Wednesday, April 08, 2009

ANOTHER POST FOR POSTERITY: NONNIE’S FUCAZZO.


And now for another installment of our continuing series.

This classic Nonnie recipe is for Fucazzo (pronounced, “foo-GOTS”)—an Italian onion and anchovy pie that, oddly enough, was one of my childhood favorites.

Nonnie made her Fucazzo in the form of a calzone—spreading the ingredients over a layer of pizza dough, covering it with a top layer of dough and brushing it with egg yolk before baking.

My riff on this dish treats it as a pizza; using the always-fabulous Boboli pizza crusts. I also modified Nonnie’s original by adding chile peppers, fresh herbs, goat cheese and a drizzle of extra-virgen olive oil.

However you choose to spin it, the soul of Fucazzo is the jiu-jitsu between the sweetness of onions and tomato sauce vs. the brininess of anchovies and oil-cured black olives.

Just don't eat a slice before a first date.

NONNIE'S FUCAZZO

1 Boboli Pizza Crust
2 Large Onions
5 oz. Tomato Sauce (just eyeball it)
Oil-cured Black Olives (remove pits)
Anchovies
Fresh Parsely
Fresh Basil
Chopped Green Chiles (Jalapeno or Serrano)
Goat Cheese (optional)
Salt & Pepper
Extra Virgen Olive Oil

Step 1:  Saute onion in some olive oil until soft and translucent.
Step 2:  Add salt, pepper and tomato sauce to onions.  Let simmer a few minutes.
Step 3:  Brush Boboli with olive oil.
Step 4:  Spread onion mixture onto Boboli, leaving a 1 inch border.
Step 5:  Arrange anchovies, chiles, olives and dollops of goat cheese atop of onions.
Step 6: Place directly on bottom rack of 450F oven and bake for 12 minutes.
Step 7:  Remove from oven.  Drizzle with extra virgen olive oil and top with fresh herbs.

4 Comments:

At 9:20 AM, Blogger The Big Finn said...

"...remove pits"

Wow!!! I can tell you're back in America, AND an attorney!

 
At 1:54 PM, Blogger Sal DeTraglia said...

Ha! I didn't think of it that way. When Nonnie recited this recipe to me, she mentioned that *her* mother left the pits in the olives--so eaten a slice of Fucazzo was like an obstacle course.

I've also noticed that the human tooth becomes a sand castle after age 35 (thus, my four crowns). De-pitification is probably a "best practice" regardless of any emotional trauma caused by one's great grandmother.

 
At 7:34 PM, Blogger Frank said...

The world would never be the same without Southern Italian Nonnies. :)

 
At 12:53 AM, Blogger Di Mackey said...

Oh yum.

And thanks for the word on the crowns. That explains the snapping of points in recent years.

 

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