Panelli

My MIL Maria lives with us. And it's rad. But she's leaving for a few months. She'll be visiting her other childers in NorCal, then she'll be off to Italy for a few months to hang with her clan. She's saying we won't see her until later in 2011. :(

So, we're getting lots of Maria cooking before she goes. I'm not as prolific as I'd like to be in documenting her cooking. The stuff that ends up here are some special favorites, but they're not daily things. The daily things are what I need to get: Calluzzi, Pasta con Lenticchie, Bistecca Milanese, Pasta e Fagioli, Pasta e Brocoli, Caponata, Juicy Steak, and others that I'm forgetting.

Anyway. Maria made Panelli today. I can't get enough of these. Here's the recipe, ported off my old website, with some pictures from today.

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Another Maria favorite. These are just simple, yummy treats -- another Sicilian comfort food. Best eaten hot with some basic white supermarket "french" loaf.

Yield: makes about 24 pieces

Ingredients

• 4 cups garbanzo bean flour. We've had the best luck with Bob's Red Mill. There are better ones, but not as reliable to find. The worse (inedible) was a fancy expensive organic flour. Maybe it was rancid? Anyway, Bobs Red Mill bags are 4 cups.
• 4 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon dried parsley
• 5 cups water
• 3 emptied and cleaned 12 oz tin cans
• canola oil for frying

Method

1. Mix dry ingredients.

2. Slowly work water into dry ingredients. Mix with one hand, using your fingers and breaking up the clumps. Mix all the water in until there are no lumps.
3. Put the mixture on the stove in a pot. Stir continuously, scraping up the bottom with a flat-topped wooden spoon. Stir continuously. This stuff sticks no matter what, but keep working it off the bottom of the pan.
4. As it heats, it will thicken. It will thicken in clumps. Don't be alarmed at this, just keep scraping and stirring until the whole mass turns into a big mortar-like clump.
5. Take it off the heat, and spoon the mixture into the tin cans. Knocking the cans on the counter top to pack the mixture in.

6. Chill the cans for a few hours. The panelli will get solid as it cools.
7. when the panelli is completely chilled through, slide it out of the cans, and slice. You should get about 8 or 9 slices from a can.
8. Make a small incision in the center of each disc to let air escape during frying.
9. Pour about 1/2 inch of oil into a heavy pan and heat the oil until it just barely shows faint wisps of smoke.
10. Fry the panelli until golden, then flip and fry the other side.
11. Sprinkle with a bit of salt and then drain on paper towels or on a rack.