The Cooking and Cuisine of Emilia-Romagna

[JasonZ]

I'd make all effort to track down the Splendid Table book. There's an abundance of festive dishes in there (including many variations on the tortellini pie).  .

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Copies are available at Alibris, both new and used, including a signed, 1st ed, 1st printing, as well as Jessica's Biscuit, new only, and the usual (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders) ...

Prices seem to be from $9.70 (used) to 19.60 (new) to $80 ... right now Alibris is least expensive.

Regards,

JasonZ

Edited December 5, 2006 by JasonZ (log)

[Kevin72]

Italian Country Table is a lot of fun as well and spreads to other regions beyond just E-R. I especially like that it goes to the lesser-known corners of Italy: Trentino, and I first really got into Puglia's cooking through this book. I like it alot.

[FoodMan]

Seems like I don't need to, but I'll add my two recs for both of the Kaspar books. Both are one of the most 'splendid' purchases I made at half-price books.

ok, here is last night's quick (< 1 hour) E-R meal.

Primo, from The Splendid Table is spaghetti with braised garlic and balsamico. The garlic is slow cooked till soft and sweet, pasta is mixed in along with butter, a load of Parm cheese and lots of pepper. The balsamico is drizzled on top last minute. This is so delicouse and easy to make that it will be a new standard. The pasta "sauce" really reminded me of an Alfredo sauce but this one has braised garlic and balsamico so it takes the combo to a new hight.

Secondo, this was what Kevin would call and "inspired by" dish. Chicken thighs roasted with brussles sprouts, garlic and glazed with balsamico at the end. IF you do not like brussles sprouts, try them roasted in chicken fat like this. Even my mother in law who normally has to be coaxed into eating "green cabbagy vegetables" loved them. Oh, yeah and the chicken was good too .

BTW, is anyone planning on making one of The Splendid Table's keeping cakes and maturing them for a couple of weeks? I might do the "Honey Cake" or the "Xmas spiced Chocolate Cake" this week and save it for a couple of weeks to see if it can compete with the Alton Brown fruit cake I have maturing till xmas week.

[Kevin72]

Hey, where's the chilies sprinkled on top?

Looks good! Maybe I should be scouring her book for easier recipes instead of all these heavyweights . . .

[FoodMan]

Hey, where's the chilies sprinkled on top? 

Looks good!  Maybe I should be scouring her book for easier recipes instead of all these heavyweights . . .

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This one had a lot of coarce black pepper (well, my plate did) so I felt ok not to sprinkle chilies on top .

[hathor]

Argghhh!!! I've gotten slammed since I'm back in NY. Way too many things to clean up...literally and figuratively!

Yes! We continue!! I'm working on an E-R intro...honest! Although Kevin's intro is a fine, fine way to start.

Agnoletti Tortellini Lasagne Balsamic Parmigiana....oh, honey, it's alllll good.

I've got a brasato started for tomorrow. I know. I know. Kevin hates brasato, but I like it over polenta. I also use a recipe that calls for lots of spices: allspice, cloves, cinnamon. Gives it a rich flavor. I'll let you know how it turns out.

[JohnL]

I don't think anyone mentioned it but there is a wonderful restaurant here in New York City that features the cuisine--"Via Emila" at 47 e 21st (just off Park Ave South)

Wine list has a large selection of Lambruscos by the glass. Food is very good and the prices very reasonable.

Well worth a try!

[mrbigjas]

I've got a brasato started for tomorrow. I know. I know.  Kevin hates brasato, but I like it over polenta. I also use a recipe that calls for lots of spices: allspice, cloves, cinnamon. Gives it a rich flavor. I'll let you know how it turns out.

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brasato as in this brasato di maiale recipe from mario, or brasato as in this braised mountain goat recipe from about.com?

brasato seems to be such a generic term for braised somethingorother, what's to hate?

Edited December 6, 2006 by mrbigjas (log)

[Kevin72]

I think she means beef; it seems that "brasato" would be the equivalent of our term "pot roast" where the meat used is understood.

And it's not that I hate brasato, per se, just that all the versions I try keep winding up tasting the same, no matter what's in them. And I have bad luck finding a good braising cut of beef. I still did love the Piemonte version I made in January, however.

[FoodMan]

And I have bad luck finding a good braising cut of beef

Chuck, chuck, chuck and do not trim too much fat away. I never use any other cut for pot roast, beouf Bourignon, brasato....

[Pontormo]

Great looking meals so far, guys! Elie, we seem to have purchased similar groceries for different reasons. I'll be posting later in the week.

Lynne Rossetto Kasper is a lot of fun to read. Love the information about lasagna as the traditional dish after the birth of a girl (no word about sons, yet) and erotic properties of different shapes of bread.

In answer to the question about cakes in LRK's book, the recipe that caught my eye is the lemony apple torta in which the caramelized fruit is topped with a custard before baking. Pears would work, too, if the point is to evoke Christmas.

I know Mrbigjas has DiBruno's and Judith, NYC, but do others have a good source for mortadella? I'm looking for ways to go beyond the familiar dishes of this region, or at least versions I've never prepared before. After all those years of baloney in lunchboxes, it makes sense to chop up and cook the real thing.

[Kevin72]

Lynne Rossetto Kasper is a lot of fun to read.  Love the information about lasagna as the traditional dish after the birth of a girl (no word about sons, yet)

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Baked penne. Er, obviously, I guess.

I know Mrbigjas has DiBruno's and Judith, NYC, but do others have a good source for mortadella? I'm looking for ways to go beyond the familiar dishes of this region, or at least versions I've never prepared before.  After all those years of baloney in lunchboxes, it makes sense to chop up and cook the real thing.

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Other than one restaurant in Dallas that makes its own salumi, I've not had mortadella with the same rougher texture and meaty, porky flavor like in Italy. All typical stuff I get tastes too much like baloney.

[FoodMan]

Pontromo's comment about Mortadella reminded of a homemade version I made a few months ago using the recipe from Charcuterie. I figure this is a good place to post two of the pics. The lack of any pink color is due to my decision not to use any Nitrites in the mix. The taste was very very good though. Unfortunatly, these do not freeze well and the one that I did freez turned spongy after defrosting later.

[nikkib]

The Silver Spoon - the ultimate in Italian cooking was transalted for the first time last year into english should be bale to get that on amazon - worth checking out. No italian home is complete without one

[hathor]

Yeah, I meant beef. I'm serving my mother and her 'man friend' tonight. The recipe I have calls for somewhat funky cuts like jowls, but my mother would have a heart attack if I served her cow jowls. I've combined a recipe from our E-R instructor at ital.cook, with a recipe from a friend. If it comes out good, I'll post it. I'm using a london broil cut, whatever that really means. I had it the freezer, and it needed to be eaten!

Nikkib....the english translation of Silver Spoon is a very handsome book, but they "Americanized" the recipes, sometimes in strange ways. It's a good reference book, however.

[FoodMan]

Not to get too much off subject, but I was not at all impressed with Silver spoon. It does have a huge amount of recipes, but necessarily all Italian or regional. I even tested a couple of recipes for Leites culinaria and was less than impressed. If someone needs a book that deals with regional Italian food then there are much better options out there that have been thoroughly discussed on these threads.

[Pontormo]

Emilia-Romagna inspires.

I decided to try the most unusual recipe in The Splendid Table for the kind of sauce that pits the region against Naples: Ragu de Nobili since I had some giblets in the freezer with no place to go.

I am finally overcoming an aversion to organs not ground into paté (including the wretched musical instrument). For those reading this thread who don't have access to the book, the ragu features diced boneless chicken thighs that one sautés with minced pancetta, Italian sausage, giblets, a little ground beef and the customary battuto (mirepoix). White wine, a pinch of cloves, bay leaf, crushed garlic and a generous dab of tomato paste are gradually added with small amounts of stock. Once everything is incorporated, including more stock, the ragu simmers for less than an hour since small, browned bits of chicken dominate the mixture. This is a welcome change from other ragus. Instead of adding milk early in the procedure, a little heavy cream finishes the sauce. That last step is the sweep of the Fairy Godmother's wand: the giblets are transformed from something funky to an assertive, sweet element.

I prepared the ragu the night before so I could spend time making tagliatelle. Cf. the thread on home-made pasta in the Cooking forum for musings about different kinds of flours. I decided to trust not only Lynne Rossetto Kasper, but Hazan and Lidia M Bastianich and use KA all-purpose flour instead of buying another bag of the Tipo 00 used up when we were preparing Sardinian meals. LRK recommends mixing only 2 Jumbo eggs with 12 oz. of AP flour, and nothing else. Well, my 3 Large eggs were insufficient. I ended up using 5 eggs (full, not just the yolks, I know...) and while this made a supple, soft, easy-to-manage dough, golden strands that looked beautiful draped over the wooden dowels of the drying rack for hand laundry that I set up in the dining room, cooked, they lacked the slippery tenderness I've achieved with Tipo 00.

It may be that dough toughened when I was incrementally adding more egg, but I suspect that egg whites might have been a culprit since recipes for luxurious sfoglia require separating eggs and adding a large number of yolks. When I first cooked from Hazan's book, I'm pretty sure I used regular Pillsbury or Gold Metal bleached flour from the supermarket, so I am not sure what is to blame. I let the dough rest for almost an hour before I sent it through the pasta machine to thin and cut. KA's protein content is 11.7 % and LRK says the wheat of Emilia-Romagna contains 11-14%. Any feedback would be appreciated. I'll buy larger eggs this weekend, but I'm determined to make a superior dough with ordinary A-P flour.

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Ragu bolognese is something I could eat every single night the week I make it, feeling pangs when it is all gone. This? It's not as addictive and I suspect it's simply because it doesn't have the depth of flavor that meat acquires when cooked slowly for a long period of time. If you get over that expectation, it's really quite nice and indeed different. The sauce is traditionally used to make an elaborate tortellini pie that I will skip. However, I will be making lasagna this weekend.

Finally, let me add that everything Kevin said about these pears is true! My oh my ! Ignore Mario's instructions for time and I'm inclined to say that I prefer Bosc pears. Between Hathor's gorgeous photograph of a roasted pear salad up in the Dinner thread and Kevin's eloquence, I had to try them. I let mine roast for over an hour, basting them until the sides were coated red and the tips as wrinkled as your fingers when you've been swimming for hours. The skin of the pears served as an organic sous vide bag, creating a luscious, rich creaminess distinct from the qualities of a simple wine-poached pear. Since Batali introduces this quick, easy recipe in an episode on lasagna, I'd say now's the time to try this at home.

[Kevin72]

Glad the pear worked out! That episode of MM, with the lasagne (including a treatise on Ragu Bolognese) is one of my favorites of his.

I'm not even remotely schooled on the protein percentages and such with AP vs. 00 flour, but I do think the flour is at least part of the textural difference you got. There is something extra that 00 adds. You could also try, as some authors suggest, cutting the AP with cake flour, like maybe 60-40 AP to cake flour, and see how it turns out.

[Pontormo]

Yeah, Kevin, I just read through most of your posts on Emilia-Romagna from last year (wow!) and noticed what you had to say about cake flour. I'll try that, of course, but if the Three Sopranos believe in good ol' unbleached AP flour, I'm inclined to keep trying.

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Elie: your mortadella is beautiful! The green and red are perfect for this time of year. According to LRK, in Bologna, mortadella is traditionally made without pistachios, though I can't imagine passing up an opportunity to eat pistachios. It can't be a matter of a uniform texture since the peppercorns crunch, too. I suppose the logs are also speckled with lardo you made yourself.

[FoodMan]

What an awsome write-up pontormo. That ragu sounds good and all these Rennaissance and baroque recipes are very inspiring. I am seriously thinking about making that Lasagna from Ferrara made with rosewater dough and baroque ragu.

As for pasta flour I do like to mix in some semolina in mine.

The white fat in the mortadella was not really lardo, just blanched chopped fatback.

[Shaya]

I agree with you, Pontormo, Emilia-Romagna inspires. I think we should take Kevin up on his thoughts to cook from LRK's book for a few months more. It's incredible. Your ragu sounds great. Wish I could have some of the lasagna when it's done. Will you use your fresh pasta sheets for it?

Last month Franci passed a recipe to me for gnocchi with radicchio. Somehow I decided to make it today, and only realized afterward that it is from the Piacenza region, which is right here in Emilia-Romagna. They are made with radicchio, potato, ricotta, egg and parmigiano, and tossed with butter and pancetta.

[Andrew Fenton]

I've been way too swamped to do much cooking-- or even read eGullet-- but I was drawn in by Emilia-Romagna, which is just such a wonderful part of Italy... I made tortellini in brodo the other day, which given that I didn't make the tortellini, hardly counts as cooking. But still..

One of the things that really strikes me about E-R is that it realy is two regions rolled into one, and the natives won't let you forget that. Back in the spring I was in a wine bar in Ravenna and asked for a bottle of local wine, "from Emilia-Romagna". The waitress clearly had to restrain herself from smacking me upside the head; when she calmed down, she explained that, around there, they served vino romagnolo. That was a lesson in Italian hyper-regionalism...

Elie, that's a beautiful mortadella! But so small... one of the things that cracks me up about mortadella is just how BIG they can be! It's like somebody's compensating for something... Here's a mortadella in Rome:

And a couple of tourists admiring it. Hard to tell from the photo, but it's about the size of a telephone pole, or maybe a meat version of one of the columns from the Pantheon, not far away...

On the Silver Spoon: I think that the cookbook lost something in translation. I have a copy of the most recent Italian edition, and while I haven't gone through it systematically, it's pretty good. But I've heard lots of people tell me that the English version is only so-so.

[Abra]

Hurray, my book arrived, and I'm settling in to read it, only interrupted by having to sing in a holiday concert this afternoon.

Beautiful gnocchi, Shaya. Is the recipe posted? And Elie, gorgeous charcuterie, as always.

Edited December 10, 2006 by Abra (log)

[FoodMan]

Andrew:

That mortadella is very cool. I wish I could make one this size at home, but for many reasons (least of which the size of my food processor) that is impossible .

So, I cooked more food from E-R this weekend.

Friday's dinner was a recipe that sounded so cool in writing but un fortunatly did not deliver. From The Splendid Table I made the Bomba di Riso (Dome of rice stuffed with braised duck). The recipe is supposed to have braised pigeon, but following Kaspar's suggestion I used duck instead

The Bomba has alternating layers of arborio rice and stewed duck and here it is right before addding the final top/bottom layer of rice

Ready for the oven

The darn thing stuck and was difficult to take out of the bowl, but I managed

This dish was not really bad and it might be my execution that was flawed. I think the rice layer/crust was a bit thick and a bit bland. So, the whole thing felt out of balance. If I made the rice layers thinner I think it would've been more successful.

[FoodMan]

Sunday dinner:

Earlier in the day I baked one of my favorite breads, one that I bake often, from The Splendid Table "Modena Mountain Bread". This bread is so full of flavor from the wheat flour, wheat berries, potatoes and long fermenting sponge. It comes out crackly on the outside and moist and soft inside.

I used it to make a couple of antipasto toasts while the dinner was cooking.

- rubbed with garlic, topped with homemade pancetta and broiled. What's not to love?

- Topped with rabbit liver, kidneys and heart (sauteed with rosemary and lemon juice in butter and olive oil). I'd never had rabbit liver before and had no idea this stuff is so good. It beats chicken liver by a mile IMO.

Homemade Tortelli stuffed with potatoes and chives and sauced with butter and sage. This recipe is from Mario Batali's Simple Italian Food. I had not made homemade pasta, let alone stuffed pasta since my son was born in August, so I really enjoyed preparing those and took a few pics too many.

Main course was from Splendid Table, "Rabbit Dukes Of Modena" (cool name). Basically a braised rabbit that was marinated in wine and a bit of vinegar. It simmers in a sauce with some tomato and broth, rosemary and garlic and is finished with syrupy balsamic vinegar.

When I went to buy the rabbit from Central Market, there was only one left and I needed two. Apparently rabbit is pretty popular these days. So, I bought two chicken legs and two thighs to add to the bunny and make up the difference. I also figured I'll see how the two meats compare. Well, the dish was spectacular and worked great with both meats. Rabbit BTW, is mild but really does not taste like chicken and sure has more of a resilient texture. It's meat is also a bit sweeter. The sauce for this dish is so good I am sure to make it again, even if only using chicken.

Contorno was cabbage and cauliflower sauteed with garlic also based on a recipe from the same book in which she uses only cabbage though. Truth be told the Tortelli made for an awsome accompaniment to the saucy falvorlful rabbit. sine they are stuffed with potatoes, they sopped up the juices very nicely.

Dessert from Splendid Table, Ciambelle con Marmellata, or as she calls it a Jam Cake. I love the crumbly texture of Ciambelle (isen't that a venetian specialty though?) and by filling it with jam the cake is even more addictive. I filled half of it with apricot and the other with mixed berry jam.