SPRING IN SICILY -
Food from an ancient island

by Manuela Darling-Gansser
Photography by Simon Griffiths
Hardie Grant Books
Hardcover - NZ$65.00

They do not come much more gorgeous than this one. What a beautiful, beautiful book. A few years back we attended Darryl's 50th birthday at Taormina in Sicily and after the wonderful celebration 0000000 spent a week travelling around this island enjoying it's colourful history, fascinating and varied architecture and above all it's wonderful food.

Reading this superb cookbook over the past few weeks, (thanks to Dawn for bringing it to my attention), has brought all those memories flooding back and makes me want to jump on the next plane and fly over there. Alas that is not possible but the next best thing is owning this knockout of a book which fulfils two roles - a cookbook, (Manuela's recipes are both tempting and easy to make), and a travel book all complemented by Simon Griffiths' lavish photography.

Here are the two recipes I have made so far, reproduced here from the book with permission of the publishers.

Pasta Primavera

50 g (2 oz) unsalted butter
3 baby leeks, trimmed
and sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 small fennel bulb,
very thinly sliced
1½ tablespoons salt
150 g (5 oz) podded baby broad beans, blanched and peeled
150 g (5 oz) baby French beans, cut into 3 cm (1¼ in) lengths
150 g (5 oz) podded fresh peas
1 bunch thin asparagus, cut into 3 cm (1¼ in) lengths
400 ml (14 fl oz) pure cream
500 g (1 lb 2 oz) ditali pasta (small 1 cm tubes)
salt and freshly ground
black pepper
100 g (3½ oz) freshly grated Parmiggiano

Melt the butter in a large frying pan. Add the leeks and cook gently for 5 minutes, then add the garlic and fennel and cook
until soft.
Add the salt to a large saucepan of water and bring to the boil. When the water boils, drop in the broad beans, French beans, peas and asparagus. As soon as the water comes back to the boil, lift the vegetables out with a slotted spoon (reserve the water for cooking the pasta) and add them to the frying pan with the leek and fennel mixture. Pour in the cream and bring to the boil.
Let it bubble for 2 minutes – the vegetables should still have
a crunch – then remove the pan from the heat.
Boil the pasta in the vegetable water until al dente.
Drain the pasta well and add to the cream and vegetable mix. Toss everything together. Season with salt and pepper, add the Parmiggiano and serve straight away.
Serves 4–6

Peperonata

3 large red capsicums
(bell peppers)
3 large yellow capsicums
(bell peppers)
1 large green capsicum
(bell pepper)

Sauce
50 g (2 oz) pitted black olives
10 anchovy fillets in oil, drained
140 g (5 oz) capers
in brine, drained
40 g (1½ oz) pine nuts
3 cloves garlic
handful fresh mint leaves
125–200 ml (4–7 fl oz)
virgin olive oil
1 small red chilli

To prepare the capsicums, sit them directly on the flame of your stove burners. Cook for a few minutes, turning them constantly (use tongs to do this). When the skins are black all over, transfer them to a plastic bag, seal the top and leave them to cool down. The steam that is created will loosen the skin and it will peel away easily.
Peel and deseed the capsicums, then cut each one into 4–6
slices. Pat them dry with kitchen paper and arrange them on
a serving platter.

To make the sauce, simply put all the ingredients in a blender
and whiz until just amalgamated. Be careful not to over-blend
it – you should still see the individual ingredients. Spoon some
of the sauce over the capsicums and serve the rest on the side
in a little bowl. This dish should be eaten at room temperature.
Serves 6

And below one of the hundreds of fine photographs in the book, sadly I cannot do justice to the colour or quality of Simon's photographs. This one shows the bay below Taormina and is from page 202.