, place the codfish on top – seasoned with a drop of extra virgin olive oil. Add the pickled vegetables, the anchovy sauce and the parsley sauce. Decorate with aromatic herbs and a few capers.
Men who, for a moment, leave pots and pans to tell us their experience and point of view
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