Cipollina Catanese
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 30 + 23 minutes
Makes 6 cipollina Catanese pastries
- 550g/1.2lbs butter puff pastry (3 sheets), thawed in fridge
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 260g/9ozs brown or white onions, peeled
- 180g/6ozs tomato passata
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 6 slices ham (around 90g/3ozs)
- 200g/7ozs grated scarmoza cheese (or do 100g grated mozzarella, 100g smoked gouda)
- 1 egg, beaten for egg wash
Step 1 - First make the onion mixture as it has to cool. Mandolin the onions on the thinnest setting. Place a large pot or saucepan on medium heat and add 1 tablespoon of oil. Add the onions and stir lowering the heat so that the onions don't brown. Cook down for 20 minutes stirring to ensure that the onion softens all over adding more oil when needed. Add the passata and cook for another 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and set aside to cool (to hasten this, spread out on a large plate if you are short on time).
Step 2 - Line a large baking tray with parchment. Make sure that the puff pastry has completely thawed in the fridge. Take one 24x24cm/9.5x9.5inch sheet of puff pastry and cut it in half lengthways. Fold each rectangle over to create a square. Then roll it out gently to become a 15cm/5.9inch square.
Step 3 -Place the ham folded over in the centre. Top with 1.5 tablespoons of the cooled onion and tomato mixture and then 1/6 of the grated cheese. Fold over the opposite corners pinching them tightly so that they are secured. Then repeat with the other two opposite corners. Place on the baking tray and freeze your puff pastries for 10 minutes or refrigerate them for 25 minutes.
Step 4 -Preheat oven to 200C/400F fan forced. When the pastries are chilled, brush with the beaten egg all over and bake on parchment lined tray for 23 minutes or until golden.
Personal Note
Whenever I arrive in a new city I have a hit list of foods that I want to eat. I call it my "hit list". And on the list of things that Catania was famous for were these Cipollina Catanese, Iris donuts, Olivetti and granita with brioche for breakfast. And while I came away from my first day in Catania with a newfound love of Cipollina Catanese, I left Catania without one important thing.
I remember Monica's words echoing in my ears before I left where she reminded me, "Don't forget a change of clothes". She flies to Europe and within Italy a lot so while I usually do, I made sure to do it this time and while I usually check in my make up bag, I decided to take it in my carry on. My big flight was delayed half an hour and I was flying into Charles de Gaulle Airport. It's an enormous airport that is not designed for the number of passengers that fly through it. I waited for my luggage to come out and I knew I would be pushing it to get to check in in time but a lovely lady and fellow passenger on the flight helped me sort myself out and waved me goodbye wishing me luck. The walk from gate 2F to 2B is not an easy one, it takes about 20 minutes with luggage and that's when running and there is no shuttle bus or train to take between between gates. I had just made it before they closed the flight and I boarded one of two ITA airways flights to Milan and then Catania.
When I reach Catania I had a feeling of dread that perhaps my luggage hadn't made it. I checked my airtag and there was my bag, at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. The people at the lost luggage counter assured me that it would make it on the last 1am flight to Catania that night and that I would have my luggage in the morning. I woke up and checked my airtag again. My bag had moved, but only to Milan. I was getting all sorts of different messages. I was caught up in red tape and the incident numbers wouldn't work, nor would the websites they referred me to. I had no idea what to do. But I did have my trusty Airtag telling me when and where it was moving. And for the next four days while my luggage languished in different airports I watched it, willing it to come back to me. Occasionally I would make it beep in case someone near it had forgotten about it.
In the end it took ITA Airways 4 whole days to return my luggage to me. 1 day is fine, understandable even given the amount of bags they deal with but 4 days was definitely stretching the friendship!
So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever had your luggage lost before? And how long did they take to return it?