Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well (37 page)

For these fried meats, see the batter in recipe 157.

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Boiled poultry, particularly capons and fattened pullets, will turn out whiter and more elegant, without detriment to the broth, if you boil them wrapped in cheesecloth.

For different ways to serve boiled meats, see recipes 355, 356, and 357.

Entremets
are what the French call in-between courses. They are minor dishes served between main courses.

If garlic is a vermifuge, as it is generally considered to be, this is a simple and appetizing food for babies. Toast slices of bread on both sides and while they are still hot rub them thoroughly with a garlic clove. Then season with salt, olive oil, vinegar and sugar.

220 grams (about 7-3/4 ounces) of flour

30 grams (about 1 ounce) of butter

milk, as needed

a pinch of salt

4 salted anchovies

Mix the flour with the butter, milk and salt until you have a doughy loaf of just the right consistency. Knead vigorously and thoroughly, so that the dough will puff up in the skillet.

Allow to rest for a short while, then slice in half and spread each half out somewhat.

Clean the anchovies, divide in half lengthwise, remove the spines and cut into small square pieces. Arrange these pieces on one of the dough halves, then cover with the other half. Close them tightly together. Thus joined, roll out the dough with a rolling pin into a thin sheet. Then cut into lozenge shapes and fry in olive oil. These quantities will feed six people. This dish may be served as an appetizer at lunch or as a side dish for fried fish.

180 grams (about 6-1/3 ounces) of flour, more or less

2 tablespoons of olive oil

2 tablespoons of white wine or Marsala

5 or 6 sage leaves

1 egg

salt, to taste

Finely chop the sage with a mezzaluna. Then mix the flour with the other ingredients, kneading well and making sure the resulting dough remains rather soft. Spread out with a rolling pin to the thickness of a large coin, sprinkling flour on top if necessary. Cut into lozenge shapes and fry in olive oil or lard. I have heard that some people eat these with figs and prosciutto.

These amounts should be enough to serve four people.

4 deciliters (about 1-2/3 cups) of milk

120 grams (about 4-1/4 ounces) of semolina flour

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

40 grams (1-1/3 ounces) of grated Parmesan cheese

2 eggs

salt, to taste

Cook the semolina in the milk and when you are about to take it off the fire, salt it and add half the butter and half the Parmesan cheese.
Then, while it is still hot, add the eggs and stir. Then pour out onto a pastry board or on a platter and spread to the thickness of one and a half fingers. Allow to cool and then cut into lozenge shapes.

Now you have the gnocchi, which you will place one on top of another in layers to make a lovely mound inside an appropriately sized serving tray. Intermingle the layers with the rest of the butter, cut into tiny pats, and sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese, except for the last layer on top. Finally, brown in a Dutch oven and serve hot either alone or as a side dish for stews or other meat dishes.

These gnocchi, for which I have modified the amounts as follows, I hope will please you as much as they have delighted those for whom I have prepared them. Should that happen, toast to my health if I am still alive or say a
requiescat
in my name, if I have gone on to feed the cabbages.

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

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

40 grams (about 1-1/3 ounces) of Gruyere cheese

20 grams (about 2/3 of an ounce) of grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 a liter (about 1/2 a quart) of milk

2 eggs

It is commonly said that one should not sit down to table in lesser number than the Graces or in greater number than the Muses. If you are approaching the number of the Muses, double the amounts.

In a saucepan, mix the flour and the eggs, then pour the milk in a little at a time. Add the Gruyère cheese chopped into little pieces, and put the mixture on the fire, stirring constantly. When the flour makes it thicken, salt and add half the butter. Allow to cool, and then, in the same way as you would prepare cornmeal gnocchi, place the mixture in little tidbits onto an ovenproof platter. Season them with the rest of the butter, cut into little pats, and with the Parmesan cheese, but do not cover the top layer, because Parmesan on top
turns bitter when heated. Brown under an iron lid or in a Dutch oven, and serve hot.

Prepare a rather soft polenta using cornmeal. On a pastry board, spread it out to a thickness of one finger, and cut into lozenge shapes.

In a pan, place several whole sausages with a little water. When done, peel, crumble up and add tomato sauce (recipe
6
) or tomato paste.

Arrange the polenta in layers on a baking pan or ovenproof platter, season each layer with grated Parmesan cheese, the sausages and a few small pats of butter here and there, then put in the oven with embers all around. Serve very hot, most suitably as the first course of a hot lunch. You can also make this dish with a very firm polenta, which you would then cut into slices.

Prepare a firm polenta of cornmeal cooked in milk. Salt as you are about to remove it from the fire and pour out on a pastry board, leveling it to the thickness of about two fingers. Once cooled, cut into lozenge shapes 1/2 a centimeter wide (about 1/5 of an inch), which you will arrange as follows in a preheated metal or porcelain baking dish. Prepare a sauce like that for macaroni Bolognese style in recipe 87, and prepare a little bechamel as in recipe 137. Sprinkle grated Parmesan cheese on the bottom of the platter and spread a layer of polenta on top of the cheese. Add more Parmesan, some sauce and bechamel; place a second layer of polenta on top of the first and season as before; repeat the operation until you run out of ingredients. It is not a bad idea to add small pats of butter here and there. However, do not put too much if you do not want the dish to turn out too heavy from too many condiments.

Once you have prepared the platter as I have described, put it in a Dutch oven until the polenta browns and serve hot as an
entremets
for a full-course autumn or winter meal. Provided it turns out well, this dish will be praised for its delicate flavor.

During the hunting season, a skillful chef may cook it in a mold, stuffing it with stewed birds.

Take long Neapolitan-style macaroni and cook in salted water until two-thirds done. Drain, and put back on the fire with a small pat of butter. When that has been absorbed, add enough milk to allow the macaroni to finish cooking over moderate heat. Meanwhile prepare a bechamel as in recipe 137, and when it is has began to cool, bind it with an egg yolk and pour it over the macaroni together with a proportionate amount of grated Parmesan cheese. Macaroni prepared in this way is an excellent side dish for a meat stew or a
fricandeau
of milk-fed veal. In this case, take an ovenproof platter, place a tin mold in the center and arrange the macaroni all around it. Put the platter in a Dutch oven or under an iron hood heated from above. When the macaroni is lightly browned, take it off the fire and remove the tin mold, in whose place you will put the meat before serving. You may also send them to the table on a separate dish, but also lightly browned on top to add to their handsome appearance. Make sure that the macaroni remains moist.

If it is true, as Alexandre Dumas
père
remarks, that the English live on roast beef and pudding; the Dutch on oven-cooked meat, potatoes and cheese; the Germans on sauerkraut and bacon; the Spanish on chickpeas, chocolate and rancid bacon; and the Italians on macaroni, do not be too surprised if I keep coming back to this topic
since I have, after all, always loved this pasta. Indeed, I once very nearly acquired the distinguished name of Macaroni-Eater, and I will tell you why.

One day in 1850, I found myself in the “Tre Re” (Three Kings) restaurant in Bologna in the company of several students and Felice Orsini,
⁵²
who was a friend of one of them. It was the season for politics and conspiracy in Romagna, and Orsini, who seemed practically born for that purpose, spoke enthusiastically about these subjects. In his passion he tirelessly strove to show us that an uprising was imminent, that he and another leader he mentioned would lead it, overrunning Bologna with an armed band of followers. Listening to him so imprudently discuss in a public place such dangerous subjects and an enterprise that seemed to me utter madness, I remained indifferent to his harangues and calmly continued to eat the plate of macaroni set before me. My demeanor stung Orsini’s
amour propre
, and thereafter, having felt humiliated at the time, whenever he remembered me he would ask his friends, “How’s the Macaroni-Eater doing?”

In my mind’s eye I still see that congenial young man, of middling height, lean build, pale round face, refined features, the blackest eyes, crinkly locks, who lisped slightly when he spoke. Another time, many years later, I ran into him in a coffeehouse at Medola just as he was bristling with anger against someone who had abused his trust and offended his honor. He was asking a young fellow to follow him to Florence, to help him, he said, execute an exemplary vendetta. A series of circumstances and events, each stranger than the last, later led him to his tragic end, which we all know and deplore, but which also perhaps prodded Napoleon III to intervene in Italy.
⁵³
Now let’s get back to our subject.

300 grams (about 10-1/2 ounces) of long macaroni that hold up well when cooked

15 grams (about 1/2 an ounce) of flour

60 grams (about 2 ounces) of butter

60 grams (about 2 ounces) of Gruyere cheese

40 grams (about 1-1/3 ounces) of Parmesan cheese

6 deciliters (about 2-1/2 cups) of milk

bread crumbs, as needed

If you want to add more flavor, increase the amounts of the condiments.

Cook the macaroni halfway, salt, and drain in a colander. Put the flour on the fire in a saucepan with half the butter, stirring constantly. When the flour begins to change color, pour in the milk a little at a time and allow to boil for about 10 minutes. To this bechamel, add the macaroni and the Gruyere cheese, either grated or in little chunks. Move the saucepan to the edge of the hearth, so that the macaroni will absorb all the milk while bubbling slowly. Now add the rest of the butter and the grated Parmesan cheese. Then transfer to an ovenproof platter, fill the platter to the rim and cover with bread crumbs.