It is difficult to find a typical and exclusive recipe from Vatican City, the typical food is the same as in Rome, but here I bring you a dish that despite being from Rome does have something to do with Vatican City, it was designed for the Pope Pius XII.
In 1932 Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli (the future Pius XII) used to eat at the Ostería del Colonatto (now La Cisterna).
One day Pacelli asked the chef of the restaurant, Cessaretto Simma, to prepare a special pasta dish to entertain some personalities that the cardinal had to receive. It had to be light but elegant at the same time and represent the Roman gastronomy.
The cook came up with this recipe based on the 'carbonara' sauce.
Instead of semolina pasta, egg pasta and specifically fettuccine are used, guanciale (Italian bacon) was replaced by ham and Pecorino cheese by Parmigiano, which is softer.
Another additional element to the Carbonara are the peas.
Ingredients:
- 300 gr Fettuccine
- 70 gr Butter.
- 1 Onion.
- 200 gr Ham.
- Salt.
- Pepper.
- 2 Eggs.
- 200 ml cooking cream.
- 100 gr Parmesan cheese.
- 200 gr Peas.
Method:
1- Melt some butter and sautée the onion until golden, (onion cut in little pieces).
2- Cut the ham into little cubes, add it to the pan and cook for 4 more minutes.
3- Add the peas, salt and pepper and cook 1 more minute.
4- Boil some water with a pinch of salt. Once the water is boiling add the fettuccine and cook for 10 minutes.
Get rid of the water and add the fettuccine to the pan with the peas+ham. Mix carefully.
5- Whisk the eggs , mix them with cream and grated parmesan cheese.
6- Turn off the heat, add the eggs + cream +cheese to the pan, mix carefully.
Coconut is a staple ingredient in Nauru, it is one of the few ingredients that you can find fresh. Coconut Mousse is one of the common desserts you can find in these islands, using coconut as main ingredient.
Ingredients (For 4-6 people):
- 500 ml coconut milk. - 65 g sugar. - 125 g grated coconut. - 6 sheets of gelatin or 1 sachet de gelatin powder. - 200 ml whipping cream - 50 g sugar for the cream. - 4 dessert spoon vanilla sugar. - 2 egg whites.
Method:
1- Mix coconut milk with sugar and grated coconut, stir well and heat. Be careful, it must not reach the boiling point.
2- Before it reaches the boilling point, turn off the heat and add the gelatin, stir until the mixture gets cold.
3- whip the cream , once it is whipped add vanilla sugar and stir gently to mix it well.
4- Whip the egg whites until you get a meringue, it is , you put the bowl upside down and it doesn't fall.
5- Add the whipped cream to the coconut milk bowl, mix with encircling movements.
6- Add the whipped whites , mix using encircling movements.
7- Put the mixture in the glasses you are going to use to serve the Mousse, put it in the fridge at least for 4 hours. 8- You can sprinkle some grated coconut on top.
Nauru is a tiny country, a little island with no space to grow vegetables or have cattle ,so the meat they eat comes from a can and the vegetables are frozen. The only fresh ingredients are coconuts and fish.
The marinated fish is breaded using coconut instead of bread. The mixture of fish and coconut is ideal. This recipe is easy and tasty.
Ingredients:
- 2 white fish steaks. - 1 lime. - 60 g grated coconut. - Salt. - Peppper. - Flour. - 1 egg. - 1 tablespoon coconut oil.
Method:
1- Put the fish in a dish, sprinkle salt and pepper both sides. Besides, sprinkle half a lime juice, let stand for 5 or 10 minutes.
2- Put flour in one dish, beaten egg in other dish and grated coconut in a third dish. Put the fish on the flour dish ,put the flour on both sides of the fish, then put the fish on the dish with the eggs, bath the fish both sides, then put the fish in the coconut dish and put coconut on both sides of the fish.
3- Put some coconut oil in a frying pan, fry the fish on a low heat until it gets golden.
Nauru is a country in Oceania, this country needs to import most of the vegetables, fruits and meat because the island only has 21 Km and the land is not capable of grow vegetables, no need to say, there is no space to have cattle.
Vegetables arrive frozen and the meat is canned!. One way to eat meat is the popular 'SPAM' , it is a mixture of different parts of pork meat.
One of the typical dishes is fried rice with 'SPAM' , omelette and frozen vegetables. It is a dish imported from China due to the great quantity of chinese inmigrants.
Ingredients:
- 2 eggs. - Rice. - 1 tablespoon coconut oil. - Salt. - 1/4 tablespoon pepper. - SPAM - Frozen vegetable. - 1/2 tablespoon fish sauce. - 1/4 tablespoon de sesame oil. - 1 tablespoon and a half soy sauce. - 2 clove of garlic.
Method:
1- Wash the rice and cook it at high heat adding double quantity of water and salt. Once it reaches boiling point put it on a low heat, cover and cook for 15-20 minutes. Let stand while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
2- whisk the eggs.
3- Pour some coconut oil in a frying pan, heat the oil and add the egg , make the omelette cooking 2 or 3 minutes every side.