The Foods of the Greek Islands: Cooking and Culture at the Crossroads of the Mediterranean by Aglaia Kremezi

Author:Aglaia Kremezi
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780544465022
Publisher: Lifestyle
Published: 2000-11-14T00:00:00+00:00

HOMEMADE PASTAS

People tend to associate pasta with Italy, but all the countries around the Mediterranean are particularly fond of both plain and stuffed pasta. Homemade pastas are probably more common on the islands than on the Greek mainland, because these places remained under Venetian or Genoese rule for many years. Plain flourand-water pasta, prepared by rolling the same dough used for phyllo pastry, is considered a convenience food. It is usually made in the winter, when few vegetables or greens are available.

Cracked wheat may be replaced by rice in most stuffings, but it is still the basis for trahana (also called ksinhondros), one of the oldest Greek pastas. This hard pasta, which resembles bread crumbs, is made by simmering or mixing cracked wheat with milk or yogurt. The pasta was once prepared with sour milk, but with the advent of refrigeration, fresh milk is used.

Although trahana is stored and used throughout the year, homemade flour-and-water pastas are often cooked as soon as they are made, cooked in moist risotto-like dishes, in garlicky tomato sauce or in meat, chicken or vegetable broth. These peasant pasta dishes, though different from the Italian ones, are equally good if made with penne, ziti and other commercial pasta.

Island women explained to me that pasta would traditionally be prepared for unexpected visitors when meat, fish or other foods considered suitable for guests were not available. For these more elaborate dishes, the pasta was dressed with melted clarified sheep’s or goat’s milk butter and homemade local cheese. The scalding butter was poured over the pasta and sizzled as it melted the cheese, infusing the dish with a delightful taste and aroma. Tomato sauce was usually served on the side or ladled over the pasta after the butter. In Turkey, all kinds of soups and stuffed pastas are similarly flavored with sheep’s milk butter.

Most Greeks still prepare commercial spaghetti in this manner, although today they use margarine, regular butter or a combination. In northern Chios, homemade macaroni is topped with sizzling olive oil, in which grated local goat cheese has been toasted. The macaroni takes on the aroma of the fried cheese, without the heaviness of butter.

Island pastas come in various shapes. The Chian handmade macaroni is probably the most elaborate: Hazelnut-sized pieces of dough are rubbed between the cook’s palms and rolled around a straw of Spanish broom, the spiky bush that grows all over Greece. The pasta is then slipped off, creating a hollow two-inch-long tube of macaroni. A simpler pasta is made by slicing a sheet of phyllo pastry into ribbons, like Italian tagliatelle. Cooks on Karpathos and southern Crete make longish shelllike curved pasta. A tiny pasta called fide—probably from the Spanish fideos—is made on Crete, Chios and many other islands by rolling little pieces of dough between two fingers. Fide is usually cooked with meat or chicken to make a thick, nourishing soup.

Egg pasta is a more festive dish, usually prepared in advance, dried and stored. Hilopites, pasta squares or rectangles of various sizes, ranging from ¼ inch to 3 inches, are the most common, made all over Greece.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.