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

a smooth cream and is used to glaze fried brains, sweetbreads and the like. All these things are first to be scalded in boiling salt water. Add a pinch of salt and one of pepper when taking from the water. The brains, sweetbreads etc. are then to be cut in irregular pieces, thrown into the paste, or cream, described above and fried in oil or good lard.

In frying these are often united to liver or veal cutlets. The liver must be cut in very thin slices and the cutlets beaten with the side of a big knife and given a good shape. Season with salt and pepper, dip in beaten egg and after a few hours sprinkle with bread crumbs and fry. Serve with lemon.

64 CHICKEN STUFFING (Ripieno di pollo)

The ingredients are ¼ lb. lean veal or pork or breast of turkey and chicken giblets. Cook this meat together with a little hash of onion, parsley, celery, carrot and butter. Season with salt pepper and spices, moistening it with broth. Take dry from the fire, take off the soft parts of the giblets, add a few dry mushrooms softened in water, a little slice of lean fat ham and chop everything fine. Into the sauce that has remained from the cooking throw enough breadcrumbs to make a tablespoonful of hard soaked bread. Mix it with the chopped hash, add a pinch of grated cheese and two eggs and fill the chicken with all this, sewing up the opening afterwards. The chicken can be boiled or stewed. If boiled you will have an excellent bouillon, but pay attention when cutting the chicken to extract the stuffing in one piece in order to slice it.

65 MEAT STUFFING FOR VOL-AU-VENT (Ripieno di carne per pasticcini di pasta sfoglia)

This stuffing can be made either with stewed veal or chicken giblets or sweetbreads. The latter are preferable, being more delicate and a taste of truffles greatly improves the stuffing. If sweetbreads are used, put them on the fire with a piece of butter and season with salt and pepper. When they have begun to take color, complete the cooking with some brown stock, then cut them in pieces as little as a bean. Add one or two spoons of Balsamella (see No. 54) a little tongue, one or two slices of ham cut in little squares, a pinch of grated cheese and a taste of nutmeg, seeing that the ingredients are in such quantities as to make the mixture tasty and delicate. Leave it cool well, as in this way it hardens and can be worked better.

In order to enclose it in paté shells made with puff-paste (see No. 57) there are two ways. One is to cook the shells filled with the stuffing, the other to fill them after they are cooked. In the first case put the stuffing in the prepared disk of paste, moisten the edge with a wet finger, cover with another disk of paste and cook. In the second case, which is more convenient because the shells can be prepared one day before, the two disks are put together without the stuffing, but in the upper disk a circular cut must be made as large as a half dollar coin. The paté on cooking swells and leaves an empty space in the interior. Lifting with the point of a knife the little circle above, which has the form of a cover, the interior space can be made larger, filled with the stuffing and covered with the little cover. In this way it is enough to warm them before sending to the table. The puff-paste must always be glazed with the yolk of eggs.

If a large vol-au-vent is to be filled instead of little paté-shells, a ragout of chicken giblets and sweetbread, cut in large pieces, is better.

66 PORK LIVER FRIED (Fegato di maiale fritto)

Cut in to thin slices some pork liver, sprinkle with flour and fry in good lard. It must be served with its sauce. Squeeze in a lemon while it is frying.

67 FRIED CROQUETTES, BOLOGNA STYLE (Fritto composto alla Bolognese)

Take a piece of stewed lean veal, a little brain boiled or stewed, and a slice of ham. Chop and grind everything fine. Add a yolk of egg or a whole egg, according to the quantity, and a little Balsamella (see No. 54). Put the hash on the fire and stir until the egg is cooked. Add finally grated cheese, a taste of nutmeg, and, if you have them, some truffles chopped very fine and put in a plate. When quite cold make some little balls as large as a walnut and roll them in flour. Then dip in beaten egg and bread crumb ground very fine, repeating the operation twice, and fry.

68 ROMAN FRY (Fritto alla Romana) I.

Put on the fire a hash of onion and butter and when it is well browned cook in it a piece of lean veal seasoned with salt and pepper. When the meat begins to brown put in a little sherry wine to complete the cooking.

Pound the whole to soften it a little using the sauce remained and if this is not enough add some broth and finally the yolk of an egg. See that the whole is not softened too much.

Now take some wafers, not too thin and cut them in squares similar to those used by druggists. Beat one egg and the white from the other egg, then take a wafer, dip it in the egg and place it on a layer of bread crumbs ground fine. On the wafer put a little ball of the compound above, then dip another wafer in the egg, make it touch the bread crumbs only from the part that remains outside, and with this cover the compound attaching it to the lower wafer. Sprinkle again with bread crumbs if necessary and put the piece aside repeating the operation until all the meat is disposed of. Cook in oil or fat and serve with lemon.

With half a pound of meat about twenty filled wafers should be obtained.

69 ROMAN FRY II.

This can be made when you happen to have some breast of roast chicken left over. Some chicken breast, two or three slices of tongue and ham, one tablespoonful of grated cheese, a taste of nutmeg, are the ingredients used. Remove the skin of the chicken and cut it as well as the tongue and the ham, into little cubes. Make a Balsamella (see No. 54) in sufficient quantity and when it is cooked add the above ingredients and let it cool well to fry using the wafer as in the preceding.

70 RICE PANCAKE (Frittelle di riso)

Cook thoroughly ¼ lb. of rice in about a pint of water giving it taste with a little piece of sugar and a taste of lemon peel. Leave it cool and then add three yolks of eggs and a little flour. Mix well and let the whole rest for several hours. When you are going to fry beat the white of an egg to a froth, add it to the rice and throw into the frying pan one tablespoonful at a time.

Serve hot sprinkled with confectionery sugar.

71 KIDNEY SAUTÉ (Rognoni saltati)

Take one large kidney, or two or three small kidneys, open them and remove all the fat. Cut lengthwise in thin slices, salt and pour as much boiling water as is needed to cover them. When the water is thoroughly cooled, drain it and wipe well the slices with a cloth, then put them in a frying pan with a small piece of butter. Turn them often and when they have cooked for five minutes put in a pinch of flour and season with salt and pepper. Leave them on the fire until thoroughly cooked and when you are going to take them away add another piece of butter, a sprig of chopped parsley and a little broth if needed. The kidney must not be kept too much on the fire, because in that case it hardens.

72 LEG OF MUTTON IN CASSEROLE (Cosciotto di castrato in cazzaruola)

Take a shoulder or a leg of mutton and after having boned it, lard it with small pieces of bacon dipped in salt and pepper. Salt moderately the meat then tie it tight and put it on the fire in a pan that contains a piece of butter and one large onion larded with clover. When it begins to brown, take it away from the fire and add a cup of broth, or of water, a little bunch of greens and some tomatoes cut in pieces. Put again on a low fire and let it simmer for three hours, keeping the saucepan closed, but opening from time to time to turn the meat. When it is cooked, throw away the onion, rub the sauce through a sieve, remove its fat and put it with the meat when served. The mutton must not be overdone, for in this case it cannot be sliced.

73 STEWED CUTLETS (Scaloppine alla Livornese)

Take some slices of tender beef, beat them well and put them in a saucepan with a piece of butter. When this is all melted, put one or two tablespoonfuls of broth to complete the cooking, season with salt and pepper, add a pinch of flour and before taking them from the fire put in a pinch of chopped parsley.

74 CUTLETS OF CHOPPED MEAT (Scaloppine di carne battuta)

Take some good lean beef, clean it well, removing all little skins and tendons, then first chop and after grind the meat fine in the grinder. Season with salt, pepper and a pinch of grated cheese. Mix well and give the meat the form of a ball then with bread crumbs over and beneath flatten it with the rolling pin on the bread board making a sheet of meat as thick as a silver dollar. Cut it in square pieces, as large as the palm of the hand and cook in a saucepan with butter. When these cutlets are browned, pour over some tomato sauce and serve.

If you prefer, use your hands instead of the rolling pin and then you can give them the shapes you like.

If you have some left over meat this can perfectly well be mixed with the raw meat and chopped and ground together.

75 VEAL CUTLETS STEWED (Scaloppine alla Genovese)

Cut some lean veal meat into slices and, supposing it be a pound or a little more, without bones, chop one fourth of a middle-sized onion and put it in a saucepan with oil and a little piece of butter. Put over the cutlets, one layer over the other, season with salt and butter and put on the fire. When the meat which is below is browned put in a teaspoonful of flour and after a while a hash of parsley with half a clove of garlic. Then detach the cutlets the one from the other, mix them, let them drink in the sauce, then pour hot water and a little tomato sauce. Make it boil slowly and not much to complete the cooking and serve with abundant sauce and with little diamonds of toast.

76 STUFFED CUTLET (Braciuoline ripiene)

Slice from a piece of veal (about one pound) seven or eight cutlets and beat them well with a knife blade to flatten them. Then chop some tender veal meat and one or two slices of ham and add a small quantity of marrow bone (of veal) and grated cheese. The marrow and the grated cheese must be reduced to a paste with the blade of a knife. One egg is then added to tie up the hash and a pinch of pepper, but no salt on account of the