Mario's Sicilian Pizza

Mario's Sicilian Pizza

Recipe by Mario Batali

We caught this recipe on The Chew the other day and decided to adapt it for a 2 person household. I used the wonderful all purpose pizza bianca dough recipe from Gabriele Bonci and cut the other ingredients back proportionately. We also used the tuna we canned a couple months back.

Ingredients

• 1/2 Recipe Pizza Bianca dough
• 1 cup Crushed tomatoes
• 4 oz. Fresh Mozzarella, sliced thin
• 1 Tbs Salt Packed Capers, rinsed
• 1/2 cup Sicilian Olives, chopped
• 1/2 cup Tuna packed in oil
• Oregano
• Red Pepper Flakes

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 500 degrees.
2. Make the pizza dough according to the recipe and allow to rise for about an hour.
3. When the oven is heated, turn the dough out onto a sheet of parchment paper and spread it carefully into a large oblong. 



4. Spread the tomatoes evenly over the dough then add the other ingredients: tuna, olives, capers, mozzarella, oregano.
5. Slide the pizza into the oven and bake for about 15 minutes or until it's nicely browned.
6. Slice and serve!

As mentioned we used the tuna we canned a few weeks back on this pizza. If you can possibly do it can your own tuna! The big chunks were firm and moist and the oil, rather surprisingly was not overwhelmed by the tuna. It was a complete success.

We also opened a jar of the melanzane sott'olio from last week and it too was wonderful. The strips of eggplant were tender, with just a hint of acid from the vinegar boil, a breath of garlic and tiny hint of heat from the peperoncino.

Peperoncini Ripieni sott'olio

Peperoncini Ripieni sott'olio

Recipe by Traditional

WARNING! This recipe is a traditional Italian approach to preserving. It does not meet USDA home canning standards.

Ingredients

• 2 lb Ripe Red Calabrese Peppers
• 2 cups White Wine Vinegar
• 24 oz Canned Tuna
• 2 or 3 Salt Packed Anchovies
• 2 Tbs Salt Packed Capers
• Olive Oil

Cooking Directions

1. Carefully wash the peppers and discard any that are soft or discolored.





2. Cut out the green stem cap and remove the seed pod from the peppers. A small measuring spoon or melon baller makes the latter an easy task. Although these are not particularly hot peppers by American standards they still pack a punch so if you're sensitive to capsaicin wear rubber or plastic gloves to protect your skin.
3. Place the vinegar and an equal amount of water in a non-reactive and bring the mixture to a boil.
4. Optional: Add some aromatic spices to the vinegar mixture: 2 bay leaves, a few peppercorns, cloves or even juniper berries. I've got bay leaves and peppercorns in there.

5. Carefully place the cleaned peppers in the boiling mixture and simmer for 4 minutes. Remove the peppers from the vinegar mixture. Depending on the size of your peppers you may have to do this in a couple batches. 

6. Place the peppers open end down on a clean towel, cover with another towel and let dry over night.
7. Prepare the tuna filling: Drain the canned tuna, rinse and clean the anchovies, rinse the capers. Place all ingredients in a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Pulse for a few seconds until the mixture is smooth but still has some texture.





8. Using a small spoon fill each pepper with the tuna mixture. Press down gently to enure there are no air pockets.
9. Prepare quart jars, bands and new lids according to the manufacturer's directions.
10. Carefully load the stuffed peppers into the jars, packing as tightly as possible without crushing them.
11. Optional: Add a couple Giganti di Pantelleria capers to each jar as you pack it.
12. WARNING! The following instructions are not USDA approved.
13. Fill the jars with olive oil leaving a 1 inch head space. Tap the jars gently on your cutting board to dislodge any air bubbles.
14. Wipe the rims and seal the jars carefully.
15. Process the jars in a boiling water bath for 30 minutes. Let cool in the water, remove, dry, label and store in a cool dark place.
16. USDA Hot Pack Method:
17. Combine 1 1/4  cups white vinegar (5%) and 1 cup olive oil in a non-reactive pot. Bring to a boil.
18. Fill jars with the hot vinegar and oil mixture leaving a 1 inch head space. Tap the jars gently on your cutting board to dislodge any air bubbles.
19. Wipe the rims and seal the jars carefully.
20. Process in a boiling water bath for 30 minutes. Let cool in the water, remove, dry, label and store in a cool dark place.

Notes: 

Yes, of course you can leave out the anchovies. But don't. They're an extremely important flavor component. Once you start using them nothing tastes right when they're left out.

You'll likely have some tuna mixture left over. Just add a little mayonnaise and some diced celery and you've got tuna salad.  

It took about 1 1/2 cups of of oil to top off the two quart jars I made.

If you use tuna canned in water it will probably be too dry to stay put in the peppers during the canning process and your jars will look like this:

They'll still taste good, but they won't look so great. The solution of course is to mix in enough olive oil to form a coherent paste that stuffs well.

Preserving: Tonno Sott' Olio

Tonno Sott' Olio

Recipe by Rosetta Costantino

Recently I've been favoring recipes that call for tonno sott' olio - tuna preserved in olive oil. The commercial product available here in the USA is very expensive. Fortunately, it turns out to be pretty easy to make. The tuna still ain't cheap (my tuna was $17.99 a pound so I'm "saving" about $15 versus buying the imported product) but for anyone with a pressure canner or two, it's an interesting change from the annual cycle of vegetable canning that culminates with an orgy of tomato processing in late summer.

There are (at least) three main approaches to making tonno sott' olio at home. One involves a pickling brine with vinegar, salt and various aromatics. Mario Batali has a representative recipe of this type, Fresh Canned Tuna, as does Lidia Bastianich. Note that both these recipes produce a product meant to be refrigerated.

The second approach uses a simple brine: water and salt; the versions differ mainly in the amount of salt used. This is the approach I'm using, as described by Rosetta Costantino in My Calabria: Rustic Family Cooking from Italy's Undiscovered South.

The third approach involves pressure canning fresh, uncooked fish with a little salt and olive oil. Some sources recommend this approach for any fish except tuna, others apply it to tuna as well.

This being SAI's first pressure canning recipe of the season, now would be a good time to drag out your equipment and check it over. I found that the over pressure plug on mine and gotten a tiny cut sometime over the winter - that would have made quite a mess had it blown out.

And for more exciting canning blogification: