I came across this dish in Calabria, Southern Italy, while I was training at the Italian Culinary Institute there. Semolina flour is used extensively in Calabrian cooking. In fact, they make a rather simple pasta using nothing but fine semolina and water. This dish is, of course, more elaborate and yet the flavours are simple and there’s a lovely play of textures.
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Serves
4
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Cook Time
20m
Ingredients
- 250 gm semolina
- 100 gm spinach, blanched
- 30 gm processed cheese, grated
- 30 gm Parmesan, grated
- 20 gm walnuts
- 10 gm butter
- 5 gm salt
- 3 gm black pepper, crushed
- 1 l water
- 200 ml double cream
- 20 ml vegetable oil
- 1 red pepper, cut into chunks
- 1 yellow pepper, cut into chunks
Preparation
- In a pot, boil water with salt. Slowly whisk in the semolina, ensuring no lumps are formed.
- Cook for about 5 minutes or until it leaves the sides of the pan.
- Stir in the blanched spinach and processed cheese.
- Pour into a greased tray and allow it to set.
- Heat oil and butter in a pan. Sauté the red and yellow peppers until they are soft. You can add blanched asparagus tips, if you like.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- Once the semolina is set, cut it into squares.
- Heat a pan and grease generously with a mix of oil and butter. Brown the semolina squares until heated through.
- Warm the cream and stir in the Parmesan. Toast the walnuts.
- Spread out the bell pepper mix on half the semolina squares and place the remaining squares on top of the layered squares to make a sandwich.
- Serve with the Parmesan cream sauce and toasted walnuts.
Abhishek Basu is currently the Executive Chef of JW Marriott Mumbai. An alumnus of Army Institute of Hotel Management and Catering Technology, Bengaluru, and the Italian Culinary Institute, he was previously the Executive Chef at The Park New Delhi.
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