Part 7

=Note.=--In these and similar dishes we have indicated the use of wine, which is a common ingredient, in small quantities in Italian and French cooking. This, however, can always be dispensed with if its taste is not appreciated, or for any other reason.

174

TROUT ALPINE

(Trota all'alpigiana)

These are many ways to prepare this delicious fish, found in abundance in the many streams of clear water that run from the Alps and the Apennine mountains. Often the trout is cooked in wine, but, of course, this part many be changed.

For the =trota all'alpigiana=, so called because it is the favorite dish of Piedmont, the trout must be cleaned, scaled, washed, wiped then salted and left under the action of the salt for about an hour.

Pour in a fish-kettle one quart of white wine to which will be added three medium sized onions a few cloves, two sections of garlic and a little bunch made of thyme, bay-leaf, basil or mint; finally a piece of butter as large as an egg, dipped in flour. Then put the trout in the fish-kettle and place on a strong fire. When the liquid has boiled the trout is cooked. Remove the onions and the bunch of greens and serve the trout with its gravy and some parsley.

175

TROUT LOMBARD

(Trota fritta)

Clean, scale, wash and wipe the trout. Salt and leave for half an hour. Fill with water half a fish-kettle; add half a lemon, two bay-leaves, one carrot light or ten berries of pepper, one onion divided into four parts, salt and three cloves. When the water is lukewarm, dip in the trout. Cook on a moderate fire and serve the trout with parsley, slices of lemon and young potatoes boiled. A good fish-sauce ought to accompany it.

176

FRIED TROUT

(Trota fritta)

Small and young trouts are best for frying. Scale, clean, wash and wipe. Then dip in flour and fry like the other fish in oil or in butter. Serve with browned parsley and lemon.

177

TROUT WITH ANCHOVIES

(Trota alle acciughe)

Scale, clean wash and wipe the trouts. Cut the sides and place to pickle with salt, pepper berries, garlic, parsley and onions chopped fine; with mushrooms chopped fine with thyme, bay-leaf and mint, all seasoned with good olive oil. Rub the pickled pieces at the sieve and place it and the trout in a baking-tin. Bake in the oven and serve with anchovy sauce (No. 17).

178

EGGS WITH ONION SAUCE

(Uova trippate)

Prepare some hard boiled eggs, shell and cut into disks one third of an inch thick.

Melt in a saucepan a piece of butter in which brown half an onion cut into thin slices, to be removed from the butter when browned. Then add to the butter two teaspoonfuls of flour, mix but don't allow to brown, thin with a cup of hot broth, add salt and pepper and let simmer for ten minutes. Put the sliced eggs in the sauce to warm them, stir a little, but carefully to avoid breaking them, and do not boil again. Just before serving add to the sauce a teaspoonful of cream and stir carefully.

179

EGGS WITH HAM

(Uova al prosciutto)

Place in a frying pan as many pieces of butter, large like a nut, as there are eggs to be cooked. For each piece of butter put a little slice of ham and place the frying pan on the fire. As soon as the butter is melted break an egg on each slice of ham. Let cook for ten minutes on a moderate fire.

180

EGGS WITH TOMATO SAUCE

(Uova al pomidoro)

Prepare some hard boiled eggs, cut them through the middle lengthwise, place in good order upon a plate and pour some good tomato sauce, taking care not to cover the upper part of the eggs, which must emerge from the sauce.

Instead of the tomato, the eggs may be arranged with a =balsamella= sauce (No. 54).

181

SCRAMBLED EGGS

(Uova strapazzate)

Break the eggs in a plate, assuring first that they are all fresh.

Melt in a saucepan a piece of butter about as big as an egg. When it is melted pour the egg and scramble them with a fork on a low fire.

When the eggs are cooked season moderately with salt and butter. Just when you take them away from the fire and before serving add a tablespoonful of milk or liquid cream. Serve hot with a little grated cheese.

The scrambled eggs can be served with points of asparagus, truffles, mushrooms, etc. which are prepared just as if they were to go in an omelet.

PART II

PASTRY, SWEETS, FROZEN DELICACIES, SYRUPS

182

PUDDING OF HAZELNUTS

(Budino di nocciuole)

Shell half a pound of hazelnuts in warm water and dry them well at the sun or on the fire, then grind them very fine, together with sugar, of a weight somewhat less than the nuts. Put one quart of milk on the fire, and when it begins to boil, put two third lb. lady fingers or macaroons crumbed and let it boil for five minutes, adding a small piece of butter. Rub everything through a sieve and put back on the fire with the nuts to dissolve the sugar. Let it cool and add six eggs, first the yolks, then the white beaten, pour in a mold greased with butter and sprinkled with bread crumbs ground fine. The mold must not be all full. Bake in the oven and serve cold.

This dose will be sufficient for eight or ten persons.

183

CRISP BISCUITS

(Biscotti croccanti)

One pound of flour. Half a pound granulated sugar. 1/4 lb. sweet almonds, whole and shelled, mixed to a few pine-seeds. A piece of butter, one and a half ounce. A pinch of anise-seeds. Five eggs. A pinch of salt.

Leave back the almonds and pine-seeds to add them afterward, and mix everything with four eggs, so as to use the fifth if it is necessary to make a soft dough. Divide into four cakes half an inch thick and as large as a hand, place them in a receptacle greased with butter and sprinkled with flour. Glaze the cakes with yolk of eggs. Bake in the oven, but only as much as will still permit cutting the cakes into slices, which you will do the day after, as the crust will then be softened. Put the slices back in the oven, so that they will be toasted on both sides and you will have the crisp biscuits.

184

SOFT BISCUITS

(Biscotti teneri)

For these biscuits it would be necessary to have a tin box about four inches wide and a little less long than the oven used. In this way the biscuits will have a corner on both sides and, if cut a little more than half an inch, they will be of the right proportion. The ingredients needed are:

Flour, about two ounces. Potato meal, a little less. Sugar, four ounces (1/4 lb.) Sweet almonds 1-1/2 ounce. Candied orange or angelica, one ounce. Fruit preserve, one ounce. Three eggs.

Skin the almonds, cut them in half lengthwise and dry in the sun or at the fire. Pastry cooks usually leave them with the skin but it is much preferable to skin them. Cut in little cubes the candied fruits and the preserve.

Stir for a long while, about half an hour the sugar in the egg-yolks and a little flour then add the white of the eggs well beaten and when every thing is well beaten add the flour, letting it fall from a sieve. Mix slowly and scatter on the mixing the almonds and the cubes of candied and preserved fruit. Grease and sprinkle the tin box with flour. Bake in the oven and cut the biscuits the day after. If desired these can also be roasted on both sides.

185

BISCUITS SULTAN

(Biscotto alla sultana)

Granulated sugar, six ounces. Flour, four ounces. Potato meal, two ounces. Currants, three ounces. Candied fruits, one ounce. Five eggs. A taste of lemon peel. Two tablespoonfuls of brandy.

Put first on the fire the currants and the candied fruits cut in very little cubes with as much brandy or cognac as is necessary to cover them: when it boils, light the brandy and let it burn out of the fire until the liquor is all consumed: then remove the currants and candy and let them dry in a folded napkin. Then stir for half an hour the sugar with the egg-yolks and the taste of lemon peel. Beat well the white of the eggs and pour them on the sugar and yolks. Add the flour and potato meal letting them fall from a sieve and stir slowly until everything is well mixed together. Add the currants and the pieces of candied fruits and pour the mixing in a smooth mold or in a high and round cake-dish. Grease the mold or the dish with butter and sprinkle with powdered sugar or flour. Put at once in the oven to avoid that the currants and the candied fruits fall in the oven.

186

MARGHERITA CAKE

(Pasta Margherita)

Potato meal, three ounces. Sugar, six ounces. Four eggs. Lemon juice.

Beat well the egg-yolks with the sugar, add the potato meal and the lemon juice and stir everything for half an hour. Finally beat well the whites, and mix the rest, stirring continually but slowly. Pour the mixture in a smooth and round mold, greased with butter and sprinkled with powdered sugar. Put at once in the oven.

Remove from the mold when cold and dust with powdered sugar and vanilla.

187

MANTUA TART

(Torta Mantovana)

Flour, six ounces. Sugar, six ounces. Butter, five ounces. Sweet almonds and pine-seeds, two ounces. One whole egg. Four egg-yolks. A taste of lemon peel.

First work well with a ladle the eggs with the sugar, then pour the flour little by little, still stirring, and finally the butter, previously melted in a double steamer (bain-marie). Put the mixture in a pie-dish greased with butter and sprinkled with flour or bread crumbs ground. On top put the almonds and the pine-seeds. Cut the latter in half and cut the almonds, previously skinned in warm water, each in eight or ten pieces. This tart must not be thicker than one inch, so that it can dry well in the oven, which must not be too hot.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve cold.

188

CURLY TART

(Torta ricciolina)

Sweet almonds with a few bitter ones, four ounces, Granulated sugar, six ounces, Candied fruits or angelica, 2-1/2 ounces, Butter, two ounces, Lemon peel.

Mix two eggs with flour, flatten the paste to a thin sheet on a bread board and cut into thin noodles. In a corner of the bread board make a heap of the almonds with the sugar, the candied fruit cut in pieces and the grated lemon peel. All this cut and crush so as to reduce the mixture in little pieces. Then take a pie-dish and without greasing it, spread a layer of noodles on the bottom, then pour part of the mixture, then another layer of noodles and continue until there remains no more material, trying to have the tart at least one inch thick. When it is so prepared cover with the melted butter, using a brush to apply it evenly.

189

ALMOND CAKE

(Bocca di dama)

Granulated sugar, nine ounces, Very fine Hungarian flour, five ounces, Sweet almonds with some bitter ones, two ounces, Six whole eggs and three egg yolks, Taste of lemon peel.

After skinning the almonds in warm water and drying them well, grind or better pound them well together with a tablespoonful of sugar and mix well with the flour. Put the rest of the sugar in a deep dish with the egg yolks and the grated lemon peel (just a taste) and stir with a ladle for a quarter of an hour. In another dish beat the six whites of egg and when they have become quite thick mix them with other ingredients stirring slowly everything together.

To bake place the mixture in a baking-tin greased evenly with butter and sprinkled with powdered sugar and flour.

190

CORN MEAL CAKES

(Pasta di farina gialla)

Corn meal, seven and a half ounces, Wheat flour, five and a half ounces, Granulated sugar, five and a half ounces, Butter, three and a half ounces, Lard, two ounces, A pinch of anise seed, One egg.

Mix together the corn meal, the flour and the anise seed and knead with the butter, the lard and the egg that quantity that you can, forming a loaf that you will put aside. What remains is to be kneaded with water forming another loaf. Then mix the two loaves and knead a little, not much because the dough must remain soft. Flatten with the rolling pin until it becomes one quarter of an inch thick, sprinkle with flour, and cut in different sizes and shapes with thin stamps.

Grease a baking tin with lard, sprinkle, with flour, glaze with the egg, bake and dust with powdered sugar.

191

BISCUIT

(Biscotto)

Six eggs, Granulated sugar, nine ounces, Flour, four ounces, Potato meal, two ounces, Taste of lemon peel.

Stir for at least half an hour the yolks of the eggs with the sugar and a tablespoonful only of the flour and meal, using a ladle. Beat the whites of the eggs until they are quite firm, mix slowly with the first mixture and when they are well incorporated pour over from a sieve the flour and the potato meal, previously dried in the sun or on the fire.

Bake in a tin where the mixture comes about one inch and a half thick, previously greasing the tin with cold butter and sprinkle with powdered sugar mixed with flour.

In these cakes with beaten whites the following method can also be followed: mix and stir first the yolks with the sugar, then put the flour then, after a good kneading, beat the whites until they are firm, pour two tablespoonfuls to soften the mixture, then the rest little by little.

192

CAKE MADELEINE

(Pasta Maddalena)

Sugar, four and a half ounces, Flour, three ounces, Butter, one ounce, Egg-yolks, four, Whites of eggs, three, A pinch of bi-carbonate of soda, A taste of lemon peel.

First mix and stir the yolks with the sugar and when they have become whitish, add the flour and stir for fifteen minutes more. Mix with the butter, melting or softening it fine if it is hard and finally add the whites when they are well beaten. The flour must be previously dried in the sun or on the fire.

This cake may be given different shapes, but keep it always thin and in little volume. It can be put in little molds greased with butter and sprinkled with flour, or else in a baking tin, keeping it not more than half an inch thick, and cutting it after baking in the shape of diamonds and dusting with powdered sugar.

193

ALMOND CRISP-TART

(Croccante)

Sweet almonds, four and a half ounces. Granulated sugar, three and a half ounces.

Skin the almonds, divide the two parts and cut each part into small pieces. Put these almonds so cut at the fire and dry them until they take a yellowish color, but do not toast. Meanwhile put the sugar on the fire in a saucepan and, when it is perfectly melted, pour the almonds hot and already slightly browned. Now lower the fire and be careful not to allow the compound to be overdone. The precise point is known when the mixture acquires a cinnamon color. Then pour little by little in a cold mold, previously greased with butter or oil. Press with a lemon against the walls of the mold, making the mixture as thin as possible. Remove from the mold when perfectly cooled and, if it is difficult to do so, dip the mold in boiling water.

The almonds can also be dried in the sun and chopped fine, adding a small piece of butter when they are in the sugar.

194

WAFER BISCUITS

(Cialdoni)

Put in a kettle:

Flour, three ounces. Brown sugar, one ounce. Lard virgin, half an ounce. Cold water, seven tablespoonfuls.

First dilute the flour and the sugar in the water, then add the lard.

Put on the fire the iron for waffles or better an appropriated iron for flattened wafers. When it is quite hot open it and place each time half a tablespoonful of the paste. Close the iron and press well. Pass over the fire on both sides, trim all around with a knife and open the iron when you see that the wafer is browned. Then detach it from one side of the iron and hot as it is roll it on the iron itself or on a napkin using a little stick. This operation must be made with great rapidity because if the wafer gets cold, it cannot be rolled.

Should the wafers remain attached to the iron, grease it from time to time, and if they are not firm enough, add a little flour.

These wafer-biscuits are generally served with whipped cream.

195

QUINCE CAKE

(Cotognata)

The ingredients are about six pounds of quinces and four pounds of granulated sugar.

Put on the fire the apples covered with water, and when they begin to crack remove them, skin and scrape to put together all the pulp. Rub the latter through a sieve. Put back the pulp on the fire with the sugar and stir continually in order that it may not attack to the bottom of the kettle. It will be enough to boil for seven or eight minutes and remove when it begins to form pieces when lifted with the ladle.

Now in order to prepare the quince-cake spread it on a board to the thickness of about a silver dollar and dry it in the sun covered with cheese cloth to keep away the flies. When it is dry cut it in the form of chocolate tablets and remove each piece from the board passing the blade of a knife underneath.

If it is wished to make it crisp, melt about three and a half pounds of granulated sugar with two tablespoonfuls of water and when the sugar has boiled enough to "make the thread" smear every one of the little quince cakes with it. If the sugar becomes too hard during the operation put it back on the fire with a little water and make it boil again. When the sugar is dry on one side and on the edge, smear the other side.

196

PORTUGUESE CAKE

(Focaccia alla Portoghese)

Sweet almonds, five ounces. Granulated sugar, five ounces. Potato meal, one and a half ounce. Three eggs. One big orange or two small.

First mix the yolks of the eggs with the sugar, then add the flour, then the almonds skinned and chopped fine, then the orange juice (through a colander) then a taste of orange peel. Finally add to the mixture the whites of the eggs well beaten. Put in a paper mold greased evenly with butter, with a thickness of about an inch and bake in a very moderately hot oven. After baked, cover with a white glaze or frost, made with powdered sugar, lemon juice and the white of eggs.

197

MACAROONS

(Amaretti)

I

Granulated sugar, nine ounces. Sweet almonds, three and a half ounces. Bitter almonds, half of the above quantity. Whites of egg, two.

Skin and dry the almonds, then chop them very fine. Mix the sugar and the whites of egg and stir for about half an hour, then add the almonds to form a rather hard paste. Of this make little balls, as large as a small walnut. If the paste is too soft add a little butter, if too hard add a little white of egg, this time beaten. Were it desired to give the macaroons a brownish color, mix with the paste a little burnt sugar.

As you form the little ball, that you will flatten to the thickness of one third of an inch, put them over wafers or on pieces of paper or in a baking tin greased with butter and sprinkled with half flour and half powdered sugar. Dispose them at a certain distance from one another as they will enlarge and swell, remaining empty inside.

Bake in an oven moderately hot.

II

Powdered sugar, ten and a half ounces. Sweet almonds, three ounces. Bitter almonds, one ounce. Two whites of egg.

Skin the almonds and dry them in the sun or on the fire, then chop and grind very fine with one white of egg poured in various times. When this is done, put half of the sugar, stirring and kneading with your hand. Then pour everything in a large bowl and, always mixing, add half of the other white of egg, then the other half of the sugar and finally the other half of the white.

In this way an homogenous mixture will be obtained of the right firmness. Shake into a kind of a stick and cut it in rounds all equal, one third of an inch thick. Take them up one by one with moistened fingers and make little balls as large as a walnut. Flatten them to the thickness of a third of an inch and for the rest proceed as said above, but dust with powdered sugar before putting in a hot oven.

With this dose about thirty macarons can be obtained.

198

FARINA CAKES

(Pasticcini di semolino)

Farina, six and a half ounces. Sugar, three and a half ounces. Pine-seeds, two ounces. Butter, a small piece. Milk, one quart. Four eggs. A pinch of salt. Taste of lemon peel.

Cook the farina in the milk and when it begins to thicken pour the pine-seeds, previously chopped fine and pounded with the sugar, then the butter and the rest, less the eggs which must be put in last when the mixture has completely cooled. Then place the whole well mixed in little molds, greased evenly with butter and sprinkled with bread crumbs ground fine, and bake.

199

RICE TART

(Torta di riso)

Milk, one quart. Rice, seven ounces. Sugar, five and a half ounces. Sweet almonds with four bitter ones, three and a half ounces. Candied cedar (angelica), one ounce. Three whole eggs. Five egg-yolks. Taste of lemon peel. A pinch of salt.

Skin the almonds and grind or pound them with two tablespoonfuls of the sugar.

Cut the candied cedar in very small cubes. Cook the rice in the milk until it is quite firm, put in all the ingredients except the eggs, which are added when the mixture is cold. Put the entire mixture in a baking tin greased with butter and sprinkled with bread crumbs ground fine, harden in the oven and after 24 hours cut the tart into diamonds. When serving dust with powdered sugar.

200

FARINA TART

(Torta di semolino)

Milk, one quart. Farina finely ground, four and a half ounces. Sugar, four and a half ounces. Sweet almonds with three bitter, three and a half ounces. Butter, a small piece. Four eggs. Taste of lemon peel. A pinch of salt.

Skin the almonds in warm water and ground or pound very fine with all the sugar, to be mixed one tablespoonful at a time.