ARTHUR SCHWARTZ IS ON A DIET

       Arthur Schwartz writes from his summer cooking classes in Campania --“ Cook at Seliano”-- where he is working on  “The Big Book of Southern Italian Food & Wine,” to be published by Clarkson Potter in fall 2009: 

       “This is something that is very dietetic as well as very fast. It is a take-off on a salad I have eaten in Sicily with raw, tiny red shrimp. Short of those, I use the very good pasteurized lump crab meat I was buying at Costco before I left.”

Call him Arturo Schwartz. He cooks in Italian

 

ARTHUR SCHWARTZ’S CRAB, ORANGE, SCALLIONS SALAD

(INSALATA DI GRANCHIO, ARANCIA E CIPPOLINI)

     Serves 2 or 3 as an antipasto 
     2 cups lump crab meat
     1 large navel orange, peeled, segmented, each segment cut into thirds
     2 or 3 scallions, including most of the green, finely sliced white, coarser sliced green
     Extra-virgin olive oil
     Oil-cured black olives (optional), for garnish
 
     Toss the crab with the orange pieces, and any juice you can collect while cutting the oranges. Toss again with the scallions. Drizzle with olive oil to taste -- just a little will do. Garnish, if you like (I like -- only 5 calories each) with a few olives. 

      And how about my 5 minute tomato sauce -- a real Neapolitan sauce from “Naples at Table: Cooking in Campania.”

Serves 2, dressing 6 ounces of spaghetti

1 1/2 to 2 cups well-drained, seeded, canned peeled plum tomatoes (preferably Italian), sliced lengthwise, or an equal quantity of very ripe fresh tomatoes, peeled, seeded and sliced lengthwise

2 to 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon finely minced garlic

1 rounded tablespoon finely cut basil or parsley (or mint, for a taste of the Aeolian Islands of Sicily)

1/8 to 1/2 teaspoon salt (depending on saltiness of tomatoes, canned needing less than fresh)

Pinch hot red pepper flakes, or more to taste 

In a 7 to 9-inch skillet, combine all the ingredients and place them over medium-high heat. Simmer briskly for about 5 minutes for canned tomatoes, about 8 minutes for fresh, stirring a few times. The tomatoes should remain in pieces and there should be no liquid in the pan, only reddish oil separating from the tomatoes.

Arthur Schwartz is also the author of  Arthur Schwartz’s New York City Food from Stewart, Tabori & Chang;  Soup Suppers: More Than 100 Main-Course Soups, Harper Collins, and What To Cook When You Think There’s Nothing in the House to Eat, Harper Perennial.

www.thefoodmaven.com 

www.agriturismoseliano.it

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