The Italian Cook Book Part 16

(Pollo al diavolo)

This ought to be cooked with Cayenne pepper and served with a highly seasoned sauce, but not everybody likes that and a simpler way to cook the chicken "al diavolo" is the following:

Take a young chicken, remove the neck and the legs, open it all in front and flatten it open as much as possible. Wash and wipe dry with a towel, then put it on the grill and when it begins to brown turn it. Grease it with melted b.u.t.ter or with oil, using a brush, and season with salt and pepper. The later may be Cayenne pepper for those who like it. Keep turning and greasing until it is all cooked.

To prepare the sauce piquante that many like with chicken broiled in this way, put four tablespoonfuls of b.u.t.ter in a saucepan and when it begins to brown add two tablespoonfuls of flour and stir until it is well browned, but do not let it burn. Draw to a cooler place on the range and slowly add two cupfuls of brown stock, stirring constantly, add salt and a dash of Cayenne and let simmer for ten minutes. In another saucepan boil four tablespoonfuls of vinegar one tablespoonful of chopped onion, one teaspoonful of sugar rapidly for five minutes; then add it to the sauce and at the same time add one tablespoonful of chopped capers two tablespoonfuls of chopped pickle and one teaspoonful of tarragon vinegar. Stir well and let cook for two minutes to heat the pickles. If the sauce becomes too thick dilute it with a little water.

This sauce is excellent for baked fish and all roasts and boiled meats, besides being a fitting condiment for the chicken "al diavolo".

141

CHICKEN WITH HAM

(Pollo in porchetta)

Fill a chicken with thin strips of ham, about half an inch wide. Add three cloves (or sections) of garlic, two little bunches of fennel and a few grains of pepper. Season outside with salt and pepper and cook in a saucepan with b.u.t.ter, or preferably bake in the oven. Sausages cut lengthwise and previously skinned can be subst.i.tuted for the ham.

142

CHICKEN SAUTe

(Pollo saltato)

Take a young chicken, remove the neck and trim the wings. Cut away the legs. Cut the chicken into six pieces. Remove some of the bones. Beat an egg with a teaspoonful of water and place in it the pieces of chicken after dipping them in flour and seasoning generously with salt and pepper. Leave the pieces in the egg until it is time for cooking. Then take the pieces one by one, sprinkle with bread crumbs and place a saucepan with a good piece of b.u.t.ter on the fire. When the b.u.t.ter begins to brown put in the pieces of chicken from the side of the skin, then turn them when browned to the other side. Let them on a good fire for about ten minutes. Serve with lemon. The chicken prepared in this way is good also when cold.

143

AFRICAN HEN

(Gallina di Faraone)

This fowl, that resembles the partridge, should not be too fresh, like all game.

The best way to cook the African hen is roasted at the spit. Put in the inside a ball of b.u.t.ter dipped in salt and wrap it in a piece of paper greased with b.u.t.ter and sprinkled with salt. This paper must be removed when the fowl is nearly cooked, and then the cooking is completed greasing with more b.u.t.ter and adding more salt.

144

TAME DUCK ROASTED

(Anatra domestica arrosto)

Salt it inside and bandage all the breast with slices of bacon, large and thin. Grease with oil and salt moderately when the cooking is almost complete. If you have a wild duck grease with b.u.t.ter, as the meat is drier.

145

TURKEY

(Tacchino)

The turkey has been imported to Europe from America, but it is nevertheless a well known dish in Italian families, although not enjoying the popularity that it has on this side of the ocean. When roasted it is generally larded moderately with little pieces of garlic and bay-leaf or rosemary and seasoned with a hash of corned beef or bacon, a little b.u.t.ter, salt and pepper, tomato sauce or tomato paste diluted in water. The breast, flattened until it is about half an inch thick and seasoned generously some hours before cooking with oil, salt and pepper, is excellent broiled on the grill.

146

LOIN OF PORK ROASTED

(Lombo di maiale arrosto)

The loin of pork, cut in little pieces forms an excellent roast at the spit. The pieces of pork are to be divided by little pieces of toast and greased with oil.

If the pork is to be baked, choose that piece of the loin that has its ribs and that may weigh six or eight pounds. Lard it with garlic, rosemary or bay leaf and a few cloves, but moderately, and season with salt and pepper.

This roast is very popular in Italy, where they call it =arista=.

147

LEG OF LAMB

(Agnello all'Orientale)

This is a way to cook lamb in use in the Orient and adopted by the Italians, especially in Southern Italy. The leg of lamb is to be larded with the larding pin with slices of bacon seasoned with salt and pepper, greased with b.u.t.ter or milk, or milk alone and salted when half cooked.

The Arabs, who are very fond of this dish, do not lard it, as pork is forbidden by their religion, but cook it with an abundance of milk.

148

BROILED PIGEON

(Piccione in gratella)

Take a young, but fat pigeon, divide it in two parts lengthwise and flatten it well with the hands. Then put it to brown in oil for four or five minutes, just to harden the meat. Season when still hot with salt and pepper, then arrange it as follows.

Melt in the fire, without boiling it, a piece of b.u.t.ter and mix the liquid b.u.t.ter with one beaten egg. Dip the pigeon in the b.u.t.ter and egg and keep it until it absorbs them. Then sprinkle with bread crumbs ground fine. Cook on a grill on a low fire and serve with a sauce or a side dish.

149

STEAK IN THE SAUCEPAN

(Bistecca nel tegame)

If you have a steak that does not appear to be too tender, put it in a saucepan with a little piece of b.u.t.ter and some good olive oil, with a taste of garlic and bay-leaf or rosemary. Add, if necessary, a little broth or water or tomato sauce and serve with potatoes cooked in the gravy that can be made more abundant with more broth, b.u.t.ter and tomato sauce.