Florence, Tuscany.
If there is one thing about tourists' behaviour that should never change, it's their tendency to huddle together! It leaves acres of space free for everyone else.
In Florence, as elsewhere, a few hundred metres make all the difference.
Alone at last! And there you discover tiny little restaurants, with a Florentine speciality on the menu: "crostini di fegato". Liver croutons!
A superb starter for next to nothing.
– 300/350 g of chicken livers
(you can find ready-made trays of fresh livers at Super U, in the meat section of the fridge)
– 1 onion
– 1 knob of butter
– extra virgin olive oil
– sage (a few leaves)
– 2 anchovy fillets
– a handful of capers (30 g)
– half a glass of red wine
– a little stock (chicken, preferably)
– salt
– pepper
– bread to taste (slices of baguette, oiled and pan-fried)
▒ Action!
• Pour the olive oil into a frying pan to a depth of 1/2 cm (the Tuscans use terracotta pots)
• Add one large chopped onion (neither too fine nor too coarse)
• Add 2 sage leaves (or dried powdered sage) and a sprig of rosemary
• Meanwhile, clean and wash the livers well (remove the gall bladders if necessary)
• Cut the livers into pieces of 3 x 3 cm at most.
• Once the onions are well cooked, add the poultry livers
• Cook first with the lid on so the livers release their juices (a pinch of salt helps draw out more liquid), then add the half glass of red wine (or 1/4 glass of Muscat).
• Continue cooking for about 15 minutes with the lid off, adding a little chicken stock (a chicken stock cube in a little simmering water will do the job)
• Leave to reduce
• Add 30 g of butter.
• At the end of cooking, add the capers (30 g) and 5 anchovy fillets (I chop the capers and anchovy fillets very finely)
• Stir together in the pan
• Off the heat, add the pepper (which does not withstand heat)
Here are the livers, ready to be roughly chopped with the crescent blade or put through the blender, as you prefer.
To be precise, take the pieces of liver out of the pan and either blend them or chop them with the curved double-handled blade (the "croissant", in Italy). Or use the blender.
Either way, you need to leave very small pieces.
It's ready! Pour into a bowl and pop it in the fridge.
The flavour of this blend of onion, anchovy, capers and liver is unique. The sage and the wine add the finishing exclamation mark.
Keep in the fridge for two or three days at most.
Michel