Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking
Page 6
3. Add the hot milk to the flour-and-butter mixture, no more than 2 tablespoons of it at a time. Stir steadily and thoroughly. As soon as the first 2 tablespoons of milk have been incorporated into the mixture, add 2 more, and continue to stir. Repeat this procedure until you have added ½ cup milk; you can now put in the rest of the milk ½ cup at a time, stirring steadfastly, until all the milk has been smoothly amalgamated with the flour and butter.
4. Place the pan over low heat, add the salt, and cook, stirring without interruption, until the sauce is as dense as thick cream. To make it even thicker, should a recipe require it, cook and stir a little longer. For a thinner sauce, cook it a little less. If you find any lumps forming, dissolve them by beating the sauce rapidly with a whisk.
Ahead-of-time note Béchamel takes so little time to prepare it is best to make just when you need it, so you can spread it easily while it is still soft. If you must make it in advance, reheat it slowly, in the upper half of a double boiler, stirring constantly as it warms up, until it is once again supple and spreadable. If you are making béchamel one day in advance, store it in the refrigerator in a tightly sealed container.
Increasing the recipe You can double or triple the quantities given above, but no more than that for any single batch. Choose a pan that is broader than it is tall so the sauce can cook more quickly and evenly.
Mayonnaise
Maionnese
HOMEMADE MAYONNAISE does marvelous things for the flavor of any dish of which it is a part and, with a little practice, you’ll find it to be one of the easiest and quickest sauces you can produce.
After years of alternately using olive oil and vegetable oil, I have satisfied myself that, for a lighter sauce, vegetable oil is to be preferred. A good extra virgin olive oil brings a sharp accent to mayonnaise. It may even, as in the case of some Tuscan oils, make it bitter. One could resort to a thin, light-flavored olive oil, but why bother? Except when bolder flavor is required, as a few of the recipes in this book indicate, you might as well make vegetable oil your unvarying choice.
Be sure to start with all the ingredients at room temperature if you don’t want to struggle to get your mayonnaise to mount. Even the bowl in which you will beat the eggs and the blades of the electric mixer should be run under hot water to warm them up.
Cautionary note Homemade mayonnaise is made with raw eggs, which may transmit salmonella. I have made it dozens of times without encountering the problem, but if you are concerned about the possibility of salmonella poisoning, and particularly if you are planning to serve the mayonnaise to elderly people, or to very young children, or to someone who is immune deficient, use packaged, commercial mayonnaise.
Over 1 cup
The yolks of 2 eggs, brought to room temperature
Salt
From 1 to no more than 1⅓ cups vegetable oil, depending on how much mayonnaise you want to make
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1. Using an electric mixer set at medium speed, beat the egg yolks together with ¼ teaspoon salt until they become colored a pale yellow with the consistency of thick cream.
2. Add oil, drop by drop, while beating constantly. Stop pouring the oil every few seconds, without ceasing to beat, to make sure that all the oil you are adding is being absorbed by the egg yolks and none is floating free. Continue to dribble in oil, beating with the mixer.
3. When the sauce has become quite thick, thin it out slightly with a teaspoon or less of lemon juice, always continuing the beating action.
4. Add more oil, at a faster pace than at first, interrupting the pouring from time to time, while you continue beating, to allow the sauce to absorb the oil completely. As the sauce thickens, beat in a little more lemon juice, repeating the procedure from time to time until you have used up the 2 tablespoons. When the sauce has fully absorbed all the oil, the mayonnaise is done.
5. Taste and correct for salt and lemon juice. If you are planning to use the mayonnaise on fish, keep it on the tart side. Beat in any additions of salt and lemon juice with the mixer.
Food processor note I don’t see any advantage in using the food processor to make mayonnaise, except for its insignificantly faster speed. Mayonnaise out of the processor does not taste quite so good to me as that made with the mixer, and the processor’s bowl is much more of a nuisance to clean.
Salsa Verde and Other Savory Sauces
Piquant Green Sauce
Salsa Verde
WHEN A bollito misto—mixed boiled meats—is served, this tart green sauce invariably accompanies it. But salsa verde’s uses are not limited to meat. It can also liven up the flavor of boiled or steamed fish. If you are going to use it for meat, make it with vinegar; if for fish, with lemon juice. The proportions of the ingredients given below seem to me well balanced, but they are subject to personal taste and may be adjusted, accentuating or deemphasizing one or more components as you may find desirable. The instructions below are based on the use of a food processor. If you are going to make the sauce by hand, please follow the slightly different procedure described in the note at the end.
4 to 6 servings
⅔ cup parsley leaves
2½ tablespoons capers
OPTIONAL: 6 flat anchovy fillets ½ teaspoon garlic chopped very fine
½ teaspoon strong mustard
½ teaspoon (depending on taste) red wine vinegar, if the sauce is for meat, OR 1 tablespoon (depending on taste) fresh lemon juice, if for fish
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt
Put all the ingredients into the food processor and blend to a uniform consistency, but do not overprocess. Taste and correct for salt and tartness. If you decide to add more vinegar or lemon juice, do so a little at a time, retasting each time to avoid making the sauce too sharp.
Hand-cut method Chop enough parsley to make 2½ tablespoons and enough capers for 2 tablespoons. Chop 6 flat anchovy fillets very fine, to as creamy a consistency as you can. Put the parsley, capers, and anchovies in a bowl together with the garlic and mustard from the ingredients list above. Mix thoroughly, using a fork. Add the vinegar or lemon juice, stirring it into the mixture. Add the olive oil, beating it sharply into the mixture to amalgamate it with the other ingredients. Taste and correct for salt and vinegar or lemon juice.
Ahead-of-time note Green sauce can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to a week. Bring to room temperature and stir thoroughly before using.
Variation with Pickles and No Anchovies
What makes this alternative to classic salsa verde interesting is its chewier consistency, which is better achieved by hand-chopping than with the food processor.
4 to 6 servings
⅓ cup cornichons OR other fine cucumber pickles in vinegar
6 green olives in brine
½ tablespoon onion chopped very fine
⅛ teaspoon garlic chopped very fine
¼ cup chopped parsley
1½ tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt
Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
1. Drain the pickles and chop them into pieces not finer than ¼ inch.
2. Drain and pit the olives, and chop them into ¼-inch pieces, like the pickles.
3. Put the pickles, olives, and all the other ingredients in a small bowl, and beat with a fork for a minute or two.
Warm Red Sauce
Salsa Rossa
WARM RED SAUCE is generally paired with green sauce, when that is served with boiled meats, to provide a mellow alternative to salsa verde’s tangy flavor. An exceptionally enjoyable way to use salsa rossa alone is alongside or over a breaded veal cutlet. It is very good, too, with grilled steak and delicious with hamburgers.
4 servings
3 meaty red or yellow bell peppers
5 medium yellow onions, peeled and sliced thin
¼ cup vegetable oil
A tiny pinch chopped hot c
hili pepper
2 cups canned imported Italian plum tomatoes, with their juice, OR 3 cups cut-up fresh tomatoes, if very ripe
Salt
1. Split the peppers lengthwise, and remove the core and seeds. Skin the peppers, using a peeler, and cut them into slices more or less ½ inch wide.
2. Put the onions and oil in a saucepan and turn on the heat to medium. Cook the onions, stirring, until wilted and soft, but not brown.
3. Add the peppers, and continue cooking over medium heat until both peppers and onions are very soft and their bulk has been reduced by half. Add the chili pepper, the tomatoes, and salt and continue cooking, letting the sauce simmer gently, for 25 minutes or so, until the tomatoes and oil separate and the fat floats free. Taste and correct for salt, and serve hot.
Ahead-of-time note Salsa rossa can be prepared up to 2 weeks in advance and refrigerated in an airtight container. Reheat gently and stir thoroughly before serving.
Horseradish Sauce
Salsina di Barbaforte
Barbaforte, or cren as it is commonly known in northeastern Italy, makes an appetizing condiment not only for the boiled beef and other meats with which it is often served, but also for grilled lamb and steak, for boiled ham or cold turkey or chicken, for hamburgers and hot dogs. It is the most bracing seasoning you can have on a chicken or seafood salad. Horseradish in the Italian style does not have the acidic bite of other horseradish sauces because the vinegar is played down, replaced in large part by the silken touch of olive oil. The ideal tool for making the sauce is the food processor. Grinding a horseradish root is one of its kindest actions, effortlessly making a superbly uniform spread while saving cooks all the tears that accompany hand shredding on the grater.
About fresh horseradish It looks like a root and, indeed, it is a root. Although, like all roots, it seems to have an unlimited life span, the fresher it is, the better. Its weight should not be too light in the hand, which would mean it has lost sap, and the skin should not be exceedingly dull nor feel too dusty-dry at the touch.
About 1½ cups
1½ pounds fresh whole horseradish root
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons salt
1½ tablespoons wine vinegar
OPTIONAL: 1½ teaspoons balsamic vinegar
A 1¾- to 2-cup glass jar with a tight-fitting cap
1. Pare all the brown rind away from the root, exposing the white horseradish flesh. A vegetable peeler with a swiveling blade is the easiest tool to use for the job. If there are stumps branching off from the root, detach them, if necessary, to get at the rind where they join the main root.
2. Rinse the pared root under cold running water, pat it dry with kitchen towels, and cut it into ½-inch pieces. Roots are hard stuff: Take a sharp, sturdy knife and use it with care.
3. Put the cut-up root in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade and begin processing. While the horseradish is being ground fine, pour the olive oil into the bowl, adding it in a thin stream. Add the salt and process a few more seconds. Add the wine vinegar and process for about 1 minute. If you like the sauce creamier, process it longer, but it is most satisfying when grainy and slightly chewy.
4. Remove the sauce from the processor bowl. If using the optional balsamic vinegar, beat it in at this point with a fork. Pour the sauce into a glass jar, packing it tightly, close securely, and refrigerate. It keeps well for several weeks.
Serving note At table, you may want to freshen and loosen the sauce with a little more olive oil.
Peppery Sauce for Boiled Meats
La Pearà
THE ORIGINS of la pearà can be traced to the Middle Ages, to the Venetian condiment known as peverata, a name that can be translated as “peppery” and accurately describes the flavor of the present-day sauce. The body of la pearà is formed by the slow swelling and massing of bread crumbs as broth is added to them a little at a time while they cook with butter and bone marrow. The slower the sauce cooks, the better it becomes. Calculate about 45 minutes to 1 hour of cooking time to achieve excellent results. Essential to the quality of the sauce is the quality of the broth; there is no satisfactory substitute here for good homemade meat broth.
La pearà is an earthy, substantial, creamy seasoning, a perfect accompaniment when served hot for mixed boiled meats, such as beef, veal, and chicken.
About 1 cup
1 cup beef marrow chopped very fine
1 ½ tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons fine, dry, unflavored bread crumbs
2 or more cups Basic Homemade Meat Broth
Salt
Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
1. Put the marrow and butter into a small saucepan. If you have one, a flameproof earthenware would be ideal for this kind of slow cooking, and enameled cast iron would be a suitable alternative. Turn on the heat to medium, and stir frequently, mashing the marrow with a wooden spoon.
2. When the marrow and butter have melted and begin to foam, put in the bread crumbs. Cook the crumbs for a minute or two, turning them in the fat.
3. Add ⅓ cup broth. Cook over slow heat, stirring with the wooden spoon while the broth evaporates and the crumbs thicken. Add 2 or 3 pinches of salt and a very liberal quantity of ground pepper.
4. Continue to add broth, a little at a time, letting it evaporate before adding more. Stir frequently, and keep the heat low. The final consistency should be creamy and thick, without any lumps. Taste and correct for salt and pepper. If the sauce is too dense for your taste, thin it by cooking it briefly with more broth. Serve hot over sliced boiled meat, or in a sauceboat on the side.
A Peppery Sauce for Roast Birds
La Peverada di Treviso
La peverada is one more descendant of the medieval peverata sauce referred to in the immediately preceding recipe for la pearà. The principal components are pork sausage and chicken livers, pounded or processed to a creamy consistency and cooked in olive oil with sautéed onion and white wine. All such sauces are subject to variations in the choice of ingredients: Garlic can take the place of onion, vinegar of wine, pickled green peppers for cucumber pickles. Once you have made the basic sauce, feel free to modify it along those lines, but be careful not to spike it with excessive tartness.
Peverada accompanies roast birds of all kinds, whether game or farm-raised. In Venice it is inseparable from roast duck, which is one of the dishes always present in the dinner taken aboard the boats that crowd the lagoon on the most important evening in the Venetian calendar, the Saturday in July on which the city celebrates its delivery from the plague.
6 or more servings
¼ pound mild pork sausage (see note)
¼ pound chicken livers
1 ounce cucumber pickles in vinegar, preferably cornichons
⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil, or less if the sausage is very fatty
1 tablespoon onion chopped very fine
Salt
Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
1½ teaspoons grated lemon peel, carefully avoiding the white pith beneath it
⅓ cup dry white wine
1. Skin the sausage. Put the sausage meat, chicken livers, and pickles into a food processor and chop to a thick, creamy consistency.
2. Put the olive oil and onion in a small saucepan, turn on the heat to medium, and cook the onion until it becomes colored a pale gold. Add the chopped sausage mixture, stirring thoroughly to coat it well.
3. Add salt and liberal grindings of pepper. Stir well. Add the grated lemon peel, and stir thoroughly once again.
4. Add the wine, stir once or twice, then adjust heat to cook the sauce at a very gentle, steady simmer, and cover the pan. Cook for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. If you find the sauce becoming too dense or dry, add 1 or 2 tablespoons of water.
5. Serve hot over cut-up pieces or carved breast slices of roast birds.
Note Do not use so-called Italian sausages that contain fennel seeds. It is preferable to substit
ute good-quality breakfast sausage or mild pork salami.
Ahead-of-time note The sauce can be prepared up to a day or two in advance, and gently reheated, but its flavor is much better when it is used the same day it is made.
Equipment
The thing most cooks probably need least these days is another shopping list of cooking ware. Nearly all the kitchens I have seen, mine included, have more tools and pots and gadgets than are strictly needed. Nevertheless, there are certain pots and tools that, more efficiently than others, meet the fundamental requirements of the Italian way of cooking. They are few, but they are not to be overlooked and, since some of the items may be missing from an otherwise well-equipped kitchen, we had better see what they are.
THE SAUTÉ PAN
Sautéing is the foundation of most Italian dishes and a sauté pan is, by necessity, the workhorse of the Italian kitchen. It is a broad pan, 10 to 12 inches in diameter, with a flat bottom, sides 2 to 3 inches high that may be either straight or flaring, and it comes with a good-fitting lid. It should be the best-quality pot you can afford, of sturdy construction, capable of efficient transmission and retention of heat. Avoid nonstick surfaces that inhibit the full development of flavor a true sauté is designed to accomplish. A pan with these specifications will cook almost everything from the Italian repertory: pasta sauces, fricassees, stews, vegetables; it will handle cooking of any required speed, from a lazy simmer to hot deep-frying. You should own more than one such pan because you will encounter situations when it is convenient and timesaving to use them simultaneously for different procedures.
OTHER POTS
• You will find it helpful to supplement the sauté pan with skillets of varying dimensions. Bear in mind that, in Italian cooking, you need more broad, shallow pans than tall, narrow ones because, on a broad, shallow surface you can cook faster and bring ingredients to a more complete maturation of flavor.