Viana La Place - Verdura: Vegetables Italian Style

In recent years, the word antipasto has taken on new significance. It has come to represent not just the food served at the opening of a meal, but also a style of eating in which many small tastes are offered. The range of antipasti, however, is wide and the applications are many.

An antipasto can consist of a few stalks of celery dipped in fruity olive oil, or a more substantial offering of grilled radicchio stuffed with mozzarella. It can be a few fragrant herb fritters to munch on with drinks before dinner, or a hearty offering of scamorza cheese and raw broad beans, a meal in itself.

Antipasti have an ease and freshness that make them very appealing. Quite a few of the following recipes require only a minimal amount of cooking, others none at all. Many of the recipes can be served on their own, such as the spicy roasted peppers, accompanied with good bread and a glass of cool wine; but you can also assemble a selection of little tastes for an assorted antipasto plate, an extravagant buffet, or for an outing in the country.

The recipes in this chapter range from a picnic dish of hard-boiled eggs and radicchio leaves to an elegant presentation of thinly sliced raw vegetables and shaved Parmesan cheese. There are also combinations of raw vegetables and cheeses that are appropriate as antipasti offerings or as the focus of a casual meal. Marinated vegetables are made in advance so they are ready to use to add savouriness to a sandwich or a buffet table. Hot antipasti, fragrant from the oven or crispy and golden from quick contact with hot oil, bring an immediacy and a different set of flavours, textures, and aromas to the realm of antipasti.

Use this chapter with a great deal of flexibility. Look to it for ideas for picnics, buffets, and snacks; for casual eating; or for special entertaining. What characterizes and unites the recipes is their freshness and spontaneity: the tingle of lemon juice or vinegar, the perfume of herbs, the meadow freshness of cheeses, and the crunch of garden-fresh vegetables.

Radicchio, Uova, e Pane

Serves 4

My godmother comes from a small town in northern Italy. One day, when we were sitting around my mothers kitchen table talking, my godmother told us about outings she used to make to the castello up on the hill.

When the first tiny shoots of radicchio forced their way up through the cool ground, she and her friends would gather them. They would put together a picnic of tender radicchio leaves, hard-boiled eggs from the farm, crusty bread, and a small straw flask of wine, and climb up the hill, arm in arm, to spend the afternoon in the countryside high above the town.

This is picnic food as it should be, simple and unlaboured; honest food to enjoy on a hike in the countryside. If you like, you can easily turn this recipe into an antipasto for an informal dinner with friends. Peel the eggs and cut them in half. Arrange in the centre of a platter and season with salt and, if desired, coarsely ground pepper. Surround with radicchio leaves and serve with a basket of bread at the table.

Pinzimonio

Pinzimonio, raw vegetables served with an extra-virgin olive oil dipping sauce, can be as simple as a few stalks of celery heart or as lavish as the seasons bounty allows.

My favorite assortment includes small, juicy radishes with bright green leaves; stalks of crisp white celery from the heart; slivers of fennel; long, skinny strips of sweet carrot; and green onions, all arranged in a basket lined with a coarse white cotton napkin.

The ritual of dipping the raw vegetables in the olive oil is one reason this dish is so appealing. That, and its sparkling freshness. If desired, you can use lemon juice in place of the vinegar. For spicy oil, add a few drops of Little Devil Olive Oil (see ).

Verdura Cruda al Parmigiano

Serves 4

This makes one of the simplest and most pleasing antipasti of all, a wonderful way to begin almost any meal. It calls for vegetables found in any marketcelery, radishes, carrots, a green pepperthinly sliced, tossed with extra-virgin olive oil, and topped with thin shavings of Parmesan cheese. It is crunchy, tangy, and light, and looks especially fresh and inviting served on a simple white platter.

Careful selection of vegetables will yield the best results. All vegetables, when really fresh, give off a luminous glow, a dewiness that you can sense as well as see.

Antipasto di zucchine all agro

Serves 4

Nothing is easier to prepare or harder to resist than this crunchy antipasto of marinated raw courgettes. In the garden courgettes are a riot of growthlarge, fuzzy leaves open like umbrellas hiding delicate tendrils in corkscrew spirals; obscured in the jungle of leaves are short shots of bright gold blossoms and tiny fingers of courgettes just beginning to grow.