Today we are going to Sicily. Panelle, or chickpeas fritters, is king of street food in Palermo and are often eaten between two slices of bread.
What the heck are chickpeas fritters? Is it any good, you may ask.
I’ll be honest. It was not so long ago I heard about Panelle, for the first time myself. If you have not been in Palermo, there is some risk that you’ve never heard of this Sicilian specialty.
I could not find any recipe in any of my Italian cookbooks.
I can, however, assure you that they are gorgeous.

Panelle is very easy to make. It reminds a lot of Polenta. You make a thick porridge of flour and water and let it cool until firm. Then you cut it into pieces that you fry until golden brown and crispy.
Like Polenta, chickpea flour is gluten-free which can be good to know if you suffer from gluten intolerance.

How much flour?

Well, that’s a relevant question. I have read a lot of recipes, and most of them have one thing in common. The amount of water differ.
The first recipe I followed said 1 part flour to 1 part water. The result was not that good. I became suspicious when I mixed the flour with the hot water. The porridge got thick and dense almost immediately. Most recipes say that it should take at least 6 minutes for it to be ready. It’s ready when it’s quite stiff and starts to pull away from the sides of the saucepan.
The finished panelle was crispy on the outside, but the inside was dry and boring.

The next batch I made had 1/2 part flour to 1 part water. This time it was much better. The surface was still crispy with a softer inside. Almost like french fries.
I have found recipes with even higher water content, but I haven’t tried them yet.

Scrape out the porridge and spread it to a thin layer, 1/4 – 1/2 inch high, on a piece of parchment paper or a casserole. Let cool until firm.
It will take about 1 hour.

You can cut the Panelle the way you prefer. Some cut it into strips or triangles. Some prefer to cut it into square form cakes. It’s really up to you.

Fry the Panelle in olive oil. If you don’t have enough olive oil, you can use any oil suitable for frying. Rapeseed oil, corn oil, or sunflower oil. All of them works just fine. You can always drop som good quality olive oil over the finished Panelle.
If you have enough oil, try to deep-fry them. The result will be even better with a crispier surface.

Sprinkle some sea salt and a few drops of lemon juice over the Panelle. You don’t need more than that. But if you prefer to add your favorite dipping sauce, it will probably work just fine.

Panelle, Sicillian chickpeas fritters

Panelle, or chickpeas fritters, is king of street food in Palermo. But Panelle can also make a great accompaniment to fish or meat. Or just serve them with your favorite dipping sauce.

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Prep Time 2 mins

Cook Time 10 mins

Total Time 1 hr 12 mins

Servings 4 persones

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 2 Cup water
• 1 Cup Chickpeas flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• oil for frying

Instructions

 

• Bring the water to boil in a small saucepan. Add flour gradually while whisking constantly to prevent lumps.
• Boil over low heat and whisk constantly. When the porridge starts to stiffen and pull away from the sides of the saucepan it's ready.
• Pour into a greased casserole, pan or on parchment paper. Spread evenly with a wet spatula. Let it cool for an hour.
• Cut into any desired shape.
• Fry the Panelle in olive oil on both sides until golden brown and crispy.
• Sprinkle sea salt and lemon juice over the Panelle. Eat immediately.

Notes

You can make your Panelle even better by adding some herbs to the porridge before it gets thick. Parsley is the most common choice, but I think thyme, oregano, and rosemary work great as well.

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One day when I was looking for tortilla bread in the grocery store, I was standing in front of the shelves with “Tex-Mex” products. I rarely buy any of these products, but this evening I was short on time. And the tortilla bread you can find is quite decent.
My eyes fell on a little paper bag with the words Guacamole seasoning mix. I picked it up and read the table of contents.
It contained 19 ingredients and additives. That’s more than there are ingredients in ordinary guacamole altogether.
The selling point was that it was so much easier to mix guacamole with this spice mix.

How hard is it to mix guacamole? You place avocado, coriander/cilantro, lime juice, chopped onion, garlic and jalapeno, and some salt in a bowl and mix it with your stick blender to required consistency.

Now, I don’t claim that this is the optimal way to make guacamole.
But it’s much better than using a seasoning mix. It’s just as easy, and you will get tastier guacamole with natural flavors. And you avoid any useless additives.
So please don’t buy this kind of product. Please?

Try this recipe instead. It requires a little more effort, but it will give you truly great guacamole.

Before we start, there is one thing I would like to mention. I know it’s obvious, but I’ll say it anyhow.
Only use ripe avocados.

Don’t try to make guacamole on any of those green and unripe ones. You will only be disappointed.
Why do I even mention this? Because I’ve been served such guacamole. And it’s not fun.

But how do you know that your avocado is ripe?

It can be a little hard to tell if an avocado is ripe. You don’t want any overripe either. Such avocados will only turn your guacamole into a brown disaster.
So how do you know if the avocado is ripe enough, but not overripe?
The first thing to check is the color. If it’s still very green is probably not ripe yet. Go for the ones with a dark brown color.

Take one in your hand and squeeze gently. If the avocado yields to the firm, gentle pressure you know it’s ripe. If it doesn’t yield but feels hard instead, it needs a few more days to ripe.

On the other hand, if it feels mushy and very soft, it’s probably overripe. Overripe avocados sometimes also have indents on the surface. It looks, well, a bit rotten.

You can speed up the ripening process by the way. Just place your avocado in a paper bag with an apple or banana for 2 to 3 days. Apples and bananas emit ethylene gas naturally, which speeds up the ripening process.

But let’s get back to the guacamole. Put white onion, garlic, salt, and jalapeño into a mortar and pestle. Add some coriander/cilantro leaves and mash everything into a paste.

Dice two avocados and mash them together with the paste to preferred chunkiness (real guacamole shall always be a bit chunky so don’t use the stick blender for this recipe).
Add some lime juice and make a taste test. Try to find a balance between the salt, heat from the chili, and the sourness from the lime. That’s it.
It’s not harder than that to make great guacamole.

If you want to add chopped tomatoes, please feel free to do that. But whatever you do, don’t add any sour creme or creme cheese. That must be considered to be a deadly sin, and you risk being lynched by an angry mob of Mexicans and other people who love this delicious dip.

But how much is enough? I choose to quote Jonas Cramby, a Swedish food writer to answer that question.

“If you are unsure of how much guacamole to do, it’s better to do too much than too little. You can’t make too much guacamole. It has never happened.”

Chunky guacamole

Avocado is one of the healthiest fruits around. So you can eat this dip with a clear conscience. It's also ridiculously easy to make and tastes delicious.

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Prep Time 15 mins

Total Time 15 mins

Servings 2 people

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 2 avocado Be sure that they are ripe.
• 1 tabelspoon white onion minced.
• 1 tablespoon jalapeño or more if you prefer more heat. Minced.
• 1 glove garlic minced
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 0.5/1 cup/dl coriander leaves/cilantro roughly chopped roughly chopped.
• 1-2 tablespoon lime juice

Instructions

 

• Mash onion, garlic, chili, coriander and salt into a paste. Use a mortar and pestle or a fork on a cutting board.
• Cut the avocado into pieces and add to the paste. Mash coarsely.
• Add lime juice to preferred taste.

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I always seem to have som leftover Ricotta cheese in my fridge. I buy it for some recipe but seldom use all of it. So I put the rest back into the fridge and try to convince myself that I will use it for something else, which I seldom do. So most of the times, I have to throw it away.
I hate that.
I hate all kind of food waste. But eating something that it has begun to grow green hairy things on is not an option.

But last weekend, I tested a recipe that will change everything.
No more wasted ricotta cheese, ever. These ricotta balls will put an end to that. You will also have use of those stale bread pieces that you, at best, might have been feeding the pigeons.
They’re so simple to make and contains ingredients that you usually have at home. You need ricotta cheese, some stale bread, egg, and some breadcrumbs. Then you can spice them with whatever you like. You don’t have to follow my recipe. All kind of herbs will do. I used parsley, Oregano, rosemary, and some lemon zest for this recipe. I think that you can consider the lemon zest as optional, but I do recommend it. It added som nice freshness. And next time I will definitely use basil.

You mix everything into a batter that you are shaping to balls. Then roll them in bread crumbs and fry them golden brown on medium heat in olive oil.
It’s as simple as that.

I served these ricotta balls as a side dish together with marinated grilled chicken and pesto. But I think they will do well with only a high-quality tomato sauce. I think I will try that next time. I always have some homemade tomato sauce in the freezer.

Ricotta balls spiced with herbs and lemon

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Prep Time 15 mins

Cook Time 6 mins

Total Time 21 mins

Servings 20 balls

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 2 / 60 ounces / gram stale bread
• 9 / 250 ounces / gram ricotta cheese
• 1 glove garlic
• 0.4 / 1 cup / dl finely chopped herbs Basil, rosemary, oregano, parsley. Whatever you like or have available.
• 1 egg
• Salt and black pepper
• Breadcrumbs for breading
• Olive oil for frying

Instructions

 

• Cut away any crusts from the bread and crumble it. Mix it with all other ingredients. Add more bread if the consistency is too loose. Add salt and pepper to your tasting.
• Roll into balls that you cover with breadcrumbs.
• Fry them in olive oil until they have got a nice golden color.
• Let them drain on kitchen towels

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