Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well (31 page)

It is called crazy not because it is likely to do something mad, but for the simplicity and case with which it can serve as the necessary dress for a variety of dishes, as you will see.

Sprinkle water and salt in due proportion over the flour and form a dough loaf that can rolled out wafer thin.

This dough can be said to have turned out beautifully when it puffs up in paper-thin and feather-light layers. Thus, for those who have not had much practice making it, it is difficult to prepare. You would need to watch a master chef make it. Nonetheless, I shall do my best to teach you.

200 grams (about 7 ounces) of fine flour, or Hungarian flour

150 grams (about 5-1/4 ounces) of butter

Or:

300 grams (about 10-1/2 ounces) of flour

200 grams (about 7 ounces) of butter

In the winter, mix hot but not boiling water with the flour; salt as needed, then add a tablespoon of brandy and a nut-sized pat of butter, taking it from the above-mentioned quantities. After you have
formed a loaf that is neither too hard nor too soft, knead it for half an hour at least, first with your hands, then banging it repeatedly against the pastry board. Now make a rectangular loaf, wrap it in a kitchen towel, and allow it to rest a while. Meanwhile, with one wet hand, knead the butter, if it is hard, against the pastry board until it is quite soft and tender; then shape it into a loaf like the one you have made out of the flour and put it in a small basin of cold water. When the dough has finished resting, remove the butter from the water, dry it in a kitchen towel, and sprinkle it well with flour.

Spread out the dough with a rolling pin only as far as is necessary to place the butter loaf inside it. Place the butter loaf inside the dough and draw the edges of the dough all around it, sealing them tightly with your fingers. Make sure the dough adheres firmly to the butter on all sides and that there is no air trapped inside. Now start rolling out the dough, first with your hands and then with a rolling pin, making it as thin as possible the first time, while taking care the butter does not spurt out through the dough. If that should happen, immediately cover the spot where the butter shows through with a little flour. Keep the pastry board and the rolling pin well sprinkled with flour, so that the dough rolls out smoothly and spreads evenly over the board. After you have rolled out the dough the first time, fold it into three layers, so that they form three sheets one on top of another, and roll out again to a nice thickness. Repeat the process six times, allowing the dough to rest for 10 minutes between each treatment. For the last roll-out, which makes seven such roll-outs in all, fold it into two layers and reduce to the required thickness, that is, to slightly less than 1 centimeter (about 1/2 an inch) thick.

Except for this final folding of the dough, be sure every time you roll it out to give the dough a rectangular shape three times as long as it is wide. If some bubbles start appearing due to air trapped inside, lance them with a pin.

Instead of an ordinary pastry board, you should use a marble-top table, as it is cooler and smoother. In summer, you will need to use ice to harden the butter before kneading it, as well as for better rolling out the dough. This is done by rubbing ice, when necessary, over the dough which has been wrapped inside in a thick cloth, or better still, by placing the dough between two ice-covered dishes.

Puff-pastry dough is used, as you know, to make
vols-au-vent
,
tartlets filled with jam and fruit preserves, and little cakes stuffed with marzipan. If you would like to serve puff pastries as an
entremets
, stuff them with a delicate mix of meat, chicken livers, and sweetbreads. But for every purpose, this dough should be brushed with egg yolk on the surface but not on the edges, as that would hinder its puffing out while baking. If served as a dessert sprinkle with powdered sugar while still hot.

Use half a measure in weight of butter for one measure of flour, with an additional small piece of butter inside the dough.

In every other respect, follow the previous recipe.

100 grams (about 3-1/5 ounces) of flour

1 tablespoon of fine olive oil

1 tablespoon of brandy

1 egg

salt, to taste

cold water, as needed

Fold the egg yolk and the other ingredients into the flour, adding the water a little at a time so that the batter does not turn out too runny. Stir well with a wooden spoon and let rest for several hours. When you are ready to use it, add the beaten egg white. This batter can be used for many fried dishes, particularly those made with fruit and vegetables.

Dissolve two heaping teaspoons of flour in two teaspoons of olive oil. Add two eggs, a pinch of salt and mix well.

This mixture should have the consistency of smooth cream, and can be used to fry brains, bone marrow, sweetbreads, testicles, lamb’s head, head meat from a milk-fed calf and the like. Scald all these items, some more than others, according to their nature, including brains and spinal marrow, so that they firm up while boiling. Salt the water, season with a pinch of salt and one of pepper when you remove them from the water. Slice the testicles lengthwise into tiny fillets. Cut the spinal cord marrow into finger-length chunks. If the sweetbreads come from mutton, leave them whole. Dice the brains into nut-sized morsels and the head meat in somewhat larger chunks. Put the pieces into the batter after having sprinkled them with flour, and saute in virgin lard or olive oil.

Often these fried meats are combined with liver or cutlets of milk-fed veal. Cut the liver into very thin slices and pound the cutlets with he blunt edge of a knife, or else mince the meat with a mezzaluna and then mold it into a more elegant shape. Season both the liver and the veal with salt and pepper, then marinate in whisked egg for a few hours. Before frying, dredge the slices in fine bread crumbs, repeating the procedure twice if necessary. This fry should always be served with lemon wedges.

250 grams (about 8-4/5 ounce) of flour

70 grams (about 2-1/3 ounces) of butter

a generous pinch of salt

milk, as much as needed to blend and reduce the dough to the right consistency

It is not necessary to knead this dough too much. Shape into a loaf, sprinkle with flour, and allow to rest for about half an hour wrapped in a damp cloth.

With these amounts you will have enough dough for an even larger pie than the game pie described in recipe 370.

For this dough see the recipe for hare pie, described in recipe 372.

about 100 grams (about 3-1/2 ounces) lean milk-fed veal

a small piece of veal udder

the giblets from the chicken

Instead of the lean veal and veal udder, you may substitute lean pork, turkey breast, or just regular veal.

Cook the meat in a small battuto of shallot or onion, parsley, celery, carrot and butter. Season with salt and pepper and the usual spices, keeping the meat moist with broth. Remove the meat from the pan, cut the gristle away from the gizzard, add some small pieces of reconstituted dried mushroom, a little slice of untrimmed pro-sciutto, and mince everything very finely with a mezzaluna. In the meat juice left in the pan, toss enough crustless bread to make one tablespoon of firm pap. Combine this with the mixed meats, adding a good pinch of grated Parmesan cheese and two eggs. Stuff the chicken with this mixture, then sew it up. The chicken may be boiled or stewed. If you boil the chicken, you will notice it makes an excellent broth. But be careful when carving the bird—the stuffing should be removed in one piece and then cut into slices.

For a different chicken stuffing, see the one for roast chicken described in recipe 539.

You can prepare this stuffing with well-stewed milk-fed veal, chicken livers, or sweetbreads. In my opinion sweetbreads are best, being the most delicate; but whatever you choose I would always add to this stuffing a dash of truffles when they are in season. If you are using sweetbreads put them on the fire with a little butter, seasoning them with salt and pepper, and when they begin to brown finish cooking with the brown stock described in recipe 4. Then cut them into chickpea-sized chunks or even smaller. Add a tablespoon or two of the béchamel sauce described in recipe 137, as well as a little salted tongue or a little untrimmed prosciutto diced into small cubes, a pinch of Parmesan cheese and a dash of nutmeg, making sure the ingredients are in the amount necessary to give the mixture a savory and delicate flavor. Allow to cool so that the mixture firms up and becomes easier to handle.

There are two ways to enclose this mixture in the puff-pastry dough described in recipe 154. For either, you may use the mold for jam cookies described in recipe 614, or a regular oval mold. The first way is to cook the dough with the stuffing inside; the second way is to cook the dough first and then add the stuffing. In the first case, place the stuffing right in the middle of the disk of dough, moisten the edges with a wet finger, cover with another similar disk and cook. In the second case, which will actually be more convenient for those who, having a whole meal to prepare, can cook the dough a day in advance, the two disks are joined together without the stuffing; but before joining them, you will use a small tin ring to make a round incision (having the diameter of a medium-sized coin)
³¹
in the center of the upper disk. As the tartlet is baking, it will naturally puff up with air, remaining rather hollow inside. The round of dough you have cut out on top will now look like a little lid which you can remove with the tip of a knife. Before stuffing the tartlet, you may also, if you like, widen the hollow space which you have uncovered by removing the lid. Fill the tartlets and then put the little lids back on. In this way, you need only heat them before sending them to the table. Remember that puff-pastry should always be brushed with egg yolk before baking, but only on top.

If you should be making
vols-au-vent
, you should make a sauce with chicken giblets and sweetbreads, chopped into large chunks.

Use the dough described in recipe 212 or the puff-pastry dough described in recipe 154, roll out to the thickness of a scudo,
³²
and cut it into disks with scalloped edges of the size shown below.

Image not available

Place the stuffing described in the previous recipe inside one disk of dough, cover with another disk, moistening around the edges so that they will stick together, then fry and serve hot.

200 grams (about 7 ounces) of ricotta cheese

40 grams (about 1-1/3 ounces) of flour

2 eggs

2 scant teaspoons of sugar

a dash of lemon zest

1 pinch of salt

2 tablespoons of brandy

Any type of ricotta is good for this recipe as long as it hasn’t become strong smelling. But if you use the ricottas that come from Rome and the Maremma,
³³
which are first-rate, you may be sure the results will win you honor and praise.