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

salt and pepper and a little saffron, if you like it.

When the rice is almost cooked, add to it some brown stock. Dress with parmesan cheese and some butter. Mix well and serve hot. This dish must not be allowed to be overcooked or cooled before eating.

23 RISOTTO WITH CHICKEN GIBLETS (Risotto alla Milanese II)

The broth for this risotto may be made by cooking together the giblets, neck and tips of wings of a chicken which is to be roasted, or it may be made from the left-overs of roast fowl.

Boil the rice until it is about half done in salted water. Then let the water cook away and begin adding the broth, in such quantity that the rice will be nearly dry when it is tender. Fry one chopped onion in the oil or fat. Some mushrooms cut up small are a very good addition to this "Soffritto". Mince the chicken giblets and add to the onion. Stir the mixture into the rice. Add grated cheese and a beaten egg just as the rice is taken from the fire.

24 (Risotto con piselli)

Wash and dry 1½ lb. rice; chop fine one medium sized onion and put it on the fire with a small quantity of butter.

When the onion is well browned, add the rice little by little, stirring with a wooden spoon. Add some boiling water one cup at a time. Drain the peas previously prepared (fresh or canned peas may be used) and add them toward the end of the cooking. When the whole is almost cooked, add some salt and take it away from the water almost dry. Add some butter, stir and serve hot.

25 RISOTTO WITH LOBSTER (Risotto coi gamberi)

For this risotto either lobster or crab meat can be used: the former is, however, considered more tasty. The lobster or crab meat ought to be about half the weight of the rice employed. A little more than a pound of rice and half this weight of crab meat ought to be enough for six persons.

Chop fine a sprig of parsley, a stalk of celery, one carrot, half an onion a clove of garlic and brown the whole in good olive oil. When browned, add the crab meat and season with salt and pepper. During the cooking process stir and turn over the crabs, and when they have become red, pour over as much hot water as is necessary to cook the rice.

After the water boils for a while, remove the lobster (or crab, or craw-fish) leaving the saucepan on the fire. Put half of the crabs aside, and grind the rest. Rub the ground meat through the sieve and put it back on the fire. In another saucepan melt some butter and put into it little by little the rice that has been washed and dried. Stir and add the broth from the first saucepan. When the rice is almost cooked add the craw-fish that you have put aside, or rather its meat extracted from the shells, take from the fire and pour over it the fish mixture, adding some grated cheese.

26 RICE WITH SAFFRON (Riso alla Milanese con Zafferano)

Wash and dry the rice and put it in boiling broth (beef or chicken broth). When the rice is half cooked add half its weight of marrow of beef bone, cut into small pieces. A few minutes are sufficient for the cooking of the marrow. Add grated cheese and remove the kettle from the fire.

Dissolve some saffron in one or two tablespoonfuls of broth; sift it through a sieve and mix with rice, which is to be served very hot, and makes an excellent soup.

27 RICE CAKES (Frittelle di riso)

Cook the rice in milk, adding a small quantity of butter, some salt, half a teaspoon of sugar and just a taste of lemon peel. Let the rice cool down after being thoroughly cooked, then add three yolks of eggs (for ¼ lb. of rice) and some flour. Mix well and let the whole rest for several hours. When about to fry, beat the white of the eggs to a froth, add to the rice mixing slowly, and put into the saucepan with a ladle.

28 FRIED ARTICHOKE (Carciofi fritti)

Take two artichokes, cut out the hard part of the leaves and of the stalk, cut them in two. Then cut these halves into section or slices so as to have eight or ten for each artichoke, according to size. As you cut them, throw them into cold water and when they are well washed, dry them, but not thoroughly, putting them at once into the flour so that the latter remains attached to it. Beat the white of an egg, but not to a froth, then mix the yolk with the white and salt the whole. Shake out the artichokes to take away the superfluous flour and then put them in the egg, leaving them for a while so that the egg may be attached to them.

Throw the pieces one by one into the pan where there is boiling fat, butter or olive oil, and when they are well browned, take them away and serve with lemon. If it is desired that the artichokes remain white, it is better to fry them in oil and to squeeze half lemon into the water where the artichokes are put to soften.

29 STEAMED ARTICHOKES (Carciofi a vapore)

Artichokes have been only recently imported to the United States, principally by Italian farmers, and they are just beginning to find their way into the American kitchen. The artichokes may be eaten raw or cooked. It is a healthy and palatable vegetable, easily digested when cooked. It is nutritious and adapted for convalescents. It may be prepared in a thousand ways, and here follow some of the simplest and most tasteful.

To prepare the steamed artichokes they must first be cleaned and the stalk cut to less than half an inch. Put them in a saucepan, standing on their bottoms, one near the other, in half an inch or more of water. In an opening made in the middle put salt and pepper, and pour inside as much good olive oil as they may contain. Cover well the saucepan and put it on the fire. The artichokes, that are already seasoned, will be cooked by the steam.

30 STEWED ARTICHOKES (Carciofi in stufato)

Wash the artichokes and cut the hard part of the leaves (the top). Widen the leaves and insert a hash composed of bread crumbs, parsley, salt, pepper and oil. Place the artichokes in the saucepan standing on their stalk, one touching the other. Cover them with water and let them cook for two hours or more. When the leaves are easily detached they are cooked.

31 ARTICHOKES WITH BUTTER (Carciofi al burro)

Wash, dry and cut out the top of the leaves of as many artichokes as are needed. Cut them in two or four and boil them in salt water. When tender, drain them, have them slightly browned in melted butter and season with salt and pepper.

When served in a vegetable dish or placed in a pyramid on a round plate, sprinkle with grated cheese.

32 FRIED SQUASH (Zucchine fritte)

The squashes used by Italians for frying and other purposes are very small, and for this reason they are called "Zucchine" or small squashes. They can be bought at those shops kept by Italian vegetable dealers that are now to be found in large number in most American cities and, invariably, in Italian neighborhoods during the summer season. The "Zucchine" are an extremely tasty vegetable and they are especially good when fried.

Select the squashes that are long and thin: wash them cut them in little strips less than half an inch thick. Take away the softer part of the interior and salt moderately. Leave them aside for an hour or two, then drain them but don't dry them. Put them in flour and rub gently in a sieve to take away the superfluous flour: immediately after put them in a saucepan where there is already oil, fat or butter boiling. At the beginning don't touch them to avoid breaking, and only when they have become a little hardened stir them and remove when they begin to be browned.

33 LAMB OMELET (Agnello in frittata)

Cut in little pieces a loin of lamb, which is the part that lends itself best for this dish, and fry in lard: a little quantity of lard is sufficient, because the meat of the loins is rather fat. When half cooked season with salt and pepper and when fully cooked pour over four or five whole eggs slightly beaten also seasoned moderately with salt and pepper. Mix, taking care that the eggs do not harden.

34 FRIED CHICKEN (Pollo fritto)

Wash a spring chicken and keep in boiling water for one minute. Cut into pieces at the joints, roll them in flour, season with salt and pepper and dip in two whole beaten eggs. After leaving the pieces of chicken for half an hour, roll them in bread crumbs, repeating the operation twice if necessary. Put into a saucepan with boiling oil or fat, seeing that the pieces of chicken are well browned on both sides. Keep the fire low. Serve hot with lemon.

35 CHICKEN ALLA CACCIATORA (Pollo alla cacciatora)

Chop one large onion and keep it for more than half an hour in cold water, then dry it and brown it aside. Cut up a chicken, sprinkle the pieces with flour, salt and pepper and sauté, in the fat which remains in the frying pan. When the chicken is brown add one pint fresh or canned tomatoes and half a dozen sweet green peppers and put back the onion. When the gravy is thick enough add hot water to prevent the burning of the vegetables. Cover the pan tightly and simmer until the chicken is very tender. This is an excellent way to cook tough chickens. Fowls which have been boiled may be cooked in this way, but of course young and tender chickens will have the finer flavor.

36 CORN MEAL WITH SAUSAGES (Polenta con salsicce)

Cook in water one cup of yellow cornmeal making a stiff mush. Salt it well and when it is cooked spread out to cool on a bread board about half an inch thick. Then cut the mush into small squares.

Put in a saucepan several whole sausages with a little water, and when they are cooked skin and crush them and add some brown stock or tomato sauce.

Put the polenta (or cornmeal mush) in a fireproof receptacle, season with grated cheese, the crushed sausages and a piece of butter. Put it in the oven and serve when hot.

37 POLENTA PIE (Polenta Pasticciata)

Make a very stiff mush of cornmeal cooked in milk. Salt it well and spread out on the bread board in a sheet about one inch thick. When cold, cut in little diamonds or squares and place these in a buttered baking dish. Prepare the Bolognese sauce according to the following recipe: Chop ¼ lb. round steak, a slice of pork or bacon, one small carrot ¼ onion, one large piece celery. Put the meat and vegetables over the fire with a piece of butter. When the meat has browned add half a tablespoon of flour and wet the mixture with hot water or broth, allowing it to simmer from half an hour to an hour. It is done when it is the consistency of a thick gravy.

Make a smooth white sauce with milk cornstarch and butter. Over a layer of the polenta, cut as above and placed in the baking dish sprinkle some grated cheese and a few tablespoons each of the white sauce and the meat sauce.