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Cutting and peeling
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| The greatest chefs consider knives to be the most important tool in the kitchen. In fact, the key to the success of a recipe lies precisely in the way the ingredients are cut, as this affects the cooking and therefore the taste: the short guide below describes the art of cutting, and how to get the best results from each type of food. |
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Whether preparing a dadolata (diced vegetables) for a minestrone, or peeling and chopping tomatoes for a simple sauce, we should remember that vegetables cut into pieces of the same size will cook more evenly and the appearance of the final dish will be more attractive. The most suitable knife for cutting vegetables properly is a kitchen knife: this has a slightly curved cutting edge and a wide, rigid blade, and is most suited to chopping, slicing, dicing; a small vegetable knife is more suited to peeling and slicing small vegetables, or for digging out potato eyes.
Onions. A well chopped onion lies behind every good soffritto; for perfectly cut onions without too many tears, peel the onion leaving the root on, cut it in half vertically. Place each half on the chopping board and, with the flat side downwards, slice into it lengthways stopping just before the root; then slice horizontally: by holding the slices together the gases that cause the tears will not escape into the air.
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Round vegetables like eggplant or potatoes should be cleaned and cut into fairly thick slices, then into strips and finally diced; long vegetables like courgettes should be cut lengthways and then into smaller cubes. To dice celery, having removed the leaves and made the stalk even all the way down, remove the stringy part using a potato peeler. Then place the stems on the chopping board and cut vertically into three or four pieces of equal width, slicing the widest part, closest to the base, into shorter strips so that they are the same width as the other pieces. Then cut the strips widthways into little cubes.
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JULIENNE CUTTING (FOODS CUT INTO THIN, MATCHSTICK STRIPS) |
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Easy to make using a kitchen blender with a special cutting tool, julienne vegetables are often used in pasta salads, as the thin coloured strips add a fun and fanciful touch to the dish. To cut a carrot julienne-style, cut off the top with a vegetable or kitchen knife; peel it and cut off a thin strip so that the carrot sits firmly on the chopping board, then divide horizontally into 5 cm strips, from which you then cut thin matchsticks lengthwise.
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The most suitable knife for slicing tomatoes is a vegetable knife, or a knife with a serrated blade. As with all other round vegetables, tomatoes can also be cut in half lengthways and then the two halves placed flat side down to be divided into quarters, and then each quarter in half again. A quick method for peeling tomatoes without scalding yourself involves dropping them into boiling water, inside a steamer basket. After one minute, remove the basket and run the tomatoes under cold water: this will cause the skin to come away, making them easier to peel. If you like vegetable sauces, you may also have to peel peppers: to remove the skin perfectly, scorch the peppers in a hot oven, turning every so often. When the skin starts to swell, remove the peppers from the oven and place in a paper or plastic bag until cooled: this way the skin will come away easily without breaking.
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Even though meat is usually cut by the butcher, you may find yourselves having to bone small cuts, such as chicken breast, for use in ragouts. For a perfectly filleted chicken breast, place the chicken with the skin downwards on the chopping board. Hold the breast by the ends and pull to remove the breast and the clavicle. Having found the wishbone with your finger, remove it with a boning knife; use the tip of the blade to cut the meat from both sides of the sternum, then remove it. Remove the meat from the ribs, following the outline of the bones and cutting as close as possible; then trim the breast as required by the recipe.
Fish. Filleting fish means separating the fleshy part from the bones to obtain the fillets: you will get two from oval fish like trout and four from flat fish (sole, turbot). To fillet a sole or other flat fish, place the fish on a chopping board and define the fillets by cutting behind the gills, along the tail and around the edge with the tip of a filleting knife. Make a long cut down the backbone from the head to the tail; holding the knife flat, slide it under the flesh from the backbone; then remove the first fillet from the bones, moving the knife delicately. Then remove the second fillet, turn the fish around and make another long cut along the backbone, and repeat the above operations to obtain two more fillets. The same technique can be used to remove the scales from salted anchovies for puttanesca sauce, once they have been washed to remove the salt.
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