The Italian Cook Book, Maria Gentile [best classic literature txt] 📗

it in a kettle or a large saucepan in which the seasoning is already placed. This seasoning consists of ½ lb. bacon cut in very thin slices, ¼ lb. butter, one or two thin slices of ham and two middle sized onions, sliced. Sprinkle the tongue with flour, surround it with chopped meat and place the saucepan on the fire. When the tongue begins to brown, pour five or six cups of soup stock and one cup of water. Add the usual bunch of greens, two or three cloves, salt, a pinch of pepper and one of cinnamon.

Cover the saucepan tightly, boil for about four hours, rub the sauce through a sieve and serve everything hot.

157 VEAL SWEETBREADS (Animelle di vitello)

Keep in fresh water for an hour. Then place them in a skimmer (ladle with holes) and dip in boiling water or broth. After a brief boiling remove and cool in cold water. Then remove the veins and gullet, taking care not to tear them. The sweetbreads are prepared in various ways and here we give some of the best known:

Sweetbreads with butter.—Boil in broth or water, clean and cut into slices. Brown a piece of butter with salt and pepper. Then place the sliced sweetbreads and brown them. Before serving squeeze on a little lemon juice. The sweetbreads prepared in this way are served preferably with rice or vegetables.

Sweetbreads with white sauce.—Boiled, cleaned and cut into slices, they are placed in white sauce or balsamella (No. 54) adding a taste of nutmeg, pepper, salt and the juice of half a lemon.

Sweetbreads in fricassee.—Boil, trim and cut into pieces. Then brown in butter with a scallion chopped fine. Once browned, remove from the gravy in which pour a tablespoonful of flour, moistened with broth. The sauce that results is bound with egg-yolks and lemon juice.

Sweetbreads fried.—Boil and trim. Then cut in large slices, neither too thick nor too thin. Dip in beaten egg and in bread crumbs ground. Then fry in butter. Serve with vegetables.

158 TENDERLOIN WITH SPICES (Filetto alla piemontese)

Clean and trim the meat, removing all the little skins. Then sprinkle with nutmeg, cinnamon, salt, and pepper, and place in an earthen vase covered, together with a bunch of aromatic herbs, sage, parsley, rosemary, onion, carrot and celery, all chopped fine. After a few hours melt and brown a piece of butter with the aromatic herbs, then remove the latter and place the tenderloin, leaving it to simmer for half an hour, pricking it often with a large fork or a larding pin, to add its juice to the gravy. Serve hot.

159 STUFFED ONIONS (Cipolle ripiene)

Boil six large onions for an hour. Then drain and skin. Remove the heart with the point of a knife. In the place of the heart place the stuffing made with ¼ lb. ham or tongue, chopped and mixed with bread crumbs ground, two tablespoonfuls of milk, two pinches of salt and one of pepper. When the onions are prepared and stuffed place them in a saucepan whose bottom has been greased with butter, sprinkle with bread crumbs ground and place in the oven, not too hot. At the time of serving add some white sauce or balsamella (No 54). Stuffed onions are served as vegetables, or side-dish with roast-beef or boiled-beef.

160 STEWED ONIONS (Cipolle in stufato)

Keep in cold water, for half an hour, two pounds of middle-sized onions. Afterward skin and place in a saucepan in which pour as much broth as is necessary to cover them. Let them cook on a low fire for an hour, if they are scallions, or young onions. If they are not, two hours are not enough, sometimes.

When cooked and soft, drain and place in a large deep dish. Brown a piece of butter with a tablespoonful of flour, a cup of broth, salt and pepper. Mix everything and when it begins to boil pour the sauce on the onions, which must be served hot.

161 VEAL LIVER (Fegato di vitella alla veneziana)

Brown a large onion cut in thin slices in oil and place in the saucepan the liver cut in thin slices. Brown everything on a strong fire. When the liver takes a reddish color it is ready. If it is overdone, it becomes too hard. Salt just before removing from the saucepan.

162 FRIED LIVER (Fegato al tegame)

Clean and trim the liver, then cut in slices half an inch thick. Dip in flour and place, without delay in a saucepan in which a small onion has been browned in butter. Salt just before serving.

163 POLENTA WITH SAUSAGES (Polenta colle salsicce)

The polenta is a very popular dish in Northern Italy and can be prepared in various ways. Always, however, it is better to serve with the addition of sausages, or with birds or tomato paste.

The polenta is practically cornmeal and it is made with the so-called farina gialla or yellow flour.

The ingredients for a good polenta are one pound of corn meal, preferably granulous, one quart and a half of water, salted in proportion, one piece of butter, one cup and a half of milk.

Pour the meal little by little into boiling water, continually stirring with a wooden spoon. When the meal is half cooked, put the butter and pour the milk little by little. While the polenta boils, place on the fire in a little saucepan a tablespoonful of olive oil or a small piece of butter. When the oil is hot or the butter is melted, put some sausages repeatedly pricked with a fork.

When the sausages are cooked, pour the polenta hot in a dish and place the sausages and the gravy in a cavity practised in the middle. Serve hot.

In cooking the sausages two or three bay-leaves may be added and removed before serving.

164 SAUSAGES WITH ONIONS (Salsicce alla cipollata)

The salsicce alla cipollata are prepared with fresh and lean pork meat and bacon in equal quantity, chopped fine and seasoned with salt, pepper and spices. Add a proportional quantity of onions chopped very fine, not too much, however. Fill with the hash the prepared entrails, tie every two inches to divide the sausages.

CELERY (Sedano)

Beside being used as a condiment with a great quantity of dishes, the celery may be prepared in various different ways to form appetizing vegetable dishes. We give here a certain number of those that appear most commonly on Italian tables:

165 CELERY WITH BUTTER (Sedano al burro)

Two heads of celery for each person.

Clean and trim, removing the sprigs that are too hard, and the leaves, that are to be cut where they begin to be green. Finally trim the stem. Then wash repeatedly in running water, drain and put to boil in salted boiling water. Remove when cooked and drain again.

About three quarters of an hour before serving, melt a piece of butter in a saucepan and brown the celery, turning them often for about ten minutes. After that pour over hot stock (soup stock or chicken broth) cover the saucepan and parboil. A few moments before serving season with brown stock, if you have any at hand, otherwise with salt and pepper only.

166 CELERY AU JUS (Sedano al sugo)

Select nine or ten heads, neither too hard nor too soft, and cut them about four inches from the root. Remove the green and hard branches and trim the root, cutting the latter to a point. Scald the celery, after washing well, in salted boiling water. Ten minutes will be sufficient. Dip in cold water, open well the leaves and wash again carefully. Drain and make bunches of two or three heads each that you will put in a saucepan with a pint of broth or water and half a cup of good fat, onion and carrot chopped, salt and pepper. Cover and let it simmer for about two hour. Then remove the celery, drain and serve.

167 SAUCE FOR CELERY AU JUS (Salsa per sedani al sugo)

The celery, prepared as above, are seasoned with the following sauce: Make a roux melting a piece of butter and browning an equal weight of flour; stir for about three minutes on the fire, after which thin the roux with a little brown stock or with bouillon cubes diluted in water. Continue stirring and reduce the sauce. Then rub through a sieve, pour over the celery and serve very hot.

168 FRIED CELERY (Sedani fritti)

This is a convenient way to prepare left-over celery that is still too good to be thrown away.

Clean the left-over celery removing as best you can the sauce in which they were served, dip in frying paste (flour and egg) fry and serve with lemon.

169 PUREE OF CELERY (Macco di sedani)

Take some big roots of celery, prepare as usual and wash in running water. Boil in salted water, crush and rub through a sieve. Put in a saucepan this purée, with a piece of butter, salt, flour and a little cream or milk. The milk may be substituted with good soup stock or brown stock. Just before serving add a little powdered sugar.

170 STEW (Stufato)

The Italian stufato is somewhat different from the stewed meat that is known under the name of "Irish stew". It corresponds to the French daube and is prepared in Italy in many different ways.

An excellent stufato can be made in the following way: Chop fine two bunches of parsley, a small carrot, half a medium sized onion, a little piece of scallion and two bay-leaves. Brown with a good piece of butter in a saucepan in which one and a half tablespoonful of oil have been previously poured.

The meat must have been prepared beforehand, that is to say washed, trimmed and larded. When half cooked, season moderately with salt and pepper. If necessary, moisten with broth or water. During the cooking the saucepan must be covered with its cover and with a sheet of paper greased with fat or oil. The stufato will be ready after about three hours' cooking on a low fire.

171 SOUTHERN STEW (Stufato Meridionale)

Put the piece of meat in a saucepan of such a size that it remains completely filled, moisten with two cups of water and two of white wine, season with salt and pepper and cook for five hours on a low fire.

172 STEW MILANAISE (Stufato alla milanese)

Beat and flatten a good piece of meat and lard with bacon or ham cut in small pieces. Season with salt, pepper and a taste of cinnamon. Sprinkle flour over the meat.

Place in a saucepan a little fat of beef chopped with a middle sized onion and brown with a piece of butter. When the onion is browned, remove it and place the meat over the melted butter. Brown with melted butter. Then fill the saucepan with half water, half red wine, but only when the meat is browned from all sides. Cover the saucepan the best you can, with cover and greased paper and let it simmer for five or six hours on a very low fire.

After removing the stew, let it cool, rub the gravy through a sieve, put again on the fire and serve hot.

173 FRENCH STEW (Stufato alla francese)

Prepare on the bottom of the saucepan a layer of thin slices of ham, on which place several little cubes also of bacon. In the middle place a bunch of parsley, and around this some cloves, half an onion sliced, a few carrots in little cubes several young onions, bay-leaf, salt, and pepper.

On this bed lay the meat that may be larded with bacon or ham and seasoned with salt, pepper and a taste of cinnamon. Pour on the meat two cups of soup stock or water and one cup of white wine. Cover the saucepan hermetically and cook on a