November is traditionally the month for remembering the lost family members, friends and those who died in various conflicts. For this recipe I have chosen to remember, Venice and the food I have eaten there for the first time. The recipes below make enough for a three course dinner for four guests.
CARPACCIO DI BUE
(Ox Carpaccio)
Carpaccio is an Italian hors d’oeuvre consisting of thin slices of raw beef or fish served with a sauce. Since this dish is served raw, the meat must be fresh.
Serves Four People
Ingredients
4x 12g fillet steak (no sinews and no fat)
80 ml olive oil
40g capers
Juice of 2 lemons
10 ml balsamic Vinegar
Salt and pepper (from the mill)
4 Parsley florets or whichever you’d like to decorate with
Preparation
- Wrap the steak in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for two hours.
- Then unwrap and slice the steak thinly into 1/8 to 1/4 inch pieces.
- Place each fillet steak in between two plastic sheets.
- With a meat mallet or a rolling pin, gently pound the meat until paper thin.
- Divide the meat equally between four chilled dinner plates.
- Sprinkle the oil, lemon juice, and vinegar onto it, and serve with the parsley florets.
- Serve with warm crusty rolls.
FEGATO ALLA VENEZIANA
(Venetian Liver)
Serves Four People
Ingredients
600g liver – either veal or lamb
100g onion, finely sliced
60g roughly chopped parsley
150 ml dry white wine
60 ml olive oil
Salt and pepper (from the mill)
300 ml strong chicken stock
Sufficient oil for sealing the meat and vegetables
Some Bisto thickening granules
Seasoning and chopped parsley
Preparation
- Slice the liver into equal strips.
- Place the strips into a bowl with a good helping of pepper and leave for at least 2 hours.
- In a wok or large frying pan, heat the oil.
- When the oil is really very hot, add the onions.
- Fry until the onions begin to colour.
- Then add the liver, stirring all the time until the meat begins to stiffen.
- Keeping the heat up high, add the wine and salt.
- When the wine has almost evaporated, turn off
- the heat and place the lot in a warm dish before sprinkling parsley over and serving.
A chicory salad is usually served with this meal, and a good white farmhouse bread. Soave is the ideal wine to pair with this dish.
CONO GELATO CON MORE
(“Ice cream with more”)
Serves Four People (Serve two ice cream balls per person)
Ingredients
4 round wafers or sponge biscuits
8 balls of vanilla ice cream
250g fresh or frozen blackberries
Juice of half lemon
100g icing sugar
Preparation
- Place two icecream balls, one on top of the other, to form a cone.
- Repeat with the rest before placing them in the freezer.
- Divide the blackberries in two lots: one to go into a bowl for later, and the other to place on the cones.
- Working on one cone at the time, stud them with blackberries from one bowl and immediately return them to the freezer.
- Take the blackberries from the second bowl and add the icing sugar and lemon juice before liquidising until you have made a syrupy liquid which will be poured over the cones when
serving.
P.S. The above recipes I sampled in Venice in the past. The Liver, possibly in 1939, the ice cream in the 50s, and the Carpaccio in the 90s. I cannot be sure they were identical to the recipes
I tasted because my memory plays tricks at times! But the above is what I served to customers and friends.
Buon Appetito Giovanni Fontebasso
