Italian Salumi with New Zealand style

Two Italians, equally passionate about their homeland as they are of their adopted country of New Zealand have created a range of unique salumi based on age-old Italian traditions but with a distinct NZ flavour.

Owners Luca and Paolo both hail from the same region of Lombardia, south of Milano and use the knowledge and traditions handed down through generation in both their families to prepare their Otello’s range of fresh sausages and cured meats, using prime organic NZ products – even the salt and pepper used is organic

A few nights ago I was privileged to be Luca and Paolo’s guest at a special Giro d’Italia (Tour of Italy) dinner at Toto’s Restaurant. Chef Sergio prepared a series of dishes using Otello’s products and matched with Italian wines.

After a glass of Prosecco – the very best precursor to any Italian meal, we enjoyed an beautifully presented antipasti of their cured meats including bresaola, coppa, pancetta and a wild boar salami, served with marinated vegetables, a young pecorino and a scattering of young broad beans. Each of the meats was unique in it's texture and flavour - I particularly liked the pancetta - it was sweet and almost melted on my tongue.

 photo by Geoff Dale

Guanciale is Italian style bacon made using the pig’s cheek cured with salt and pepper and hung to dry for several months. Thick sliced, diced and fried until crisp and utterly delicious, it was used to garnish a fragrant dish of goat’s cheese ravioli with truffle and a red wine sauce. With this we drank a 2009 Vensevo Falanghina DOC Campania – a grape that only grows north of Naples.

photo by Geoff Dale

Confit duck – the leg stuffed with fresh wild boar sausage and served on soft polenta with morello cherries came next. The recipe for this dish follows. The matched wine here was a wonderful Barbera D’Asti from Fiulot in Piemonte

photo by Geoff Dale

Dessert was also described on the menu as an antipasti and was in fact a lovely collection of lovely Italian specialties such as Sicilian cannoli and cassata with a little glass of a luscious Marsala Superiore from Pellegrino.

You can find Otello’s sausages and salumi at farmers’ markets around Auckland and at selected gourmet stores or you can order on-line.  Watch out for new products, including Prosciutto, which will be available soon

Confit Duck Leg filled with Otello's Wild Boar Sausage

4 duck legs with the thigh deboned

4 Otello's fresh wild boar sausages

duck fat, enough to half cover the duck legs

sea salt and freshly ground pepper

300 grams cherries, fresh or tinned

2 cloves

500 mls chicken stock

1 litre water

750 mls good red wine

Preheat the oven to 150°C.

Remove any excess fat from the duck and open out the boned thigh, skin down. Remove the sausage meat from the casing and divide it between the duck legs.

Fold the duck tightly around the stuffing to enclose it.

Wrap each leg in tin foil lined with baking paper and secure tightly.

Place enough duck fat in a deep oven try and warm it until it is liquid before placing the duck legs into the fat. Cover the dish and cook for 2 hours or until the meat is very tender. Remove the legs from the duck fat, unwrap and place in an ovenproof frying pan.

Increase the oven to 180°C. Season the duck and roast until the skin is golden and crisp.

While the duck is slow cooking, combine the stock and water in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Simmer for about 1 hour then add the wine. Continue simmering for another hour then add the cherries and cloves. Reduce further until the sauce is the right consistency.

Serve the duck on top of soft polenta (made according to the instructions on the packet) with the red wine, cherry sauce and a final drizzle of good extra virgin olive oil.

And as Luca and Paolo would say - Buon Appetito!

Another Spring Favorite

A big thrill at my local farmers' market this weekend – new season's garlic - which I just love! Following on from asparagus, broad beans and globe artichokes this is another of my most favorite spring things.

Just dug, the rosy hued outer covering of each head is still velvety soft and when peeled back reveals a cluster of pearly white garlic cloves – mild and sweet in flavour and juicy and crunchy like a carrot.

I’ve been a fan ever since I first ate new garlic at Chez Panisse in San Francisco many years ago, so I bought plenty – some to hang up to dry and the rest to use now.

Last night I cooked the first of my whole heads with some young Swiss chard leaves from my garden to have with slow roasted pork. I removed the outer skin, separated the cloves and gently peeled off the soft white skin from each. This is very much easier than peeling a dried clove.

I then ‘poached’ them whole in a little water to which I added a good splash of olive oil, a bay leaf and some salt until just softened then added the chopped stems from the  chard. Once they were tender I added the leaves, roughly chopped, and wilted them down. By this time the water had evaporated and the olive oil provided a lovely gloss and flavour to the leaves. A grind of pepper and a little extra salt and it was done – and quite delicious I must say.

You can also roast the bulbs whole – just like you would regular garlic – slice off the top to reveal the cloves and drizzle them with a little olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and add a couple of fresh thyme sprigs.  Place in a covered dish or wrap in aluminium foil and roast at 200°C until soft when you give it a gentle squeeze.

Once cool it is delicious spread on toasted sourdough with a sprinkle of salt and a drizzle of good olive oil. It is wonderful used like this under toppings for bruschetta   or you can use it to make roasted garlic aioli.

The flavour is very subtle in comparison to regular garlic that has been allowed to dry and become pungent.

It’s delicious with lamb ( just serve it as a condiment) and I also like to add the whole new cloves to a dish of spring vegetables (artichokes, broad beans, tiny carrots and turnips etc) that I poach in a little chicken stock with a bay leaf, some thyme sprigs and olive oil.