Recipes Featuring Peperoncino
View all 1Zucchini in Scapece
The method of “in scapece” is to fry vegetables (or proteins, especially fish and seafood) in oil, then add vinegar, herbs, and sometimes garlic. The warm, pan-fried food is then left to cool and marinate in a flavorful dressing. It’s not quite a pickle as it’s not as acidic, so it’s a versatile side dish or antipasti that goes with just about anything. Here, I lighten the dish and skip the frying- making this lighter, brighter, and easier than the original.
Italian
Barley Risotto with Cabbage and Sausage
Tanya absolutely loves the combination of cabbage and sausage, and this dish is one of her favorites. Today we are all cooking with more and different grains. Barley is an ancient grain, one of the first grains cultivated, more than eight thousand years ago, and is used around the world. Every region of Italy uses it—as flour to make pasta, for breads and porridges, in soups, as a contorno, in stews—and I use it here in a risotto. Barley does not release starch as short-grain rice does, and so, when making a barley risotto, I cook the barley separately, drain it, and add it to the flavoring of the risotto I want to make—in this case, cabbage and sausage. Then I apply the last step of a regular risotto, mantecare, mixing the flavored barley with butter and grated Grana Padano to make it creamy. I par-cook the barley like pasta in this recipe, since it takes much longer to cook than rice.
Italian
