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

Note.—In these and similar dishes we have indicated the use of wine, which is a common ingredient, in small quantities in Italian and French cooking. This, however, can always be dispensed with if its taste is not appreciated, or for any other reason.

174 TROUT ALPINE (Trota all'alpigiana)

These are many ways to prepare this delicious fish, found in abundance in the many streams of clear water that run from the Alps and the Apennine mountains. Often the trout is cooked in wine, but, of course, this part many be changed.

For the trota all'alpigiana, so called because it is the favorite dish of Piedmont, the trout must be cleaned, scaled, washed, wiped then salted and left under the action of the salt for about an hour.

Pour in a fish-kettle one quart of white wine to which will be added three medium sized onions a few cloves, two sections of garlic and a little bunch made of thyme, bay-leaf, basil or mint; finally a piece of butter as large as an egg, dipped in flour. Then put the trout in the fish-kettle and place on a strong fire. When the liquid has boiled the trout is cooked. Remove the onions and the bunch of greens and serve the trout with its gravy and some parsley.

175 TROUT LOMBARD (Trota fritta)

Clean, scale, wash and wipe the trout. Salt and leave for half an hour. Fill with water half a fish-kettle; add half a lemon, two bay-leaves, one carrot light or ten berries of pepper, one onion divided into four parts, salt and three cloves. When the water is lukewarm, dip in the trout. Cook on a moderate fire and serve the trout with parsley, slices of lemon and young potatoes boiled. A good fish-sauce ought to accompany it.

176 FRIED TROUT (Trota fritta)

Small and young trouts are best for frying. Scale, clean, wash and wipe. Then dip in flour and fry like the other fish in oil or in butter. Serve with browned parsley and lemon.

177 TROUT WITH ANCHOVIES (Trota alle acciughe)

Scale, clean wash and wipe the trouts. Cut the sides and place to pickle with salt, pepper berries, garlic, parsley and onions chopped fine; with mushrooms chopped fine with thyme, bay-leaf and mint, all seasoned with good olive oil. Rub the pickled pieces at the sieve and place it and the trout in a baking-tin. Bake in the oven and serve with anchovy sauce (No. 17).

178 EGGS WITH ONION SAUCE (Uova trippate)

Prepare some hard boiled eggs, shell and cut into disks one third of an inch thick.

Melt in a saucepan a piece of butter in which brown half an onion cut into thin slices, to be removed from the butter when browned. Then add to the butter two teaspoonfuls of flour, mix but don't allow to brown, thin with a cup of hot broth, add salt and pepper and let simmer for ten minutes. Put the sliced eggs in the sauce to warm them, stir a little, but carefully to avoid breaking them, and do not boil again. Just before serving add to the sauce a teaspoonful of cream and stir carefully.

179 EGGS WITH HAM (Uova al prosciutto)

Place in a frying pan as many pieces of butter, large like a nut, as there are eggs to be cooked. For each piece of butter put a little slice of ham and place the frying pan on the fire. As soon as the butter is melted break an egg on each slice of ham. Let cook for ten minutes on a moderate fire.

180 EGGS WITH TOMATO SAUCE (Uova al pomidoro)

Prepare some hard boiled eggs, cut them through the middle lengthwise, place in good order upon a plate and pour some good tomato sauce, taking care not to cover the upper part of the eggs, which must emerge from the sauce.

Instead of the tomato, the eggs may be arranged with a balsamella sauce (No. 54).

181 SCRAMBLED EGGS (Uova strapazzate)

Break the eggs in a plate, assuring first that they are all fresh.

Melt in a saucepan a piece of butter about as big as an egg. When it is melted pour the egg and scramble them with a fork on a low fire.

When the eggs are cooked season moderately with salt and butter. Just when you take them away from the fire and before serving add a tablespoonful of milk or liquid cream. Serve hot with a little grated cheese.

The scrambled eggs can be served with points of asparagus, truffles, mushrooms, etc. which are prepared just as if they were to go in an omelet.

PART II PASTRY, SWEETS, FROZEN DELICACIES, SYRUPS 182 PUDDING OF HAZELNUTS (Budino di nocciuole)

Shell half a pound of hazelnuts in warm water and dry them well at the sun or on the fire, then grind them very fine, together with sugar, of a weight somewhat less than the nuts. Put one quart of milk on the fire, and when it begins to boil, put two third lb. lady fingers or macaroons crumbed and let it boil for five minutes, adding a small piece of butter. Rub everything through a sieve and put back on the fire with the nuts to dissolve the sugar. Let it cool and add six eggs, first the yolks, then the white beaten, pour in a mold greased with butter and sprinkled with bread crumbs ground fine. The mold must not be all full. Bake in the oven and serve cold.

This dose will be sufficient for eight or ten persons.

183 CRISP BISCUITS (Biscotti croccanti)

One pound of flour.
Half a pound granulated sugar.
¼ lb. sweet almonds, whole and shelled, mixed to a few pine-seeds.
A piece of butter, one and a half ounce.
A pinch of anise-seeds.
Five eggs.
A pinch of salt.

Leave back the almonds and pine-seeds to add them afterward, and mix everything with four eggs, so as to use the fifth if it is necessary to make a soft dough. Divide into four cakes half an inch thick and as large as a hand, place them in a receptacle greased with butter and sprinkled with flour. Glaze the cakes with yolk of eggs. Bake in the oven, but only as much as will still permit cutting the cakes into slices, which you will do the day after, as the crust will then be softened. Put the slices back in the oven, so that they will be toasted on both sides and you will have the crisp biscuits.

184 SOFT BISCUITS (Biscotti teneri)

For these biscuits it would be necessary to have a tin box about four inches wide and a little less long than the oven used. In this way the biscuits will have a corner on both sides and, if cut a little more than half an inch, they will be of the right proportion. The ingredients needed are:

Flour, about two ounces.
Potato meal, a little less.
Sugar, four ounces (¼ lb.)
Sweet almonds 1½ ounce.
Candied orange or angelica, one ounce.
Fruit preserve, one ounce.
Three eggs.

Skin the almonds, cut them in half lengthwise and dry in the sun or at the fire. Pastry cooks usually leave them with the skin but it is much preferable to skin them. Cut in little cubes the candied fruits and the preserve.

Stir for a long while, about half an hour the sugar in the egg-yolks and a little flour then add the white of the eggs well beaten and when every thing is well beaten add the flour, letting it fall from a sieve. Mix slowly and scatter on the mixing the almonds and the cubes of candied and preserved fruit. Grease and sprinkle the tin box with flour. Bake in the oven and cut the biscuits the day after. If desired these can also be roasted on both sides.

185 BISCUITS SULTAN (Biscotto alla sultana)

Granulated sugar, six ounces.
Flour, four ounces.
Potato meal, two ounces.
Currants, three ounces.
Candied fruits, one ounce.
Five eggs.
A taste of lemon peel.
Two tablespoonfuls of brandy.

Put first on the fire the currants and the candied fruits cut in very little cubes with as much brandy or cognac as is necessary to cover them: when it boils, light the brandy and let it burn out of the fire until the liquor is all consumed: then remove the currants and candy and let them dry in a folded napkin. Then stir for half an hour the sugar with the egg-yolks and the taste of lemon peel. Beat well the white of the eggs and pour them on the sugar and yolks. Add the flour and potato meal letting them fall from a sieve and stir slowly until everything is well mixed together. Add the currants and the pieces of candied fruits and pour the mixing in a smooth mold or in a high and round cake-dish. Grease the mold or the dish with butter and sprinkle with powdered sugar or flour. Put at once in the oven to avoid that the currants and the candied fruits fall in the oven.

186 MARGHERITA CAKE (Pasta Margherita)

Potato meal, three ounces.
Sugar, six ounces.
Four eggs.
Lemon juice.

Beat well the egg-yolks with the sugar, add the potato meal and the lemon juice and stir everything for half an hour. Finally beat well the whites, and mix the rest, stirring continually but slowly. Pour the mixture in a smooth and round mold, greased with butter and sprinkled with powdered sugar. Put at once in the oven.

Remove from the mold when cold and dust with powdered sugar and vanilla.

187 MANTUA TART (Torta Mantovana)

Flour, six ounces.
Sugar, six ounces.
Butter, five ounces.
Sweet almonds and pine-seeds, two ounces.
One whole egg.
Four egg-yolks.
A taste of lemon peel.

First work well with a ladle the eggs with the sugar, then pour the flour little by little, still stirring, and finally the butter, previously melted in a double steamer (bain-marie). Put the mixture in a pie-dish greased with butter and sprinkled with flour or bread crumbs ground. On top put the almonds and the pine-seeds. Cut the latter in half and cut the almonds, previously skinned in warm water, each in eight or ten pieces. This tart must not be thicker than one inch, so that it can dry well in the oven, which must not be too hot.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve cold.

188 CURLY TART (Torta ricciolina)

Sweet almonds with a few bitter ones, four ounces,
Granulated sugar, six ounces,
Candied fruits or angelica, 2½ ounces,
Butter, two ounces,
Lemon peel.

Mix two eggs with flour, flatten the paste to a thin sheet on a bread board and cut into thin noodles. In a corner of the bread board make a heap of the almonds with the sugar, the candied fruit cut in pieces and the grated lemon peel. All this cut and crush so as to reduce the mixture in little pieces. Then take a pie-dish and without greasing it, spread a layer of noodles on the bottom, then pour part of the mixture, then another layer of noodles and continue until there remains no more material, trying to have the tart at least one inch thick. When it is so prepared cover with the melted butter, using a brush to apply it evenly.

189 ALMOND CAKE (Bocca di dama)

Granulated sugar, nine ounces,
Very fine Hungarian flour, five ounces,
Sweet almonds with some bitter ones, two ounces,
Six whole eggs and three egg yolks,
Taste of lemon peel.

After skinning the almonds in warm water and drying them well, grind or better