INGREDIENTS
- Servings: 4
- 2 big red bell peppers
- 1 ripe tomato
- 1/2 onion
- 1/2 fresh hot peperoncino
- 10 fresh basil leaves
- 150 g quinoa
- 3 slices of day-old bread
- 2 eggs
- 80 g Provolone cheese
- 2 TBspoons grated Parmigiano cheese
- a small bunch of parsley
- 2-3 marjoram twigs
- a little milk
- salt, pepper, nutmeg
- flour and breadcrumbs
- extra virgin olive oil
DIRECTIONS
- Salsa:
- Chop the peppers and cook them in a skillet with 2 TBspoons of olive oil and finely chopped hot pepper on medium-high heat.
- Cut the tomato in half and grate it into the skillet with the peppers removing the skin (use the graters with big holes).
- Salt to your taste and add the basil leaves. Cover, lower the heat and cook for 8-10 minutes.
- Puree the vegetables using a food mill. If the salsa is too liquid, put it back to heat until it reaches a desired thickness.
- Croquettes:
- Cut off the crust from the bread slices and chop them roughly. Put them in a bowl and add a little milk, enough to moisten the bread evenly.
- While the bread is soaking, cook the quinoa - rinse it well and cook in 350 ml lightly salted water for 10 minutes.
- Squeeze the bread well with your hands and crumble finely. Add the cooked quinoa, the grated Parmigiano, the finely chopped parsley and marjoram leaves, a pinch of grated nutmeg, 1 egg, salt and freshly ground pepper. Mix well and, if necessary add a little breadcrumbs to get a compact mixture you can shape into balls (I didn't need any, however).
- Cut the cheese into cubes (the recipe calls for Provola cheese, but you can use any semi hard cheese if Provola is not available).
- Shape the quinoa mixture into balls and put a cheese cube in the middle of each one.
- Flour each ball first, then dip into a lightly beaten egg, and finally roll into breadcrumbs.
- Fry the croquettes in deep hot oil, and leave on several layers of kitchen paper to absorb the excess oil (I normally use olive oil for frying, or eventually peanut oil).
- Serve the warm croquettes with Red Peppers Salsa.
