Home |
Search |
Today's Posts |
![]() |
|
General Cooking (rec.food.cooking) For general food and cooking discussion. Foods of all kinds, food procurement, cooking methods and techniques, eating, etc. |
|
LinkBack | Thread Tools | Display Modes |
Posted to rec.food.cooking
|
|||
|
|||
![]() ViLco wrote: > > A famous old italian cookbook, made not just of recipes but also tips and > folklore stories, is "La Scienza in cucina e l'Arte di mangiar bene" > ("Science in the kitchen and the Art of good eating") by Pellegrino Artusi, > born in Forlimpopoli in 1820 and dead in Firenze in 1911. He was a merchant > and his book covers a lot of recipes from every part of Italy between one > century and a half and ninety years ago. The last edition is from 1910 and > lists 790 recipes. Some researchers consider ribute this book as the basis > of the national italian kitchen. > > This is the paragraph about the famous tortellini alla bolognese, which have > meanwhile changed a lot from this old version. Nowadays tortellini almost > always see meat in the filling, and the marrow is no more commonly found in > bolognese households and butcheries. As it usually happens with food > traditions, they evolve. The interesting things here are the recipe and > Artusi's idea of a cooking school, which would sustain itself by selling the > cooked dishes to those who would order them for lunch or dinner. The style > is old-fashioned but not too much affected. The recipe talks only about the > filling since the instructions for making the broth, sfoglia (egg-noodle) > and shaping the tortellini are in the first tortellini recipe he lists in > his book ("Cappelletti all'uso di Romagna", made with a capon based > filling), so I took those instructions and put them translated at the end of > this recipe. I have never made tortellini this way until saturday, when the > butcher told me they had some ox marrow. This recipe immediately flashed up > in my mind, I called my GF and asked her to read me the other ingredients > from the book. I bougth all what was needed and went straight to cook this. > I didn't follow the capon breast variant but used capon for the broth, as is > called for in almost any cappelletti or tortellini recipe. In the section > about the Cappelletti all'uso di Romagna Artusi recommends using capon broth > for all the four tortellini recipes he lists, and tortellini is the third > one. They are wonderful, really, the only hard part has been mincing the ham > since my GF hasn't a suitable food processor and I had to mince it with a > knife. The smoking hot broth, 1-2mm thin sfoglia made from scratch on a 50 > years old cutting board always used for sfoglia, the hearthy filling... they > went wonderfully with Picol Ross lambrusco for a nice saturday lunch. The > lambrusco were "Pjcol ross" from Rinaldini and "Nero di Cio'" from La > Piccola, two nearby wineyards. > > Some of the recipes in this book by Pellegrino Artusi have changed > noticeably in the years, a century is a very long time, so parts of his > works are nowadays more a culinary history lesson than a real cooking book, > but there are also lots of recipes which have remained just as they were > when the book went printed for the first time. > > 9. TORTELLINI ALLA BOLOGNESE > > When you hear talking about bolognese kitchen just bow to it, because it > deserves it. It's a way to cook which is a bit heavy, one could say, because > that's what the climate asks for; but juicy, hearthy and healthy, in fact > persons in theyr 80s and 90s are more common there than elsewhere. The > following tortellini, even though easier and cheaper than other ones, aren't > inferior in goodness, and you'll convince yourself if you'll try them. > > Ham, both lean and fat, grams 30. > > Mortadella di bologna, grams 20. > > Ox marrow, grams 60. > > Grated parmigiano, grams 60. > > Eggs, n. 1. > > A hint of nutmeg > > Salt and pepper, very few. > > Finely mince the ham and the mortadella, mince and add the marrow without > cooking it, add it to the ham and mortadella and mix the egg in mixing > thoroughly. They get closed in a little circle of sfoglia (egg noodle*). > They don't suffer from being stored for days and even some weeks, and if you > want them of a bright yellow color put them, as soon as made, to dry up in > the caldana (the little room near the bread oven where the temperature is > lukewarm and the bread is put to raise). With this dose you'll make about > 300 of them, and it will take a 3 eggs sfoglia*. > > "Bologna is a big castle where they make continuous luncheons", used to say > a man who frequently went to Bologna to feast with friends. In the hyperbole > of this sentence there's a piece of thruth whom, a philanthropist looking > for a new kind of charity, could make use of. I'm talking of Culinary > Istitute, a kitchen school which Bologna could offer to host better than any > other city thanks to its great consumption of food, for the excellence of > the foods and the way to cook them. Nobody apparently cares about food, and > the reason is easy to understand: but then, leaving hypocrisy behind, > everybody whines about a bad tasting lunch or a sick belly due to badly > prepared foods. Being nutrition the first need of life, it's reasonable to > handle it so to satisfy it in the best possible way. > > A stranger writer says: "Health, morale and happyness of the family are all > tied to the kitchen, so it would be perfect that every woman, of the people > as of the nobility, would know an art which is fertile of well being, > health, wealth and peace for the family"; and our Lorenzo Stecchetti (Olindo > Guerrini) in a conference held at Turin's Exposition on the 21 of June 1884 > said: "It's necessary to stop the prejudice which accuses the kitchen of > vulgarity, because it's not vulgar that which helps to an intellectual and > elegant voluptuosness. A winemaker who works the grapes and the land to make > a good beverage, is well treaten, seen with envy and made Commendatore > (official title awarded for services to the Country). A cook who too works > the raw materials to obtain a pleasant food, be it honored and renowned, > isn't even allowed into the anteroom of important households. Bacchus is son > to Zeus, Como (the God of the canteens) is from unknown parents. But the > sage says 'Tell me what you eat and I will tell you who you are'. The > peoples have a nature of theyrs, strong or vile, great or miserable, in the > vast majority of the food they use. Therefore, there's no justice in the > distribution of judgement. Kitchen has to be rehabilitated". > > I therefore say that my Institute should help in raise young cooks who then, > being naturally more economic of men and of lesser expenditure, wuold easily > find themselves a job and would posses an art which, brougth to the > bourgeois homes, would be a medicine against the many quarrels who often > happen in families due to bad food; and I hear that a sage lady from a > tuscan city, in order to avoid those quarrels, has had her kitchen expanded > so to be more at ease in having fun with my book at hand. > > I have given this idea so embryonal and shapeless; someone else take it up, > makes something out of it and honour himself of it f he deems the idea > praiseworthy. I think that a similar, well managed institution, collecting > the orders of the private citizens and selling the ready and cooked dishes, > could be set up, run and made wealthy with a relatively small working > capital and initial expense. > > If you want gentler tortellini, add to this recipe half a capon breast > cooked in butter, an egg yolk and the good measure of all the rest (slightly > augment the other ingredients). > > * FOR THE SFOGLIA (EGG-NOODLE) WRAPPING : > > To wrap these, make a soft sfoglia made of all purpose flour and just egg > yolks, using also some whites if too dry, and cut it with a small disk as > the one here printed (it's circa 5 cm in diameter). Put the filling in the > center of the disks and ply them in two so to have a halfmoon shape; then > take the two opposite ends and join them together, and you'll have made the > cappelletto, or tortellino. If the dough dries up too quick, wet the disks' > edge with a wet finger. [Artusi doesn't specify that but usually, here in > Emilia Romagna, the ratio is 100 grams flour for a whole egg, so if one > wants to use just the yolks that amount of flour must be lowered a bit]. > > -- > Vilco > Don't think pink: drink rosè Quite a culinary adventure. Saved for when I am feeling ambitious... |
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
Display Modes | |
|
|
![]() |
||||
Thread | Forum | |||
The Irrational Search for Micrograms (of Animal Parts) proves that"veganism" isn't about so-called "factory farms" at all | Vegan | |||
What do you call "Bolognese" sauce? | General Cooking | |||
Auberge "alla pizzaiola". | General Cooking | |||
Pasta alla "carbonara" | General Cooking | |||
To Andy and friends "Spaghetti alla carbonara" | General Cooking |