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PANZANELLA
- Take a few slices of day-old wholemeal bread
and steep them in water (preferably spring-water),
then squeeze them out and mix in a bowl with basil
leaves torn into pieces, finely chopped onion,
sliced tomatoes, small wedges of hard-boiled egg,
salt and pepperÖ.. and lashings of extra-virgin
olive oil from the mill.
Place in the fridge for a couple of hours, and
only after you remove it add a little wine vinegar
and a few extra basil leaves.
If you wish, you can also add capers, olives or
a little chopped anchovy fillet.
CABBAGE AND BEAN SOUP WHICH BECOMES RIBOLLITA
- Remove the coarse ribs from some green cabbage
and wash it thoroughly, then prepare some white
cabbage, a good quantity of boiled beans, thyme,
herbs and onion.
Chop a large onion and carrot finely with celery,
parsley and plentiful fresh herbs, then sauté
lightly in a fairly large saucepan with plenty
of extra-virgin olive oil from the mill.
Add the thyme and when all is nicely golden, tip
in some peeled tomatoes. Add the boiled beans
to the sauté mixture and continue to boil,
then add equal quantities of sliced green and
white cabbage and a diced potato. Season with
salt.
When the vegetables are completely cooked, fill
the saucepan up to three-quarters with water and
continue simmering slowly so that the pre-boiled
beans cook until they disintegrate into the vegetable
stock.
Taste for salt. In a terracotta bowl arrange two
layers of thinly-sliced, preferably wholemeal,
day-old bread, then pour over both the vegetables
and the stock, keeping a little liquid aside for
later since it will be soaked up by the bread
which otherwise becomes too dry.
When the bread is thoroughly moistened, pour over
the rest of the stock and serve immediately without
re-heating.
If you wish to make the famous "ribollita",
the next day replace the terracotta bowl containing
the soup over a very low heat.
Make a hole in the middle, pour in extra-virgin
olive oil from the mill and then bring the soup
slowly to the boil, making sure that it does not
stick. When you serve the ribollita at table,
pour a trickle of extra-virgin olive oil over
it in the form of a "C".
POLENTA
- Prepare a bowl of yellow polenta (preferably
not too firm) and season it simply with a youthful
extra-virgin olive oil from the mill which still
has all the dynamic sharpness of recent pressing;
complete with a little grated mature Parmesan
cheese.
PINZIMONIO
- Since they are to be eaten raw, choose the best
quality vegetables - celery, radishes, fennel,
artichokes, carrots, fresh broad beans etc, and
peel, wash and prepare them.
Prepare a number of small bowls containing extra-virgin
olive oil from the mill seasoned with salt and
pepper.
The vegetables are then dipped into the oil and
eaten with bread.
LA FETTUNTA
- There's nothing more enticing than a slice of
day-old wholemeal bread, lightly toasted, rubbed
over with a peeled garlic clove, and then dipped
in a dish of sharply piquant, authentic, typical
extra-virgin olive oil from the mill.
BREAD AND CABBAGE
- Remove the ribs from good inner leaves of a
green cabbage and boil them in salted water. Prepare
some bread as for the fettunta, and lay a few
cabbage leaves over them.
Add freshly pressed extra-virgin olive oil from
the mill and, just before serving, a twist of
freshly ground pepper.
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