Part 6

Clean and trim the meat, removing all the little skins. Then sprinkle with nutmeg, cinnamon, salt, and pepper, and place in an earthen vase covered, together with a bunch of aromatic herbs, sage, parsley, rosemary, onion, carrot and celery, all chopped fine. After a few hours melt and brown a piece of butter with the aromatic herbs, then remove the latter and place the tenderloin, leaving it to simmer for half an hour, pricking it often with a large fork or a larding pin, to add its juice to the gravy. Serve hot.

159

STUFFED ONIONS

(Cipolle ripiene)

Boil six large onions for an hour. Then drain and skin. Remove the heart with the point of a knife. In the place of the heart place the stuffing made with 1/4 lb. ham or tongue, chopped and mixed with bread crumbs ground, two tablespoonfuls of milk, two pinches of salt and one of pepper. When the onions are prepared and stuffed place them in a saucepan whose bottom has been greased with butter, sprinkle with bread crumbs ground and place in the oven, not too hot. At the time of serving add some white sauce or =balsamella= (No 54). Stuffed onions are served as vegetables, or side-dish with roast-beef or boiled-beef.

160

STEWED ONIONS

(Cipolle in stufato)

Keep in cold water, for half an hour, two pounds of middle-sized onions. Afterward skin and place in a saucepan in which pour as much broth as is necessary to cover them. Let them cook on a low fire for an hour, if they are scallions, or young onions. If they are not, two hours are not enough, sometimes.

When cooked and soft, drain and place in a large deep dish. Brown a piece of butter with a tablespoonful of flour, a cup of broth, salt and pepper. Mix everything and when it begins to boil pour the sauce on the onions, which must be served hot.

161

VEAL LIVER

(Fegato di vitella alla veneziana)

Brown a large onion cut in thin slices in oil and place in the saucepan the liver cut in thin slices. Brown everything on a strong fire. When the liver takes a reddish color it is ready. If it is overdone, it becomes too hard. Salt just before removing from the saucepan.

162

FRIED LIVER

(Fegato al tegame)

Clean and trim the liver, then cut in slices half an inch thick. Dip in flour and place, without delay in a saucepan in which a small onion has been browned in butter. Salt just before serving.

163

POLENTA WITH SAUSAGES

(Polenta colle salsicce)

The polenta is a very popular dish in Northern Italy and can be prepared in various ways. Always, however, it is better to serve with the addition of sausages, or with birds or tomato paste.

The =polenta= is practically cornmeal and it is made with the so-called =farina gialla= or yellow flour.

The ingredients for a good polenta are one pound of corn meal, preferably granulous, one quart and a half of water, salted in proportion, one piece of butter, one cup and a half of milk.

Pour the meal little by little into boiling water, continually stirring with a wooden spoon. When the meal is half cooked, put the butter and pour the milk little by little. While the =polenta= boils, place on the fire in a little saucepan a tablespoonful of olive oil or a small piece of butter. When the oil is hot or the butter is melted, put some sausages repeatedly pricked with a fork.

When the sausages are cooked, pour the polenta hot in a dish and place the sausages and the gravy in a cavity practised in the middle. Serve hot.

In cooking the sausages two or three bay-leaves may be added and removed before serving.

164

SAUSAGES WITH ONIONS

(Salsicce alla cipollata)

The =salsicce alla cipollata= are prepared with fresh and lean pork meat and bacon in equal quantity, chopped fine and seasoned with salt, pepper and spices. Add a proportional quantity of onions chopped very fine, not too much, however. Fill with the hash the prepared entrails, tie every two inches to divide the sausages.

CELERY

(Sedano)

Beside being used as a condiment with a great quantity of dishes, the celery may be prepared in various different ways to form appetizing vegetable dishes. We give here a certain number of those that appear most commonly on Italian tables:

165

CELERY WITH BUTTER

(Sedano al burro)

Two heads of celery for each person.

Clean and trim, removing the sprigs that are too hard, and the leaves, that are to be cut where they begin to be green. Finally trim the stem. Then wash repeatedly in running water, drain and put to boil in salted boiling water. Remove when cooked and drain again.

About three quarters of an hour before serving, melt a piece of butter in a saucepan and brown the celery, turning them often for about ten minutes. After that pour over hot stock (soup stock or chicken broth) cover the saucepan and parboil. A few moments before serving season with brown stock, if you have any at hand, otherwise with salt and pepper only.

166

CELERY AU JUS

(Sedano al sugo)

Select nine or ten heads, neither too hard nor too soft, and cut them about four inches from the root. Remove the green and hard branches and trim the root, cutting the latter to a point. Scald the celery, after washing well, in salted boiling water. Ten minutes will be sufficient. Dip in cold water, open well the leaves and wash again carefully. Drain and make bunches of two or three heads each that you will put in a saucepan with a pint of broth or water and half a cup of good fat, onion and carrot chopped, salt and pepper. Cover and let it simmer for about two hour. Then remove the celery, drain and serve.

167

SAUCE FOR CELERY AU JUS

(Salsa per sedani al sugo)

The celery, prepared as above, are seasoned with the following sauce: Make a =roux= melting a piece of butter and browning an equal weight of flour; stir for about three minutes on the fire, after which thin the roux with a little brown stock or with bouillon cubes diluted in water. Continue stirring and reduce the sauce. Then rub through a sieve, pour over the celery and serve very hot.

168

FRIED CELERY

(Sedani fritti)

This is a convenient way to prepare left-over celery that is still too good to be thrown away.

Clean the left-over celery removing as best you can the sauce in which they were served, dip in frying paste (flour and egg) fry and serve with lemon.

169

PURÉE OF CELERY

(Macco di sedani)

Take some big roots of celery, prepare as usual and wash in running water. Boil in salted water, crush and rub through a sieve. Put in a saucepan this purée, with a piece of butter, salt, flour and a little cream or milk. The milk may be substituted with good soup stock or brown stock. Just before serving add a little powdered sugar.

170

STEW

(Stufato)

The Italian =stufato= is somewhat different from the stewed meat that is known under the name of "Irish stew". It corresponds to the French =daube= and is prepared in Italy in many different ways.

An excellent =stufato= can be made in the following way: Chop fine two bunches of parsley, a small carrot, half a medium sized onion, a little piece of scallion and two bay-leaves. Brown with a good piece of butter in a saucepan in which one and a half tablespoonful of oil have been previously poured.

The meat must have been prepared beforehand, that is to say washed, trimmed and larded. When half cooked, season moderately with salt and pepper. If necessary, moisten with broth or water. During the cooking the saucepan must be covered with its cover and with a sheet of paper greased with fat or oil. The stufato will be ready after about three hours' cooking on a low fire.

171

SOUTHERN STEW

(Stufato Meridionale)

Put the piece of meat in a saucepan of such a size that it remains completely filled, moisten with two cups of water and two of white wine, season with salt and pepper and cook for five hours on a low fire.

172

STEW MILANAISE

(Stufato alla milanese)

Beat and flatten a good piece of meat and lard with bacon or ham cut in small pieces. Season with salt, pepper and a taste of cinnamon. Sprinkle flour over the meat.

Place in a saucepan a little fat of beef chopped with a middle sized onion and brown with a piece of butter. When the onion is browned, remove it and place the meat over the melted butter. Brown with melted butter. Then fill the saucepan with half water, half red wine, but only when the meat is browned from all sides. Cover the saucepan the best you can, with cover and greased paper and let it simmer for five or six hours on a very low fire.

After removing the stew, let it cool, rub the gravy through a sieve, put again on the fire and serve hot.

173

FRENCH STEW

(Stufato alla francese)

Prepare on the bottom of the saucepan a layer of thin slices of ham, on which place several little cubes also of bacon. In the middle place a bunch of parsley, and around this some cloves, half an onion sliced, a few carrots in little cubes several young onions, bay-leaf, salt, and pepper.

On this bed lay the meat that may be larded with bacon or ham and seasoned with salt, pepper and a taste of cinnamon. Pour on the meat two cups of soup stock or water and one cup of white wine. Cover the saucepan hermetically and cook on a very low fire for five hours.

When the stufato is to be served cold, the gravy is to be rubbed through a sieve before it gets cold.

=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. 1/4 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 (1/4 lb.) Sweet almonds 1-1/2 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, 2-1/2 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 pound them well together with a tablespoonful of sugar and mix well with the flour. Put the rest of the sugar in a deep dish with the egg yolks and the grated lemon peel (just a taste) and stir with a ladle for a quarter of an hour. In another dish beat the six whites of egg and when they have become quite thick mix them with other ingredients stirring slowly everything together.

To bake place the mixture in a baking-tin greased evenly with butter and sprinkled with powdered sugar and flour.

190

CORN MEAL CAKES

(Pasta di farina gialla)

Corn meal, seven and a half ounces, Wheat flour, five and a half ounces, Granulated sugar, five and a half ounces, Butter, three and a half ounces, Lard, two ounces, A pinch of anise seed, One egg.

Mix together the corn meal, the flour and the anise seed and knead with the butter, the lard and the egg that quantity that you can, forming a loaf that you will put aside. What remains is to be kneaded with water forming another loaf. Then mix the two loaves and knead a little, not much because the dough must remain soft. Flatten with the rolling pin until it becomes one quarter of an inch thick, sprinkle with flour, and cut in different sizes and shapes with thin stamps.

Grease a baking tin with lard, sprinkle, with flour, glaze with the egg, bake and dust with powdered sugar.

191

BISCUIT

(Biscotto)

Six eggs, Granulated sugar, nine ounces, Flour, four ounces, Potato meal, two ounces, Taste of lemon peel.

Stir for at least half an hour the yolks of the eggs with the sugar and a tablespoonful only of the flour and meal, using a ladle. Beat the whites of the eggs until they are quite firm, mix slowly with the first mixture and when they are well incorporated pour over from a sieve the flour and the potato meal, previously dried in the sun or on the fire.

Bake in a tin where the mixture comes about one inch and a half thick, previously greasing the tin with cold butter and sprinkle with powdered sugar mixed with flour.

In these cakes with beaten whites the following method can also be followed: mix and stir first the yolks with the sugar, then put the flour then, after a good kneading, beat the whites until they are firm, pour two tablespoonfuls to soften the mixture, then the rest little by little.

192

CAKE MADELEINE

(Pasta Maddalena)

Sugar, four and a half ounces, Flour, three ounces, Butter, one ounce, Egg-yolks, four, Whites of eggs, three, A pinch of bi-carbonate of soda, A taste of lemon peel.

First mix and stir the yolks with the sugar and when they have become whitish, add the flour and stir for fifteen minutes more. Mix with the butter, melting or softening it fine if it is hard and finally add the whites when they are well beaten. The flour must be previously dried in the sun or on the fire.

This cake may be given different shapes, but keep it always thin and in little volume. It can be put in little molds greased with butter and sprinkled with flour, or else in a baking tin, keeping it not more than half an inch thick, and cutting it after baking in the shape of diamonds and dusting with powdered sugar.

193

ALMOND CRISP-TART

(Croccante)

Sweet almonds, four and a half ounces. Granulated sugar, three and a half ounces.