The Sicilian Handwich

The Sicilian Handwich

 

I won't call this silliness, but I will say that this is a bit of fun for a Halloween evening... A nice severed hand of a Sicilian Mafia boss for supper! Now what do you think of that?

Of course this is just a sandwich, but it is packed with great flavors from The Old Country and is a lot of fun to make and to serve up to your friends! It's a Halloween snack that you canna refuse!

 

Come on, you've gotta hand it to me- this is kinda fun! And fun and originality are pretty handy ingredients when it comes to cooking- it's not just about truffles and caviar you know!

But all kidding aside, these are good, sensible ingredients put together in a pretty classic combination, giving you great Sicilian flavors and a smile to go with them... Which is my favorite thing to do!

 

To make 2 nice, man-sized sandwiches, you will need 1 roll of store-bought pizza dough, 1 small eggplant, 1 spring onion, 2 tablespoons of fresh ricotta, a good handful of cherry tomatoes, some hot and spicy salami, plenty of fresh mint and parsley, some dried oregano and rosemary, salt, pepper and olive oil.

 

There are all of the flavors that I love and that remind me of home in here and they all go so well together! Hot and spicy, tangy and fruity, creamy and refreshing... It's all here and in the combination... Its definitely all good!

 

Ok, first things first... Those hands! And they are actually really simple to cut out. Simply divide your dough into 4 equal pieces. Next, trim away a small, rectangular bit from the outside of each end and discard these... This gives you your "wrists".

Now, cut away a rectangle from the center, so that you have a piece missing from each of the 4 quarters... This hole in the middle gives you your "thumbs".

Now, cut three slits into each of the "hands", to give you the "fingers" and lengthen the cut where the thumbs begin. If you want, you can try to round off the ends of the fingers, but this really is not necessary... You will be just fine without it!

 

The best way to transfer the finished hands to your baking tray, is to cut each one out separately and to lay them into place, upside-down and then to remove the paper... The dough is much to soft for it to be possible to lift otherwise!

 

Brush lightly with olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt and dried rosemary and bake in a pre-heated oven, at the highest setting, for around 20 minutes until deep golden and crispy!

 

Whilst the bread is baking, dry-roast the eggplant slices until golden, sprinkling them lightly with salt and keeping a watchful eye on them the whole time... It will only take 6-7 minutes... Which will also give them a little time to cool down and moisten up again.

 

For the minty ricotta cream, simply chop up a good handful of mint and parsley, finely chop the spring onion, add a pinch salt, a grind of pepper, a splash of olive oil and stir everything together until you have a nicely blended paste, ready to spread!

 

By now those hands will be golden and brown and crispy and well deserving of a good round of applause!

 

Flip the bread upside down, so that the herbs and the salt are on the outside and spread generously with the blended ricotta cream.

 

Next, add the salami and golden and delicious eggplant slices... And you are halfway to making a sicilian sandwich!

 

Next come the cherry tomatoes, salt and pepper and a good sprinkle of dried oregano... Delicious!

 

 
And last but not least... On goes the lid!

 

I think this deserves a second round of applause!