11/28/05 Fegatini alla Veneta - CookiesFromItaly.com

11/28/05 Fegatini alla Veneta from CookiesFromItaly.com

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"Ciao, Ciao e Ciao!" Welcome to another scrumptious recipe edition from Adriana's Italian Bakery!

This week's Italian recipes:
-Salmoriglio
-Tagliolini con Gamberi and Zucchini
-Fegatini alla Veneta

Try these hearty Italian dishes for the upcoming Christmas Holidays! Enjoy the complimentary news article report from "Only In Italy.com".

Enjoy the issue!

Yours Truly,
Adriana Ciccarello

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Recipe: Salmoriglio

Salmoriglio
Olive Oil, Lemon and Garlic Sauce

Ingredients:

1 oz. fresh lemon juice
2 cloves garlic
4 oz. olive oil
1 tsp. oregano

Directions:

Add lemon juice to a bowl, whip vigorously and add oil in a slow steady stream. Finish with minced garlic and oregano.

To achieve a good emulsion it is advisable to whip salmoriglio in a double boiler, or just combine all the ingredients, mix well and use as a sauce over grilled fish, meat and poultry. There are many variations, some replace oregano with parsley, others add crushed tomatoes and many replace lemon with vinegar.

That's it!

Recipe: Tagliolini con Gamberi and Zucchini

Tagliolini con Gamberi and Zucchini
Tagliolini with Shrimp and Zucchini

Ingredients:

1/2 pound fresh young zucchini cut into 1-inch by 1/4 inch strips
1 pound (about 30) medium shrimp, shelled, deveined and cut in half
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/8 teaspoon dried red pepper
Salt
3/4 pound dried white tagliolini or tagliatelle (egg pasta)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese plus extra to pass at the table.

Directions:

Put a large pot of water to boil while preparing the sauce.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic, let it cook until golden, about 30 seconds, and discard it.

Add the zucchini and cook for two minutes.

Add the shrimp, the pepper flakes, and some salt and cook for three minutes, tossing constantly, until the shrimp are bright pink and firm to the touch. Reserve 1/4 cup of the mixture for garnish. Set aside.

Salt the boiling water, add the pasta, and cook for 2 minutes or until "al dente". Drain well in a colander.

Toss the pasta with the zucchini-and-shrimp mixture, add the butter and the Parmesan, and toss well. Transfer to a heated serving platter dish and garnish with the reserved shrimp-and-zucchini mixture.

Pass around a small bowl of grated Parmesan cheese.

That's it!

Recipe: Fegatini alla Veneta

Fegatini alla Veneta

Ingredients:

600 grams of calves' liver in thin slices
500 grams thinly sliced onion
60 grams olive oil
30 grams butter
A bit of broth or meat sauce
Chopped parsley
Salt
Bread triangles fried in butter

Directions:

Place a frying pan with the oil and butter over a medium-low fire, as soon as they are hot add the parsley and onion, lower the fire, cover, and cook for three quarters of an hour.

Add the liver, increase the heat, adding a bit of the broth or mean sauce. The liver will be cooked after 5 minutes. Salt it and place it on a serving dish, decorating the edge with the bread triangles.

Serve it hot with mashed potatoes. Serves 4.

That's it!

Submit Your Thoughts

Only In Italy!

"Only In Italy" is a daily news column that translates & reports on funny but true news items from legitimate Italian news resources in Italy. Each story is slapped with our wild, often ironic, and sometimes rather opinionated comments. And now, for your reading pleasure:

Vatican's Exorcist Wrestles His Demons Every Day.

Los Angeles Times - Rome - May 2 - In a small room, well away from the street so that no one hears the screams, the Rev. Gabriele Amorth does battle with Satan. He is a busy man.

As the Vatican's top exorcist, Amorth performs the mysterious, ancient ritual dozens of times a week. A confused world engulfed in tragedy and chaos is turning increasingly to black magic, the occult and fortune-telling, he said, proof that the devil and his handmaidens are having a field day.

"These customs open the door to evil spirits and to demonic possessions," Amorth said. "Exorcism is God's true miracle."

The practice of exorcism -- driving demons and evil spirits from people or places -- has been experiencing a renaissance of late, from Europe to the Americas to Africa. In part, the rite owes its popularity to the need of people to believe that the devil is real, philosophers say, and that it is possible to get rid of him.

In Italy, the number of exorcists has increased more than tenfold in the past decade to about 300 nationwide; this year, one of the country's largest archdioceses established a special task force to handle the growing demand for devil detox.

Amorth is arguably the world's most famous practitioner of exorcism and certainly its greatest promoter. He co-founded the International Association of Exorcists, an organization of priests that meets in secrecy every two years, and he remains its president emeritus. Author of many books on the subject, he has had a hand in recruiting, training or inspiring most of today's exorcists.

Amorth said his calendar is always full.

"I have three this afternoon," he said recently.

With little prompting, he whipped out his equipment, sheathed in a weathered leather bag that is always at his side: a silver and wooden crucifix, an aspergillum for sprinkling holy water, and a container of baptismal oil. He acted out simple steps from the ritual, wrapping his purple priest's stole around the shoulders of a visitor and making the sign of the cross on her forehead. (All clear, he pronounced.)

In an exorcism, that opening is followed by prayers, anointment with the holy water and oil, and then a demand to the devil that he state his name and be gone. Anything can happen: If the person is possessed, and that's a rarity, he or she will often turn violent and fight the intervention, Amorth said.

"I've never been afraid of the devil," Amorth said. "In fact, I can say he is often scared of me."

Amorth, who turns 80 today, is a serious but not frightening figure. He has intense, piercing eyes encircled by dark rings, yet his features also relax easily into a smile and chuckle. Oval-faced, balding and dressed in a long black cloak, he's more Uncle Fester than Max von Sydow.

The devil is a stubborn foe, however, and no patient (as the possessed are called) is cured in a single exorcism, Amorth said. In fact, the "liberation" can take years -- but Amorth always wins, he insisted.

A case in point is Lucia, a 44-year-old mother of two. She had been undergoing exorcisms for 13 years, until her priest finally took her to Amorth.

Her symptoms were typical; the possessed experience a visceral, utter repulsion of all things holy. Each time the priest initiated the ritual, she would enter a trance, rant in languages she didn't know and show violent, superhuman strength. It was more than they could do to hold her down, her husband, Renzo, recalled. At one point, she vomited whole needles, her priest said, a symbol of diabolical torment.

"I know people say we are crazy," Renzo said. "You can't believe this stuff until you see it."

Amorth acknowledged that quite a few people -- including senior prelates in his church -- think all of this is more than a little nutty. It doesn't help, perhaps, that Amorth sees the devil in many places: A couple of years ago he fought to ban publication of the Harry Potter books because, he said, they teach sorcery to children.

"I know there are a lot of skeptics," he said. "The presence of the devil is often ignored."

The practice of exorcism in Christianity can be traced to at least the 2nd century. It enjoyed certain popularity through the ages but by the 18th century had fallen out of favor and was largely abandoned by the church, thanks in part to the Enlightenment, rationalism and advances in science.

The spirit of modernization possessed the 1962-65 Second Vatican Council, and church leaders frowned upon clearly medieval and, in the view of many, backward rites such as exorcism. In drafting the Second Council guidelines, emphasis was placed on good, hope and compassion, and discussion of evil and demons was minimized.

Then the pendulum began to swing the other way.

Exorcisms made a comeback, spurred in part by the rise of the Catholic charismatic renewal movement, a Pentecostal faction that believes in healing and prophecy, and by the favors of the current pope, who has frequently referred to Satan as a dangerous force in the world. Even the success of "The Exorcist," the 1973 horror classic starring a foreboding Von Sydow, which was re-released in 2000, helped stir interest. (Amorth loves the movie.)

Pope John Paul II is reported to have performed at least three exorcisms, most recently in 2000 when a 19-year-old woman burst into shouts, spewed vulgarities and writhed violently during a papal Mass at St. Peter's Square in Vatican City. He prayed over the woman for half an hour but failed to rid her of the demon, said Amorth, who also examined her.

For the first time since 1614, the Vatican in 1999 revised the rite of exorcism. Most prayers and exhortations were left largely unchanged, but the document included a new warning against confusing psychiatric illness with possession and urged priests to use "maximum circumspection and prudence" in deciding to exorcise. An exorcist must be so appointed by his bishop.

The growing popularity of these rituals, as well as of black magic and witchcraft, comes from the need of many people to believe that Satan is real, said University of Florence philosopher Sergio Moravia. It helps explain unspeakable tragedy and helps a suffering mankind cope.

But belief in the power of the devil to possess people, and of priests to free them, is too often a crutch that masks serious psychological and physiological disease, Moravia said.

"I don't think it's crazy. It's worse," he said. "An exorcism is the residue of a medieval practice completely devoid of any foundation of reason. It's a scam. You promise something to someone who is very sick and at best you offer a temporary cure."

Hmmm...It is a fact that the Vatican does perform exorcisms but are they really credible? Do any of our readers believe in being possessed?

Maybe the Vatican could really help liberate our bodies of evil possessions. Do you suffer any of these typical symptoms of being possessed?

-Demonic possessions: your teenage kids take permanent possession of your car 1 hour after they obtain their driver's license.

-If the person is possessed he/she will often turn violent and fight the intervention: any attorney that overcharges you any amount.

-Enter a trance: when you listen to the incoherent and moronic ramblings of your wife's friends.

-Rant in languages you didn't know: when your boss tells you to work overtime because he expects you to do it for free.

-Show violent & superhuman strength: when the property value of your 30-year mortgaged home loses 68% in 48 hours due to the 11 wonderful foreigners that moved next door.

If you suffer any of these symptoms, maybe you should set up an appointment with Rev. Gabriele Amorth at the Vatican.

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