For a part of my food technology course I'm studying continental foods but mainly focusing on Italian cookery.
To get a good grade I will need to design and make a good unusual italian dish , but I'm unfortunate to find one as yet as I only come across the standard italian dishes e.g. Pastas and pizzas.
I would be very grateful if anyone could e-mail me with an unusaul or rare italian recipe or even just the name and a description of the dish.
This would be very helpful even if it is not of use I can still use this for my design ideas.
Fiona

Well Fiona there are many authentic Italian dishes. What would you like?
Most food is peasant dishes. My grandparents who have recently passed at the age of 86 & 100 were Calabraze Italian from Calabria.
I remember when my father-in-law who was a council man at the time went to visit them to see if their snowplwing by the city was getting done, they were just eating their lunch, asked him if he would join them. He said yes and enjoyed every bite. Next day I found out from my mother they had for lunch fried pigs ears, and salad.
They ate from the garden summer and winter.
We live in Ontario Canada, which is a lot of snow, shows you that they put down their gardens for the winter.
On Christmas eve we always had fish, which at grandmas was squid in a tomato sauce ( tasted like chicken ) and Baccala which is dried cod> They also simmer that in a tomato sauce . Or they pan fried it after they rehydrate itfor a few days in cold water.
We always had luopini which is a bean they rehydrate them in salt water for days, and them highly salt them. My sister liked those I never did. You just popped the shell and ate them .

In the summer zucchini is always around in the garden.
We make tyealla ( spelling the way you say it have no idea of proper spelling) It is
Layer of zucchini slices,
Layer of sliced potatoes
Layer of fresh garden tomatoes,
Layers sprinkled with romano grated sheese.
This is repeated until roaster is filled. The baked in the oven until the knife cuts through the potatoes and zucchini. Sometimes my mom added homemade tomatoe sauce, for more tomato in it.
It looks like a mess, but its yummy.

Another thing was zucchini blossoms, washed and torn into pieces, and added to a thin batter of flour and water and salt. And then pan fried like a small pancake or fritter. She made hers and were delicious. I tried and they ended up been tasteless. Recipe went with her I guess.

One thing is they never write recipes down.

My grandmother was blind in one eye and bad sight in the other. She always did cooking by feel. Great cook too.

I have recipes for Pizza Piena which is a Christmas cake she made. it’s a special thin dough, rolled up like a big cinnamon bun, and inside is walnuts and raisins.
When freshly baked remove and pour hot melted honey over the top, it soaks in. Let sit a few days. When you slice this into pieces, it falls apart But we all just love it its on a plate and everyone keeps nibbling on all the little bits. Yummy.

If there is a special recipe you might like, for your class let me know. Do you have to make something. How about GENETTIS they are a cookie.

Some people though get them too dry.

Its kind of hard to bake or cook an item if you don't know what it is supposed to turn out like.

Gee this is gong on an don.

Let me know what you would like.
Andrea ::)

Simple but good. My old friend maria, from sicily. Used to make arancini (Filled rice balls) for us at night. She also used to serve us a really simple dessert of pizza dough like base baked with riccota, sugar and cinnamon. So easy, and yes very peasant. Full of comfort starch!

Arancini di riso, rice croquettes with ground meat fillings that Sicilians consume as snacks. The idea sounds simple, but as Pino Correnti points out in his Il Libro d'Oro della Cucina e Dei Vini Della Sicilia, few dishes can tell as much about the peoples who have contributed to the Island over the centuries: The canestrato fresco (a fresh, mild, firm cheese that's generally replaced with mozzarella off the island) from the Greeks, the rice and saffron from the Arabs, the ragout from French, and the tomato sauce from the Spanish. Because they're the pride of rotisseries they never figure in restaurant menus, though they're certainly good enough to. In addition to being fine snacks they make excellent antipasti at parties, and if you make several small batches with different fillings they'll work very well with other fried foods as part of a fritto misto (mixed fried foods).
Making the filling according to the traditional recipe will take a couple of hours, during which time you can cook the rice as well and let it cool. The actual assembly and frying of the arancini will take about an hour more. If need be you can prepare the filling ahead of time and keep it in the refrigerator until you're ready to use it. The rice, on the other hand, should be cooked when you're ready to proceed.

To serve 4 you'll need:
1 1/2 cups rice
1 teaspoon saffron
1 cup grated Parmigiano (freshly grated, not from a can)
4 eggs
2/3 pound (300 g) ground beef
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 clove garlic
1/2 a small onion
A packed quarter cup dried porcini
1/3 cup olive oil
1/2 cup dry red wine
1/4 pound mozzarella or fresh, soft provolone (if you're in Sicily you will want to use canestrato fresco)
1 cup fresh peas, boiled
Flour
Bread crumbs
Salt and Pepper
Oil for frying
Organically grown orange leaves (optional, as garnish)


Begin by preparing the filling:

Finely slice the onion and mince the garlic, and sauté the mixture in the olive oil until it wilts. Stir in the ground meat, continue cooking until it is well browned, and then stir in the wine. While it's evaporating, dilute the tomato paste in a ladle of warm water and stir it in. Season the mixture to taste, and simmer it over a very low flame for a couple of hours, adding more warm water or broth as necessary to keep it from drying out. Towards the end of the cooking time, steep the dried mushrooms in boiling water for a few minutes and coarsely chop them. Stir them into the sauce too; cook it for 15 minutes more and it's done.

While the meat's cooking, simmer the peas until they're tender. Then remove them from the fire, drain them, and let them cool. Dice the mozzarella into half-inch cubes and combine it with the cool peas.

The other thing to do while the meat is cooking is prepare the rice: boil it in abundant, lightly salted water, and while it's cooking lightly beat two of the eggs. When the rice is done drain it. Transfer it into a bowl, let it cool slightly, and stir in the beaten eggs, grated cheese, and saffron. Let it finish cooling.

When everything else is ready, lightly beat the remaining eggs and season them with salt and pepper. Then, preheat your oven to 350 F (180 C). Next, make the first arancino by taking two small handfuls of rice and shaping them into hollow hemispheres Fill the hollows with some of the meat, and some of the peas, and mold the two halves together to obtain a smooth-sided rice ball about the size of a small orange (1.5 - 2 inches in diameter). Roll the arancino in flour, dredge it in the beaten egg, roll it well in the breadcrumbs, and fry it in abundant hot oil. While it's cooking begin with the next, and when the one that's frying has become a golden brown drain it on absorbent paper. When you have finished frying all your arancini, heat them through in the oven for five minutes, decorate them with the orange leaves if you choose to, and serve them piping hot.

Other Arancini Recipes on the site:
Arancini ai Gamberetti -- arancini filled with shrimp
Arancini al Prosciutto -- arancini filled with cooked ham
Arancini al Ragu -- arancini with a quicker-cooking ragout
Arancini ai Funghi -- arancini with a mushroom filling that tastes of fall
Palle di Riso -- Neapolitan cousins filled with peas, meat and mozzarella
Supplì al Telefono -- Roman rice balls with stewed meat and mozzarella