1,000 Foods To Eat Before You Die: A Food Lover's Life List (52 page)

An invention of the good old red-sauce Italian-American kitchen, lobster
fra diavolo
represents an early form of fusion: Food scholars suggest that lobster fra diavolo was never actually prepared in Italy, but was instead a concoction created by southern Italian immigrants. (Though it is remarkably similar to many dishes in the Neapolitan and southern Italian tomato-sauced-seafood pantheon.)

Records show that it was served in the early part of the twentieth century at a Greenwich Village restaurant called Enrico & Paglieri,
founded in 1908. (Fifty-five cents bought you a serving
and
a bottle of wine.) Long a specialty of Angelo’s, in New York’s Little Italy, the dish also has a long-standing spot on the menu at Patsy’s, opened in 1944—in fact, Patsy’s current chef-owner, Sal Scognamillo, credits his grandfather, Pasquale, who emigrated from Naples in the 1920s, with bringing the recipe with him. Such claims are impossible to substantiate, but whatever its origins, by the 1940s lobster fra diavolo was part of the standard repertoire at Italian American restaurants throughout New York City.

At its best, lobster fra diavolo is nothing short of luxurious, with chunks of unshelled lobster glistening in a bright red sauce that is palate-stinging yet not hot enough to overpower the delicacy of the lobster. It is not served with a distracting, sauce-absorbing heap of pasta, which is a telltale sign of a tourist trap. The best way to enjoy lobster fra diavolo is with some good crusty bread and an astringent, sprightly, and bold Italian red wine that can stand up to its audacious flavors.

Where:
In New York
, Rao’s, tel 212-722-6709; Patsy’s, tel 212-247-3491,
patsys.com
;
in Las Vegas
, Rao’s in Caesar’s Palace, tel 877-346-4642;
in Baltimore
, La Scala, tel 410-783-9209,
lascaladining.com
;
in Boston
, The Daily Catch, tel 617-523-8567,
dailycatch.com
.
Further information and recipes:
Rao’s Cookbook
by Frank Pellegrino (1998);
Lidia’s Italy in America
by Lidia Bastianich (2011);
lidiasitaly.com
(search lobster fra diavolo).
See also:
Homard à l’Américaine
;
Lobster Savannah
.

Ballarò Market is over 1,000 years old, and as feisty as ever.

Even in Italy, where almost every city has its share of dazzling outdoor food markets, Palermo shines. By all means, allow time to explore Sicily’s most graceful of cities, to wander among its romantic cathedral and chapels and take in its luscious blue tile work and palmy squares and gardens. But any food-loving traveler should set aside several mornings simply for its three stunning street markets, which wind through alleys in the center of the city.

The oldest and once the noisiest is the Mercato della Vucciria. Many take its name to mean “vociferous,” thereby explaining the vendors’ shouts and yells, but another theory has the name deriving from
bucceria
, after the many meat vendors once in attendance. The shouts may be quieting these days, and the market not quite what it once was, but the Vucceria still has enough colorful stalls to make a visit more than worthwhile. Vegetables, olives, oils, spices, cheeses, and rugged, bloody Soutine-style displays of meat are all in abundance. Here, as in all markets in Italy, great chunks of swordfish are sold next to their disembodied heads, sabres pointing skyward, while nearby, huge rounds of tuna glow freshly bloody.

The largest and most sprawling Palermo
mercato
is Il Capo, which runs right through the city’s heart, making it hard to miss when in transit. It is a long river of a street, with small tributary alleys lined by shops and stalls selling not only food but household goods, clothing, and utensils.

For a glimpse of Palermo’s demographic changes, there is no better or more exciting market to visit than the Ballarò, where, in addition to all the Sicilian vendors, recent immigrants from North and sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East add their own languages, foods, spices, colors, textures, and wares to the mix.

In each of these markets there is much to sustain nibblers, most typically slabs of thick chewy bread that distinguishes Sicilian pizza when spread with oregano-scented crushed tomatoes; or
sfincione
, the local foccacia that may enclose a creamy filling of spleen or be topped by tomato and herbs. There are also
panelle
, crunchy sandwiches made with fried chickpea pancakes and slices of eggplant; and crisply cozy rounds of the mozzarella-filled rice balls that look like tiny oranges and so are called
arancine
. And as always in Sicily, one is never very far away from a vendor of cool, jewel-bright gelati or a chewy slab of the nutstudded nougat called
torrone
, to be followed by the darkest, stain-the-cup-black espresso in all of Italy.

Where:
palermo.com
(search outdoor markets).
When:
Monday through Saturday, best before noon.
Further information:
Pomp and Sustenance: Twenty-Five Centuries of Sicilian Food
by Mary Taylor Simeti (1989).

A versatile topping, smooth and buttery.

Made in northern Italy’s Lombardy region since the sixteenth century, creamy mascarpone cheese is a confusing delight. Somewhere between a crème fraîche or Devonshire cream and a superfine ricotta, from a taste and textural point of view it hardly seems to qualify as a cheese at all. Like those spreadable, soft-textured treats, the exquisitely rich dairy product generally adorns sweet or savory dishes as a topping—thereby earning its name, from the Italian verb
maschere
, to dress up. What it dresses up most elegantly are fruits like strawberries, raspberries, peaches, and green figs; it’s also an indispensable ingredient in many classic Italian desserts, including
tirami sù
(see
listing
).

To achieve what is in fact a sublime cream cheese, cow’s milk is acidified with
lemon juice or another citric acid; when it begins to set, it is drained through a cloth. Because no starter (rennet or otherwise) is used to solidify mascarpone’s texture, what is left is a satiny concoction blissfully high in butterfat and pleasantly sweet from all the lactose, with just enough sting to appeal to sophisticated palates.

Where:
In New York and Chicago
, Eataly,
eataly.com
.
Further information:
Cheese Primer
by Steven Jenkins (1996).
Tip:
The best way to select good mascarpone is to taste it, if possible. Avoid any variety that is lumpy or intensely salty, and carefully check the expiration date if buying it prepackaged—mascarpone is highly perishable and good for only a few days. In the U.S., look for the Vermont Creamery brand.

The fish are poached with skin intact to seal in flavor.

The fish called
merluzzo
refers to hake in Spain and to cod in Italy, but to Italian Americans it generally means whiting. The main difference is in size, as cod can run from four to ten pounds, while it is difficult to find whiting any larger than two pounds, if that, in domestic fishmarkets. And size matters, because the best version of the luscious dish known as
merluzzo in bianco
is made with large, thicker-fleshed whiting or, as a substitute, baby cod or haddock.

A main course in summer and a pleasing appetizer year-round, its preparation begins with poaching, the skin and bones left on for flavor, in water salted and perhaps seasoned with a few peppercorns. Lightly cooked, the fish is gently lifted out of the cooking liquid and boned and skinned, with the fillets kept as large as possible. These are laid out in a single layer in a rimmed serving dish and sprinkled with salt, pepper, and a dash of fresh lemon juice, then covered with paper-thin slices of raw garlic, which may or may not be skewered on toothpicks to allow for easy removal if desired. Over all goes a glossing of good olive oil and a blanket of chopped Italian parsley. The dish then sits at room temperature or in the refrigerator (depending upon how long until the meal) and is served with lots of crusty Italian bread.

For the best flavor, the finished dish should mellow for about five hours in the refrigerator or two to three at room temperature. If chilled, it should be allowed to come to room temperature before being served.

Further information and recipe:
starchefs.com
(search merluzzo in bianco).

If ever there was a main course slyly posturing as a soup, it is the authentic minestrone, a lush vegetable and pasta or rice soupy stew that takes several savory forms throughout Italy. In the U.S., minestrone is merely vegetable soup—but in Genoa, where it originated, or in Milan, where it’s also beloved, it is nothing less than an elixir meant to warm heart and soul.

Minestrone, or “big soup” in Italian, is part of a tradition of thick soups that are served all over Italy. It grew up in Genoa, a port city and the capital of Liguria, as a hearty respite for sailors returning to shore. It was always thick, richly brown-red, and packed with vegetables meant to nourish the seagoing men. And so it goes that the secret to great minestrone is a variety of really fresh vegetables—chard, zucchini, potatoes, white beans, tomatoes, celery, and onions are standard, but cauliflower, turnips, and carrots may be added to the mix. Also common are short pasta forms like the little tubes known as
ditali
, added to the long-simmered soup in the last few minutes of cooking.

Served hot, the fragrant potage gets a final grating of Parmesan for an extra belt of flavor. In Genoa, minestrone is finished with a spoonful or two of the bracing basil pesto that graces many other dishes. Regional variations abound, of which the Milanese boast a number: Their hot minestrone often includes pancetta and rice, while a cool version served in summer is made with greens only. No surprise that the word
minestrone
is also used euphemistically, to describe a complicated mishmash of a situation, as in: “Don’t make a whole minestrone out of this wedding!”

Where:
In Milan
, Trattoria Milanese, tel 39/02-8645-1991;
in New York
, Trattoria Spaghetto, tel 212-255-6752,
trattoriaspaghetto.com
;
in Auburn Hills, MI
, Lellis of Auburn Hills, tel 248-373-4440,
lellisrestaurant.com
;
in San Francisco
, Kuleto’s, tel 415-397-7720,
kuletos.com
.
Further information and recipes:
Flavors of the Riviera
by Colman Andrews (1996);
Lidia’s Favorite Recipes
by Lidia Bastianich and Tanya Bastianich Manuali (2012);
The Food of Italy
by Waverley Root (1992);
epicurious.com
(search minestrone);
saveur.com
(search minestrone).