It’s a big week for guest posts – I’ve also contributed a recipe for Spaghetti al Limone with Fried Capers to the Aurora Importing blog as part of their lead-up to Lidia Bastianich’s live show in Toronto this weekend.
Since this week’s theme is Lidia Talks Capers, my challenge was to come up with a creative way to show off Aurora capers in a recipe.
I decided to use their smallest variety, the non-pareil, and deep-fried them until they crisped up into delicious little salty-crispy-briny flavour bombs. You haven’t lived ’til you’ve had a deep-fried a caper, as far as I’m concerned.
I then added them to one of my favourite classic Italian pastas, which is traditionally made with lots of fresh lemon, grated Parmesan, wilted spinach and brined capers, and I upped the ante just a bit more by topping the whole thing off with a pair of big fat sea scallops seared to crispy-edged perfection. Not to brag or anything, but it’s really good.
Giveaway Alert!!!
Aurora wants you to get in on the fun, too, so there are two awesome giveaways on the go this week.
First up, for those of you in the Toronto area, the lovely Kim Bee of Cravings of a Lunatic is giving away a pair of tickets to see Lidia Live this Sunday (Feb 10th) at the Toronto Centre for the Arts. As a bonus, the winner also gets to hang out with me and Kim, since we’re going to the show too!
But hurry up, because you’ve only got until 5pm TOMORROW to enter.
Secondly, Aurora is giving away three signed copies of Lidia’s newest cookbook on their blog. The giveaway is open to anyone in Canada, and you’ve got until Sunday midnight to enter! (Sadly, this prize doesn’t include the opportunity to hang out with me and Kim… but it’s still pretty awesome nonetheless.)
And hey, if you don’t win, you should still make this pasta. It’s hard to feel sorry for yourself when you’re sitting in front of a giant bowl of saucy pasta topped off with perfectly seared scallops. :)
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Disclosure: Aurora Importing has generously provided me with a ticket to see Lidia Live in Toronto in exchange for my participation, and is also providing all of the giveaway prizes listed above (except for the opportunity to hang out with me and Kim… we’re doing that of our own volition, promise!). All opinions and bad jokes are entirely my own.
oh my goodness, this sounds ridiculously good. i love capers, but fried capers? WOW. i love the flavor combo in this.
Yep, I’m in. It seems inevitable that I will try this dish since the advertisements all around it are “rent a villa in Amalfi”, Limoni is on my mind.