4. Discard any of the cabbage’s bruised or blemished leaves. Detach the other leaves from the core, discarding the core, and shred them into strips about ¼ inch wide.
5. Put the olive oil and chopped garlic into the saute pan, and turn on the heat to medium. Cook and stir the garlic until it becomes colored gold, then add all the shredded cabbage. Turn it over 2 or 3 times to coat it well, cover the pan, and turn the heat down to the minimum.
6. Cook for 40 minutes to 1 hour, turning the cabbage from time to time, until it has become very soft and it is reduced to one-third its original bulk. Add a liberal amount of salt and ground pepper, bearing in mind that the cabbage is very sweet and needs considerable seasoning. Taste and correct seasoning to suit.
7. Turn up the heat to medium, uncover the pan, and continue to cook the cabbage. When it becomes colored a light nut brown, add the cut-up tomatoes, stir to coat well, and cook for about 15 minutes. Return the meatballs to the pan, turning them over 2 or 3 times in the cabbage and tomatoes. Cover the pan, turn the heat down to low, and cook for 10 to 15 minutes, turning the contents over from time to time. Transfer the entire contents of the pan to a warm platter and serve at once.
Beef Patties Baked with Anchovies and Mozzarella
For 6 servings
½ slice of good-quality white bread
3 tablespoons milk
1½ pounds ground beef, preferably chuck
1 egg
Salt
Fine, dry, unflavored bread crumbs, spread on a plate
Vegetable oil
A bake-and-serve dish
Butter for greasing the dish
6 whole canned imported Italian plum tomatoes, drained of juice, OR fresh tomatoes (see note)
Oregano, 1 teaspoon if fresh, ½ teaspoon if dried
6 slices mozzarella, each cut ¼ inch thick
12 flat anchovy fillets (preferably the ones prepared at home as described)
Note You can use fresh plum tomatoes if they are at the height of their season and very ripe and meaty.
1. Preheat oven to 400°.
2. Trim away the bread’s crust, put the milk and bread in a small saucepan, and turn on the heat to low. When the bread has soaked up all the milk, mash it to a pulp with a fork. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely.
3. Put the chopped meat in a bowl, add the cooled bread and milk mush, the egg, and some salt, and gently knead the mixture with your hands without squeezing it. When all the ingredients are evenly combined, shape it gently and without squeezing into 6 patties about 1½ inches high. Dredge the patties in the bread crumbs.
4. Choose a saute pan that can subsequently accommodate all the patties in a single layer. Pour in enough vegetable oil to come ¼ inch up the sides. Turn on the heat to medium high and when the oil is hot, slip in the patties. Sliding them in with a spatula will avoid splashing hot oil out of the pan. Brown the patties on both sides, cooking them about 2 minutes on one side and 1 minute on the other. Turn them carefully to avoid their breaking up.
5. While the meat is being browned, smear a bake-and-serve dish with butter. When the patties are ready, transfer them to the dish, using a slotted spoon or spatula.
6. If using fresh tomatoes, skin them raw with a peeler. Split the tomatoes in half lengthwise, scoop out their seeds, cut from each tomato a strip ½ inch wide, and set it aside to use for garnish. Cover each patty with both halves of a tomato, sprinkle with salt and oregano, top with a slice of mozzarella, and over the mozzarella place 2 anchovy fillets, crossing each other. Where the crossed anchovies meet, place the reserved strip of tomato.
7. Put the baking dish on the uppermost rack of the preheated oven and bake for 10 minutes or more until the mozzarella melts. Serve at table directly from the baking dish.
Ahead-of-time note The baking dish with the patties may be prepared several hours in advance, before proceeding to the final step.
Tuscan Meat Roll with White Wine and Porcini Mushrooms
For 4 to 6 servings
A 2- by 2-inch slice of good-quality white bread, trimmed of all the crust
2 tablespoons milk
1 pound ground beef, preferably chuck
1 tablespoon onion chopped very, very fine
Salt
Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
2 tablespoons chopped prosciutto OR pancetta OR boiled unsmoked ham
⅓ cup freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
1 egg yolk
Fine, dry, unflavored bread crumbs, spread on a plate
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
⅓ cup dry white wine
A small packet OR 1 ounce dried porcini mushrooms, reconstituted as described, and chopped into coarse pieces
The filtered water from the mushroom soak, see instructions
⅔ cup canned imported Italian plum tomatoes, chopped, with their juice, OR fresh, ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped
1. Put the bread and milk in a small saucepan, and turn on the heat to low. When the bread has soaked up all the milk, mash it to a pulp with a fork. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely.
2. Put the ground meat in a bowl and crumble it with a fork. Add the bread and milk mush, the chopped onion, salt, pepper, the chopped prosciutto, pancetta, or ham, the grated Parmesan, the garlic, and the egg yolk, and gently knead the mixture with your hands without squeezing it.
3. When all the ingredients are evenly combined, shape the meat into a firmly packed ball. Place the ball on any flat work surface and roll it into a salami-like cylinder about 2½ inches thick. With your palm, tap it sharply in several places to drive out any air bubbles. Turn the roll in the bread crumbs until it is evenly coated all over.
4. Choose a heavy-bottomed pot—possibly an oval or a rectangular roaster—that can snugly accommodate the meat roll. Put in the butter and oil and turn on the heat to medium. When the butter foam subsides, put in the meat. Brown it well all over, using two spatulas to turn the roll to keep it from breaking up.
5. When you have browned the meat, add the wine, and let it bubble until it is reduced to half its original volume. In the process, turn the roll carefully once or twice.
6. Turn the heat down to medium low and add the chopped reconstituted porcini mushrooms. Add the tomatoes and their juice to the pot together with the filtered mushroom liquid. Cover tightly and adjust heat to cook at a gentle, but steady simmer, turning and basting the meat from time to time. After 30 minutes, set the cover slightly ajar, and cook for another 30 minutes, turning the meat once or twice.
7. Transfer the meat roll to a cutting board. Let it settle for a few minutes, then cut it into slices about ⅜ inch thick. If the juices left in the pot are a little too runny, boil them down over high heat, scraping the pot with a wooden spoon to loosen any cooking residues stuck to the bottom and sides. Coat the bottom of a serving platter with a spoonful or so of the cooking juices, place the meat slices over it, arranging them so they overlap slightly, pour the remaining juices in the pot over the meat, and serve at once.
Bollito Misto—Mixed Boiled Meat Platter
THE TIME MAY COME when bollito misto will become part of the heroic legends of our past and be a dish we only read about. And when we shall have to be satisfied with just reading, we won’t do better than to look up Marcel Rouff’s The Passionate Epicure and the episode of Dodin Bouffant’s boiled beef dinner for the Prince of Eurasia.
In the meantime, if we travel to Northern Italy, we can still profit from a visit to those few restaurants where a steam trolley is rolled out to our table, and a waiter spears out of its vapors a moist round of beef, a whole buttery chicken, a breast of veal or even a satiny shin, a cut of tongue, or a cotechino—plump, rosy pork sausage soft as cream. Or we can gather a crowd of lusty eaters at home and produce a bollito misto of our own.
The recipe given below is for a complete bollito and will serve at least eighteen per
sons. You can reduce it by more than half simply by omitting the tongue and the cotechino. If any of the other meats are left over, they can be used in a salad. Leftover beef is, if anything, even more delicious than when it has just come out of the pot; see the recipe. And the greatest bonus of all may be the stupendous broth: You can freeze it as described and use it for weeks to make some of the best risotti and soups you have ever had.
For 18 or more servings, if making the full recipe
2 carrots, peeled
2 stalks celery
1 onion, peeled
½ red or yellow sweet bell pepper, its seeds and pulpy core removed
1 potato, peeled
1 beef tongue, about 3 to 3½ pounds
2 to 3 pounds boneless beef brisket or chuck
¼ cup canned imported Italian plum tomatoes, drained and cut up, OR 1 whole fresh, very ripe tomato
3 pounds veal breast with the short ribs in
A 3½-pound chicken
Salt
1 cotechino sausage, boiled separately as described, and kept warm in its own broth
1. Choose a stockpot that can contain all the above ingredients, except for the cotechino. The depth of flavor and aroma of a great bollito misto—and of its precious broth—comes from all the meats cooking together. If you don’t have a single large pot to do it in, divide all the vegetables into two parts, cook the beef and tongue in one pot with half the vegetables, the other half with the veal and chicken in a second pot.
If using one pot, put in the vegetables, except for the tomatoes, with enough water to cover the meat later and bring it to a boil. If using two pots, start with the one in which you’ll cook the beef and tongue.
2. When the water is boiling fast put in the tongue and beef and cover the pot. When the water resumes boiling, adjust heat so that it simmers gently, but steadily. Skim off the scum that surfaces during the first few minutes, then add the tomatoes. (Or half of them, if using two pots.)
3. After 1 hour of cooking at a slow simmer, take the tongue out to peel it. If you can handle the tongue while it is very hot, you’ll find this easier to do. Slit the skin all around the tongue’s edges and pull it off. The second skin beneath it will not come off, but can easily be cut away on one’s plate after the tongue is fully cooked and sliced. Cut off and discard the gristle and fat at the base of the tongue, and return it to the pot.
4. If cooking in one pot, add the veal. If using 2 pots, bring water to a boil with the remainder of the vegetables, put in the veal, cover, and when the water returns to a full boil, adjust heat to cook at a steady, but slow simmer. Skim off any scum that may surface during the first minutes, then—if you are using a separate pot for the veal—add the remaining tomatoes.
5. Cook, always at a very gentle simmer, for another 1¾ hours, then put in the chicken. If using a separate pot, it goes with the veal. Add liberal pinches of salt to the single pot, or to both if using two. Cook until the chicken feels very tender when its thigh is prodded with a fork, about 1 hour.
If you are serving the bollito within 1 hour after turning the heat off, keep the pots covered, leave the meats in their broth, and they will still be warm enough to serve. If you are serving much later, keep the meats in their broth, and reheat at a very slow simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.
Serving notes Although a platter piled with steaming meat makes a hearty spectacle, the bollito will be much more succulent if kept submerged in its broth. Transfer to serving bowls or tureens, if you like, but pull out a piece of meat only to carve it and serve immediately. Keep the cotechino and its broth separate; the broth must not be mixed with that of the other meats and should be discarded when the sausage has been served.
Accompany bollito misto with an assortment of the following sauces:
• Warm Red Sauce
• Piquant Green Sauce, and variation
• Horseradish Sauce
• If your Italian specialties shop has it, or you are going to Italy, pick up a jar of mostarda di Cremona, sweet and spiced mustard fruits.
Ahead-of-time note Bollito misto can be kept in its broth and refrigerated if you plan on serving it the following day. Please see remarks on storing broth for longer than 3 days.
LAMB
Roast Easter Lamb with White Wine
IN ITALY, to eat lamb is to welcome the end of winter and hail the coming of spring, to celebrate renewal, to connect one’s feelings with the Easter spirit of rebirth. For the Italian soul, as well as for the Italian palate, no other meat possesses the tenderness of roasted young lamb.
The recipe that follows is the simple and fragrant way that in Emilia-Romagna we do the first lamb of the season, at Easter. Every region follows a traditional approach of its own, another notable one being that of Rome.
For 4 servings
2 to 2½ pounds spring lamb (see note below), preferably the shoulder
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon butter
3 whole garlic cloves, peeled
A sprig of fresh rosemary, cut into 2 or 3 pieces, OR ½ teaspoon dried rosemary leaves
Salt
Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
⅔ cup dry white wine
Note The recipe given below works well with any lamb, but it is most successful with a very young, small one.
1. You’ll be needing a heavy-bottomed or enameled cast-iron pot in which to roast the meat. If you don’t have one that can accommodate the piece of meat whole, divide the lamb into 2 or 3 pieces. Wash it in cold running water and pat thoroughly dry with cloth or paper towels.
2. Put the oil and butter in the pot, turn the heat on to medium high, and when the butter foam begins to subside, put in the lamb, the garlic, and the rosemary. Brown the meat deeply all over, particularly the skin side. Check the garlic: If you find it is becoming very dark, remove it from the bottom of the pan and place it on top of the lamb.
3. Add salt, pepper, and the wine. Let the wine simmer briskly for about 15 or 20 seconds, turning the meat once or twice, then adjust heat to cook at a very gentle simmer and cover the pot, setting the lid on slightly ajar. Cook for about 1½ to 2 hours, until the lamb is cooked all the way through and begins to come off the bone. Turn the meat from time to time while it is cooking and, if the liquid in the pot has become insufficient, replenish it as often as needed with 2 or 3 tablespoons of water.
4. When done, transfer the lamb to a warm serving platter. Tip the pan to spoon off all but a small amount of fat. Add 2 tablespoons of water, raise the heat to high, and while the water boils away use a wooden spoon to scrape loose cooking residues from the bottom and sides. Pour the pot juices over the lamb and serve at once.
Abbacchio—Baby Lamb, Pan-Roasted Roman Style
THE DISH that Roman cooking is most famous for is month-old lamb, abbacchio. Rarely do butchers outside of Rome offer such young milk-fed lambs, but they can procure, usually on request, what is sometimes referred to in North America as hothouse lamb, a slightly older, but nonetheless very tender animal. You should try to obtain it for this dish, if you want to duplicate the special flavor of Roman abbacchio. If you must use older lamb, you can still count on excellent results from this recipe as long as you avoid anything more mature than young spring lamb.
For 6 servings
2 tablespoons cooking fat (see note below)
3 pounds shoulder, with some loin attached, of very young lamb, cut into 3-inch pieces, with the larger bones removed, if you like
Salt
Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
½ teaspoon chopped garlic
6 to 8 fresh sage leaves OR ½ teaspoon dried leaves, chopped fine
A sprig of fresh rosemary OR 1 teaspoon chopped dried
1 tablespoon flour
½ cup wine vinegar
4 flat anchovy fillets (preferably the ones prepared at home as described), chopped to a pulp
Note In Rome, the fat traditionally used for roasting abbacchio is lard, and
no other produces comparably fine flavor or the same light, crisp surface on the meat. But if you prefer not to use lard, you can replace it with olive oil, or a combination of butter and vegetable oil, or all vegetable oil.
1. Choose a heavy-bottomed or enameled cast-iron pot that will comfortably contain all the meat. Put in the cooking fat and turn on the heat to medium high. It the fat is lard, put in the lamb pieces when it melts; if it is butter, when its foam subsides; or, if it is all oil, when hot enough that when you test it with a piece of meat, it sizzles. Brown the meat deeply on all sides, then add salt, pepper, the garlic, sage, and rosemary. Turn over all ingredients 2 or 3 times to coat them well.
2. After cooking for 1 minute, lightly dust the lamb with 1 tablespoon flour sifted through a sieve or fine wire strainer. Distribute the flour evenly over the meat. Cook long enough to turn each piece of meat once, then add the vinegar. When the vinegar has simmered briskly for 15 to 20 seconds, add ⅓ cup of water, and when the water begins to bubble, adjust heat to cook at a very gentle simmer, and cover the pot, setting the lid on slightly ajar.
3. Cook, turning the meat from time to time, until the lamb begins to come easily off any bone, and feels very tender when prodded with a fork. If very young, it may take 1 hour or less. If while it cooks, the liquid should become insufficient, replenish it with 2 to 3 tablespoons of water, as needed.
4. When the lamb is nearly done, put water in the bottom half of a small double boiler, and bring it to a boil. Place the upper half of the boiler over it, put into it a tablespoon or so of juice from the pot in which the lamb is cooking, add to it ½ tablespoon of water, and put in the chopped anchovies. Cook the anchovies, stirring constantly and mashing them with a wooden spoon against the sides of the pot until they dissolve into a paste. When the lamb is done, add the anchovies to it, turn the meat over for about 1 or 2 minutes, then transfer the entire contents of the pot to a warm platter and serve at once.
Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking Page 45