Tiella barese hails from the south-eastern Italian region of Puglia and is essentially a layered rice, potato and mussels casserole, sometimes enhanced by the addition of other seasonal vegetables such as zucchini or mushrooms.Tiella barese hails from the south-eastern Italian region of Puglia and is essentially a layered rice, potato and mussels casserole, sometimes enhanced by the addition of other seasonal vegetables such as zucchini or mushrooms.

Much as I enjoy eating elegantly plated food in restaurants, and, indeed, serving such dishes to my friends, occasionally there is nothing more enjoyable and heart-warming than to place a large steaming dish of fragrant, appetising food in the centre of the table for everyone to admire before tucking in.

Sometimes, of course, you have then to remove the dish to one side if it needs major surgery, as it were. A fish baked in a salt crust, a suckling pig or a rib of beef are some of the dishes you will not want to subject to a free-for-all. And it is to be hoped that you, as the host, have done some knife skills practice in advance.

The last ‘big food’ I cooked was a half suckling lamb from northern Spain, which I had jointed into shoulder, leg and ribs before slowly roasting on a bed of sliced onions and potatoes, but once all the ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ had been gratefully received, I took it away from the table to dismantle.

For an easier, more relaxing meal, another one-pot dish is the answer. Recently I cooked a tiella barese. Tom, my husband, saw a brief reference to it in a book he was reading: layers of rice, mussels, potatoes, courgettes and chopped fresh tomatoes. He put in a request but apparently “there’s no guarantee that it will be any good, unless your family goes back at least four generations in Bari”, according to the narrator.

Well, it was not fourth-generation barese, but it tasted very good, needed no attention once in the oven and was extremely easy to serve. The tiella is going to be my dish of choice for entertaining this winter.

It takes its name from the dish in which it is cooked. In this, it is related to cassoulet, casserole, cataplana, tagine and paella. The word itself is not originally an indication of the contents, simply a description of the container, but now it has become a description of the dish itself. Traditionally, an iron pan is used, but I like to cook my tiella in earthenware, a rather handsome dish, with an interior turquoise glaze which shows off the mussels to perfection.

Rather like the other one-pot dishes, everyone (and every website) you consult will give you a different tiella recipe. In some, the mussels are opened raw with a knife. In others, they are steamed open first before baking with the other ingredients.

I was afraid that using this method, the mussels would be overcooked. In fact, they were well insulated by the layer of rice in which they were buried, sandwiched between two layers of potatoes. The rice should be originario rather than one of the superfino hybrids such as Arborio.

It should be soft when cooked, rather than with a firm bite in the middle. And the potatoes should be floury rather than waxy ones.

Some recipes include courgettes, but they added nothing to the dish. Sliced or halved tomatoes on top often make an appearance, and this I rather like.

An iron pan is used, but I like to cook my tiella in earthenware, a rather handsome dish, with an interior turquoise glaze

Keep it simple, according to Escoffier’s dictum, and make sure the rest of the meal is as easy to put together. Some judicious shopping and a little advance preparation will allow you to do this.

Today’s dessert, fruit in spiced wine, is so good that you will want to make it often. It is worth keeping a bottle of home-made spiced wine on hand for this and other desserts. Use it for poaching pears, for example, or even trickling over vanilla ice cream.

The ingredients for the compote can vary according to what is available, and to your own taste, but it is the dried fruit which gives it the luscious sweetness. And remember that the heat evaporates the alcohol in the wine, so you can eat any leftovers for breakfast with plain yoghurt and muesli. For a first course, I would serve a cold dish made in advance, perhaps some marinated or pickled lampuki, a selection of smoked fish or a platter of salume and cheeselets.

You will probably want to look for a white wine from southern Italy to accompany the tiella; we enjoyed a Planeta’s Cometa, a lovely Fiano from Puglia.

However, the fictional diners who prompted my cooking the tiella, accompanied theirs with a powerful red, Negroamaro.

Fruit compote in spiced wine

(Serves 8 to 10)

Spiced wine:

Makes 1 litre

1 bottle full-bodied red wine
250ml red grape juice
Thinly peeled zest of 2 mandarins or oranges
1 cinnamon stick
6 crushed cardamom pods
Freshly grated nutmeg
Small nugget of fresh ginger, sliced
A measure or two of orange liqueur – Curaçao, Grand Marnier or Cointreau; optional

Put all the ingredients except the liqueur in a saucepan and bring just to the boil. Immediately remove from the heat and stir in the orange liqueur if using it. Let it stand until cool, for the spices to infuse. Strain and bottle the wine if you plan to keep it. Otherwise, bring it back to the boil to use with the fruit.

Cook’s note: the grape juice should add sufficient sweetness, but if not, stir in some sugar to taste.

Fruit:
250g packets dried figs, apricots, stoned prunes
Bunch seedless black or red grapes
6 to 8 mandarins or oranges, peeled and sliced or cut into segments
Khaki fruit – optional, cut into wedges
Fresh mango – optional, peeled and thinly sliced

Use a very large bowl for this, or several smaller ones. Put the dried fruit in the bowl and pour on the hot wine. Leave the fruit to steep. Once the liquid is cool, add the prepared fresh fruit.

It is ready to serve when the dried fruit is as soft and juicy as fresh fruit. Serve chilled, or at room temperature, if you prefer, with or without cream, custard, vanilla, cinnamon or nutmeg ice cream. You can also add toasted flaked almonds just before serving.

Tiella barese

(Serves 6 to 8)

2kg mussels
100ml white wine
Extra virgin olive oil
2kg potatoes, peeled and sliced wafer-thin
2 large onions, peeled and thinly sliced
200g originario or other short grain rice
3 or 4 tbsps chopped fresh parsley
2 or 3 cloves garlic crushed with ½ tsp Gozo salt
Fish stock or water
4 large ripe tomatoes, peeled, quartered and seeded

Scrub and rinse the mussels, discarding any that remain open. Mussels now generally come without barnacles, but if any are encrusted, then knock them off with the back of an old knife. Place the mussels in a large saucepan with the white wine.

Cover and cook on high heat just until the shells open. Put a colander over a bowl and carefully tip in the mussels, so that as much liquid as possible is saved.

When cool enough to handle, remove the top shell from each mussel and put to one side.

Take a deep ovenproof dish and pour in enough olive oil to coat the bottom and sides. Take half the potatoes and onions and form into a thick layer. It is important that they are thinly sliced; a mandolin or food processor makes short work of this. If in doubt, blanche the potato slices for a couple of minutes in boiling water. Place the mussels on top of the potatoes and scatter the rice over them. Build up the next layer of potatoes and onions interspersed with plenty of parsley and the garlic.

Strain the mussel juices through a muslin-lined sieve into a measuring jug, and make up to 300ml with water or stock. Pour it all over the last layer of potatoes and leave it for five minutes or so to soak through the layers.

You may need more later on, but this is not a dish swimming in liquid. All the liquid should be absorbed by the rice and potatoes. Spoon two to three tablespoons olive oil over the potatoes and top with the tomato pieces.

Bake at 200˚C/Gas Mark 6 for 40 to 45 minutes until the potatoes are soft and the rice cooked through. If you use a very deep dish, it may take up to an hour.

Check after about 30 minutes that it is not too dry and add a little more liquid if necessary. Scatter on the remaining parsley before serving.

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