Editor's Note: The following was inspired by a discussion of the martyrdom of St. Lorenzo, who was, apparently, grilled to death. The discussion included a plaint from one SSBer who didn't quite get down the entire recipe from a cooking show, and led to this response from another SSBer mediating for a chef pal.
Pecorino Romano, or as it is more commonly referred to in the US "Romano" is a hard sheep's milk cheese aged 12-18 month's and usually ground into a fine powder and used as a pasta topping. Let's assume the recipe calls for Romano since it's the largest produced and exported "Pecorino" style cheese in Italy. Since you mentioned Basil and Garlic I'll make another assumption, the regional cuisine is Southern Italian, possibly specific to the Roman area. As an aside if you mentioned caper's, salt or peppercino cheese as ingredients we'd be into Sicily. Now regional styles of Italian cooking are as varied as regional Italian dialects so it may be a bit tough to come up with the exact sauce you saw described on that program but it sounds like it could be one of two things. A papa pomodoro with Romano substituted for the bread or an uncooked "sauce" a Bruschetta. The pomodoro is a basic sauce that you use day old bread in to thicken, (Which Romano would do as well) and Bruschetta is an antipasti or hors d'ouvre dish normally served with fresh crusty bread, but can and is eaten as a side dish and would work well as a sort of salad with grilled sausages. The recipes that follow aren't authentic but can be made easily from goods carried at your local market, you can substitute dry herbs for the fresh but know that the flavor decreases exponentially when you do.
Note on Romano: it's salty so you may want to cut your salt in these recipes.
Sauté the onion and the garlic in the oil, and when they're lightly browned, add the tomatoes and the tomato paste. Simmer for about 15 minutes, or until the tomatoes have fallen apart. Stir in the Romano, and a little bit of water or broth if necessary; season to taste. Stir the mixture over a low flame until it thickens. Turn off the heat, cover, and let sit for fifteen minutes. Serve sprinkled with freshly chopped basil and good olive oil on the side. It's better made a day ahead and reheated.
Mixing utensils should be stainless steel, bowls or containers should be glass, ceramic or stainless.
Seed and dice the tomatoes, place in a bowl, cover with salt. Fine mince the garlic and fine chop the basil and mix into the olive oil. Cover both (with plastic wrap tightly) tomatoes and garlic basil mixture and let stand at room temperature for 2 hours or if you're a Boy Scout put it in the fridge overnight. The oil should be infused with the aroma of the garlic and basil by the time you unwrap so if you don't get that whiff of heaven when you uncover the bowl/large glass measuring cup, you'll need to let sit longer. Mix the oil mixture into the tomatoes slowly, when well mixed, mix in remaining ingredients and you're ready to go.
This page last updated 07/29/2001