Spidinis Recipes

CLASSIC SPIEDINI RECIPE (ITALIAN STYLE KEBABS)

Steps:

• For the Sauce: Add the olive oil and garlic to a medium-size saucepot over low heat and cook for 2 to 3 minutes just until you smell it.
• Add in the crushed tomatoes, lemon juice, and ½ lemon and cook over low heat for 20-30 minutes. Finish with oregano, salt, and pepper.
• For the Spiedini: Add the olive oil to a bowl and set aside. In a separate bowl mix together the breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper until combined.
• Taking 1 slice of beef at a time, completely coat it in the olive oil, and then dredge it in the breadcrumbs until coated.
• Roll the beef up and set it aside on a cookie sheet tray. Slice it in half if it's too big.
• To Skewer: Add on some of the breaded beef followed up with a ½ bay leaf, onion, peppers, and loose Italian sausage and repeat until the 12" skewer is full, and then repeat until all of the other skewers are full and all of the ingredients have been used. Set them on a cookie sheet tray.
• Add a small amount of olive oil to a flat top griddle or a large cast-iron skillet over medium heat and sear the skewers, in batches if need be, for 2-4 minutes per side or until browned and cooked throughout.
• Serve the spiedini alongside the amogio sauce and garnish with optional chopped fresh parsley.

BEEF SPIEDINI

Steps:

• Thinly slice steak widthwise into 5-in. strips. In a large resealable plastic bag, combine the marinade ingredients. Add beef; seal bag and turn to coat. Refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight, turning occasionally., Combine the bread crumbs, cheese, parsley, salt, garlic powder and pepper. Transfer half of the mixture to a shallow bowl; set aside. For filling, add marinara sauce to the remaining crumb mixture and mix well. Spread 1 teaspoon filling over each beef strip and roll up into pinwheels. Coat with reserved crumb mixture., Cut onion into 1-in. pieces and separate into layers. Thread a piece of onion, a sage leaf and a beef pinwheel onto a soaked wooden appetizer skewer; repeat. Drizzle lightly with oil and place on a greased 15x10x1-in. baking pan., Broil 3-4 in. from heat for 5-7 minutes or until beef reaches desired doneness, turning once.

SPIEDINI

Steps:

• Preheat an outdoor grill to medium heat.
• Bring a pot of water to a simmer. Gently poach the sausages for 8 minutes. Remove the sausages from the water and allow to cool.
• Alternately skewer the bread and the sausage onto the rosemary branches.
• Grill skewers until bread is toasted and sausage is browned, about 7 to 10 minutes, brushing with olive oil if necessary. Serve immediately while warm or at room temperature.

SPIEDINI ALLA ROMANA

Steps:

• Heat oven to 200 degrees. In a large skillet, heat 1/2 cup olive oil and enough vegetable oil to reach one inch in depth to 375 degrees. Place a piece of bread on work surface. Top with 2 slices mozzarella. Cover with a second slice of bread. Repeat with remaining bread and cheese to make a multi-layered sandwich. Cut sandwich into four equal quarters, and place a 10-inch skewer through the center of each quarter. With a serrated knife, gently remove the crusts and discard.
• Whisk together eggs, milk, salt, and pepper, and pour into a shallow baking dish. Dredge sandwiches in flour, and shake off excess. Dip in egg mixture turning to coat on all sides. Transfer to hot oil. Fry, turning occasionally, until golden on all sides. Drain on a paper towel-lined baking sheet, and place in oven to keep warm.
• In a medium skillet, heat remaining 2 teaspoons olive oil over medium-high heat. Add garlic, and cook until golden. Add anchovies, and cook stirring until they almost disintegrate. Stir in white wine, lemon juice, and capers. Bring to a vigorous boil, and continue to boil until reduced by half.
• Stir parsley into reduced sauce. Remove skewers from sandwiches, and serve with sauce spooned lightly over sandwiches. Garnish with parsley sprigs.

SPIEDIES

Steps:

• Make the marinade: Whisk together all the ingredients in a large bowl.
• Add the meat to the marinade and cover tightly, or place into large, re-sealable plastic bags and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours (or 10 to 12 hours for chicken).
• Build a fire in your grill, leaving about 1/3 of grill free of coals, or set a gas grill to high.
• Remove the meat from its marinade and thread onto metal skewers, or wooden ones that you have soaked in water for 30 minutes or so. The chunks can be placed quite close together. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
• When coals are covered with gray ash and fire is still quite high (you can hold your hand 5 inches above coals for only a couple of seconds), place the skewers of meat directly over the flames. Allow the meat to cook, undisturbed, for approximately 3 to 4 minutes, then use kitchen tongs to turn them over and repeat on the other side. Continue turning the skewers every couple of minutes until the meat is deeply crisp at its edges, and cooked entirely through, approximately another 5 to 7 minutes. (Remove them to the cool side of the grill if they begin to burn, and cover the grill to allow them to smoke-roast until finished; this is much less likely to happen on a gas grill.)
• Allow the spiedies to rest on a cutting board for a few minutes, then remove the meat from the skewers onto cut hero rolls or a plate. Serve with hot sauce on the side.

SPIEDIES

Steps:

• Place the cubed chicken into a large resealable plastic bag or container, add the olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice, salt, garlic, garlic salt, oregano, garlic salt, mint, basil, and black pepper. Seal the container and shake until combined. Refrigerate for 1 to 3 days, shaking the container to turn the meat every 6 to 8 hours.
• Preheat an outdoor grill for medium-high heat and lightly oil grate. When you are ready to cook, remove meat from the marinade and place on skewers.
• Place the skewers on the preheated grill and cook, turning every three minutes until cooked through and the internal temperature of the meat reaches 170 degrees F (75 degrees C). Be careful not to overcook or the meat will be very dry. Serve the grilled meat on Italian bread or hot dog rolls.

SPIEDIES MARINADE

Steps:

• Combine oil, wine, lemon juice, vinegar, salt, pepper, thyme, oregano, tarragon, red pepper flakes, and cayenne pepper in a bowl. Stir in onion and garlic. Add chicken cubes last; coat thoroughly.
• Pour mixture into a resealable freezer bag, making sure there is as little air as possible in the bag. Wrap bag in a paper towel and slide it into another resealable bag so that the zippers are at opposite ends. Refrigerate, flipping over every 12 hours, for 2 to 3 days.
• Soak wooden skewers in water. Thread the chicken cubes through the skewers, discarding marinade.
• Preheat an outdoor grill for medium-high heat and lightly oil the grate. Grill the chicken skewers, flipping halfway, until juices run clear, 8 to 10 minutes.

SPIDINI'S

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Take a 2-ounce piece of meat and dip in oil on both sides then press in bread crumbs to coat on both sides. Roll firmly and place in an oiled 2-inch deep casserole dish side by side with sides touching. When all are rolled, place one bay leaf and a half of a onion ring in between each rolled spidini. Place dish uncovered in the oven for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and let sit. Cut spidini's into bite size portions discarding the bay leaves.

CHICKEN SPIDINI

Steps:

• Wash chicken and cut each breast into 8 pieces (cubes or chunks).
• Mix olive oil with lemon, fresh diced basil, garlic, red pepper flakes, black pepper and salt.
• Reserve 1/4 cup of oil mixture.
• Marinate chicken in remaining oil mixture in the refrigerator overnight.
• --NEXT DAY-- Bring water to a boil for pasta.
• Drain the chicken and roll the chunks in a mixture of breadcrumbs, dried basil, oregano and Parmesan cheese.
• Skewer and put chicken on the grill, turning until done; or fry the chicken in olive oil until browned on all sides.
• Toss the cooked fettuccine noodles or penne with the reserved oil mixture and serve.

SPEDINI

Steps:

• Pound steak with a meat hammer to tenderize. Brush pounded steak with olive oil and crushed garlic. Stack and cover with plastic wrap and set aside.
• Slice raw bacon, fry and crumble, set aside.
• Mix the breadcrumbs, parmasan cheese, garlic and olive oil in a small bowl.
• Top each piece of steak with the breadcrumb mixture, sprinkle with some bacon and a slice of provolone cheese. Roll and close with toothpicks.
• Fry the spedini's in olive oil to brown.
• Pour 1/2 the marinara sauce in the bottom of a casserole dish. Place spedinis on sauce and pour the remainng sauce over the top.
• Bake 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until hot and cooked through.
• Great served over Angel Hair pasta.

LAMB AND ROSEMARY SPIEDINI

Steps:

• Prepare barbecue (medium-high heat).
• Whisk lemon juice, olive oil, rosemary and grated lemon peel in glass pie dish to blend. Sprinkle lamb with salt and pepper; add lamb to marinade and toss to coat. Let mixture stand 10 minutes, tossing occasionally.
• Using slotted spoon, transfer lamb to bowl. Add onion, green bell pepper and yellow bell pepper to marinade in pie dish and toss to coat. Thread lamb, onion, and bell pepper pieces alternately on 4 skewers. Grill until onion and peppers are slightly charred and lamb is cooked to desired doneness, brushing once with marinade, about 12 minutes to medium. Transfer lamb spiedini to plates and serve.

SPIEDINI (LIDIA'S) RECIPE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 200 degrees F or lowest setting. Using eight sliced of bread for each, make two layered sandwiches alternating bread and mozzarella. Cut and fit the mozzarella slices as necessary to cover the bread more or less evenly. The cheese shouldn't overhang the bread slices, as the crusts will be trimmed off before cooking. Imagine each sandwich cut into four squares, and place a sturdy wooden skewer through the center of each imaginary square. With a serrated knife, cut off the crust on all four sides, then cut the sandwich into four squares with a skewer at the center of each square. Press gently as you cut, to make nice, compact sandwiches. Repeat with the other sandwich. You now have eight multilayered sandwiches, each on a skewer. Pour enough vegetable oil into a wide, deep skillet - cast iron is perfect - to fill it by 1 1/2 inches. Heat over medium heat until the oil registers 350 degrees F on a deep-frying thermometer. Line a baking sheet with a double thickness of paper towels and set aside. Meanwhile, in a shallow wide bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, salt, and pepper until thoroughly blended. When the oil comes to temperature, dredge each skewered square in the flour, being sure to coat all sides lightly but well. Working with half the floured skewers at a times, dip them in the egg mixture to coat on all sides. Don't soak the bread in the egg, just coat it thoroughly. Let some of the excess egg drip back into the bowl, and gently slip the squares into the oil. Fry, turning as necessary with a pair of long tongs, until golden brow on all sides, about 4 minutes. Drain the sandwiches on the paper-towel-lined pan and place in th