Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well (36 page)

As a flavoring, wine is not among my favorites, unless we are talking about bottled wine or about dishes in which it is needed to give them their special character. But, as tastes vary, what displeases one persons is sure to delight another, so here is a dish made with wine.

Cut the liver into thin slices and saute it in a skillet with olive oil and butter, without any additional spices. In a small pot whisk a teaspoon of flour along with fine dry white wine to form a very runny sauce. When the liver is two-thirds done, add the sauce. Finish cooking and season with salt and pepper.

If the liver weighs about 300 grams (about 10-1/2 ounces), slice three large onions, soaking them in cold water for one or two hours. Then, drain the water and toss the onions in a skillet to dry them out. Once dry, add lard and saute. When the onion begins to brown, add the liver, which should be cut into thin slices. Let it cook for a while, along with the onion. Pour in just under half a glass of good red wine. Keep stirring and after five minutes have elapsed, season with salt and pepper and serve. This is not a dish for delicate stomachs.

This dish, peculiar to Romagna and a feature of the carnival season, is not, in all honesty, terribly refined, but can be a pleasant treat all the same.

On a pastry board prepare a firm dough with flour, two eggs, a teaspoon of “fumetto,”
⁴³
a dash of lemon peel and salt as needed. Knead long and vigorously with your hands as if you were making ordinary bread, adding a tablespoon of fine olive oil a little at a time until it is completely absorbed. Finally roll out the dough into little cylinders, which you will then cut into nut size pieces. Toss them immediately in a skillet, which you will keep shaking over a low flame. Once they are done, sprinkle the “little chestnuts” (which they resemble) with confectioners’ sugar and serve cold, since they taste better that way.

I warn you that, if you use cognac or brandy instead of fumetto, you will not get the same result, and the pastries will not puff up sufficiently.

Here is a second recipe for castagnole. Try both and use the one you prefer.

2 eggs

2 tablespoons of water

2 tablespoons of fumetto
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20 grams (about 2/3 of an ounce) of butter

20 grams (about 2/3 of an ounce) of sugar

a pinch of salt

Break the eggs and drop the yolks in a bowl, adding the sugar, the fumetto, the water and the salt. Mix well. Beat the whites until stiff. On a pastry board, fold all these ingredients and the butter into enough flour to make a dough that you can knead with your hands. Work the dough hard until it becomes nice and smooth. Then make nuggets the size of a small walnut and fry them, as in the previous recipe, over a low flame and in plenty of fat.

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

30 grams (about 1 ounce) of sugar

20 grams (about 2/3 of an ounce) of butter

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

2 whole eggs

a dash of lemon zest

a pinch of salt

Beat the eggs with the sugar, then add the starch (reduced to a powder), the grated lemon peel, the butter, and the milk, which you will pour in a little at a time. Put the mixture on the fire, stirring constantly as you would when preparing an ordinary cream. When the mixture has thickened and will not grow any more, add a pinch of salt and pour on a platter or a board, spreading it to the thickness of a finger.

After it has cooled completely, cut into lozenge shapes, brush with egg and coat in bread crumbs. Fry in lard or olive oil and serve hot as a side dish for another fried course.

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

20 grams (about 20 grams) of sugar

2 whole eggs

5 deciliters (about 2 cups) of milk

a dash of vanilla or lemon zest

Cook by keeping on the fire until the flour no longer tastes raw. As for the rest, follow the preceding recipe. With half the quantities and mixed with another fry, this will serve four to five people.

If one does not wish to eat lamb’s head boiled, I only know two other ways of preparing it: fried or stewed (see recipe 321). For frying, either alone or with brains, see the batter for fried meats in recipe 157.

Cut the liver into little slices and the offal into small pieces, and put in a skillet with lard without spicing them. When the offal is almost done, drain off all the fat and add a small pat of butter. Continue frying, and after a short while pour in tomato sauce (recipe 6) or tomato paste dissolved in water or broth. Season with salt and pepper, then serve in its sauce, and you can be sure it will win praise.

The best part of the lamb for frying is the loin. But you may also use the shoulder and the neck. Cut into pieces and fry, following the previous recipe.

The distaste many Italians have for rabbit (
Lepus cuniculus
) does not seem to me justified. Its flesh is light and not very flavorful, which can be remedied by adding spices. And it is quite satisfactory in every other respect, and its odor is not at all unpleasant. In fact it is wholesome and easy to digest, unlike lamb. It also comes in handy for those who cannot afford beef and are forced to make do with vegetables and legumes. The best way to cook rabbit is by frying it, following recipe 217.

Stewed rabbit also makes a first-rate broth, they say.

The domestication of the rabbit goes back a long way. Confucius, 500 years before the Christian era, already spoke of these animals as worthy of being sacrificed to the gods and discussed their reproductive powers.

Take some milk-fed veal cutlets or chicken or turkey breasts, cut into thin slices, or, if you wish to give them an elegant appearance, grind the meat and then mold it as you wish by pressing it together with your hands. If you are using veal, 170 grams (about 6 ounces) of lean boneless meat will be enough to make 6 or 7 cutlets. Saute, plain as they are, in butter, then salt and set aside.

Prepare a bechamel with 70 grams (about 2-1/3 ounces) of flour, 20 grams (about 2/3 of an ounce) of butter and 2 deciliters (about 4/5 of a cup) of milk. As soon you remove the bechamel from the fire, salt it, add a tablespoon of Parmesan cheese and one egg yolk, stirring well. When the sauce has cooled, spread it thickly over the cutlets on both sides, smoothing it evenly with a table knife dipped in olive oil. Then dip the cutlets in beaten egg, roll in bread crumbs and saute in olive oil or lard until golden brown.

Serve with lemon wedges.

Take a lean cut of milk-fed calf meat, slice into small thin chops, and pound with the blunt edge of a knife. Put a saucepan or a copper skillet on the fire with an equal amount of olive oil and butter and a few whole sage leaves. As soon as the sage has fried for a little, add the chops. Season with salt and pepper. Cook them over a lively flame for five or six minutes, then squeeze lemon juice over them and send to the table.

This dish should be served as a lunch course.

I have eaten saltimbocca in Rome at the trattoria “Le Venete,” and therefore I can describe it with precision.

Saltimbocca consists of small cutlets of milk-fed veal, lightly seasoned with salt and pepper. Over each piece you lay half a leaf of sage (a whole leaf would be too much), and over the sage, a thin slice of untrimmed prosciutto. To hold the three ingredients together, you skewer them with a toothpick. Then you cook the saltimbocca in butter in a skillet. Do not let the side with the prosciutto fry for too long, lest the prosciutto become tough. As you see, this is a simple and healthy dish.

From 300 grams (about 10-1/5 ounces) of lean veal you will get 11 to 12 pieces, which will feed three to four people.

These cutlets should be half a finger thick. Before cooking, rinse them in water and flatten them out.

You may serve them with any kind of side dish.

If I were writing in French and adhering to that tongue’s pompous style, I would call this dish
bouchées de dames
, which would no doubt win it more praise than this modest name.

Take one or two chicken livers, some sweetbreads, and, if available, a chicken or turkey gizzard, which always helps. The latter, however, are tough and should therefore be blanched first, and the gristle removed. Mince everything with a mezzaluna, put on the fire in butter with some minced onion and prosciutto, seasoning with salt and pepper, a dash of nutmeg or of spices. When the mixture starts to sizzle, add a scant teaspoon of flour and stir until it is fully absorbed, then cover with brown stock or broth. Bring to a boil, then add a beaten egg, a little at a time, and, stirring constantly, allow the mixture to thicken. Remove from the fire, add a pinch of grated Parmesan cheese and pour on a plate.

Now take a loaf of stale bread, cut into slices 1 centimeter (about 1/2 an inch) thick, remove the crust, and chop into small cubes as wide as a medium-sized coin. Spread the mixture thickly over these cubes on one side only; a half hour before frying, coat this same side with flour and arrange the little cubes over a platter. Pour a beaten egg over them generously, so that the bread is soaked and the stuffing is well coated and nicely golden. Put into a skillet, with the stuffing side down.

I ought to tell you that this dish will make a very nice impression. With the giblets of one chicken, and the sweetbreads of two or three lambs, you will make about 20 morsels, which will handsomely accompany a fry of brains or something similar. You may also leave out the sweetbreads; a hint of truffles, if available, can only improve this dish.

You ladies who take pleasure in fine cuisine, do not consign this dish to oblivion, for it will delight your husbands, and due to the ingredients it contains, may well move them to reward you.
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Take some stale bread, not too spongy, remove the crust and cut into diamond shapes or squares about 4 centimeters (about 1-1/2 inches) on each side. On each piece place a slice of untrimmed prosciutto, then little shavings of truffle, and over them a slice of Gruyere cheese. Cover the filling with a second slice of bread and press tightly together so that they remain joined. Remember to slice everything very fine so that the pieces do not turn out inelegantly large.

Now that you have prepared the morsels, lightly soak them in cold milk, and when that has been absorbed, dip each piece in beaten egg and then roll in bread crumbs. Repeat the procedure twice so that even the edges remain covered and tightly closed.

Fry in lard or olive and serve alone or with another fried food.