Practical Italian recipes for American kitchens

  NOODLES OR HOME MADE PASTE
Tagliatelli o Pasta Fatta in Casa

The best and most tender paste is made simply of eggs and flour and salt. Water may be substituted for part of the eggs, for economy, or when a less rich paste is needed. Allow about a cup of flour to an egg. Put the flour on a bread board, make a hole in the middle and break in the egg. Use any extra whites that are on hand. Work it with a fork until it is firm enough to work with the hands. Knead it thoroughly, adding more flour if necessary, until you have a paste you can roll out. Roll it as thin as a ten cent piece. If the sheet of paste is too large to handle with an ordinary rolling pin, a broom handle which has been sawed off, scrubbed and sandpapered, will serve in lieu of the long Italian rolling pin.

This paste may be cut in ribbons to be cooked in soup as Tagliatelli, or cut in squares or circles and filled with various mixtures to make Cappelletti, Ravioli, etc.

Any bits that are left or become too dry to work may be made into a ball and kept for some time to be grated into soup, in which it makes an excellent thickening.

  RAVIOLI

• ¼ lb. curds or soft cottage cheese
• ½ cup cooked spinach or beet greens
• 1 egg
• Nutmeg
• Salt
• Grated cheese

Drain and chop the greens. Mix well with the curds, egg, a little grated cheese, salt and nutmeg. Make a paste such as that described in the recipe for Pasta fatta in Casa, page 20. Roll out this paste very thin and mark it off in two or three inch squares. Place a spoonful of the mixture on each square. Fold together diagonally. Moisten the edges with the finger dipped in cold water, to make them stick together, and press them down with the fingers or the tines of a fork. Another method is to put the spoonfuls of the mixture in a row two inches from the edge of the paste and two inches apart. Fold over the edge of the paste. Cut off the whole strip thus formed, and cut into squares with the mixture in the middle of each square.

Boil these ravioli in salted water, being careful not to break them open. Drain and serve with a tomato sauce containing mushrooms[6], either fresh ones, or the dried mushrooms soaked and simmered until tender. Arrange the ravioli on a platter, pour the hot sauce over them and finish with a sprinkling of grated cheese.

  [6]

See page 23.

  RAVIOLI WITH MEAT
Ravioli alla Genovese

• 1 cup cooked meat, veal, chicken, turkey or giblets
• 1 small slice cooked ham
• ½ cup spinach
• 1 egg
• Grated cheese, nutmeg, salt

Chop the meat and spinach fine and work to a stiff mixture with the egg. Season with cheese, nutmeg and salt to taste. Enclose in little squares of the home made paste described above, and cook and serve as in the preceding recipe for Ravioli.

  NOODLES WITH HAM
Tagliatelle col Presciutto

• Noodles
• A slice of ham, fat & lean
• Oil or butter
• Carrot
• Celery
• Tomato paste[7]

Cut the ham into little pieces. Chop carrot and celery to equal the ham in quantity. Put them all on the fire with some butter. When the mixture is brown add a few tablespoons of tomato paste dissolved in a cup of hot water.

Cook the noodles in water that is only slightly salted. Drain and dress with the sauce and grated cheese. The quantities to use in the sauce must be determined by the amount of noodles to be cooked.

  [7]

See Suggestions, page 5.

Sauces

  BOLOGNESE SAUCE FOR MACARONI
Maccheroni alla Bolognese

• ¼ lb. raw round steak
• A slice of salt pork or bacon (2 oz.)
• 1 tablespoon butter or substitute
• 1 pint hot water or broth
• 1 small carrot
• ¼ onion
• 1 large piece celery
• ½ tablespoon flour
• Pepper, nutmeg if desired

Chop the meat and vegetables fine and put them over the fire with the butter. When the meat has browned add the 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.

This is enough sauce for 1 lb. of macaroni or spaghetti. Dried mushrooms are a good addition to this sauce. They may be soaked, drained and chopped with other vegetables. This sauce forms the basis for the dish of scalloped cornmeal called Polenta Pasticciata.

  TOMATO SAUCE
Salsa di Pomidoro

Pellegrino Artusi, the inimitable author of that droll yet practical manual of cooking SCIENCE IN THE KITCHEN AND THE ART OF EATING WELL (La Scienza in Cucina e l'Arte di mangiar bene) has the following to say about tomato sauce.

Chop fine together a quarter of an onion, a clove of garlic, a piece of celery as long as your finger, a few bay leaves and just parsley enough. Season with a little oil, salt and pepper, cut up seven or eight tomatoes and put everything over the fire together. Stir it from time to time and when you see the juice condensing into a thin custard strain it through a sieve, and it is ready for use."

This sauce serves many purposes. It is good on boiled meat; excellent to dress macaroni, spaghetti or other pastes which have been seasoned with butter and cheese, or on boiled rice seasoned in the same way. Mushrooms are a great addition to it.

  WHITE SAUCE FOR BOILED ASPARAGUS OR CAULIFLOWER
Salsa Bianca

• 1 tablespoon flour or cornstarch
• ¼ cup butter
• 1 tablespoon vinegar
• Salt and pepper
• ½ cup water or soup stock
• Yolk of 1 egg

Melt half the butter, add the flour and cook until it begins to brown. Add the water slowly, stirring meanwhile, the vinegar and the rest of the butter. Take from the fire and add the beaten egg yolk. This sauce should be smooth like a thin custard.

  PIQUANT SAUCE
Salsa Piccante

• 2 sardines or anchovies
• A bunch of parsley
• ¼ of a small onion
• Garlic
• Lemon juice
• Vinegar
• Olive oil
• Salt, pepper

Wash, skin and bone the anchovies. Chop the parsley very fine with the onion. Rub a bowl with the cut side of a clove of garlic. Put in the anchovies and rub to a paste. Add the parsley and onion, a tablespoon each of lemon juice and vinegar, ¼ cup olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. Stir the mixture until it is smooth and thick. Capers may be added by way of variety. This is delicious as a sauce for plain boiled meat or fish.

Signorina Cornelia Cuniberti.

Fish

  SALMON ALLA FIORENTINA

• 2 lbs. fresh salmon
• A sprig of parsley
• 2 cloves garlic
• A bit of sage
• A bay leaf
• 1 egg
• Flour
• Salt, pepper
• Mayonnaise
• Oil for frying

Boil the piece of salmon for half an hour with the parsley, garlic, sage and bay leaf. Bone and roll into fillets ¾ inch thick. If the fish has boiled very tender it may be necessary to tie the fillets in shape with string or strips of cheese cloth. Dip in beaten egg, then in flour, salt and pepper. Sauté a delicate brown. Serve with oil mayonnaise. The white from the egg used in the mayonnaise may serve for dipping the fillets if only a small piece of salmon is cooked.

  CODFISH "STUFATO"
Stufato di Baccala

• 1 cup codfish, flaked or picked to pieces with a fork
• 4 tablespoons cooking oil
• Several sprigs parsley
• Tomato paste[8]
• Pepper, hot water

Freshen and soak the codfish in cold water, changing the water two or three times. Heat the oil, with the parsley finely chopped. Add the tomato paste, pepper and enough water to make sufficient liquid to cover the fish. Add the fish and let it simmer over a slow fire until it is done.

Signorina Irene Merlani.

  [8]

See Suggestions, page 5.

  CODFISH CROQUETTES
Cotolette di Baccala

• 1 lb. salt codfish
• 2 anchovies[9]
• A sprig of parsley
• Grated cheese
• 2 eggs
• ½ cup breadcrumbs
• 1 tablespoon butter
• Pepper

Flake the codfish and put it on the fire in cold water. When it has come to a boil remove from fire and drain. Clean the anchovies and chop them together with the codfish and parsley. Add enough hot water to the bread crumbs and butter to moisten thoroughly. Mix with the other ingredients Form into croquettes and dip into egg and crumbs and fry in deep fat.

Serve with tomato sauce or simply garnish with lemon.

  [9]

See Suggestions, page 5.

Meats

  FRIED CHIPPED VEAL
Frittura Piccata

• Veal
• Flour
• Butter
• 1 tablespoon vinegar
• Chopped parsley
• Salt and pepper

Take any piece of veal and slice it as thin as possible in small irregular slices like chipped beef. Roll in flour, put butter in frying pan; when hot add the vinegar and stir hard. Lay in the slices of veal and sprinkle salt, pepper and chopped parsley over it. sauté first on one side, then on the other, turning each piece separately. Serve hot with its own butter and vinegar sauce poured over it.

Mme. Varesi.

  SCALLOPED MEAT
Piatto di Carne Avanzata

• Any left over meat
• Onions
• Tomatoes, fresh or canned
• Flour
• Butter or butter substitute
• Sifted bread crumbs
• Salt
• Pepper

Into the bottom of a baking dish put a layer of thinly sliced onion, salt, pepper, a sprinkling of flour and a few dots of butter, then a layer of the cooked meat sliced very thin, another layer of onion and seasoning, and then one of meat, moistening it occasionally with a tablespoon of soup stock or hot water in which a bouillon cube has been dissolved. Repeat this until the dish is nearly full. Last put in a layer of raw tomatoes (canned tomatoes may be made to serve the purpose) and cover the top with bread crumbs, salt, pepper and bits of butter. Bake in the oven for one-half hour.

Signorina Irene Merlani.

  MEAT SOUFFLÉ
Flam di Carne Avanzata

• 1 cup cold boiled or roast meat chopped fine
• 1 oz. butter
• 1 tablespoon flour
• Grated cheese, to taste
• 1 pint of milk
• 2 eggs
• Salt, pepper

Make the butter, flour and milk into a white sauce by melting the butter, cooking the flour in it until the mixture bubbles and begins to brown, then adding the milk and cooking until it is smooth. Let this cool. Brown the meat in a saucepan with a little fat or drippings, salt and pepper. Take it from the fire and add the white sauce and the eggs well beaten. Season with grated cheese, salt and pepper. Butter a mould and sprinkle it with bread crumbs, fill with the mixture and steam or bake as a custard for an hour. Serve with any good meat or tomato sauce.

Signorina Irene Merlani.

  MEAT OMELETTE
Polpettone

• Cold boiled meat
• An egg
• Bread crumbs
• Butter, hot water

Chop or grind cold boiled meat and form into an oval cake after mixing it with enough slightly beaten egg and bread crumbs (soaked in hot water and seasoned with butter) to make it hold its shape. Sauté on one side in a frying pan. To turn it use a plate or cover so as not to break it. Sauté on the other side. Lift it from the pan and with the fat remaining in the pan make a gravy to pour over it, which may be enriched by the addition of a beaten egg and a dash of lemon juice just as it is taken from the fire.

A Polpettone from left over soup meat often forms the second course to a meal, the first course of which has been the soup made from this meat with vegetables or macaroni cooked in it.

  STEW OF BEEF OR VEAL WITH MACARONI
Stufato di Vitello con Maccheroni

• 1½ lbs. beef or veal suitable for stewing
• ¼ cup vegetable oil or shortening
• 1 cup broth or sour milk
• 2 large onions
• Salt
• Pepper

Cut the meat into little pieces and season each piece with salt and pepper. Chop the onions very fine or put them through the meat grinder, and fry them brown in the fat. Put in the meat and let it cook until it has absorbed all the fat and is slightly browned. Add the broth or milk and let it cook over a moderate fire.

As a vegetable with this stew serve macaroni boiled, drained and seasoned with tomato sauce[10] and butter.

Signorina Irene Merlani.

  [10]

See page 5.

  PIGEONS IN CORNMEAL
Piccioni con Polenta

• Pigeons
• Butter
• Chopped onion
• Stock, or boiling water and bouillon cubes
• Sage
• Yellow cornmeal
• Salt, pepper

Make a stiff cornmeal mush, thoroughly cooked. Cut the pigeons in quarters or even smaller pieces. Brown them in butter with salt, pepper and a little chopped onion. Cover with stock, add a bit of sage and stew slowly for an hour and a half. If the birds are young less time will do.

Line a round dish with the mush, hollowed out. Lay the pigeons with their sauce inside of this and serve hot.

  SMOTHERED CHICKEN
Stufato di Pollo

• A chicken (this is an excellent way to cook a tough fowl)
• 4 oz. fat, half butter and half lard, or any substitute
• 1 cup tomatoes stewed down and put through a sieve
• 1 carrot
• 1 onion
• Boiling water
• 1 stalk celery

Cut up the chicken, rub it with the lard and brown it in the other half of the fat. Add the strained tomato, then the finely chopped onion, finally the carrot and celery cut into small pieces, and season with salt and pepper. Let it simmer slowly until perfectly tender, adding hot water enough to keep it moist, from time to time, as the strained tomato cooks away.

Signorina Irene Merlani.

  CHICKEN ALLA CACCIATORA
Pollo alla Cacciatora

• A chicken
• 1 pint fresh or canned tomatoes
• ¼ lb. fat salt pork or bacon
• Flour
• 6 sweet green peppers
• 2 or 3 medium sized onions

Grind or chop the salt pork and put in a large frying pan with the onions sliced thin. Fry the onions slowly and carefully until they are golden brown. Skim them out. Cut up the 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 the tomatoes and green peppers and put back the onions. When the vegetables have cooked down to a thick gravy keep adding enough hot water to prevent their burning. Cover the pan tightly and simmer until the chicken is very tender. This 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.

  BOILED FOWL WITH RICE
Lesso di Pollo col Riso

• ½ lb. rice
• A fowl suitable for boiling
• Salt and pepper
• 1 egg
• Butter
• Grated cheese

Cut up the fowl and boil until it is tender. Wash the rice and blanch it by letting it come to a boil and cook a few minutes in salted water. Finish cooking it in the broth from the boiled fowl. Do not cook it too long or it will be mushy. Add the broth a little at a time to be sure the rice is not too wet when it is done. Season with cheese and butter and add the egg yolk to bind it just as it is taken from the fire. Serve as a border around the fowl.

  STUFFING FOR ROAST CHICKEN OR TURKEY
Ripieno

• 2 small link sausages
• Giblets of the fowl
• 1 cup dry breadcrumbs
• 1 tablespoon drippings
• 1 egg
• A few dried mushrooms[11]
• Nutmeg
• Very little salt and pepper
• 8 or 10 large roasted chestnuts

Brown the sausages and giblets in drippings. Add a cup of boiling water and simmer until cooked. Skim them from their broth and put the bread crumbs to soak in it. Skin the sausages and chop or grind them together with the giblets, chestnuts and the mushrooms which have been washed and soaked in warm water. Mix thoroughly with the bread crumbs. Add more bread crumbs or hot water if it is not the right consistency. Double the quantity for a turkey. This dressing is very nice sliced cold.

  [11]

See page 5.

Sweets

  CHOCOLATE PUDDING
Budino di Cioccolata

• 2 cups milk
• 3 eggs
• 1½ squares unsweetened chocolate
• ¼ cup sugar
• 3 oz. ground macaroons

Make a custard of the eggs, milk, sugar and chocolate. Cook it in a double boiler until it thickens. Take from the fire and add the finely ground macaroons, stirring and beating the mixture until it is smooth. Pour into a buttered mould and chill thoroughly on the ice.

Signorina Irene Merlani.

  ZABAIONE

• 1 wineglass Marsala or Madeira wine (¼ cup)
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 eggs

Beat the eggs, beat in the sugar, add the wine. Cook over a slow fire, beating constantly until the mixture begins to thicken. Take from the fire and continue to beat a moment so the mixture will not cook to the side of the hot vessel. It should be a smooth, frothy cream. It is eaten hot, poured over sponge cake or served in tall glasses. A scant teaspoon of cinnamon may be added by way of variety.

It is best to cook Zabaione in a double boiler or in a dish set into a larger one of boiling water, to prevent its curdling.

Orange or other fruit juice may be substituted for the wine, but Marsala is the original and authentic ingredient. Made with fruit juice it becomes an acceptable pudding sauce.

Pensione Santa Caterina, Siena.

  MONT BLANC
Monte Bianco, Dolce di Castagne

• 1 lb. French or Italian chestnuts
• Milk, sugar, whipped cream, cinnamon

Boil the chestnuts for two hours and then peel off the shells and inner skins. Put them over the fire with a little milk, and mash them to a paste, adding more milk if necessary, to make them of about the consistency of mashed potatoes. Flavor with sugar and cinnamon. Pass them through a sieve or potato ricer to form a mound on the plate on which the Mont Blanc is to be served. Decorate with a generous quantity of whipped cream just before serving. Vanilla or a little wine may be used for flavoring instead of cinnamon.

Marietta Ieri

  NUT CAKE

• ¼ lb. rice flour
• 6 oz. sugar
• 4 oz. butter
• 4 eggs
• Vanilla
• 4 oz. almonds and filberts

Blanch the almonds and filberts and dry them thoroughly. Grind them very fine and mix with the rice flour and two tablespoons of the sugar. Beat the eggs light and beat in the rest of the sugar. Pour the eggs into the other mixture and beat all very light. Add the melted butter and continue to beat. Pour into a buttered loaf-cake tin and bake in a moderate oven.

  PASTA MARGUERITA

• ¼ lb. potato flour
• ¼ lb. powdered sugar
• 4 eggs
• Lemon juice

Beat the egg yolks thoroughly and beat in the sugar. Then add the flour and lemon juice and beat in all ½ hour. Beat the whites of the eggs dry and fold them into the rest. Butter a mould and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Pour into the mould and bake. When it is cool turn out of the mould and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

  BIGNÉ

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup water
• ½ cup butter
• 3 eggs
• A little salt

Boil the water and melt the butter in it. Salt it, add the flour and let it cook a little while. Cool and add the beaten eggs. Form this into 12 Bigné, (little cakes or cookies) and bake them in the oven. When they are baked split them open and fill with a custard flavored with vanilla and sprinkle them with powdered sugar.

Signorina Irene Merlani.