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

dissolve easily, being mixed with the sugar. Then put the pinch of salt and wait until it becomes lukewarm to add the eggs that are to be beaten whole previously. Pour the mixture in a baking tin greased evenly with butter, sprinkled with bread crumbs and of such a size that the tart has the thickness of an inch or less. Put it in the oven, remove from the mold when cold and serve whole or cut into sections. 201 PUDDING OF RICE MEAL (Budino di farina di riso)

Milk, one quart.
Rice meal, seven ounces.
Sugar, four and a half ounces.
Six eggs.
A pinch of salt.
Taste of vanilla.

First dissolve the rice meal in half a pint of the milk when cold, and pour it in the rest of the milk when it is boiling. This is done to prevent the formation of lumps. When the meal is cooked add the sugar, the butter and the salt. Remove from the fire and when it is lukewarm mix the eggs (beaten) and the taste of vanilla. Then bake the pudding like all the others and serve warm.

202 BREAD PUDDING (Budino di pane)

Soft bread crumb, five ounces.
Butter, three and a half ounces.
Four eggs.
Taste of lemon peel.
A pinch of salt.

Cut the bread crumb into pieces and soak in cold milk. Then rub though a sieve. Melt the butter in a double boiler (in a vessel immersed in boiling water) and mix with the eggs until butter and eggs are incorporated to each other. Add the bread crumb and the sugar and mix well. Pour the mixture in a mold greased with butter and sprinkled with bread crumb ground fine and bake like other puddings.

203 POTATO PUDDING (Budino di patate)

Potatoes, big and mealy, one and a half lb.
Sugar, five and a half ounces.
Butter, one and a half ounces.
Flour, a tablespoonful.
Milk, half a pint.
Six eggs.
A pinch of salt.
Paste of cinnamon or lemon peel.

Boil or steam the potatoes, skin and rub through a sieve. Place them back again on the fire with the butter, the flour and the milk, all poured little by little, stirring well with the ladle, then add the sugar, the salt and the cinnamon or lemon peel (just a taste) and mix everything together well. Remove from the fire and, when the mixture is lukewarm or cold add the eggs, first the yolks, then the whites beaten.

Bake like all other puddings and serve hot.

204 LEMON PUDDING (Budino di limone)

One big lemon.
Sugar, six ounces.
Sweet almonds with 3 bitter ones, six ounces.
Six eggs.

Cook the lemon in water, for which two hours will be enough. Remove dry and rub through a sieve. Before rubbing, however, taste it, because if it has a bitter taste it must be kept in cold water until it has lost that unpleasant taste. Add the sugar, the almonds skinned and ground very fine and the six yolks of the eggs. Beat the whites of the eggs and add them to the mixture that will then be put in a mold and baked like all other puddings.

205 PUDDING OF ROASTED ALMONDS (Budino di mandorle tostate)

Milk, one quart.
Sugar, three and a half ounces.
Sweet almonds, two ounces.
Lady-finger biscuits, two ounces.
Three eggs.

First prepare the almonds, that is to say skin them in warm water and toast them on the fire over a plate of iron or a stone, then grind very fine. Boil the sugar and the lady-fingers, broken in little pieces in the milk, mixing well. After half an hour of boiling, keeping always stirred, rub the mixture through a sieve. Then add the toasted and ground almonds. When it is cold add the beaten eggs, pour it in a smooth mold, whose bottom will be covered with a film of liquified sugar and cook in a double boiler, that is to say put the mold well closed in a kettle full of boiling water.

When cooked let it cool and place in ice-box before serving.

206 CRISP CAKE IN DOUBLE BOILER (Croccante a bagno maria)

Sugar, five and a half ounces.
Sweet almonds, three ounces.
Egg-yolks, five.
Milk, one pint.

Skin the almonds and chop them in little pieces about as big as a grain of wheat. Put on the fire two thirds of the sugar and when it is all melted pour the almonds and stir continually with the ladle until they have taken the color of cinnamon. Then put them in a tin greased with butter and when they are cold, pound them very fine with the remaining third of sugar.

Add the yolks and then the milk, mix well and pour the mixture in a mold with a hole in the middle and greased evenly with butter. Place the mold in a double boiler so that it will be cooked by steam.

206 STUFFED PEACHES (Pesche ripiene)

Six big peaches not very ripe.
Four or five lady-finger biscuits.
Granulated sugar, three ounces.
Two ounces sweet almonds with three peach kernels.
Candied fruit (angelica) half an ounce.

Cut the peaches in two parts, remove the stones and enlarge somewhat the cavity where they were with the point of a knife. Mix the peach pulp that you extract with the almonds, already skinned, and grind the pulp and almonds very fine together with two ounces of the sugar. To this mixture add the lady-fingers crumbed and the candied fruits. Cut in very small cubes. This will be the stuffing with which you will fill the cavities of the twelve halves of peach. These you will place in a row in a baking tin, with the stuffing above. Add the remaining ounce of sugar and bake in oven with a moderate fire.

207 MILK GNOCCHI (Gnocchi di latte)

One quart of milk.
Sugar, nine ounces.
Starch in powder, four ounces.
Eight yolks of eggs.
A taste of vanilla.

Mix everything together as you would do for a cream and put on the fire in a saucepan, continually stirring with a ladle. When the mixture has become hard keep it a few moments more on the fire and then pour it in a plate to make it about half an inch thick and cut it into diamonds when it is cold. Put these diamonds one over the other with symmetry in a baking tin or in a fireproof glass plate, with some little pieces of butter in between and brown them a little in the oven. Serve hot.

208 SABAYON (Zabaione)

Yolks of three eggs.
Granulated sugar, two ounces.
Marsala or sherry wine, five tablespoonfuls.
A dash of cinnamon.

First stir with the ladle the yolks and the sugar until they become almost white, then add the wine. When ready to serve, place the saucepan in another one containing hot water and beat until the sugar is melted and the egg begins to thicken.

SYRUPS (Sciroppi)

The syrups of acidulated fruits, diluted with ice water are refreshing and pleasant beverages, greatly appreciated during the summer months. It is well, however, not to drink them until the digestion is completed, because they may disturb it, on account of the sugar that they contain.

209 RED CURRANT OR GOOSEBERRY SYRUP (Sciroppo di ribes)

Remove the stems from the bunches of gooseberry and place them in an earthen vase, to be kept in a cool place. When it has begun to ferment (which may happen after three or four days) sink the surface film and stir with a ladle twice a day, continuing this operation until it has stopped raising. Then put in a cheese cloth, letting the juice come out through pressing with the hands or in a machine. Pass the juice through a filter, two or three times if necessary, until you obtain a limpid liquid. Then put it on the fire and when it begins to boil pour in it granulated sugar and citric acid in the following proportions:

Liquid, six pounds.
Sugar, eight pounds.
Citric acid, one ounce.

That is to say for each three parts of the liquid, add four parts of sugar, and one ounce of citric acid for eight pounds of sugar mixed with six pounds of liquid.

Stir continually with the ladle so that the sugar does not stick to the bottom, taste it to add some more citric acid if you judge it necessary, then let it cool and place in bottles to be sealed.

When a beverage is to be prepared pour in a tumbler less than half an inch of syrup for a tumblerful of ice water.

210 RASPBERRY SYRUP (Sciroppo di lampone)

This is prepared like the other explained above but, since this fruit contains less gluten than the gooseberry the period of fermentation will be briefer. The large quantity of sugar used in these syrups is necessary for their conservation and the citric acid is used to correct the excessive sweetness.

211 LEMON SYRUP (Sciroppo di limone)

Three big lemons.
One and a half pound of sugar.
A tumbler of water.

Skin the lemons, removing the internal pulp without squeezing it and taking off all seeds.

Put the water on the fire with the skin of one of the lemons cut in a thin ribbon like strip with a small knife. When the water is near boiling put in the sugar then remove the lemon skin and immerse the pulp of the three lemons. Boil until the syrup is condensed and cooked right, which is known by the pearls that it makes boiling and the color of white wine that it acquires. Preserve in a bottle, and when needed, dilute in a tumbler of ice water. A small quantity will make a delightful beverage.

212 HARD BLACK-BERRY SYRUP (Sciroppo di amarena)

Use hard but ripe black berries. They must be of the sour kind but, as said, they must not be unripe. Remove the stems and put the berries into a vase with a good piece of whole cinnamon. The fermentation will happen after 48 hours and as soon as the berries begin to rise, stir them from time to time. Then press them to extract the juice, with a pressing machine if you have one, or with your hands, squeezing them a few at a time in cheese cloth.—When the liquid has rested for a while, filter it until it becomes quite clear. When it has been depurated, put it on the fire in the following proportion and with the piece of cinnamon that was already immersed in the cherries: Twelve pounds of liquid to sixteen pounds of sugar and two ounces of citric acid, or three parts of liquid to four of sugar and the citric acid as in the above proportion.

Before putting in the sugar and the citric acid wait until the liquid is quite hot, just before boiling. Then stir continually. The boiling must be brief, four or five minutes are sufficient to incorporate the sugar in the liquid.

When removing the syrup from the fire, put it in an earthen vase and bottle when quite cold. Cork the bottles well and keep in a cool place.

213 ORGEAT (Orzata)

Sweet almonds with 10 or 12 bitter ones, seven ounces.
Water, one and half pounds.
Granulated sugar, two pounds.

Skin the almonds and grind them very fine, or better pound them in a mortar, moistening from time to time with orange flower water, of which you will use about two tablespoonfuls.

When the almonds have been reduced to a paste, dissolve the latter in one third of the water and filter the juice through a cheese cloth, squeezing hard. Put the paste, back in the grinder or in the mortar, grind or pound again, then filter again with another third of the water. Repeat the same operation for a