It's not unusual to find chicken livers in Italian cuisine, especially in and around Florence. Yet this giblet isn't limited to Tuscany. This recipe draws inspiration from Sicily, where chicken livers often comprise ragù. Here, they're served a bit more simply. They're cooked with butter then set aside before finishing a preparation of casarecce, loosely rolled short pasta typical of the island, in a brandy sauce with raisins and pine nuts.
Casarecce Pasta With Chicken Livers Recipe
Serves 4
Skills Easy
Time 30 minutes
Ingredients:
12 oz. short pasta type caserecce
3 medium-sized carrots
5 oz. chicken livers
⅓ cup raisins
¼ cup brandy
⅓ cup pine nuts
1 onion
butter
thyme
salt
pepper
Method:
Soak the raisins in brandy.
Clean the livers from possible ligaments and, above all, from the yellow-green part of the spleen that has a bitter taste.
Rinse them for about 10 minutes under running water, then pat them dry with kitchen paper.
Cut them into not too small pieces and sauté in a pan with 2 Tbsp. butter for 2 minutes.
Remove with a skimmer, place them on a plate, add salt, and set aside.
Peel and chop the carrots and onion. Fry them for 3-4 minutes in the pan with the same butter as the livers, a pinch of salt, the pine nuts, and the leaves of a few thyme sprigs.
Add the raisins with all the brandy and let it evaporate, cover with a lid, and cook for another 2-3 minutes.
Cook the pasta in boiling salted water, drain, and toss in the pan with the vegetables, 1 additional Tbsp. butter, and 1 ladleful of the pasta cooking water.
Complete with the livers and top with some freshly grated pepper.