Makes 1750 ml bottle

For the dough:

• 2 kilos whole Roma tomatoes
• 2 cups water
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 garlic clove, whole
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 large bunch of basil (approx. 30 leaves)
• 2 tsp salt, or to taste

Place tomatoes and water in a large saucepot. Bring to boil, then reduce to a simmer, covered, cooking until the tomatoes pop open and break up (approx.. 20 min.). Then, keeping the lid on, continue to simmer until a rough tomato puree-type consistency is reached.
Pass this rough puree through a food mill to separate the skins from the tomato. In another large saucepot, place the oil, onion and garlic (everything at room temperature or cold to start) and sauté until the onion is softened and the oil has taken on the onion’s juices. Then add the skinless tomato puree and the basil and continue cooking until a soft puree forms (not too stiff, you want this to be a tomato sauce not a tomato paste). Add salt and remove garlic clove. Store in a bottle or a jar. If you have a proper corking machine or if you following canning procedures for shelf-life, you can store outside of the refrigerator. Otherwise, store in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Add to 1 liter of water-melon juice 70 grams of starch and 150 grams of sugar (depending on the sweetness of the melon).
Slowly bring to the boil, from the first bubble count up to sixty (my mother taught me this) and then turn off.
When the jelly cools down sprinkle with a mixture of grated pistachios, dark chocolate and "zuccata".

For the dough:

• 500 grams of flour 00
• 200 grams of cold butter
• 200 grams of sugar
• 5 egg yolks
• a smidgen of bicarbonate of soda
• 4 tablespoons of whole milk
• a pinch of salt
• lemon zest

Mix the flour with the butter. Add the sugar, the eggs and all the remaining ingredients. Remember that the dough should not be overly kneaded by hand, to avoid that the temperature rise too much which would damage the dough's friability. Allow to rest for about an hour in the refrigerator before using. When I prepare the dough I always double the amounts and deepe-freeze the quantity I will not be using. It can be kept in the freezer easily for 2-3 months.
When the dough is ready, prepare the jelly which should be lukewarm when poured over it.
Roll out the dough and lay it over a baking-pan, which has been previously covered with a thin layer of butter and flour (instead of flour, I use breamcrumbs... I prefer it). Make little holes in the dough and pour over it the jelly.
Cover the jelly with stips of the left-over dough.
Place in the oven at 180 degrees for approx. 35-40 minutes. Let the pie cool off thoroughly, otherwise the jelly will not harden. Sprinkle the surface of the pie with mashed pistachios before serving.

Our tuna is different, our tuna, I dear say, is the best! Until few years ago Japoneese buyers where flying all the way to Sicily to buy our red bloody fleshy tuna. Now the fishing of tuna is alowed only in certain quantities and for only a certain period of the year which goes from mid May to mid June. So this is the period when new bottarga comes out, ventresca is salted and jarred, tuna it self is canned and I love making pasta with the so called "buzzonaglia" the black part of the tuna which normally is not used. Tuna is like a pork, nothing is ever wasted!
At the Vucciria market I have Andrea, who is my "tuna pusher" as well as Salvatore who usually cans sardines but at this time of the year he cans ventresca and Pinuzzo who makes the best bottarga you can find in Palermo.
The way I can tuna was taught me by a fisherman from Porticello, a small village near Palermo and it really works!
The most important thing is to cook the tuna in the right amount of salty water wich is 10% salt of the total amount of water. If you use 2 liters of water to boil the tune you shall add 200 gr of salt plus a little like 20/40 gr. total 240 gr of salt in 2 liters of water. And the amount of water you use should be enough to cover the tuna in a big sauce pan.
This year I bought from Andrea a whole tuna of 30 kg. Wich means I canned around 25 kg of tuna (discarting head and bones, which make a delicious ragu!).
The process is fairly simple: you chop the tuna in big peaces, you put them in a large sauce pan covered with water (measuring the quantity of water) then you add sea salt (always sea salt, please!!!) and brig it to boil. Consider 1 hour from the moment it starts boiling, then turn of the fire, strain the tuna and let it rest covered with a cloth for 24 hours. The next day discart skin and bones and black parts (buzzonaglia) and place it in jars. Fill the jars with good seed oil (I don't use olive oil for this but eventually once you open the jar to eat the tuna, strain it from the seed oil and drizzle with olive oil). Then seal the jars by placing them in the suace pan covered with water, bringing the water to boil and from then boiling the jars for half and hour. Let the jars sit in the water until it cools down, then store the jars in a cool dark spot of the kitchen.

I know the title is not very comprehensible but the way you call this dish made with those little octopus is also the way you cook them. "Murati" means they are "burried" like behind a wall, basically they are cooked with a lid on. Closed up! The secret to make this recipe delicious is:
a) that the octopus must be very small and with a double row of suction cups (who on earth told me that google is a good translator!!!!! "suction cups is horrific!), any way you understand what i mean,  if you have ever seen an octopus you know you can find two kinds of octopuses: those with a single row of s.c. and those with a doubel row of s.c. The small ones when they are cought between may or june have a double row of bla bla bla... and we call them "maiolini" which means from may (Maggio) and they are very tender.
Going back to the recipe, the second secret is getting a very very good tomato sauce! Who ever came to Case Vecchie knows that my tomato sauce is what i call "heavy drug" since once you get used to it...

Here is the recipe:

• 1/2 midum size red onion finely diced
• 1 clove of garlic (not diced, i keep it whole so that you can discart it before eating)
• 1 kl fresh maiolini octopus
• 3 cups tomato sauce
• 1 cup white wine

Sauté onion and garlic and add the octopus, once the tentacles are nice and curly add the wine, let it evaporate then add the tomato sauce and cook for 20 minutes with the lid on.  serve warm with some basmati rice or pilaf rice on the side.

The first time I was making my own yogourt I didn't know that one of the guest who was peacefully observing me while I was straining the yogourt in cheese cloth, was named Skiros and, as you can imagine, he was from Greece!
When his wife asked him if this was the way his mother used to make yogourt at home, I suddenly realized I was in danger... and stared waiting for his response. Luckely he nodded a smyling yes! 
Yogourt is really very easy to make, when I was very young I remember it was very cool and "left minded" to do your own yogourt at home. Friends used to come over with strange little white worms as a gift that transformed milk into yogourt, an acid and quite loose yogourt  which i didn't particulary like also because i was always afraid of ingesting one of those miraculous little worms, white, but still worms! 
Now, yogourt recipe has progressed, I made my starter buying a good yogourt in the supermarket, the italian brand is Parmalat, I dont know wich could be a good brand in another country, you shall have to try.
You need to use 120 gr of yogourt for 2 liter of milk (whole or skimmed, as you wish).
bring the milk to boil, let it cool down to 48/50 degrees celtius (around 120 F), then add the yogourt and mix it in. Place the milk and yogourt in a sealed container and cover it with a wool blanket (real wooll not pile or other plastic stuff). Let it sit for 8 hours, then remove the blancket and put into the refrigerator for at least 12 hours. Strain in cheese cloth and store in a jar, it will last a week. 
The yogourt with the honey I harvest from the black bees of Case Vecchie (a new post will soon come on those) is now part of my every day diet as well as a yogourt  salade dressing which works lovely with fresh radicchio, spinach and rughetta (can somebody tell me why it is called "arugola" in the US).

Here is the recipe:

• 2 tbs fresh whole milk yogourt
• 2 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1 tbs olive oil (extra vergin ca va sans dire!)
• 1 tsp wine vinegar (please not balsamic!)
• a few leafs of fresh pepper mint finely chopped
• salt and pepper

Ingredienti

• Due chili di pomodoro maturo (qualsiasi pomodoro purchè sia ben maturo) lavato,
e tagliato in quarti, mantenendo la buccia.
• 1 cetriolo
• 1 peperone
• 1 cipolla preferibilmente rossa (sono più dolci e saporite di quelle bianche)
• sale quanto basta
• 100 ml di aceto di vino
• 50 ml di olio d'oliva

Preparazione
Mettete in un mixer i pomodori, quando saranno tritati e liquefatti aggiungete il peperone crudo e il cetriolo con la buccia, la cipolla. Tritate tutto insieme e quindi condite con l'aceto, l'olio, il sale. Assaggiate e aggiustate secondo il vostro gusto. Quindi passatelo con un setaccio a maglia fine. Mettete in frigo e servite ben freddo, eventualmente accompagnato con crostini di pane.

Per 6 persone

• 1 cipolla rossa finemente tritata
• Olio d'oliva
• 750 gr di fave fresche, sbucciate e senza la pelle
• 1 l. acqua calda
• 1 piccolo pugno di finocchietto selvatico (se si vuole) tritato e già sbollentato
• Sale e pepe
• 100 gr di didatilin

Preparazione