Avoiding Cholesterol

An old family friend who reads this newsletter recently wrote, "I suspect that many of your recipes will be out of my low-cholesterol range, but I enjoy envisioning them." I am not a doctor, so I may be going out on a limb here, but: Though there are some obvious no-nos, many Italian recipes shouldn't be too hazardous. This is because Italian cooking tends to be lean; the fat of choice throughout much of the peninsula is olive oil, which is rich in the "good" cholesterol that helps remove the bad cholesterol that clogs the arteries. Moreover, in many first course and vegetable dishes olive oil is the only fat, and it is used in moderation -- at the most a quarter cup in a recipe to serve 4, and one could reduce it somewhat in many cases.

As an added bonus for the cholesterol-conscious, the grated Parmigiano one associates with pasta doesn't go so well with many vegetable-based sauces, or with fish-based sauces. So, if you want to enjoy Italian cuisine without worrying too much about cholesterol, look to pasta with vegetable sauces, and to vegetable-based main courses, for example peppers stuffed with eggplant or stuffed eggplant.

When it comes to meat dishes the situation obviously changes. Some things, for example the Piemontese brasato al Barolo, beef braised in Barolo, or the Tuscan Bistecca alla Fiorentina, a thick porterhouse steak grilled over the coals, will harden the arteries. Saltimbocca alla romana, veal sautéed with lean prosciutto and sage, will have much less of an impact, especially if one does the sautéing in olive oil. The key is in any case moderation. One can occasionally enjoy a small portion of a cholesterol-rich food, assuming one maintains a generally healthy diet, with lots of fresh fruit, greens, grains, and vegetables.

The Italian diet does quite well in this regard: grains in the form of bread, polenta, risotto or pasta, an abundance of vegetables and greens throughout the meal, and lots of fresh fruit for dessert. This, combined with the relatively small amounts of meat in Italian second course dishes (70-80 grams, or about a fifth of a pound, is considered quite adequate), helps explain why the Italian life expectancy is second only to that of the Japanese.

For more information on cholesterol and diet, here are some resources:

About's Cholesterol Site

The Skinny on Fats: more than you'll ever want to know about them ;-) from Peggy, the Mining Co's Home Cooking guide.

Italian Ices: Memories of Summer

About a month ago I posted a request for Italian ice recipes on the Italian Cuisine BBS -- Perhaps coincidentally, a couple of weeks ago Don sent the following, which he has kindly given me permission to share:

"hi,

"what do you call water ice...

"the one made in an ice cream machine or the type where they shave a block of ice with a scraper and put it in a cup and add fruit flavored syrup on top of it and let it drip down through the ice....

"i remember both as a kid....

"the shaved ice was called hokie pokie, and there was a little old man who we called "hokie pokie joe" he was from italy and he would go through the neighborhood with a little push cart that was real neat with a canopy on top to shade the ice and the fruit flavors were arranged around the sides as kids it looked joe had a 100 different flavors (at least as kids it seemed that way, there was probably only 20 different flavors).

"hokie pokie joe was a real cool guy and very nice and he had the respect of all the kids, no matter where he went... he always came around in the evening ,after supper(now they call it dinner),its amazing how our vocabulary changes when we get some money.... you could hear him all the way down the block calling "HOKIE POKIE...HOKIE POKIE"... and it was only 5 cents...

"i often think of ol hokie pokie joe and wish i could go back to the old neighborhood days...they were fun times and simple... yes and if you didn't eat your supper you didn't get the hokie pokie, mom always saved enough from the food money so you could get the treat, she loved us … she would do without so that we could have...and that's who i miss most.

"My Mom."

I replied that water ice is called a granita in Italy, and in the course of our conversation he added,

"I'm from the Norristown, Pa. area and I grew up in an italian neighborhood, and we had a lot of italian water ice stores in town but it was not frozen hard, it was kind of slushy, like snow gets as its melting, in fact as kids we used to make it, someone would have an old hand crank machine and we would go through the neighborhood and collect all the ice cubes from the neighbors (those that had refrigerators, most of us had a ice box) we would mix up a batch and pack the ice cubes around the metal container and start cranking the handle till it became tight, then we knew it was done."

Memories of kinder, simpler times.

Zucchini, Stuffed & Fried

Returning to the present, Lisa writes, "I am looking for an Italian zucchini fritter, the closest name I can come to is patealli? I know it has zucchini, eggs and flour in it and is fried and then sprinkled with Parmesan cheese. It probably comes from the southern part of Italy (Reggio, Calabria) Any help you could provide would be very much appreciated."

Haven't found anything called patealli, but I did find the following in Cavalcanti's Il Libro d'Oro della Cucina e dei Vini di Calabria e Basilicata, all of which look good and one of which is what she was looking for:

Cucuzzieddri a ra Scapici -- Zucchini alla Scapece;
the titles of the recipes are in dialect, with Italian translations

• 2 1/4 pounds zucchini
• Day-old bread stripped of crust and crumbled (you'll want real Italian bread from a bakery here, not one of those loaves baked in a tin)
• Fresh mint
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• Vinegar
• Olive oil for frying (you can use vegetable oil)
• Salt & pepper to taste

Slice the zucchini, salt them, and fry them in olive oil. Drain the slices on absorbent paper, then layer them in a high-sided serving dish, dusting each layer with bread crumbs and garlic, dotting it with a few mint leaves, and sprinkling it with a few drops of vinegar, and seasoning it with salt and pepper to taste.

Chill for a couple of hours in the refrigerator, and serve.

Cucuzzieddri Chjini -- Stuffed Zucchini

• 6 long zucchini (as opposed to the round variety)
• 1/2 pound minced beef
• Day-old bread stripped of crust and crumbled (you'll want real Italian bread from a bakery here, not one of those loaves baked in a tin -- use your eye in deciding how much -- about the same volume as the meat, perhaps)
• Grated pecorino romano (I'd start with a half cup the first time, and perhaps increase it -- to taste, in other words. More than a cup would likely be too much.)
• 1 egg
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• Minced parsley (a small bunch)
• Olive Oil
• Black pepper and salt to taste (keep in mind that pecorino romano is salty)

Wash the zucchini, split them, and scoop out the pulp with a spoon. Mix the remaining ingredients in a bowl, and use it to fill the zucchini shells. Put the stuffed zucchini in a lightly oiled baking tin, drizzle them lightly with oil, and bake them in a warm (375 F or 180 C) oven until they're done -- a half hour to 45 minutes.

Cavalcanti doesn't say what to do with the zucchino pulp, but he probably intends that you discard it.

Pittuliddre 'I Cucuzzieddri -- Zucchini fritters
What Lisa was looking for!

• 1 pound zucchini
• Flour
• Grated Pecorino romano
• Olive oil
• Salt & Pepper to taste

Wash the zucchini, pat them dry, and cut them into thin strips. Make a batter with the flour, water, salt, grated pecorino, and pepper. Dip the zucchini strips in it, fry them, drain them on absorbent paper, and serve them hot.

This is a classic Italian recipe that assumes you know the proportions. I don't, since I've never had them, but I'd guess roughly equal volumes of grated pecorino and flour, and enough water to make the batter liquid, but not so much as to make it runny.

Thanks for visiting, and have a wonderful day!
Kyle Phillips

Back to the Cosa Bolle Index.
If you would like to subscribe to this newsletter (it's free), visit this page
Back to the General Recipe Index