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Ciaki Ciuka

Ingredienser
4 medelstora skalade potatisar
3 vitlöksklyftor
Torkad mortlad chili efter smak
1 stor rödlök
2 paprikor
1 aubergine
1 zucchini
25 små cocktailtomater
1/2 dl kapris från Pantelleria (finns här)
1 dl olivolja att steka i
5 basilikablad
1 msk torkad oregano från Pantelleria (finns här)
Havssalt efter smak.
Till servering, lite extra god olivolja.

Gör så här
Skala potatisen och skär i tärningar.
Skala och hacka vitlök och lök.
Skölj paprikor, zucchini, aubergine och skär även dem i bitar.
Dela tomaterna på mitten.
Skölj av överflödigt salt på kapris och låt rinna av.

Ta fram en gryta eller en tjockbottnad sauteuse och hetta upp olivolja.
Börja med att bryna potatisen ca 8 minuter tillsammans med vitlök, chili och en nypa havssalt.
Sätt åt sidan.
Ta fram en stekpanna och bryn en ny omgång med rödlök och paprika tills det är mjukt.
Häll över till grytan/ sauteusen med potatis.
I nästa omgång bryn aubergine och zucchini tills de är gyllene och häll över i grytan.
Sätt grytan nu på låg värme och lägg i tomaterna och kaprisen.
Låt puttra i 20-25 min och se till att röra då och då så det inte bränner vid i botten på grytan.

Smaka av!

Om du vill ha mer hetta, så lägg i mer chili eller salta, om du tycker det behövs mer av detta.
Hacka ner basilikan och smula ner oreganon och rör om.

Låt ciaki ciukan svalna helt innan servering
Godast att serveras rumstempererad med lite extra god olivolja ringlat över.

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Utan för saunan är berget format som ett tak som skyddade oss från regnet och utsikten är magnifik, med Monasterodalen och havet framför oss. Vi åt och pratade i timmar, Igor snarkade nöjt på sin bohuslänska fårfäll.

Det började skymma och vi insåg att vi måste börja gå tillbaka innan ljuset skulle försvinna helt, väl framme vid bilen öppnade himlen sig igen. Dunder och brak sedan kom hällregnet.

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En sås för Fredrik
4 portioner
Den här såsen ska ha lite hetta, om du vill ha den medium stark så kärna ur chilin och ta inte med kärnorna. Om du vill ha den mer spicy så ta med en del av kärnorna. Citronskalet är jätteviktigt så uteslut inte det.

Ingredienser
8 sardellfiléer
1 gul lök
2 vitlöksklyftor
1 chilifrukt eller 1/2-1 tsk torkade chiliflakes
5 dl passerade tomater
1 dl torrt vitt vin
12 cocktailtomater
4 msk råsocker
6 msk sköljd och avrunnen kapris från Pantelleria (finns här)
2 tsk oregano från Pantelleria (finns här)
Skalet av 1 ekologisk citron
400 gram tortiglioni rigatoni eller penne

Gör så här
Skär varje sardell i 4 bitar
Finhacka lök, vitlök och chili.
Skölj tomaterna och sätt ett litet stick i varje tomat med en vass skalkniv.
Ta fram en stekpanna och hetta upp olivolja, lägg i sardellerna och låt dem smälta ihop i pannan tillsammans med lök, vitlök och chili tills allt blir mjukt och gyllene.
Lägg i cocktailtomaterna, skaka pannan under tiden i någon minut.
Slå på vinet, sänk värmen och låt löken suga upp en del av vinet.
Häll i de passerade tomaterna, sockret och kaprisen.
Låt det puttra på svag värme medan du kokar upp pastavattnet.
Koka pastan al dente och smaka samtidigt av såsen om det behövs mer salt och mer socker.
Eftersom kaprisen och sardellerna ger hög sälta så är det viktigt att inte salta innan såsen har kokat ihop.
Stäng av värmen på såsen och rör i oreganon och det rivna citronskalet.
Pastan är klar ca 30-60 sek innan rekommenderad koktid på paketet.
Slå av i durkslag och blanda pasta och sås noggrant.
Servera direkt!

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Panzanella is a traditional Tuscan bread salad. Here is a local version with anchovies and the Rolls Royce, the Bentley, rather, of capers “Capperi di Pantelleria.”  This panzanella is a perfect light and satisfying meal to enjoy on a hot summer’s day. Invite some friends for lunch, pop a chilled bottle of prosecco and dig in.

Panzanella Pantesca
Serves 6-8
Ingredients
1/2 Loaf of old white bread
1/2 Cup (1.2 dl) extra virgin olive oil
3 Each cloves of garlic
2 Pounds (1 kilo) of mixed variety of tomatoes
1 Red small sized onion
1 Fresh red chili pepper minced
1/3 Cup ( 0.8 dl) black olives
4 Tablespoon rinsed and drained salt packed capers ( Capperi di Pantelleria)
20 Small fillets of anchovies packed in oil (reserve oil for dressing)
1 Bunch of basil leaves
1 1/2 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2 Tablespoon of the oil that contains the anchovies
Sea salt flakes and fresh ground pepper to your taste

Method
Break bread into bite sized pieces, in a saute pan over medium heat, warm the oil add crush the cloves of garlic add to the pan, then add in a little sea salt flakes. Toast the bread in the pan with seasoned garlic oil until it’s golden. Remove toasted bread from the pan place on top of a paper lined tray and set a side. Let any left over oil cool and reserve to use in the dressing.

Wash and remove the outer skin of the red onion. Cut off the stem side, lay flat on the cut surface and proceed to cut the onion in half. Remove the root core then length wise cutting stem to root cut the onion into strips.

Finely chop the chlli pepers, wash, core and cut the tomatoes into wedges.

Combine in a large bowl the bread, tomatoes and onions, capers, olives, anchovies and basil leaves.

In a small bowl whisk together, balsamic vinegar, rest of the olive oil, 2 Tablespoon of anchovies oil, the red chili, pepper and sea salt.

Pour dressing over the top of the bread, tomatoes and onions in the large bowl. Toss all ingredients as to combine everything, then, let the bread soak up the juice from the tomatoes and olive oil.

Get your Capperi di Pantelleria here!

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Buon appetito! Pasta with roasted cauliflower and capers

Serves 4  

Ingredients
3/4 Cup  (1.8 dl) olive oil
4 Garlic cloves pressed or finely chopped
1 Medium sized cauliflower, remove the florets from the core cutting them into fork sized portions.
4 Tablespoons Capperi di Pantelleria or other salt packed capers, rinsed
Fresh ground black pepper to taste and a little sea salt
3 Tablespoon uva passa or raisin, remove seeds and blanch in warm water to plump the raisin.
1 Lb ( 450 gram) dried pasta
4 Tablespoon pine nuts
1 Cup ( 2.4 dl) grated Parmesan cheese
1 Lemon, zest only
10 Sprigs of fresh parsley

Method
Heat the oven to 400F ( 200 C) degrees.
Combine olive oil, garlic , capers and black pepper in a bowl.
Season with sea salt but be careful not to add to much considering the capers will add some extra salt, even after rinsing.
Add the cauliflower bouquets and toss.
On a baking sheet spread the cauliflower evenly and bake in the oven until golden for about 10-15 min.
Dry toast the pinenuts slightly in a saucepan. They toast quickly so use low heat settings and don’t leave the saute pan on the stove unattended and move the saute pan during toasting, when golden brown remove from the saute pan and set aside for later, otherwise they will continue to toast from the carry over heat absorbed by the oils inside the nut and will easily burn.
Chop the parsley.
Wash and zest the lemon.
Plump deseed and chop the uva passa roughly.
Cook Pasta al dente (30 sec to 1 min less) than suggested on the package, drain in a colander, save a cup of pasta water on the side.
Mix pasta with parmesan cheese, the baked cauliflower and caper mix, make sure add any remaining oil left in the bowl.
Adjust the consistency by adding a little of the remaining pasta water if needed.
Add the pine nuts, uova passa (raisins) stir and sprinkle parsley and lemon zest over and serve immediately.

Dinnerplates from NEW KAM MAN http://www.newkamman.com/
Capperi di Pantelleria, buy them here http://shop.underthealmondtree.com/product/capers

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To celebrate Almond Tree’s first anniversary I opened a little web shop. As many of you already know, Pantelleria is famous for their capers Capperi di Pantelleria. They are considered the best capers in the world and are quality marked IGP, which stands for Indicazione Geografica Protetta, meaning Protected Geographical Indication. It’s a quality mark that is given to food and agricultural products for which a particular property, its reputation, or other characteristic is due to the geographical origin and whose production and processing takes place in a limited geographic area. Whoever does IGP products must follow strict rules of production, determined by the Disciplinary Board for production. I am totally addicted to the capers from Pantelleria, and as a result, so are many of my friends who have visited me and got introduced to them. If you are curious to try them and determine that they are the world’s greatest or you finished your stock, you don’t have to make the journey to Pantelleria anymore, just go to the shop and order http://shop.underthealmondtree.com/product/capers

These capers are organically grown and are handpicked one by one. They are cured and conserved in sea salt by the local farmers of Pantelleria. When you are cooking with this capers, you first rinse them in cold water to get rid of excessive salt using a colander, strainer or your hand. When cooking you will notice that this capers are incredibly rich in flavor. You will have a part of the essence of the island Pantelleria in your meal!

This year has been so much fun cooking, photographing, receiving responds and cheering from You readers. This really inspires me to go on. I’m very lucky to have great and talented people to back me up, without them I would probably just posted far too many photos with confusing text and nonsensical recipes.

I want to thank Amy Burke and Peter Lambert for contributing their knowledge and time helping me out and editing the text and the recipes.
Will Macdonald my technical savior, what would I do without you?!
Ines Lommatzsch for all our excursions and adventures out there on the field.
Mari Strenghielm Nord for always reading my mind and packaging everything beautifully.
Carlo and Igor for being who you are.

All of You readers out there who cooked the recipes, wrote to me and shared your enthusiasm and support, without you this would be meaningless.

A Big Hurray for You all!

/ Anna

Photographs taken summer 2013 during the caper harvest in Pantelleria Sicily.
Buy your Capperi di Pantelleria here  http://shop.underthealmondtree.com/product/capers

The post Under the Almond Tree celebrates it’s first year anniversary! appeared first on Under the Almond Tree.

This year we are really lucky with our crop of tomatoes! We planted them into the soil this spring in two week intervals where during this gap, in May we experienced the last thunderstorms and the wind damaged some of them.  This event caused us to be afraid that we would  be without tomatoes this summer so we planted more. Beginning one month ago, we have been harvesting full boxes every week, different kinds. This small cherry tomatoes are my favorite,  kissed by the sun and sweet as strawberries. This time of year we have a lot off guests in the garden and  the favorite selection for antipasto in The Almond Bar is our Bruschetta Pantesca. The mix of the sweet tomatoes with the salty Capers are just divine, when served  with a glass of Prosecco you’ll  make someone happy!

Bruschetta Pantesca
The recipe is for approximately 20 to 25  bite sized bruschetta (you might want to double the recipe for they disappear as fast as you make them!)

Initial preparations; preheat oven to 400F (200C), then place one, or two bottles of prosecco on ice!

Ingredients:
20-25 small slices of Italian white bread
1 clove garlic (peeled)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 pound (400-500 g) cherry tomatoes
1 Tablespoon Capperi di Pantelleria, rinsed and soaked
3 Tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil
5 filets of anchovies in oil (drained)
2-3 teaspoons of Origano di Pantelleria
pinch of sugar to taste
salt and pepper to taste

Sprinkle on top to finish:
1 teaspoon dried Origano di Pantelleria (dried oregano) which is harvested in June and use the teaspoon for the entire recipe not one Bruschetta

Method:
Rinse and divide the tomatoes, (core them if not using cherry tomatoes) and cut them into small dices.

Cut each anchovy in 5 parts mix together with tomatoes, oil, sugar, capers and basil .
Season with salt and pepper.Preheat the oven on 400 F (200 C) grades.

Slice bread into thin disks and brush a little olive oil on each bread slice place on a oven tray and toast until golden, about 5 min. When toasted remove from the oven and rub the toasted bread slices with the garlic clove just to provide the taste, then, set a side.

Just before serving, ad a spoon or two of the tomato mix on each bread slice,  sprinkle with some oregano. Next arrange on a platter. Set glasses and napkins out on the serving table along with the prosecco in a ice bucket pop the cork and start making people happy!

Capperi di Pantelleria http://shop.underthealmondtree.com/
Origano di Pantelleria http://shop.underthealmondtree.com/
Dinnerplate from http://newkamman.com/ 

The post Tomatoes everywhere! appeared first on Under the Almond Tree.

Caramelized red onion tart
Serves 6 as appetizers or make bite sized pieces as a cocktail snack for 6 people
Ingredients
5 large red onions about (500 grams)
2 cloves of garlic
1/4 cup (0.6 dl) olive oil
1 bay leaf
3 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
3 Tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon Origano di Pantelleria (oregano)
Salt and pepper
9-10 oz (275 grams) of puff pastry
12 black olives (preferably oven or sun dried)
2 Tablespoons of Capers from Pantelleria ( rinsed and drained) http://shop.underthealmondtree.com/
6 anchovy filets
1 egg for brushing the pastry edges

Method
Cut the onion in thin rings or slices, chop the garlic finely and saute in a hot skillet with the olive oil. When the onions have softened, add the balsamic vinegar, sugar, bay leaf and half of the oregano.
Let the onions simmer on lower heat so that the sugar will caramelize.
Season with salt and pepper

Cut the anchovies into smaller pieces.

Place the puff pastry on nonstick oven paper, spread the caramelized red onion mix. Add olives, capers and the pieces of anchovies and fold up an edge of the pastry and brush with the beaten egg.

Bake at 400 F (200 C) for about 10 min.
Sprinkle some extra Origano di Pantelleria (oregano) just before serving

My dear and beautiful friend Lisa is visiting from Sweden, so this week we celebrated with many aperitivo gatherings- hors d’oeuvres in the garden.
This recipe is a perfect cocktail snack or can be served as an appetizer.

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Focaccia alla Pantesca
Serves 10
Ingredients for the dough:
25 gram fresh yeast
3  cups (7.2 dl) all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 cup (2.4 dl) luke warm water ideally no warmer then body temperature
1/2 (1.2 dl) cup olive oil

1/4 cup olive oil for the baking tin.

Ingredients for toppings for the Foccacia:
1/2 medium sized red onion cored and sliced
1 Tablespoon salt cured capers from Pantelleria
1 teaspoon oregano from Pantelleria
1 sprig fresh rosemary
1/4 cup(0.6 dl) olive oil
1 teaspoon sea salt flakes (I used Maldon)

Method:
Crumble the yeast in a mixing bowl and mix with lukewarm water and sugar. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm place or in the sunlight for 15 minutes. This is called blooming the yeast

Once yeast has bloomed add olive oil to the mixture and begin adding flour at 1 cup at a time and working the mixture into a dough. The dough should come together and the bowl should have no flour sticking to the sides. Next on a clean flat surface sprinkle some flour and place the dough on top and knead the dough for 15 minutes.

Place  the dough back into an olive oil coated bowl cover with a clean cotton kitchen towel place back in the sun or a warm place and allow the dough to rise to double its size should take about 40 minutes. Preheat the oven to 400 F ( 200 C) degrees.

Take out an oven tray or baking tin, brush the bottom and edges with olive oil and sprinkle some salt flakes, don’t be skimpy on the olive oil use a 1/4 cup ( 0.6 dl)

Place the dough into the tray or baking tin shaping the dough to the size of the pan. Next place the  onion slices, rosemary, capers, oregano and drizzle some more olive oil over. Cover with a clean towel and place the pan in a warm place or the sun and allow to rise a second time for about 30 minutes.

Bake in the oven until golden for about 10 -12 minutes.

To buy capers and oregano from Pantelleria go to http://shop.underthealmondtree.com/products ships to all Europe and US adresses.

Read more about the love for capers from Pantelleria at my friends Amy and Peters blog http://flourishnourishinpantelleria.blogspot.it/2011/07/great-caper.html

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