Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well (33 page)

Make a béchamel with 2 deciliters (about 4/5 of a cup) of milk; 30 grams (about 1 ounce) of butter; and 30 grams (about 1 ounce) of flour.

When the sauce is done, add the other ingredients to it, and allow to cool thoroughly before using it with the wafers as described in the preceding recipe.

1/2 a liter (about 1/2 a quart) of milk

100 grams (about 3-1/2 ounces) of rice

100 grams (about 3-1/2 ounces) of flour

50 grams (about 1-2/3 ounces) of sultanas

15 grams (about 1/2 an ounce) of pine nuts ground to the size of rice

3 egg yolks

1 egg white

a nut-sized pat of butter

2 small teaspoons of sugar1 tablespoon of rum

a dash of lemon zest

30 grams (about 1 ounce) of brewer’s yeast

a pinch of salt

Prepare the brewer’s yeast, as described in recipe 182 for
Krapfen
, kneading it with 40 grams (about 4-1/3 ounces) of the flour.

Cook the rice in milk until firm, but put some milk aside, which you will add if needed. To prevent the rice from sticking to the pot, stir often, and then cook keeping the pot on the edge of the hearth.

Remove the rice from the fire and when it is lukewarm add the brewer’s yeast, already risen, as well the eggs, the rest of the flour— the remaining 60 grams (about 2 ounces)—then the pine nuts, the rum, and a little more milk if needed. Knead well, add the raisins and put the pot back near the fire so that the mixture can rise in very
moderate heat. When it has risen, fry in a skillet one tablespoon at a time. These will make big, light fritters. Sprinkle confectioners’ sugar on top when they have cooled off a little, and serve warm.

Though simpler than those described in the preceding recipe, these fritters also turn out light and tasty.

Cook 100 grams (about 3-1/2 ounces) of rice for a long time, or better yet, for a very long time in about 1/2 a liter (about 1/2 a quart) of milk. Season for flavor with a nut-sized pat of butter, a little salt, a small teaspoon of sugar and a dash of lemon peel. Once the rice has completely cooled off, add a tablespoon of rum, three egg yolks and 50 grams (about 1-2/3 ounces) of flour. Mix well and let the mixture rest for a few hours. When you are ready to fry, whisk the egg whites as stiff as you can and then fold them slowly into the mixture. Fry in a skillet one tablespoon at a time. As usual, sprinkle confectioners’ sugar on top, and serve hot.

1/2 a liter (about 1/2 a quart) of milk

130 grams (about 4-1/2 ounces) of semolina

1 tablespoon of rum

a dash of lemon zest

salt as needed

3 eggs

Cook the semolina in milk, and salt when done. Once cooled, add the eggs and the rum. Fry in olive oil or lard. Send to the table sprinkled with confectioners’ sugar.

These amounts serve four to five people.

If you do not know what a tondone is, ask Stenterello,
³⁶
as he eats it often and likes it very much.

250 grams (about 8-4/5 ounces) of flour

6 eggs

3 deciliters (about 1-1/4 cups) of water

a pinch of salt

a dash of lemon zest

Mix the flour with the water poured in a little at a time, and then salt. Put this mix into a skillet and fry it only with some butter, olive oil or lard. When it has firmed up on the bottom, use a dish to flip it over on the other side. Now you have a tondone.
³⁷

Now pound it in a mortar with the lemon peel, softening with the eggs: two at once, the other four one at a time, first the yoke and then the white which you have beaten until stiff. Keep pounding and kneading the mixture throughout this operation.

To make the fritters, fry the mixture in a skillet one tablespoon at a time. The fritters will puff up hugely until they look like pastry puffs. Then sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar.

If you like, you can add 100 grams (about 3-1/2 ounces) of Malaga raisins to this mixture. But then you should first soak the raisins in water for 24 hours and remove the seeds before using them. These amounts should serve six people, or, if you cut the quantities in half, four.

Let us try to describe this dish with so German a name, as we go about in search of the good and beautiful no matter where they are found. For our own sake, however, and for Italy’s good name, let’s not imitate other countries blindly, simply in the spirit of foreigner mania.

150 grams (about 5-1/4 ounces) of Hungarian flour

40 grams (about 1-1/3 ounces) of butter

a pat of brewer’s yeast the size of a large walnut

1 whole egg

1 egg yolk

1 teaspoon of sugar

a generous pinch of salt

Drop a handful of the flour on a pastry board, make a depression in the middle, and in it dissolve the brewer’s yeast with lukewarm milk. Then mix it with the flour to produce a loaf of the right firmness. On this loaf, make a cross-shaped incision, which will later help you recognize if the loaf has risen.

Place this loaf in a small pan or saucepan, the bottom of which you have coated with a little milk. Cover and place near the fire so that the dough can rise in very moderate heat. You will find this will take about 20 minutes. Once the dough has risen, add it to the rest of the flour and mix in the eggs, the melted butter, the sugar and the salt. If this large dough turns out too soft, add flour as needed until you can roll it out satisfactorily with a rolling pin to the thickness of half a finger. You will thus obtain a sheet of dough, from which, using a tin ring, you can cut out many disks of the size indicated here.

Image not available

Once you have made 24 such disks, take an egg or other similarly shaped object, and with the tip of it make a depression in the
center of each disk. In 12 of these disks, put a teaspoon of a stuffing made with finely diced chicken livers, sweetbreads, prosciutto, salted tongue, and a dash of truffles or of mushrooms, all cooked in brown stock and béchamel.

Moisten the disks around the edges with a finger dipped in water, and then place on top of each disk one of the remaining 12 empty disks. When all disks are thus covered, make an incision on the top of each pair with another tin ring of the size shown here.

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Now that you have stuffed the 12 pastries, you must let them rise, but only in moderate heat. You can do so by placing them near the fire or inside a warming oven. When they have puffed up nicely, deep fry them in lard or olive oil. Serve hot as a fried dish or an
entremets
. They are so handsome and delicious that your guests will consider them a product of haute cuisine.

If you want to serve the
Krapfen
as a dessert, you need only stuff them with a rather firm cream or fruit preserve, and sprinkle confectioners’ sugar on them when they are done.

For another
Krapfen
recipe, sec recipe 562.

This recipe, which can be used both for pastry puffs and tube pastries, takes some effort, though the operations it requires are not in themselves difficult.

150 grams (about 5-1/4 ounces) of water

100 grams (about 3-1/2 ounces) of Hungarian flour, or very fine flour

one walnut-sized pat of butter

a pinch of salt

a dash of lemon zest

2 eggs

1 egg yolk

Put the water on the fire with the butter and salt. When it boils, add the flour all at once and stir vigorously. Keep the dough on the fire until the flour is thoroughly cooked (10 minutes), stirring constantly. Then remove from the pan and spread it out to the thickness of a finger so that it cools thoroughly. Start kneading the dough, first adding an egg yolk, and then, when that has been absorbed, an egg white, beaten stiff. Keep stirring and add another yolk and then, again, another stiffened white. If you are doubling or tripling the amounts given here, repeat this operation as many times as needed.

Image not available

Due to all the kneading, the mixture should eventually have the consistency of a fine smooth paste, somewhat like an ointment. If you are making pastry puffs, drop the mixture a teaspoon at a time into a skillet. This will give them a ball shape. If you want to make tube pastries, press the dough through a pastry tube with a star-shaped opening at the end, as shown in the picture on this page. Slice into segments of between 9 and 10 centimeters (about 3-1/2 and 4 inches) long. When the puffs have cooled off a little, sprinkle them with confectioners’ sugar. Doubling the quantities indicated you should have enough pastries for eight to ten people.

Pastries of this sort can also be served as stuffed fritters. In this case, make a small slit in the puffs once they are done and use it to fill them with a little delicate meat stuffing. But in that case, do not sprinkle sugar on top.

These puffs must have first exploded in Bologna.
³⁹
Their charge of cheese and mortadella inclines me to such belief. In any case, enjoy them, for they do honor to their inventor.

180 grams (about 6-1/3 ounces) of water

120 grams (about 4-1/4 ounces) of flour

30 grams (about 1 ounce) of Gruyere cheese

a walnut-sized pat of butter

30 grams (about 1 ounce) of Bolognese mortadella

3 eggs

a pinch of salt

Put the water on the fire with the butter and salt. When it begins to boil, add the cheese cut into small pieces and the flour all at once, stirring vigorously. Keep the flour on the fire for about 10 minutes, stirring constantly, then allow to cool. Work the dough with a wooden spoon as much as possible over and over again, adding one egg at a time, first the yolk and then the white, beaten stiff. When you are about to fry, toss in the mortadella, diced into rather large cubes about 1 centimeter (about 1/3 of an inch) thick. Should the mixture turn out too firm because of the quality of the flour used or because the eggs are too small, add another egg, and you will have enough pastries to feed six people. When they turn out well, these pastries will puff up and stay hollow inside. But it all depends on the strength and determination of whoever does the mixing.

Serve as a side dish for fried meat or liver, or mixed in with any other fried food.

3 deciliters (about 1 -1/4 cups
) —
the equivalent of 300 grams (about 10-1/2 ounces
)—
of milk

130 grams (about 4-1/2 ounces) of fine-grain semolina

a walnut-sized pat of butter

1 teaspoon of sugar

salt, as much as needed

a dash of lemon zest