The European cookbook for American homes (from Italy, Spain, Portugal and France)

Soak the salted anchovies over night, rub off skin, remove bones by stripping each anchovy carefully down the center. Dry them and place in salad bowl. Add all other salad ingredients. Thoroughly beat together the olive oil, vinegar, sugar and pepper to taste. Pour the dressing over the anchovies and let stand 30 minutes, turning and making sure that each anchovy absorbs all the dressing it can hold. Then lay out the anchovies on a platter in criss-cross design, and pour the remaining dressing over them. Add a little clear green olive oil and garnish with eggs, lettuce and water cress, piling up beets, capers and pepper in contrasting colors. Serve with crusty Italian bread. Anchovies bottled in oil may be substituted, California pilchards or any sardines, but the salad will not be as tasty as it is when made of the salted anchovies shipped from Italy in huge tins and sold cheaply in every Italian quarter. DRESSING FOR FISH AND SEA FOOD SALADS i slice stale bread Yolks of 2 hard-boiled eggs 1 garlic clove, crushed 12 ripe olives, pitted Vinegar 1 teaspoon minced parsley 2 dozen pinenuts 1 cup olive oil 2 tablespoons capers Salt 4 anchovy fillets Pepper Cut crusts from bread, rub it with garlic and sprinkle with sufficient vinegar to moisten. Put through a food chopper, using finest knife, with pinenuts, capers, anchovy fillets, egg yolks, olives and parsley. Work to a paste with a wooden spoon, then pass through a coarse sieve. Stir in olive oil until all used. Season to taste with salt and pepper and more vinegar if desired. Beat until thoroughly mixed. This dressing is suitable for a salad of this type. Equal amounts of flaked cooked fish and finely-cut cooked vegetables moistened with French dressing, perhaps with the addition of anchovies and cooked shrimp. Garnish elaborately with cooked vegetables, green salad, tomatoes and hard-boiled eggs. CROSTINI OF CHICKEN LIVERS {Crostini di Fegatini de Polio) 12 chicken livers Salt and pepper 2 tablespoons fat ham, minced Olive oil 1 scallion, minced 2-3 mushrooms Yz teaspoon minced parsley Meat broth, heated l/2 small carrot, minced 1 teaspoon bread crumbs l/z celery stalk, minced 1 teaspoon lemon juice Sippets of dry bread Carefully remove galls from livers. Make a bed of ham and vegetables in sauce pan. Season; sprinkle with oil and simmer. Lay livers and mushrooms on top and simmer 5 minutes. Take up mushrooms and livers, mince, and return to pan. Moisten with broth and simmer 2 minutes, stirring once or twice. Add crumbs, and lemon juice, and mix well, adding a little more broth if necessary. Serve on just enough bread sippets to absorb the sauce. The French canape sometimes makes its appearance in Italian hotels under the name of Crostini. But the true Crostini is an open hot sandwich of more substantial form. It takes the place of the antipasto, or hors d'oeuvres, is included in the division of the dinner termed Principii, and is served after the soup. PICKLED MUSHROOMS 1 pint small button mushrooms 1 blade mace, broken 1 teaspoon salt 1 garlic clove, quartered 1 teaspoon peppercorns Vinegar Rub mushrooms clean with a cloth wet in vinegar, and cut off stems. Pack in a glass jar, scattering in salt, peppercorns, mace and garlic. Cover with vinegar, close jar and set away for 2 days. Serve with Italian antipasto.