The Cooking and Cuisine of Emilia-Romagna

[Pontormo]

Beautiful meal, Elie. Very multicultural of you--thanks for the recommendation for the winter squash.

[Abra]

The squash really appeals to me too, as I have quite a lot of squash on hand and have never made it that way.

Elie, that cake looks almost like a halvah or fudge, with an appealing texture and internal crunch, as compared to the Barozzi which is very dense and fine-grained.

This is the Barozzi as it looks today

and while it has an alluring flavor, the texture doesn't do it for me personally.

[Chufi]

Abra, gorgeous dinners. I think the Barozzi looks wonderful - what is it about the texture that you don't like?

I finally ordered a copy of the Splenid Table, but it won't arrive until January, so I'll be cooking ER diiners in the next year too I guess!

Now I understand why so many people make the pasta from square shapes of dough rather than circles!!!!  What stamina you must have!  The circles are supposed to be 1 3/4 inch in diameter.  I soon graduated from a spice jar lid to a small Australian Corning Ware (virtually 2 in. D) shot glass since I figured it would take forever otherwise.  It would have been so much quicker to just slice out a grid pattern than to press the glass firmly down, swizzle it around a bit, carefully peel off the extra dough, cut around the parts of the circle that didn't get cut out, ball up the scraps and wrap them in plastic, etc., etc. Thank g-d for The Temptations, Marvin Gaye, Bob Dylan and Greg Brown.  Didn't make it to Cecilia Bertoli or the Tom-Tom Club.

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This made me laugh. I also pick out a couple of cd's when I start a pasta making session! You now you need them

[Kevin72]

No great E-R Holiday feasts on my end, either, this year I'm afraid. Although, ultimately I think this meal will become our traditional Christmas feast.

But, in between the two big holiday meals, we were feeling in need of something a little austere for a break and I whipped up tortellini en brodo last night after getting in:

Yeah, I guess there's nothing too "austere" about homemade pasta stuffed with three kinds of roasted or cured meats in a homemade broth, but when everything's just sitting idle in the freezer, its' ease of preparation is part of the comfort as well.

[Pontormo]

The photo above applies to what may prove to be the last post possible in this thread in 2006, though I am sure there will be more to report in the year ahead.

While I customarily use chicken stock for Italian recipes requiring broth, I was intrigued and just a little bit skeptical about the claims that a classic brodo should be simmered for at least 12-14 hours. I also was curious about the difference between stock made exclusively with chicken and/or turkey and one made with a combination of turkey (a sub for capon) and beef shanks, so I took nearly 11 hours to make half of the recipe in The Splendid Table in an 8-quart stockpot to end up with just a little over 3 quarts of a darker gold liquid that did not congeal to the extent that stock does.

I am not sure the broth would have suffered greatly had I stopped the process after 5 hours. It wasn't richer than a chicken stock, though the greater number of ingredients* meant that it was more subtle and less "bright." Perfect with some of the cappelletti/tortellini in the freezer, if not exactly austere when salad was followed by a Panettone bread pudding.

Auguri e Buon Cappellett' Anno

*Bay leaf, parsley & garlic in addition to carrots, onions and celery.

Edited December 29, 2006 by Pontormo (log)

[FoodMan]

Cotechino - Part1 - Production

As promised I made a Cotechino sausage for the first time this month. I prepared it early last week and kept it in the fridge till yesterday (Saturday). I apologize if these are more pictures than you bargained for, but someone asked for production pictures and I am really proud of how good this turned out.

Click Here to see the recipe I based my Cotechino on.

The meats (pork butt, pork fatback, blanched pork skin)

Seasoned meats ready to grind

Grinding

In the stuffer

I chose to stuff the meat in an inedible fibrouse casing instead of beef middles

I made half of the recipe, so I ended up with two links of about 1.5 lbs each

[FoodMan]

Cotechino - Part2 - New Year's Holiday Dinner

Well this was supposed to be New Year's Eve dinner but then we thought we had plans for NYE so instead it ended up being the day before NYE dinner. In any case this was still a phenomenal end of year dinner and a perfect cap for E-R for us.

Cotechino has a texture like no other sausage I've eaten, all due to the collagen rich pork skin that goes in it. You know all that good lip smaking goodness in a good braise, well it's here. It is at the same time tender and firm and the flavor is mainly garlic, nutmeg, white wine and a few herbs.

I only cooked one of the two sausages, the other is in the freezer to be cooked sometime soon. I decided to prepare the Cotechino two ways, plain boiled with braised lentils and sliced, rolled in parmeggiano cheese and pan fried. I served that with potatoes cooked with butter, milk and thyme. Both my wife and I could not decide if one way is better than the other as proven by the fact that we had no leftovers

On to the pictures.

First off the sausage is poahced till it reaches an internal temp of 155F. The skin is then removed and it is sliced into disks

Served with lentils (Puy lentils, tomatoes, herbs, stock..)

Based on a Batali recipe, the other disks are rolled in grated parm and pan fried. The potato recipe is also from Batali (he serves it with a Zampone). The dark stuff drizzled on it is a balsamic vinaigrette and it works great with the fatty sausage.

Dessert, a Bolognian Torta Di Mele (apple cake) with Almonds and Raisins. I am testing this recipe for Leitesculinaria.com. The recipe is from the book Biba's Italy and is pretty good. Served it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

(I also had a very nice picture of the whole cake but for some reason the file seems damaged...oh well, I have to many pics as it is)

HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone!

[Pan]

Happy new year, Elie, and thanks for sharing! Your dinner looks wonderful!

[Kevin72]

Bravo! Perfect, Elie! And one more time: where did you score the pig skin? How long did it have to cook?

For a while, Ling had grilled cotechino in her sig as the dish she was currently in love with. And I really want to give the cotechino wrapped in beef a try. But it's so damn good just with lentils that I can never venture out and try other methods. You nailed the textural part as being the main appeal.

I'm hoping our Italian deli is open today so I can try to score some cotechino for our dinner tonight.

[Pontormo]

Foodman, what magic! Thou art a veritable sauserer!

[FoodMan]

Bravo! Perfect, Elie! And one more time: where did you score the pig skin?  How long did it have to cook?

For a while, Ling had grilled cotechino in her sig as the dish she was currently in love with.  And I really want  to give the cotechino wrapped in beef a try.  But it's so damn good just with lentils that I can never venture out and try other methods.  You nailed the textural part as being the main appeal. 

I'm hoping our Italian deli is open today so I can try to score some cotechino for our dinner tonight.

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Thanks Kevin and everyone else. The pork skin is pretty easy tp find in Houston. you can actually buy it at Fiesta stores for example. In my case however, I went to the HEB in chinatown on Bellaire and bought a whole pork belly to make pancetta and bacon and I used the skin from that belly (it needs to be skinned to make pancetta).

The Cotechino I cooked was about 1.5lbs and at a gentle simmer it took about 35-40 minutes to reach the proper temp. Please post your results here if you do find Cotechino and cook it tonight (or maybe I can fedex u the remaining piece I have ).

I did debate making the beef wraped one, but wanted a more simple approach for my very first time cooking it.

What are we doing in January? Veneto is it?

[Abra]

Wow, Elie, that's some gorgeous cotechino! Now I want to copy you - I've got the skin, got the fat, can get the butt, but what the heck is Amesphos, and did you use it? Did that apple cake taste as good as it looks?

I did part of one more E-R dish, the Lamb, Garlic, and Potato Roast, minus the potatoes. The lamb was very good, although again I had issues with the directions. The pieces of shoulder that I used were ready to eat before the time that she has you add the potatoes and then cook it until they're done.

Oh, and although I promised no more caponery, I did have enough of my capon-parm rind broth left to make a little French onion soup-type dish with bread and grated cheeses left over from the holiday dinners, and it was outstandingly good. My husband is a total convert to capon-parm rind broth now, so I see it happening again this winter.

[FoodMan]

Wow, Elie, that's some gorgeous cotechino!  Now I want to copy you - I've got the skin, got the fat, can get the butt, but what the heck is Amesphos, and did you use it?  Did that apple cake taste as good as it looks?

I did part of one more E-R dish, the Lamb, Garlic, and Potato Roast, minus the potatoes.  The lamb was very good, although again I had issues with the directions.  The pieces of shoulder that I used were ready to eat before the time that she has you add the potatoes and then cook it until they're done. 

Oh, and although I promised no more caponery, I did have enough of my capon-parm rind broth left to make a little French onion soup-type dish with bread and grated cheeses left over from the holiday dinners, and it was outstandingly good.  My husband is a total convert to capon-parm rind broth now, so I see it happening again this winter.

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I did not bother using amesphos, which is a type of phosphate I think. I also used fresh garlic not garlic powder.

The cake was good but not great. It was a matter of texture, the apples retained a bit too much crunch and I think would've benefited from being sauteed first instead of just added to the batter raw.

[Kevin72]

Well, my deli was closed on New Year's Day, but I was still off yesterday so I made a side trip there and scored a cotechino to make for last night's dinner. "A day too late, but I think you'll still get some luck!" The guy at the checkout counter said when he saw me walk up with a bag of lentils and a sausage.

[nikkib]

I'm sure this has already been covered but THE SILVER SPOON is great

[Pontormo]

Quick note because it's late:

Wendy's cabbage tortelli looked so good that I used about a half a pound of leftover cabbage to try Lynne Rossetto Kasper's version with a filling that includes a baked russet potato, garlic and grated Parmesan. No egg since there's lots of olive oil left from sautéing the cabbage with onion and pancetta until all is deliciously caramelized, then mixed with other piping hot ingredients, a reduction of the sticky bits in the pan made with broth, then seasoned generously with black pepper and more than a pinch of nutmeg.

Man, was the filling good!

When only a bit more than a teaspoon is packed into tortelli, boiled, and then sauced with more reduced broth, butter and cheese, the results are disappointing. At least, I thought the greatness that was the filling got obscured by the pasta itself. I think tortelloni might be better, you know, with a bit tablespoon or two.

Pasta Experiment #4

Cut back to only 1 T EVOO & same on water. Harder to knead. Perfectly fine and easy to work with after resting, but I still prefer double those amounts. Funny since so many recipes just include eggs and flour.

[hathor]

Elie, thank you so much for sharing those production photos.

When I opened this thread, it opened to the photos of the finished sausage...and as I'm reading I'm thinking how much I would like to see the making of the sausage...that's when I realized I'd missing the beginning. And voila...my wish was granted!

What was the diameter of the finished sausage? Is there a discernible 'crunch' to the skin inside the sausage, or does it just sort of meld into the whole?

Now I'm hungry for lentils... not that rolling it in parm doesn't sound pretty darn good as well.

One day, I would love to watch you do this, in real time! Thanks again!

[little ms foodie]

Foodman that cotechino looks soooo amazing!! it reminds me of a french dish of garlic sausage served with lentils or wrapped in brioche. beautiful!

[Franci]

I did go through you posting very quickly, Foodman, you really worked hard in this thread!

I am late, but anyway I'd like to show this tool and the crescente that are not very commonly seen around. The pan is so heavy, that when I brought with me to the States I had serious problems lifting my luggage.

Anyway, this is the tool, the tigelliera, sorry for the bad picture.

And here are the crescente, or tigelle. Usually served with pesto (a pesto of lardo, garlic and rosemary) or salumi

I tried different thicknesses of the disks and I am for a thinner version. Can be a nice idea for an informal differ with friends.

HERE, I added the recipe and more information about names.

[hathor]

Those tigelle are a big hit at our town's festas...but they fill them with Nutella! All the young ragazzi come begging for them from their mom's working in the festa kitchen. Actually, any mom will do, when they are begging for food.

[Kevin72]

This past weekend, my whole family came up to help paint the baby's room and various other chores. To thank them, I made one of my favorite meals, all from Emilia-Romagna:

Ragu Bolognese:

Made to top handmade tagliatelle:

The main were costolette Bolognese, cutlets of meat, pounded flat, breaded, then baked off with prosicutto and a shard of parmigiano:

I made a tart salad afterwards. Normally for this meal I do something called "insalata daNello" which we had at Montegrappa DaNello in Bologna. There, it was thinly shaved ovoli mushrooms, truffles, celery, and parmigiano tossed with fruity olive oil and lemon juice. When I make it here, it's usually trumpet mushrooms, celeriac, and parm again. I didn't this time since my wife's been mushroom averse since her pregnancy, but I mentioned it here because it's really good and if you have access to a mandoline, it's definitely worth it, particularly in the fall.

Dessert was ciambella della nonna, a ciambella (shortbread/cookie type dough) baked with jam in the middle. No pics.

[hathor]

Great looking ragu and pasta, Kevin! And all for a very good cause.

You had to go and mention ovoli mushrooms....now, I'm craving them and it's a looong time before they are in season!

p.s. We just finished off a big pot of bolognese as well. Works well as mountain food!

[Pontormo]

This weekend on the radio program for The Splendid Table, Lynne Rosetto Kasper repeated a broadcast I have never heard. She spends the entire hour in Emilia-Romagna and includes a nostalgic section of the piece to tigelle. Since the show is archived, you should be able to listen at your leisure.

[Shaya]

So a question about my board- what the heck was i suppose to do with the stick???

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I think it's to wrap squares of pasta dough around to make garganelli. 

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Yep, that's what it's for, as I learned today.

Thanks to Pontormo's recommendation I have been picking through Micol Negrin's wonderful Rustico. Tonight I made Garganelli al Ragu from Emilia Romagna - what a great region. I'd forgotten about all the tortellini we produced last December!

The pasta dough has eggs, flour, parmigiano, salt and nutmeg.

The sugo is cooked with finely diced veal, onion, carrot, celery, marsala, tomato, cinnamon, nutmeg and the surprise... beschiamella. The whole dish is cooked in butter, and slivers of prosciutto are fried in a little butter to serve as a topping alongside the parmigiano reggiano.

A really tasty dish, fun to make and a pleasure to serve.

The Process

Garganelli al Ragu

[Pontormo]

Queen of Gnocchi, Queen of Garganelli--where oh where does your realm end?

Glad you're enjoying the book, Shaya. That does indeed sound like an unusual sauce for pasta that isn't baked.