Cooking on vacation:
ziti with ricotta
I continue my holiday alternating the Greek cuisine of the local trattorias with my home cooking; the only rule I try to follow is to prepare as much as possible with local products.
Using them as valid substitutes for traditional ingredients.
This time: ziti with ricotta!
For pasta there is no problem: there are excellent pasta factories that offer a quality durum wheat product (sure that if you have ever eaten pasta in Greece you will have been sick; but it is a problem of different culinary habits: even the best spaghetti of Gragnano after twenty minutes of cooking are not very appealing to our palate!).
Among other things, the ziti are at the base of a traditional Cretan dish: the pastitsio - παστίτσιο, whose name easily brings us back to the Venetian period of the island!
For ricotta, I use a local product (among other things, a small dairy in the village) mizithra - μυζήθρα, a traditional Cretan cheese prepared with whey and unpasteurized milk of sheep and / or goat; it is both fresh and seasoned, to be grated.
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Put the pasta to cook (six to seven minutes are enough) ...
... I mixed the mizithra with pepper, graviera and olive oil; then adding a little cooking water.
Quickly drained the pasta, so as to allow the ziti not to dry completely, I mixed it in the bowl with the cheese.
And then immediately on the table, nice hot!
Buon appetito!
ADVICES AND NOTES:
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- La mizithra it is fresh in a more or less salty version; the sweeter one is used, mixed with honey, to fill small calzoncelli (kalitsounia - καλιτσούνια) served as an appetizer or snack.