The Recipe

Source: The Fannie Farmer Cookbook

Chop and drain
1 cup fresh or whole-kernel canned corn
Add
1 egg yolk, beaten thick
Sift together
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
few grains paprika
Stir into the corn. Fold in
1 egg white beaten stiff
Drop from a tablespoon into fat heated to 370. Cook until delicately brown. Drain on a paper towel.

Serves 4 to 6.

The Recipes

The recipe for the fritters is from A Taste of Southern Italy by Marlena de Blasi:

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
12 ounces beer
2 pounds baccala or stoccafisso – prepared
1 1/3 cups heavy cream
2 large egg whites
4 to 6 cups peanut oil
2 lemons

Place the flour in a medium bowl and stir in enough beer to form a batter the consistency of heavy cream. Cover the batter and set aside.

Place the prepared baccala in a large bowl and, with two forks, finely shred the fish. Stir in the cream, blending the elements until thick.

In another bowl, beat the egg whites until they form stiff but not dry peaks. Gently fold the egg whites into the creamed baccala.

In a large, deep sauté pan or a deep fryer, heat the peanut oil over a medium flame. With your hands, form ovals of the baccala mixture, about 3 inches or 2 inches, then quickly dip them in the beer batter. Fry the fritters in the very hot oil. Cook the fritters until deeply golden before turning them, then cook the other side, and remove them with a slotted spoon to absorbent paper towels. Present the fritters as fast as you can, with wedges of lemon and cold white wine.

The sauce recipe is from Cucina del Sole: A Celebration of Southern Italian Cooking by Nancy Harmon Jenkins:

10 canned plum tomatoes, preferably imported San Marzano tomatoes
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tablespoons pine nuts
2 tablespoons golden raisins, plumped in hot water and drained
½ cup pitted black olives, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons capers, preferably salt-packed, rinsed, drained, and chopped
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Drain the tomatoes, reserving about ¼ cup of their juice in case you need to add it to the sauce later. Chop the tomatoes coarsely and set aside.

Combine the olive oil and garlic in a saucepan over low heat. Cook the garlic until it is soft but not brown. Add the tomatoes, increasing the heat to moderate. Cook the tomatoes for about 15 minutes. Use the back of a fork to crush them as they cook down, adding a little of the reserved juice if necessary. The sauce, however, should be very thick.

Meanwhile, in a small skillet, toast the pine nuts over medium-low heat until they are golden, stirring constantly. Pine nuts burn quickly, so be attentive. Stir the toasted pine nuts into the sauce and add the drained raisins, olives, and capers. Add salt if necessary and pepper to taste. Serve the sauce warm or at room temperature.

The Recipe

Source: A Taste of Southern Italy by Marlena de Blasi

8 tiny artichokes, preferably the purple-lipped variety, or 4 small, very young artichokes, several inches of their stems still intact
1 1-pound fillet of baccala, skinless and boneless
1 cup whole milk
juice of 1 lemon
1 small head red lettuce, radicchio or red oak leaf, washed, spun dry, and coarsely shredded
4 ounces large green Sicilian or Greek olives, crushed lightly with a mallet, stones removed, the flesh coarsely chopped
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 fat cloves garlic, peeled, crushed, and finely minced
1 small, dried red chile pepper, crushed, or 1/3 to ½ teaspoon dried chile flakes
1 ½ tablespoons good red wine vinegar
fine sea salt

Prepare the artichokes, trimming just a snip from their still-tender leaves and leaving them whole if they are tiny, slicing them in two, or even in fourths, if they are a bit larger, cutting out the choke should it have begun to develop beyond an innocent embryo.

Soften the baccala a bit with a mallet and soak for 24 hours in cold water (change the water three times, adding 1 cup of milk to the final water), rinse the baccala in cold water, cover again with cold water, and poach for 15 minutes. Drain and set aside.

In a large bowl, acidulate the artichokes with the juice of a lemon, add the shredded lettuce, the copped olives, and the poached baccala, cut into 1-inch pieces.

Make a simple warm vinaigrette by heating the olive oil, softening the garlic without coloring it for a minute or two, and scent the oil with the crushed chile. Remove from the heat, add the vinegar and a whisper of sea salt. Beat the dressing with a fork and pour it over the elements in the bowl, tossing them about and combining them well.

Present the salad with a young, cooled red wine that will do its best to stand up to both the artichokes and the baccala.

The Recipe

Source: Cucina del Sole: A Celebration of Southern Italian Cooking by Nancy Harmon Jenkins

½ cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus 2 tablespoons, if necessary
1 ¼ to 1 ½ pounds refreshed salt cod or fresh fish
all-purpose flour for dredging fresh fish
2 medium onions, thinly sliced
1 pound ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped
1 tablespoon tomato concentrate, extract, or paste
3 sweet red peppers, roasted and peeled
½ small fresh hot green or red chili, roasted and peeled
2 tablespoons golden raisins, soaked in hot water to plump
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons pine nuts
½ cup minced flat-leaf parsley

In a medium skillet, heat ½ cup of the olive oil over medium heat until it has reached frying temperature (360 F).

While the oil is heating, cut the fish into 1-inch pieces. Pat refreshed salt cod dry with paper towels. If you’re using fresh fish, pat it dry, then dredge it lightly in flour, spread on a plate. (Do the drying and dredging right before you’re ready to fry; otherwise the coating will get gummy.)

When the oil is hot, add the fish pieces to the pan a few at a time and fry briskly until golden on all sides, transferring the finished pieces to a rack spread with paper towels to drain.

When all the fish pieces are done, lower the heat to low. Discard the oil, wipe the pan out, and add 2 tablespoons of fresh olive oil. Add the sliced onions and cook gently over low heat, stirring occasionally, until the onions are very soft. Add the tomatoes, raise the heat slightly, and cook vigorously. As the tomatoes yield their liquid, stir in the tablespoon of concentrate. Continue to cook the tomatoes until they have disintegrated into a chunky sauce.

While the tomatoes are cooking, slice the peeled peppers into long 1/2-inch-thick strips. Chop the chili coarsely. Drain the soaking raisins.

Lower the heat under the tomato sauce again, then taste and add salt and pepper, keeping in mind that the salt cod my be very salty. Stir in the peppers, raisins, and pine nuts. Finally, fold in the pieces of fried fish. Cook the fish in the sauce over low heat for about 10 minutes to meld the flavors together, then serve immediately, garnished with the minced parsley.

The Recipe

Source: Second Helpings from Union Square Cafe by Danny Meyer

kosher salt
1 or 2 medium eggplants, unpeeled, cut into 1/2-inch dice (4 cups)
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
6 cups chicken stock
2 tablespoons minced shallots
1 teaspoon garlic
5 anchovy fillets, minced
1 ¾ cups arborio rice
1 cup white wine
3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
3 tablespoons butter
½ cup grated Pecorino Romano
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Combine 1 quart of cold water and 2 tablespoons of salt in a large bowl. Add the diced eggplant and let soak for 30 minutes. Drain well in a colander.

In a large saute pan, heat 1/3 cup of the oil over medium-high heat until very hot, and add the drained eggplant. If your saute pan is not large enough to hold all the eggplant in one layer, do this step in more than one batch. Cook the eggplant until well browned and tender, 8 to 10 minutes. Stir often during the last half of cooking, and reduce the heat as needed to keep the eggplant from burning. Transfer to a dish and set aside.

In a small saucepan, bring the chicken stock to a simmer.

Combine 2 tablespoons of oil, the shallots, garlic, and anchovies in a 3-quart, heavy-bottomed saucepan or skillet. Place over medium heat and stir to cook, without coloring, about 2 minutes. Add the rice and 1 teaspoon of salt, and stir with a wooden spoon until the rice is coated with the oil. Add the wine and bring to a boil over medium-high heat; cook the rice, stirring constantly, until it absorbs the wine.

Ladle ½ cup of the simmering broth into the saucepan and stir until it is absorbed. Continue with the rest of the broth, adding ½ cup at a time and letting each addition become absorbed completely into the rice before adding more liquid. The constant stirring allows the rice to release its starch into the cooking liquid, resulting in the characteristic risotto creaminess. Count on approximately 20 to 25 minutes for the rice to be cooked al dente.

Fold in the eggplant and cook until heated through, about 30 seconds. Add the mint, swirl in the butter and half the cheese, and season with ½ teaspoon of salt and the pepper. Spoon the risotto onto a warm platter or into individual bowls, sprinkle with the remaining pecorino, and serve immediately.