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Amaretti Fritters Recipe
November 15, 2005 | 19 Comments
Today's recipe is from the newly translated Silver Spoon cookbook. It is huge, freshly translated from Italian, and it's number SIX on the Amazon Top sellers list - just half a screen down the page from Oprah's latest book club pick. People are falling all over themselves to get a copy of it and cookbook reviewers are banging out one glowing review after another.
I'm going to start off with the sentence that I should really close this review with: I started feeling better about The Silver Spoon when I stopped thinking about it as an "authentic" Italian cookbook, and started thinking about it more as a snapshot of how middle class Italians were cooking in the period post-1950. Still authentic, just a different definition of authentic.
A bit of history - The Silver Spoon, Il cucchiaio d'argento, has been the best-selling cookbook in Italy for the past fifty years, one newspaper article mentioned it has sold over 2 million copies. Think of it as the Italian version of the Joy of Cooking.
The book came into existence in 1950 when the famous Italian architecture and design magazine Domus dispatched a flock of cooking experts across various regions in Italy to collect traditional recipes. And collect they did - to the tune of 2000+ recipes. What sort of recipes you might ask? Gnocchi - your choice of twenty-one preparations. Polenta? With the Silver Spoon you can prepare polenta a different way each day for over two weeks without a repeat. Penne - choose from fried, curried, arrabbiata, or with saffron. You get the drift, or at least you think you do. Then you stumble on a recipe for Hawaiian Salad (page 501) and you think to yourself....that's weird.
I came across the Hawaiian Salad about ten minutes after I started reading the book, and that's when I started to get disoriented. I was having a hard time understanding what I was looking at...Hawaiian Salad, hmmm. Flip to the back index...there was also English Pudding, assorted mousses, brioches, and ciambella alle carote - that's Italian for Carrot Cake.
I'm now swimming in a giant sea of recipes, reaching for context, trying to figure out where this book is anchored.
Each recipe is verb-driven and concise - I mean, if you are going to get 2000 recipes in one volume I supposed you have to be concise. You see the name of each recipe in English, and the Italian name is included just off to the side as well. Outside of that you have no headnotes or information. After 15 minutes with the book, I thought I wanted this book, but I wanted it organized by region, with better headnotes, minus the 50's pineapple recipes. But maybe most people don't care about the headnotes and stuff.
Maybe the reason this book is such a classic is BECAUSE of the encyclopedia-ness of it. It is informative on the level that it communicates many recipes (lots of which are Italian) in a simple manner to the average home cook. And in that regard it serves it's purpose.
I wanted a voice and sense of place, and that is a tough thing to get out of an encyclopedia.
I have a romantic notion of what is authentic. And this is true in relation to cookbooks. When I think authentic, I think of books that introduce me not just to the recipes of a region or a country - but to to the cooks, the kitchens, the tools, and the markets and pantries as well. I think of traveling into the Japanese home kitchen with Elizabeth Andoh, exploring towns and villages in Southwest France with Paula Wolfert, or criss-crossing Mexico with Diana Kennedy.
Don't get me wrong. There are many recipes in the Silver Spoon that I might take for a spin. Who could pass up amaretti cookies spiked with brandy, doused with batter and then fried fritter-style? Authentic Italian or not, they sounded outrageous. A blast of boozy sweetness - golden and crunchy on the outside, moist, cakey, and soft in the middle. Right now I've got powdered sugar all over my fingertips, and I'm not complaining.
Amaretti Fritters (Amaretti Fritti)
generous 1 cup all-purpose flour
1 egg, separated
1 tablespoon, brandy
1 tablespoon olive oil, plus extra for frying (hs note: I used a small saucepan and clarified butter for the fry part - frying one at a time)
7 ounces amaretti
2 tablespoons rum (hs note: I used more)
confectioner's sugar for dusting
Prepare a soft batter with the flour, egg yolk, brandy, olive oil and as much water as required (hs note: I used between 1/3-1/2 cup water) and let rest for one hour. Stiffly whisk the egg white in a grease-free bowl and fold into the batter. Soak the amaretti in the rum (hs note: I gave them a quick dunk in a small bowl of the rum), then dip them in the batter. Heat the oil for frying in a skillet, add the amaretti and cook until golden brown. Drain on paper towels and dust with confectioner's sugar.
Serves 4.
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Your Comments
These sound fantastic, Heidi. Now I really want to check out this book for myself. Thanks!
I received the book myself the other day. I do miss the headnotes and stuff BUT at the same time I find it liberating. It makes me look at recipes in a new way. My only complaint is that I find it lacking in some areas.... or maybe I just haven't find the chapter yet ;) Like where are the bread recipes?
I'm writing from London UK where people are also running around all over the city buying this book. But I should mention that the PR machine for this publication has been exceptional - it's being talked about all over the TV and radio. And, I have to admit to huge disappointment when my copy arrived. It encapsulates a real moment in time - the 50s - but has very little to do with authentic Italian eating and, the few really good recipes will be found in any decent Italian cookbook that you already own.
I was going to ask for this book for Christmas, but was wondering about vegetarian options...is it worth it? Those cookies sound/look fabulous though - do they keep at all? It seems that you would have to serve them in one go to maintain crispiness.
Great review! I believe that I know why there is no truly "authentic" Italian cookbook. Because none exists. Having lived in Italy I never met a home cook who used one. The closest thing I ever got was a notebook put together by a cooking instructor and it has no measurements! But is very Italian.
Tina,
There are a lot of vegetarian recipes in the book (or ones that can be easily adapted)...and the cookies? They were great fresh, but they were also really good about an hour after making them (which surprised me), I wouldn't try to make them a day ahead or anything. -h
Debbie's right; this book is being pushed very hard in the UK. I'm not planning on buying it - I already have some excellent Italian cookery books, and I prefer a nice wordy volume where the author's voice comes across clearly. I may, however, be making those fritters; they sound excellent.
I admit that I am a little perplexed about the fasination with the book. I've seen it in a few Italian kitchens. Though it's rarely pulled out. One well-worn copy was owned by a woman who got married in '60s and didn't know how to cook.
I'd agree with others on this post who say that most Italians, or good cooks, don't really use recipe books. Kinda go by instinct and memory.
I've made these fritters before and they're best eaten as they come off the pan. With plenty of prosecco to go around!
I made the Chicken with Mushrooms two nights ago. I found the recipe odd but interesting; and so far it's the only one I've tried from the book. When I think of old school Italian cooking, I think handfuls of this and that and a wine glass measurement of this and so on. This recipe seemed very spartan (aside from the oil and butter!) and sort of meager. For a whole chicken cut in to quarters, it calls for 2 pearl onions, chopped, 3 Tbs water, 2 Tbs canned tomatoes, drained and 5 Tbs white wine. That’s about it, except for the mushrooms. I felt outright silly chopping up only two pearl onions, but I was determined to follow the recipe.
It turned out alright, but not good enough to warrant making again. The meat was very succulent, but the flavors weren't very interesting and there was certainly no "wow" factor. My boyfriend (who comes from an Italian family of amazing cooks) was of the same opinion.
It was only my first foray in to the book, and I'll try some other things, but I have a feeling that I'll end up using it more for ideas and some techniques, and then add my own improvisations as I go. I would have at least some garlic and an herb to this recipe!
One last thing. There is another recently released cookbook, called La Bonne Cusine de Madame E. Saint-Ange. It seems like the French version of the Silver Spoon: an old stand by in French kitchens that has just recently been translated by the original chef from Chez Panisse. Has anyone tried it out yet?
P.S. Great website Heidi, I just stumbled upon it.
My single most-used cookbook remains Patricia Wells' Trattoria, which I reviewed on Amazon. I love this book so much that I wrote her a love letter about it, and she published it on her site.
When I was a member of eG, I got into a discussion of Italian cookbooks with people there. An Italian man was asking which Italian cookbooks we found most useful. I dared to mention this one, knowing it's blasphemous (since she's famous for her French cookbooks, and she's not Italian at all), and Russ Parsons backed me up: "It is funny (and certainly not politically correct among italian cookbook authors), but I have to say that everything I've cooked out of the wells book has been terrific. and it really tasted Italian. I was very impressed."
Some sample dishes: Lemon Risotto, Goat Cheese and Carlic Spread, White Bean Salad with Fresh Sage and Thyme; Tuscan Five-Bean Soup; Roasted Yellow Pepper Soup; Roasted Rosemary Potatoes; Individual Eggplant Parmesans; Penne with Vodka and Spicy Tomato-Cream Sauce; Saffron Butterflies; Tagliarini with Lemon Sauce; Risotto with Tomatoes and Parmesan; Orange, Sage and Mushroom Risotto; several bread recipes; Fried Calamari; Sautéed Chicken Breasts with Sage; Chicken Cooked Under Bricks...
Heidi, I saw the recipe you posted from this book, and that you agree: the book is one of your personal favorites. I make the lemon risotto regularly (we have a Meyer lemon tree), as well as the (more blasphemy!) baked risotto.
Long live Patricia Wells (and you, Heidi)!
One must always commend the effort of gathering information and transforming such into an Italian cookbook, but there is never substitution for an Italian Grandma and Mother-in-law and the hands on teaching leading to the mastering of the perfect gnocchi by virtue of touch, or the way a "Salsa Napoli" should hit your back throat after 8 hours of simmering, (not less...)...there is no recipe for perfection or way of trying to gather it in a book, Italian cooking is one of feeling the earth and indulging the imagination, using whatever is available in the kitchen to make a simple meal into a masterpiece.
So to those of you that have bought this (and Heidi) - do you reccomend getting it or not? Seems like mixed reviews on here, but it looks like an attractive book!
speaking as a British woman who has travelled many times to Italy, what the 'silver Spoon Cookbook' tends to obscure is the extremely rigid regionalism found still today in italian domestic cookery.
just to add to the above, i'm not sure if the U.S readers of this site can access the jamie Oliver series currently showing on british t.v where he travels around italy in a minibus, cooking with the locals. Its on the british Channel 4 on weds evenings at 20:30 hours GMT. Jamie has the same issues with this strict regionalism and refusal to accept or even at times, try the specialities of other Italian regions....
Heidi,
Your review of the book is the best I've read.
can someone translate the cook prescriptions on German?
Janice, It really depends on what type of cookbook you like. I would browse through it at your local bookstore before making the purchase.
Vici, thanks!
Domain, the only thing I can suggest is trying out one of the Google language tools. Not sure how well the recipes will translate, but maybe you will be able to get the general jist:
Banana fritters
In the Philippines one of the nutritious snacks we have is the banana fritters, but this kind of banana is not the long type Chiquita brand but it is quite short and fatty type " sab-a" and we cut this into 4 pieces lengthwise and fry it with
coconut oil and we sprinkle it with refined
sugar, I don't know if in other countries are also doing this.
Please be informed that Chiquita brand of
bananas with marked produce in Philippines are grown in the fertile land of
Mindanao as well as the famous brand of Dole pineapple.
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