Biscotti Neri
Con le Mandorle
Dark Biscotti with Almonds
These aren’t your local coffee shop’s double-baked, hard, brittle biscotti. Elda’s biscotti are smaller, and while they still have a great bite, softer than what you may be imagining.
Makes Approximately 5 Dozen Cookies
INGREDIENTS:
3 large eggs
separate 1 egg yolk for later
¼ cup vegetable oil
substitute canola or light olive oil
2 tbsp water
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
½ tsp ground cloves
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp cinnamon
3 cups dry-roasted or toasted, unsalted almonds
2 cups chopped or sliced
1 cup whole
2 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Grease a cookie sheet or cover with non-stick aluminum foil or parchment paper.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk the eggs (minus one yolk), oil, and water.
Add the brown sugar, granulated sugar, cloves, baking powder, and cinnamon, and mix thoroughly. Stir in the almonds and flour until the flour is fully incorporated and the almonds are evenly distributed. You can use something like a spatula, mixing fork, or a wooden spoon to begin the mixing process. As the dough begins to take shape, use your hands to continue working until it starts to form a firm ball.
Cover and chill your batter for approximately 15 minutes. Divide the dough into five sections. With moist hands, shape each section into smooth dough logs about 1 inch high. Place the logs on your prepared cookie sheet, leaving about 2 inches between them. Flatten the logs slightly so they take on an oval shape. The logs will spread and rise while cooking.
Add a few drops of water to the remaining egg yolk, whisk, and brush over the logs to add a shiny glaze.
Bake for 25-30 minutes. Watch for tops to be shiny and a golden color. Remove from the oven and transfer the logs to a cooling rack.
Cool for 8-10 minutes before slicing each log diagonally, about ⅝ to ¾ inches thick, with a serrated knife.
The cookies cut best while they’re still a little warm. When they’re too hot, they won’t retain their shape as you try to press and slice. If they cool to room temperature, they become brittle and will crumble when cut. Keep your fingers close to the blade as you’re cutting to avoid crumbling.
Once cut, let the cookies cool to room temperature.
NOTES: As mentioned at the beginning of this recipe, Elda’s biscotti are softer than some biscotti variations. If after trying this recipe you prefer your biscotti a bit harder, consider baking the cookies longer.
Cookies can be stored in an airtight container for approximately 3-4 weeks at room temperature.
The Brigadier and the Biscotti
By Dimitri Staszewski
So many of Elda’s stories revolve around her experiences in Caramanico Terme, a small mountain town off the Adriatic coast of Italy, during World War II. During that time, she was largely responsible for her family’s guest house, which was nearly empty, as most men had gone off to war and people weren’t really traveling.
One day, a brigadier from Francavilla, a small coastal town in Abruzzo, just east of Caramanico, showed up in town. According to Elda, he was “very, very fussy.” A stickler who lived by and enforced the letter of Italian law.
During the war, everything was regulated, which meant one needed to use government rationed food stamps to buy food. When this brigadier smelled bread cooking in the public furnace, he would go by and ask, “How much grain did you buy?” to make sure the number of loaves in the furnace lined up with the government ration for the ingredients required to bake them. But the ration was never enough, so of course everyone did what they could to buy things on the black market and skirt the law. One day Elda heard the bell ring at her door. It was the brigadier.
“I want to see what you have in your storeroom.”
Elda, afraid of the extra flour or salt this man might find, wanted to make a good impression, as she knew this would be the first of many inspections to come.
“Brigadier, would you accept one cup of coffee?” she offered.
During this period, coffee was hard to find, and she only had it because her father had sent it from the United States.
He looked her in the face and said, “You know that this is bribery? Who gave you this coffee?” She explained that her father had sent it for special occasions.
“Not tonight! Tonight, I am working,” he said.
While he didn’t accept the coffee that night, he didn’t exclude the possibility that he might come back another time when he wasn’t working. Which of course, he did.
A little while later, on a cold winter evening, there was another knock on the door. It was the brigadier again, this time cleaned up and wearing evening clothes.
“If it’s no bother, I came for that cup of coffee.”
The weeks went by, and Christmas time came around. One day a woman living in Elda’s guesthouse came to her pleading, “Elda! Oh my god, my sons are coming. I don’t have anything to give them!”
Her entire family, like so many others, had gone off to war. One of her sons had passed away as an infantry-man on the front lines in Russia. Her two remaining sons were both still serving in Mussolini’s army—one an alpinist and one an air force pilot. Both would be visiting Caramanico on leave for Christmas.
Most of the baking in Caramanico had to be done in the public oven in the town square. But Elda had a plan to use her small, coal burning fornetto to bake biscotti in secret and give these men the homecoming they deserved.
As Christmas came closer, the brigadier continued to frequent their guest house, and they developed a friendship of sorts. But in the back of her mind, she knew she still needed to acquire sugar, eggs, and a few other ingredients her government ration certainly didn’t include. Elda would ask the brigadier about local gossip she was hearing—a farmer’s chickens being stolen—to get him to reveal where he would be in the coming days.
So, as he’d go to investigate one farm, Elda would tell her mother to go to another farm on the opposite side of town to barter for a couple of eggs or some flour. She would return with her pockets stuffed with flour and eggs lining her blouse, waddling home so as not to break the eggs.
“I don’t know if he realized, but I have a feeling he knew we were up to something, and he wanted to give us a chance. He didn’t need to talk to us about where he was going, but I have a feeling he wanted to give us permis-sion without saying anything.”
Day by day, Elda and her mother were able to acquire all the ingredients they would need to make biscotti for Christmas.
The next time the brigadier came for an inspection, Elda explained to him that two men would be visiting for Christmas.
“I will be glad to meet them,” said the brigadier.
Sensing that he might have sympathy she asked, “Listen, brigadier, will you do me one favor? Don’t come this week.”
“Why? Is something wrong? Did I do something to offend you?”
“For what?”
“I need to do something.”
“What do you need to do?”
“Something that you won’t approve of!”
“What will I not approve of?!”
“If you want to come, come. But when you come in the kitchen, you won’t find anything.”
He disappeared in a huff, but during the entire week before Christmas he didn’t come back. They were able to use the fornetto and make biscotti.
The day before Christmas, the vigil, Elda heard the doorbell ring once again. It was the brigadier. “I want to meet these men who came from the war.” So, she let him in.
When he came in, he was shocked to see a table full of cookies.
“What are you going to do?” asked Elda, “These kids came from the war, the front line, and it’s Christmas. Are we not going to give them cookies? We’re not going to have something ready for them for Christmas? What do you think of your family, would you do nothing for them?
She continued, “If you want some, eat. You’re welcome to it.”
He smiled and without saying a word, sat down and took a biscotti from the table filled with illegal Christmas cookies. Better than anyone, he knew exactly what it had taken to make them.
Seafood Pasta
Serves 6
It’s an Italian tradition to eat seven varieties of seafood on Christmas Eve.
While Elda makes this pasta dish year-round, it’s a staple on Christmas Eve with five of the seven already accounted for in one dish.
FRESH SEAFOOD:
1 lb mussels
12 fresh clams
12 fresh shrimp
2 small calamari
makes approximately 18 rings plus tentacles
15 small bay scallops
NOTE: This is Elda's traditional recipe, but these seafood ingredients and their quantities are not set in stone. If you'd prefer to use cod or crab, for example, give those a try. Elda always says to use whatever you have in your refrigerator.
FOR THE MUSSELS AND CLAMS:
½ cup white wine plus a little extra
1 tbsp parsley, chopped
2 garlic cloves, smashed
FOR THE SAUCE:
¼ cup olive oil
enough to coat the bottom of your pan
2 garlic cloves, smashed
6.5 oz can of whole clams
Marinara sauce pre-made from one 28 oz can
(see Marinara recipe)
PREPARE YOUR SEAFOOD: Rinse the mussels and clams under cold running water while scrubbing with a brush. Discard any with open or broken shells.
In separate pots, steam the mussels and clams with the wine, parsley, and 2 cloves of smashed garlic divided between the two pots. Cover and gently move the two pots around until the mussels and clams open which signals they are ready, about 5 minutes.
Set aside 12 mussels in their shells to be used for plating. Remove the remaining mussels from their shells to be used in the sauce.
Wash your shrimp, calamari, and scallops.
Peel, devein, and slice the shrimp down the middle lengthwise.
Cut the tentacles from the calamari leaving them whole. Cut the bodies into ½ inch circles. About 18 rings total.
PREPARE THE SAUCE: Using a pot large enough to eventually hold your pre-made marinara sauce, sauté 2 cloves of smashed garlic in oil until soft. Add canned clams and the juice from the can, bottled clam juice, and parsley. You can also add some or all the wine that was used to steam the clams and mussels.
Sauté until the liquid has evaporated. Add another splash of white wine and turn up the heat so that it evaporates quickly.
Add your marinara sauce and let all the ingredients simmer on a low boil for 6-7 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Once the sauce is hot, start adding your chosen seafood in order of cooking time: Add the calamari and let cook a minute. Add the scallops and let cook another minute. Add the shrimp last, you’ll know everything is cooked when the shrimp turns red.
Once everything is cooked, take the pot off the heat and add the pre-cooked mussels that have been removed from their shells.
TO SERVE: Cook linguine al dente.
Add a ladle of your sauce to a large bowl. Add the linguine and ladle in more sauce. Mix gently and top the plate with seafood pieces and decorate with whole mussels and clams.
NOTE: Elda balks whenever someone asks to top their seafood pasta with some grated Parmesan cheese, but some of us can’t help ourselves. It’s delicious with or without.