Think On It

Hungry again?

July 15th, 2007

The menu this evening will be:

Foglie di salvia fritte

Lenticchie di Casteleucci
Cicoria brasata
Battuta di olive piccanti (or tapenade)

Vittello ripieno di vitello
Fagiolini alla greca

Torta di pesca con salsa di yogurt e zucchero di canna

Last things first, the torta. I made two. Buy pasta sfoglia or puff pastry and follow the directions for thawing it. Be careful not to over thaw, because it becomes impossible to handle without stretching it and making it tough if you do. Preheat the oven to 200°C or 400° F. My packages come with two sheets, so that I end up with two oblong tortes of about 8” X 10”.

Once it is thawed, put each on a piece of baking paper or parchment, then using a sharp knife cut straight down and remove about ½” or 2 cm of each side. If you saw, your edges will not puff up. Pick up the strip you cut off and make a border on top of the pastry sheet, cutting off the extra bit at the end. Pop them into the hot oven and cook for 10-15 minutes until puffed and browned. Remove to a surface to cool. There will be a dome in the middle, but don’t worry about that now.

Boil some water and briefly dip 6 fresh peaches into it until the skin rubs off with a finger, then using a cooking fork, remove the peaches to a bowl of very cold water. Use your hands to slip the skins right off.

Make a glaze using cornstarch, lemon juice, grated lemon rind, sugar, a dried hot pepper (or pinch of cayenne powder) and water. The recipe is free form, but I will post one below that you can use if you need it. Let it cool to lukewarm.

Using a paring knife, cut around the dome in the middle of your pastry sheets, then pull it off with your fingers, (these crunchy shards can be distributed to good little girls and boys) cut the peaches into attractive wedges and arrange them in rows across the two pastry shells. Carefully spoon the cooled glaze over the peaches, making sure to cover them so they won’t discolor and will be glued to the pastry. Put them into the fridge.

To serve, cut the tarts into 4 pieces each, and then you will layer Greek yogurt and brown sugar in a bowl, so that it comes out striped when spooned out onto the tart servings. Let the diners serve the sauce or skip it.

Next, the veal dish. This is an adaptation of a recipe I learned in culinary school that uses boiled chestnuts. Chestnuts are more wintry than porcini, to my mind, so I made up a new one that is seasoned quite differently and not cooked as individual rolls, but as a carvable roast.

Vitello ripieno di vitello (Veal Stuffed with Veal)

2 boned veal breasts

Stuffing ingredients:

1 slice of bread
½ cup of minced soffritto
1 teaspoon of thyme leaves dried or 3 teaspoons of thyme leaves fresh
Milk as needed
1 egg
1 heaping tablespoon of powdered porcini mushrooms. This you can make if you get dried ones, remove the stems and then carefully brush away any dirt from the caps. Grind them to a powder in a food processor with muscles.
Salt
Pepper

Butcher’s string

Simmering broth:

1-1/2 cups of soffritto mixture
½ pint of broth reduction your own or Better than Bouillon or something like this
Salt to taste
Water to cover

When I work with raw meat, I wear surgical gloves the whole time and then throw them away once the meat starts to cook. That way there’s no chance I will cross-contaminate something eaten raw with anything from the raw meat. I happily eat raw meat, but when I’m feeding others, I don’t take chances. You never know when something will get caught under a nail and end up in something that marinates at room temperature and then is eaten without cooking. Better safe than sorry.

Take one of the veal breasts and mince it with your trusty and well-sharpened chef’s knife. Don’t substitute with ground veal or have the butcher grind it unless you trust him not to turn it into hamburger. It should be a roughly ground meat that doesn’t pack down or emulsify.

Put the bread into a biggish bowl and pour milk over it to soften and soak it. Squeeze it with your hands to break it up really well. Add the minced veal and then all the other stuffing ingredients. Using your hands, squish it around and mix it well. I start with about 1 teaspoon of salt and a couple of grinds of pepper. When I think it is right, I take a small piece of this forcemeat and fry it to taste it. You should, too.

Once it tastes terrific, I open up and lay out the un-minced veal breast and spread this filling over it. You may have too much, but you can use it to stuff a pepper for lunch tomorrow if you do. Then roll up the breast quite gently, not tightly, and using the technique shown here, tie it up with butcher string, leaving a long loop for a handle. You will want to tie over the ends as well, though, to help the stuffing stay stuffed.

Put a tall pot on the fire and add some olive oil and then the 1-1/2 cups of soffritto mince. Sauté it until it smells good. Add a pint or so of water and then the broth reduction. If you use commercial reduction, don’t add any salt until the whole thing goes together, then taste and salt as you see fit. Lower the stuffed veal into this broth and add boiling water until it is covered. Taste for salt and correct. Lower the heat to a simmer and put a lid on it. Do not ever let it boil. Ignore it for at least 1-1/2 hours, and then start to test for tenderness with a cooking fork. When it goes in easily, it is done.

If you want to serve it cold, let it cool in the broth. If not, use the loop handle and a fork to pull it out, letting it drain a bit and put it on a carving board. Don’t carve it for a few minutes, as it is a bit delicate at first.

The broth is served to the diners in cups before the meat course, so do that while it rests. You will re-heat it if you’ve let it cool. When it has rested briefly, use a very sharp knife to cut slices—about 5/8” to ¾” if hot. Cold it can be cut much thinner. Arrange the slices on a platter and throw some thyme branches here and there , if you have them.

While the veal cooks, you can begin the Lenticchie di Castelleuci

These are very special Umbrian lentils. They are so tiny they look like doll lentils, and they stay nicely firm and have a bite even when they are cooked. I always scatter them across a plate and check for anything that isn’t a lentil. It’s much easier with these than it is with larger lentils.

The ingredients are only:
250 g (.5 lb.) lentils
.5 cup soffritto
1 tablespoon of good olive oil
½ teaspoon of salt
Water to cover about 1” higher than the lentils.
A dash of Tabasco or a pinch of cayenne or other powdered chili would not be wrong.

Heat a pot, add oil, then the soffritto. Wilt it until it smells good, stir in the lentils, add the salt and the water. Cook about 20 minutes. These are served from hot to room temperature and it doesn’t matter which.

Cicoria brasata

Any slightly bitter green will do. The cooking time depends on which you choose. I wash them very well in several baths of water—showers don’t work—and then cut them into ½” lengths. I heat a bit of oil in a heavy pan, then toss in the greens, sprinkle salt over them and put a lid on. Check for moisture once in a while so they don’t catch on the bottom before the stems are tender. These are served at room temperature, so there’s nothing else to do.

To serve these I copied the Pugliese style with puree of fave. I ladled lentils on half a plate, greens on the other half, drizzled with a bit of Pugliese oil, and then put a dollop of the battuta or paste of spicy olives on top. If I couldn’t buy this battuta,

I would get tapenade or make it. David recently posted lots of ways to make tapenade and some suggested ones to buy.