Subtitled: things to do when you're on holiday
If you have just one week of holidays and yet you love to cook so much that you think your work is great fun and that it's even more fun if done with your friends, you might want to shoot a cooking video.
That's one of the things I did during my short Apulian holiday at the end of January. My friend Valentina and I decided it was time for another video recipe - and for some serious laughing during the shoots which, lucky you, we're going to spare you.
It all resulted in the filming of a classic Apulian dish, the calzone di cipolla, made by a Genovese who grew up in Puglia. :)
I'm not going to tell you HOW MANY onions I had to peel, cut and fry to make this dish (if you ever decide to shoot a cooking video make sure you always have at least three times the necessary ingredients just in case something goes wrong and you have to do a shot all over again...), I'll just say that after the shooting I smelled like I had spent four days in a row frying onion rings in a fast-food restaurant (brrrr!). Not pleasant AT ALL. So now you know that, in case you were thinking of making 3 calzoni next weekend. :)
Oh, and don't forget to put a wet cloth under your chopping board while cutting the ingredients otherwise everything will inexorably slide away while you're working! ;D
And serve on beautiful dinnerware. Although this is a simple dish, it deserves the very best!
Here the video and the recipe.
My thanks to Valentina of Nikolaus Produzioni for filming, (and for the good laugh), to Arno at helderfilm.nl for editing the video and adding all those cool special effects and to Gianni Ciardo for the beautiful jazz music!
How to make onion calzone (calzone di cipolla) from Nicoletta Tavella on Vimeo
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CALZONE DI CIPOLLA (onion calzone)
Serves 4-6
Ingredients:
250 gr. of plain flour (possibly of the 00 type)
250 gr. of
durum wheat flour
25 gr. of fresh yeast (or two teaspoons of dry granulated yeast)
1 teaspoon of sugar
2 teaspoons of
salt for the dough
2 dl of
lukewarm water
8 small sweet white onions (or 4 big
ones)
5 anchovy fillets in oil
2 tablespoons of raisins
100 gr. of pitted green or black
olives
50 gr of
grated pecorino cheese (Sardinian, Roman or Sicilian)
1 ½ dl. of olive oil extravergine
coarse sea salt
black pepper
Mix the yeast
with 2 dl. of lukewarm water and a teaspoon of sugar. Dissolve yeast and sugar properly. The sugar is going to boost the activation of the yeast.
Mix together the two types of flour (you can sieve the plain
flour first to make sure you get no lumps). Add 2 teaspoons of salt and
mix further.
Transfer the mixture on the
table and kneed until the dough is compact and yet very elastic. Use
some extra olive oil if the dough feels too dry and some extra flour if the
dough sticks to the working top.
Divide the dough in 2 balls, one
of which a bit bigger than the other one.
Cut a cross on top of each ball
of dough using a knife and leave to rise under a wet kitchen
cloth on a warm place for about 15 to 20 minutes (this calzone dough doesn’t really
have to rise for a long time).
Soak the
raisins in warm water, rinse them and pat them dry with kitchen paper.
Cut the pitted olives in rings and
put them aside in a small bowl.
Peel the sweet onions and cut them
in rings. Fry the onions in olive oil until
soft and glazy, and do that preferably on a low fire and with the lid on the
pan so that they can get all soft in their own steam and caramelise a bit.
Season the onions with salt and pepper and leave them to cool off.
Mix well the onions with the
soaked raisins, the grated pecorino cheese, and the anchovies cut in small
pieces.
Flatten the two dough balls with a
rolling pin.
Lay the bigger piece of dough on
a previously greased oven dish.
Fill with the onion mixture. Cover with the smaller piece of
flattened dough and seal the borders.
Grease the top side of the
calzone with some olive oil, sprinkle with coarse sea
salt and put in the pre-heated oven at
200°C for about 30 minutes.
Serve lukewarm with a good glass of wine, for example a good Locorotondo from Puglia, and buon appetito! :)
Very nicely done. That calzone made me dreamy. Thank you! (Terrific production values too, by the way. And you are charming.)
Posted by: Bob delGrosso | February 20, 2009 at 11:31 PM
Loved your video. I'm going to try your recipe/ Looks yummy. Thank you!
Posted by: Jil Nelson | February 21, 2009 at 07:02 PM
@ Bob: Thank you, Bob! You are very, very kind. :)
@ Jil: thank you too for the feedback, Jil! :)
Posted by: Nicoletta | February 22, 2009 at 11:38 AM
Love your video! You always do a terrific job!
Posted by: Marie | March 01, 2009 at 04:10 AM
Very nice!
Posted by: maryann | March 05, 2009 at 11:21 PM
Happy Easter sweety!
Posted by: maryann | April 09, 2009 at 11:09 PM