Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well (46 page)

Quenelles
are a dish of French origin as well as type, as you can tell by the name, for which there is no equivalent in Italian. Perhaps they were invented by a cook whose master had no teeth.

120 grams (about 4-1/4 ounces) of milk-fed veal

80 grams (about 2-2/3 ounces) of fat from the kidney of a milk-fed calf

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

30 grams (about 1 ounce) of butter

1 whole egg

1 egg yolk

2 deciliters (about 4/5 of a cup) of milk

Remove and discard the membranes covering the meat, as well as the thin casing around the kidney fat. Now weigh the meat and the kidney, chop them as finely as you can first with a knife and then with a mezzaluna, and then grind in a mortar until they have been reduced to a very fine paste.

Make a béchamel sauce with the flour, butter, and milk mentioned above, and when it has cooled add the ground meat and the eggs. Season with salt only, and blend well. Spread a thin sheet of flour over a pastry board, pour the meat mixture onto the board, lightly flour it, and then roll into 18 or 20 finger-long spool shapes, similar to sausages.

Put the water on the fire in a large pan, and when it begins to boil throw in the quenelles. Boil for 8 or 10 minutes, and you will see them swell up. Then remove them from the water with a slotted spoon, and serve them smothered in the tomato sauce of recipe 125, to which you can add some fresh or dried mushrooms (cooked beforehand in the same sauce) and some pitted brine-cured olives. You can use brown stock instead of tomato sauce, or you can flavor the quenelles with a sauce of giblets and sweetbreads. They can also be made with the white meat of chicken or with fish. These amounts should serve five people.

If you use tomato sauce, which is the best suited to this very delicate-tasting dish, thicken it with a mixture of 30 grams (about 1 ounce) of butter and one tablespoon of flour. Pour the tomato sauce into this roux when it has turned nut-brown over the fire.

Break 500 grams (about 1 pound) of lamb loin into pieces and fry them in virgin lard. Then pour the leftover fat into a different pan where you will saute some chopped garlic and parsley. When the garlic has browned, toss in the lamb, season with salt and pepper, stir thoroughly, and leave it on the fire for a while so that it absorbs the seasoning. Then bind it with the following sauce: beat two eggs with a generous pinch of grated Parmesan cheese and the juice of half a lemon. Pour over the lamb, stir, and when the egg has thickened somewhat, serve.

Take a lamb hindquarter and stud it with two cloves of garlic (cut into tiny strips) and a few sprigs of rosemary. I said sprigs rather than leaves, because sprigs may be more easily removed once the lamb is cooked. Take a piece of lardoon or a slice of bacon and chop fine with a knife. Put the lamb on the fire in a pan with the chopped lardoon and a little oil. Season with salt and pepper, and brown. When the lamb has browned, add a bit of butter, tomato sauce (recipe 6) or tomato paste diluted with broth or water, and cook until perfectly done. Then remove the lamb from the pan for a moment, pour the peas into the sauce, and when they have boiled a little put the lamb back on top of them, cook until the peas are done, and serve them as a side dish.

You can cook a piece of milk-fed veal loin or rump in the same manner.

These dishes are prepared in almost the same way in Tuscany as in Romagna, but in Tuscany olive oil is all they use as a condiment.

If it is not Hungarian, it might be Spanish or Flemish—the name does not matter, as long as it is to the taste of whoever eats it, which I believe it will be.

Cut the shoulder into thin square pieces about three fingers wide. Finely chop two spring onions, or three or four small white onions and saute them with a bit of butter. When the onions have turned dark brown, toss in the lamb and season with salt and pepper. Wait until the meat itself begins to brown, then add another bit of butter rolled in flour. Stir until it turns a nice color, then finish cooking with broth which you will add a little at a time. Take care not to serve dry, but rather send to the table with a good amount of its own sauce.

To stew a lamb’s head, do not cut it in half crosswise like the maidservant whose master told her to divide it in two. It was this same gifted girl who on another occasion skewered some thrushes on a spit from back to front.

Cut the head lengthwise along its natural division and put both pieces in a large pan. But first saute some chopped garlic and parsley in olive oil, and when this has browned, stop it from cooking with a ladleful of broth. Toss in the lamb’s head and season with salt and pepper. When it is halfway done, add a bit of butter and a little tomato sauce (recipe 6) or tomato paste, and finish cooking with more broth, if necessary.

This is not a dish to serve to guests, but for the family it is inexpensive and tasty. The part around the eye is the most delicate.

I will not pretend that this is an elegant dish, but rather one for the family, and as such it does the job perfectly well, and indeed you could even serve it to close friends. Speaking of close friends, Giusti says that people who are in a position to do so, should occasionally invite their close friends to get their mustaches greasy at their table. I am of the same opinion, even if the guests will probably proceed to speak ill of you, and of how they were treated.

Skin an uncooked cotechino weighing about 300 grams (about 10-1/2 ounces). Take a large, thin cutlet of lean veal or beef weighing between 200 and 300 grams (about 7 and 10-1/2 ounces), and pound well. Wrap the cutlet around the cotechino, tie it all up with twine and put on the fire in a saucepan with a bit of butter, some celery, carrot, and a quarter of an onion, all coarsely chopped. Salt and pepper are not necessary, because the cotechino contains plenty of these ingredients. If you plan to use the sauce on a first course of macaroni, add some slices of untrimmed prosciutto or some bacon. When the piece of meat has browned all over, pour in enough water to cover it halfway, and throw in some little pieces of dried mushrooms; simmer slowly until completely cooked. Strain the sauce, but add back the mushrooms, then use the sauce, along with cheese and butter, to season macaroni. Serve the cotechino as the main course, keeping it wrapped in the cutlet, but removing the twine, and garnishing it with a good amount of its own sauce.

It is a good idea to thicken the sauce for the pasta a bit with a pinch of flour. Put the flour in a saucepan with a bit of butter, and when it starts to brown pour in the sauce and boil for a while.

A side dish of carrots goes very well with this dish. First boil the carrots until two-thirds done and then finish cooking in the meat sauce.

Everyone knows that the muscles of animals, including the human
animal
, are the bundles of fibers making up the flesh. But in the Florentine dialect, “muscolo” is also the name for the cut of veal where the leg ends and the shoulder begins. This cut of meat contains tender, gelatinous tendons that lend themselves to this cooking method.

Cut 500 grams (about 1 pound) of “muscolo” of veal or of milk-fed veal into small pieces. Put some oil on the fire with two unpeeled, slightly crushed cloves of garlic. Sauté the garlic and then toss in the meat, seasoning with salt and pepper. When the meat has browned, sprinkle half a tablespoon of flour over it, adding tomato sauce (recipe 6) or tomato paste and a bit of butter; then add water or broth a little at a time to finish cooking. Make sure to have some sauce left in the pan at the end. Arrange slices of toasted bread on a platter, pour the stew over them, and send to the table. You can also serve this stew without toasted bread, adding sliced fresh mushrooms or potatoes when the meat is almost done.

Cut into pieces a breast of milk-fed veal, without removing the bones. Finely chop some garlic, parsley, celery, carrot, and an appropriately sized slice of bacon; add oil, pepper, and salt and put on the fire with the veal. Turn often, and when the meat has browned, sprinkle with a pinch of flour, add a little tomato sauce (recipe 6) or tomato paste, and finish cooking with broth or water. At the end, add a bit of butter and some fennel, cut into large sections that have been parboiled and sautéed in butter. As with all other stews, keep the saucepan covered.

When I say “saucepans,” I mean copper pans, well coated inside with a layer of tin. People can say what they like, but copper, when kept clean, is always preferable to iron or earthenware, which get too hot and tend to burn the food cooking in them. Earthenware
cracks and absorbs grease, and after too much use starts to give off a bad smell.

This stew is not particularly flavorful, but it is simple and healthy, so I will describe it. Take a
sous-noix
or rump of veal, pound it, tie it to hold it together, and put in a saucepan as follows.

If the piece of meat weighs 500 grams (about 1 pound) without the bones, cover the bottom of the saucepan with 30 grams (about 1 ounce) of very thinly sliced bacon and 30 grams (about 1 ounce) of butter. On top of this layer arrange less than half a lemon cut into four thin rindless and seedless slices. Place the veal on top of all this, and brown it well all over; but take care not to let it burn, since there is very little liquid. When the meat has browned, pour off the extra fat, season with salt and pepper, and, after a little while, add a glass of hot milk that you have boiled separately; do not get upset if the milk curdles, which it probably will do.

Cover the saucepan with a sheet of paper folded in two, and finish cooking the piece of meat over a slow fire. Strain the sauce just before serving.

This recipe serves four people.

In culinary terms this would be called “petto farsito” (stuffed breast).

500 grams (about 1 pound) of milk-fed veal breast in a single piece

170 grams (about 6 ounces) of lean boneless milk-fed veal

40 grams (about 1-1/3 ounces) of untrimmed prosciutto

40 grams (about 1-1/3 ounces) of mortadella from Bologna

15 grams (about 1/2 an ounce) of Parmesan cheese

1 egg

less than 1/4 of a clove of garlic

4 or 5 parsley leaves

Make a mixture with the lean veal in the following way: remove the tendons and gristle, if any, and mince very fine with a bit of fat taken from the 40 grams (about 1-1/3 ounces) of prosciutto. To this minced meat add the garlic and parsley, both chopped very fine, the Parmesan, the egg, a pinch of pepper and very little salt, then blend thoroughly. If you happen to have a little truffle, chop it up and add it as well to the mixture—you will find it a marvelous addition.

Remove the hard bones from the breast of veal, and leave the soft ones. Cut open the breast as follows: run a knife under the ribs, slicing the connecting tissues in half; now double the surface area by “opening” the meat, as if it were a book. Spread part of the chopped veal mixture over the half of the breast where the softer bones remain, and on top of this arrange in turn some of the prosciutto and morta-della, cut into strips as wide as your finger, leaving a little space between each strip. On top of this first layer place a second and then a third, if you have enough ingredients to do so, always alternating between the veal mixture and the layer of cured meat strips. When you are done, fold over the other half of the breast of veal, closing the “book,” so to speak, and sew the edges with a large needle and thread, so that the filling does not leak out. In addition, tie the breast firmly crosswise with twine. Once you have dressed the meat in this manner, put it on the fire in a saucepan with a bit of butter, salt, and pepper, and when it has browned on both sides finish cooking with water added a little at a time.