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Composition of pecorino cheese, courgettes and pine seeds

(Composizione di pecorino, zucchine e pinoli, a crudo)

  • 200 grams of Tuscan"pecorino" (sheep's milk cheese) cut in very thin slices
  • 4 early courgettes, the long type, very sweet and tasty at the same time, cut in very thin slices
  • 40 grams of shelled pine seeds
  • an emulsion composed by:
    5-6 spoons of olive oil
    the juice of a lemon
    half garlic clove chopped very finely together with 5-6 leaves of parsley and 5-6 of sweet marjoram
    a pinch of table salt
    all this stuff should be beaten until it reaches a certain consistency
Place the slices of courgette in a small tray, spreading them on this tray and season with 2-3 spoons of emulsion. On this first layer of courgette position the slices of "pecorino", well spread. Then scatter all the pine seeds and season uniformly with the remaining emulsion. Serve like a cold hors d'oeuvre or, with bigger quantities, like a unique integrated course.
The idea of this composition represents a dazzling flash of inspiration, while at the market.
The combination fresh vegetable / "pecorino" is due to a tactile sensation, the hand (very sensible instrument of the human body) that touches the fresh vegetable. It is a sort of spontaneous association, without any particular reason, probably an intuition.
This mix of flavours, properly integrated and linked with pine seeds and seasoning, produces an harmonic and dazzling result.
It is very original.
Many creative cooks, acclaimed by press and TV sometimes should learn from the simple things. If you link good things with good things, invariably you obtain good things and according to the ancient wisdom these are also good for our health.

A Giuseppe Alessi recipe
Translated by Gianna Toni
Picture by Kee-Ho Casati


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