The first time I tasted involtini was some months ago in one of the small restaurants in Little Italy in New York. We were thirsty and hungry and tired from all the strolling through the streets and the smell in the air around this restaurant made us stop, sit and wait impatiently for all the tasty homey food we ordered. I do not remember the name of the restaurant, but I remember very well the taste of the eggplant involtini - the thin slices of eggplants wrapped arond a ricotta and goat cheese stuffing. Here is my interpretation of the recipe:
Do you like the taste of Portobello mushrooms? I do. But most of all I like the name. Portobello.
Sounds like something interesting, trendy, exclusive, not for everyone. It reminds me on the vibrant Portobello road in London with its cosmopolitan atmosphere and colorful houses. The antiquity market held every Saturday and the Portobello film festival every August, Notting hill with its high quality housing and private parks. Fashionable place, fashionable name.
Now the naked truth. Name portobello is a marketing trick. Portobello is a mature form of crimini or white button mushrooms - plain unexpensive mushrooms with a trivial name. If a crimini has a diameter of cap more then 10 cm (4-6 inches), cap becomes a flatter appearance and mushroom is too big to be packaged as a crimini. That is the time Portobello arises - good tasting mushroom with a dense meaty texture. What a difference a name makes.
The power of marketing has always make me wonder how little things change the whole perception. One of the gourmet items born on the desks of the marketing specialists, hired to raise the sales of a product. Anyway, it is a really tasty mushroom. The taste is earthy and rich and vegetarians like it as a good meat substitute.
Served with ricotta cheese and buttery garlic, it is a good company for a glas of white wine.
The Greek word 'τύρι' means cheese. Tiro salata is a mixture of Feta and Myzithra (similar to ricotta) cheeses, olive oil and hot peppers. Sounds good and tastes good. This traditional spicy appetizer is served in nearly every restaurant in Northern Greece where we spend our summer holidays. It is a good meze for ouzo, beer or retsina and it is quick and easy to make at home. The hot banana peppers could be roasted or fresh. If you use roasted peppers, which are easier to incorporate into the cheese mixture, you should roast them on the grill until charred on the outside, then place in a plastic or bag and allow them to sweat until cool enough to handle. After that the skins could be easily removed and you'll be left with succulent roasted hot peppers. I use fresh peppers. The tiro salata does not look so homogenous, but it is fresh and tasty and I can feel better the spicyness.
