The Italian Cook Book - Maria Gentile (e book reader txt) 📗

butter it and line it with soft pastry. Put everything in the mold, or timbale, cover it with the same pastry and put in the oven. Take out of the mold and serve hot. Three quarters of a pound of macaroni and two pigeons are enough for ten persons. 50 SALMI OF GAME (Uccelli in salmi)

Roast the game completely, seasoning with salt and pepper. If the game be small birds, leave them whole, if big cut them in four parts. Remove all the heads and grind them together with some pieces of birds, or some whole little birds. Put in a saucepan one tablespoonful of butter one half pound of bacon or ham cut into dice, brown stock or broth, one tablespoonful each of chopped onion and carrot, one tablespoonful each of salt, thyme and sage. Allow the sauce to simmer for half an hour then rub it through a sieve and place in it the roasted game. Make it boil until the cooking is completed and serve with toasted diamonds of bread.

51 STEWED HARE (Stufato di lepre)

Take half of a good sized hare and, after cutting it in pieces, chop fine one medium sized onion, one clove of garlic, a stalk of celery and several leaves of rosemary. Put on the fire with some pieces of butter, two tablespoonfuls of olive oil and four or five strips of bacon or salt pork, when the whole has been browning for four or five minutes, put the pieces of hare inside the saucepan and season them with salt, pepper and spices. When it is browned, put a wineglass of white wine, some fresh mushrooms, or dry mushrooms previously softened in water. Complete the cooking with broth and tomato sauce and, if necessary, add another piece of butter.

52 STEWED RABBIT (Coniglio in umido)

After washing the rabbit, cut it in rather large pieces and put it on the fire to drive away the water that is to be drained. When quite dry, put in the saucepan a piece of butter, a little oil, and a hash composed of the liver of the rabbit itself, a small piece of corned beef and some onion, celery, carrot and parsley. Season with salt and pepper. Stir often and when it is browned add some tomato sauce and another piece of butter.

53 GREEN SAUCE (Salsa verde)

Chop all together some capers that have been in vinegar, one anchovy, a small slice of onion and just a taste of garlic. Crush the resulting hash with the blade of a knife to make it very fine. Add a sprig of parsley, chopped together with some leaves of basil and dissolve the whole in very good olive oil and lemon juice.

This sauce is excellent to season boiled chicken or cold boiled fish or hard boiled eggs.

Green Peppers can take the place of capers, if these are not at hand.

54 WHITE SAUCE (Salsa bianca)

This sauce can be served with boiled asparagus or with cauliflower. The ingredients are ¼ lb. of butter, a tablespoonful of flour, a tablespoonful vinegar, one yolk of egg, salt and pepper, broth or water in sufficient quantity.

Put first on the fire the flour with half the butter and when it begins to be browned pour over it the broth or the water little by little, stirring with the wooden spoon and adding the rest of the butter and the vinegar without making the water boil too much. When taken off the fire add the yolk of the egg, stir and serve.

55 YELLOW SAUCE (Salsa gialla)

This sauce is especially good for boiled fish, and the quantities indicated below are sufficient for a piece of fish or a whole fish weighing about a pound.

Put on the fire in a little saucepan one teaspoonful of flour and two ounces of butter, and when the flour begins to be browned, pour over it little by little one cup of the broth of the fish, that is to say of the water in which the fish has been boiled. When you see that the flour does not rise in the boiling water, take away the sauce from the flour and pour over two tablespoonfuls of olive oil and the yolk of an egg, stirring and mixing everything well. Squeeze in the sauce half a lemon and season generously with salt and pepper. Let it cool and then pour over the fish that is to be served with a sprig of parsley.

This sauce must have the appearance of a cream and must not be too liquid, in order that it may remain attached to the fish.

56 SAUCE FOR BROILED FISH (Salsa per pesce in gratella)

This sauce is composed of yolks of eggs, salted anchovies, olive oil and lemon juice. Boil the eggs in their shell for ten minutes and for every hard yolk take one large anchovy or two small. Bone the anchovies and rub them on the sieve together with the hard (or semi-hard) yolks, and dissolve all with oil and lemon juice to reduce it like a cream. Cover with this sauce the broiled fish before sending to the table, or serve aside in a gravy boat.

57 CAPER SAUCE (Salsa con capperi)

This sauce is especially adapted for boiled fish and the quantities are for a little more than one pound of fish. The ingredients are two ounces of butter, two ounces of capers soaked in vinegar one teaspoonful of flour, salt, pepper and vinegar.

Boil the fish and, when it is left warm in its broth, prepare the sauce. Put on the fire the flour with half of the butter, mix it and when it begins to take color, add the remaining butter.

Let boil a little and then pour one half cup of the broth of the fish: season generously with salt and pepper and take the saucepan from the fire. Then throw in it the capers, half whole, half chopped, and some drops of vinegar, but taste it to dose the sauce so that it is pleasant to the taste and as thick as liquid cream.

It is well to observe here that these sauces in which butter is used together with acids, such as vinegar, are not for weak stomachs and should be partaken of sparingly.

58 GENOVESE SAUCE (Salsa genovese)

Chop fine a sprig of parsley and half a clove of garlic. Then mix with some capers soaked in vinegar, one anchovy, one hard yolk of egg, three pitless olives, a crumb of bread as big as an egg, soaked in vinegar. Grind all these ingredients, rub through a sieve and dissolve in olive oil, dosing right by tasting.

59 BALSAMELLA SAUCE (Salsa balsamella)

This sauce resembles the famous French Béchamel Sauce, but it is simpler in its composition.

Put in a saucepan one tablespoonful of flour and a piece of butter as big as an egg. Stir the flour and the butter together while keeping them over the fire. When the flour begins to be browned, pour over a pint of milk, continually stirring with a wooden spoon until you see the liquid condensed like a cream. This is the Balsamella. If it is too thick add some milk, if too liquid put back on the fire with another piece of butter dipped in flour.

A good Balsamella and some well prepared brown stock are the base and the principal secret of many savory dishes.

60 CURLED OMELET (Frittata in riccioli)

Boil a bunch of spinach and rub it through a sieve. Beat two eggs, season with salt and pepper and mix with them enough spinach to make the eggs appear green. Put the frying pan on the fire with only enough oil to grease it and when very hot put in a portion of the eggs, moving the frying pan so as to make a very thin omelet. When well cooked, remove it from the frying pan and repeat the operation once or twice in order to have two or three very thin omelets. Put these one over the other and cut them in small strips that are to be browned in butter adding a little grated cheese. These strips of omelet, resembling noodles, form a tasty and attractive dressing for a fricandeau (veal stew) or a similar dish.

61 VEAL KIDNEY OMELET (Frittata di rognone di vitella)

Take a veal kidney, open it lengthwise and leave all its fat. Season with oil, salt and pepper, broil it and cut in thin slices. Beat enough eggs in proportion to the size of the kidney, season them with salt and pepper, both in moderate quantity and mix with them a sprig of parsley and some grated cheese. Put the sliced kidney in the eggs, mix all together and make an omelet with some butter.

62 PUFF PASTE (Pasta sfoglia)

The Pasta sfoglia is not too difficult to make and if the following instructions are carefully followed, this fine and light paste can easily be prepared. It is well to have a marble slab to roll it on but this is not absolutely necessary. A warm, damp day is not favorable for the making of the Pasta sfoglia, which succeeds better when the weather is cold and dry.

Mix half a pound of flour of the very best quality with a piece of butter as big as a walnut, some warm, but not hot water, enough salt and a teaspoonful of good brandy. When the paste is formed knead it well for about half an hour, first with the hands, then throwing it repeatedly with force against the bread board. Make a cake of a rectangular form, wrap it in cloth and let it rest for a while. Meanwhile work with the hand ½ lb. of butter that has been kept previously on ice or, better, in a bowl of ice-water, until it becomes smooth and flexible, then make of it a little cake like that of the paste and throw it in a bowl of cold water. When the dough has rested take the butter from the water, wipe it with a cloth and dip it in flour.

Roll the paste only as long as it is necessary to enclose within the cake of butter. This is placed in the middle and the edges of the sheet of paste are drawn over it, closing well with fingers moistened in a little water so that no air remains inside. Then begin to flatten, first with the hands, then with the rolling pin, making the sheet as thin as possible, but taking care that the butter does not come out. If this happens throw at once a little flour where the butter appears and always have the marble slab (or bread board) and the rolling pin sprinkled with flour. Fold it over, making three even layers of paste, and again roll the folded strip, repeating the operation six times and letting the paste rest from time to time for a few minutes. At the last time, fold it in two and reduce it to the necessary thickness that is, about one third of an inch. After each folding press the edges gently with the rolling pin to shut in the air, and turn the paste so as to roll in a different direction.

When the paste has had six turns cut it into the desired forms and put on ice, or in a cold place for twenty to thirty minutes before putting it on the oven, which must be very hot, with the greatest heat at the bottom.

The puff paste is used for paté shells and vol-au-vent cake and for light pastries of all kinds.

63 PASTE FOR FRYING (Pastella per fritto)

Dilute three teaspoonfuls of flour with two teaspoonfuls of oil. Add two eggs, a pinch of salt, and mix well. This mixture will take on the aspect of