O foods against ovarian cancer

The challenge for this charity drive is to post about foods beginning or ending in O. That might be easier in Italian than in English, but I still didn’t find an instant solution. Tomato or pomodoro is a natural beccause it works in both languages, but it’s the end of the season and I haven’t done anything new with them. It’s not yet orange season, but those are arancie anyway. The fact is, most fruits and vegetables are feminine in Italian and therefore don’t end in O.

This goes in the fridge

It took a while to find a food in which every single ingredient works in at least one of the languages, and here it is. Spicy olive spread in English, battuta piquante d’ulive in Italian. It’s cheap, easy and delicious. It’s my effort to copy this purchased ingredient that I really like, but that is way too expensive. You can use a food processor, a min-chopper or a knife. If you want it to look redder, like the purchased version, you should blend the chillies with the oil a couple of days ahead, but be sure you refrigerate the resultant chili oil until you make the spread.

O for Ovarian cancer awareness: Olive spread

A 200 g jar of pitted olives, drained to be about 110 g
1 teaspoon of dried red chillies (this varies according to how hot yours are, mine are HOT)
about 70 ml extra virgin olive oil (to taste, but this was about ¼ cup)

You can combine the chillies and oil ahead of time as noted and in a couple of days the oil will be red and spicy. Warning: making your own chili oil can be dangerous and it must always be refrigerated! Or you can do it the way that resulted in this spread, which is to add the oil at the end. The brine used to cure the oilives makes the chili oil safe.

Mince the drained olives roughly. These were pulsed in the food processor. Add the chili peppers and pulse again. Taste to see if it is spicy enough and adjust. Add the oil and mix well. Scrape into a glass container and refrigerate. I wouldn’t use plastic for a container, because I think plastic absorbs picklish flavors and spoils the next thing you put in there.

In a few days it loses some of its heat, so you can spice it up to your taste again.

You can use this on toast squares for a canape or antipasto, but I have found it most useful as an ingredient. It can be stirred into mayonnaise for a livelier tuna or potato salad, or spread on sandwich bread like mustard. A white sauce that tastes bland can be perked up with a spoonful or two of battuta. Try some in salad dressings, over mild vegetables, stirred into rice, in butter for a compound butter, in the milk when you are making a genuine macaroni and cheese.  When I serve spicy cuisines like some southern Italian or Indian, I sometimes put tiny bowls of this battuta around as a condiment.

This is so easy and cheap, I think every single one of you should make some—halve the recipe if you aren’t sure—and you should tell me what came to mind to do with it.  After all I have an enormmous container of it in my fridge!

When I bought it, it cost €2.95 for a packet of four tiny sections.  That translates to almost US$4.50.  This big jar full is about three times as much and cost me about €1, or US$1.50.  If only I could pull this off with pork chops!

You have nothing to lose and much to gain, so make some battuta for your fridge too, and donate to help fight ovarian cancer.  Generations of girls and women will thank you for it.  I will too.

CONTEST RULES

O Foods Contest for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month

September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, and for the second year in a row, Sara of Ms Adventures in Italy and Michelle of Bleeding Espresso are hosting the O Foods Contest to raise awareness of this important health issue.

There are TWO WAYS to take part in the O Foods Contest:

ONE: Post a recipe to your blog using a food that starts or ends with the letter O (e.g., oatmeal, orange, okra, octopus, olive, onion, potato, tomato); include this entire text box in the post; and send your post url along with a photo (100 x 100) to ofoods[at]gmail[dot]com by 11:59 pm (Italy time) on Monday, September 28, 2009.

PRIZES for recipe posts:

• 1st: Signed copy of Dolce Italiano: Desserts from the Babbo Kitchen by Gina DePalma, Executive Pastry Chef of Babbo Ristorante in NYC, who is currently battling ovarian cancer, inspired this event, and will be choosing her favorite recipe for this prize;

• 2nd: Signed copy of Molto Italiano: 327 Simple Italian Recipes to Cook at Home by Mario Batali (winner chosen by Sara);

• 3rd: Signed copy of Vino Italiano: The Regional Italian Wines of Italy by Joseph Bastianich (winner chosen by Michelle).

OR

TWO: If you’re not into the recipe thing, simply post this entire text box in a post on your blog to help spread the word and send your post url to ofoods[at]gmail[dot]com by 11:59 pm (Italy time) on Monday, September 28, 2009.

Awareness posts PRIZE:

• One winner chosen at random will receive a Teal Toes tote bag filled with ovarian cancer awareness goodies that you can spread around amongst your friends and family.

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From the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund:

• Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death from gynecologic cancers in the United States and is the fifth leading cause of cancer death among U.S. women; a woman’s lifetime risk of ovarian cancer is 1 in 67.
• The symptoms of ovarian cancer are often vague and subtle, making it difficult to diagnose, but include bloating, pelvic and/or abdominal pain, difficulty eating or feeling full quickly; and urinary symptoms (urgency or frequency).
• There is no effective screening test for ovarian cancer but there are tests which can detect ovarian cancer when patients are at high risk or have early symptoms.
• In spite of this, patients are usually diagnosed in advanced stages and only 45% survive longer than five years. Only 19% of cases are caught before the cancer has spread beyond the ovary to the pelvic region.
• When ovarian cancer is detected and treated early on, the five-year survival rate is greater than 92%.

And remember, you can also always donate to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund at our page through FirstGiving!

Please help spread the word about ovarian cancer.

Together we can make enough noise to kill this silent killer.