Orecchiette con Calamari e Zucchine and Involtini di Pesce Spada ai Carciofi

Welcome to Calabria and Puglia, two regions in the south of Italy (the boot part). Here, they eat mostly a Mediterranean diet, with lots of pasta, fruit, vegetables, and fish. We cooked orecchiette con calamari e zucchine ("little ears" pasta with calamari and zucchini) and involtini di pesce spada ai carciofi (swordfish rolls stuffed with artichokes).

First, the Oecchiette con Clamari e Zucchine:

Ingredients:

500gr fresh "orecchette" pasta*

500gr small calamari**

250gr zucchini

1 shallot

Margoram

Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

*We didn't make fresh pasta, because it is hard to do and would take too long for us to learn during class.

**Clean the calamari: divide the head from the body, take out the bone, wash well. Lucky for us, this time the calamari came de-headed. We just had to pull out the bone and rinse the fish. Easy.

Chop the shallot and the zucchini. 

That is my favorite knife.

Saute the shallot in oil. Add the zucchini and cook 5 minutes. Salt.

Meanwhile, cut the body of the calamari into rings. Cook the head (the tentacle-looking part, chopped) first in a pan with oil for two minutes. Then add the body cut in rings. Cook 3 minutes. Salt a little. Add the zucchini.

Saute

Cook the pasta in boiling salted water.

Boiling the Orecchiette

Drain the pasta and then saute it in the zucchini and calamari with some marjoram leaves, and serve!

Finished!

Now, time for Involtini di Pesce Spada ai Carciofi:

Ingredients:

5 slices of swordfish

2 fairly large potatoes

3 artichokes

1 shallot

1 garlic clove

Sugar

Wild fennel

Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

Here are the swordfish.

Thinly Sliced

Chop the shallot and the wild fennel. Place on top of the fish, with a pinch of salt and sugar and a drizzle of oil. Let it marinate in the fridge for an hour.

Marinating Swordfish

Clean and slice the artichokes. Saute in oil with a whole garlic clove. Peel and slice the potatoes and saute them with oil and salt in another pan until they are golden.

Artichokes and Potatoes

Once the potatoes are done, place them in a baking pan.

I really just wanted to eat these with ketchup.

One at a time, place the fish fennel-side down on a plate. Put some artichokes on top at the bigger end, and roll up the fish. Place them on top of the potatoes and bake 15 minutes at 200 degrees C.

They're ready!

The verdict?

Well, if you recall, I didn't like calamari the first time I tried it. This time it was a lot better. Last time, it was stuffed, and I didn't like the stuffing. This time, it looked less like a real fish (since it was cut in rings), and the pasta and zucchini were yummy, so I sort of almost liked it!

The swordfish was a much better texture. But more fishy. I think if you like tilapia you would like swordfish. I don't know. It was pretty good with the potatoes! Although I definitely could have used some ketchup. ;)

Last night, Lindsey, Brittni, Hannah, Kate, and I had dinner. We made the tomato bread soup and the pizza I had made in class. The pizza was awesome. I was worried when the dough barely rose after 2 hours, (I used a packet of active dry yeast.) but it turned out fine anyway! Kate made sangria to go with our dinner. Later, we met up with Meghan and her family and went to my favorite pub in Florence. It was karaoke night! Meg and Lindsey sang the Spice Girls, and Hannah and I sang to the Killers. It was a fun night.

Tomorrow we're going to the Cinque Terre for the weekend!

Happy Easter! Buona Pasqua!