Simple Italian Cookery Part 8

This meat can be served with Ribbon Macaroni. Put the meat in the middle, the macaroni around it, and the sauce over all, adding two tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese to the macaroni after it is boiled, and mixing well before putting it on the platter. Sprinkle on a little more cheese before carrying to the table.

This dish can be made equally well with left-over meats of any kind, turkey being especially good served this way.

SALADS

SALAD "DEL PREVOSTO"

Boil in their skins three good-sized potatoes, peel them and slice them, then put them into a salad bowl, and pour over them one-half a gla.s.s of white wine. Do this about two or three hours before they are wanted, so the potatoes will have time thoroughly to absorb the wine.

From time to time mix them with a fork and spoon to let the wine permeate. A few minutes before the meal make a good French salad dressing, add some pickled peppers cut up, some capers, and some chopped-up parsley, pour on the French dressing, mix up well, and serve.

THE CARDINAL'S SALAD

Wash a good lettuce and a bunch of water-cress. Cut a cold boiled beef into strips, add six radishes, two hard-boiled eggs chopped up, and one small sliced cuc.u.mber. Arrange the lettuce-leaves in a salad-bowl, mix the other ingredients with a sufficient quant.i.ty of mayonnaise sauce, put them in the midst of the lettuce, and serve.

ENDIVE SALAD

Take a head of endive, wash it and dry it well, and put it into a salad-bowl. Pour over it three tablespoons of good olive-oil. Mix one tablespoon of honey (or sugar), one of vinegar, and salt and pepper in a cup, and pour over the salad just before serving.

ITALIAN SALAD

Cut one carrot and one turnip into slices, and cook them in boiling soup. When cold, mix them with two cold boiled potatoes and one beet cut into strips. Add a very little chopped leeks or onion, pour some sauce, "Lombarda" (see Sauces, page 31), over the salad, and garnish with water-cress.

"ALLA POLLASTRA" SALAD

Chop up six lettuce-leaves and three stalks of celery, cut up the remains of a cold fowl in small pieces, and mix with one tablespoon of vinegar and salt and pepper in a salad bowl. Pour a cup of mayonnaise sauce over, and garnish with quarters of hard-boiled egg, one tablespoon of capers, six stoned olives, and some small, tender lettuce-leaves.

"ALLA MACEDOINE" SALAD

Cut into small pieces one cold boiled beet and half an onion. Add some cold boiled string-beans, some cold boiled asparagus tips, two tablespoons of cold cooked peas, one cold boiled carrot, and some celery. Mix them together, and pour over all a mayonnaise sauce. Add the juice of a lemon and serve.

DESSERTS

CHESTNUT FRITTERS

Take twenty good chestnuts and roast them on a slow fire so that they won't color. Remove the sh.e.l.ls without breaking the nuts, and put them into a saucepan with one level tablespoon of powdered sugar and one-half gla.s.s of milk and a little vanilla. Cover the saucepan and let it cook slowly (simmer) for more than a half-hour. Then drain the chestnuts and pa.s.s them through a sieve. Put them back in a bowl with one-half a tablespoon of b.u.t.ter, the yolks of three eggs, and mix well without cooking. Allow them to cool, and then take a small portion at a time, the size of a nut, roll them, dip them in egg, and in bread crumbs, and fry in b.u.t.ter and lard, a few at a time. Serve hot with powdered sugar.

CHESTNUTS "ALLA LUCIFERO"

Take forty good chestnuts and roast them over a slow fire. Do not allow them to become dried up or colored. Remove the sh.e.l.ls carefully, put them in a bowl, and pour over them one-half a gla.s.s of rum and two or three tablespoons of powdered sugar. Set fire to the rum and baste the chestnuts constantly as long as the rum will burn, turning the chestnuts about so they will absorb the rum and become colored.

PEACHES WITH WINE

Take four very ripe peaches, cut them in two, take out the stones, peel them, and cut them in thin slices. Put them in a bowl and cover them up until wanted. Put in a saucepan one gla.s.s of red wine, two tablespoons of powdered sugar, a piece of cinnamon, and a piece of a rind of lemon. Boil these together, and then pour the liquid over the peaches in the bowl while still boiling. Cover the bowl, and allow it to stand for at least two hours. Then turn into the dish in which you will serve the peaches and the wine.

HOT WINE

Put into the saucepan one pint of red or white wine, the first preferred. Add two heaping tablespoons of sugar, a piece of rind of lemon or orange, and a small stick of cinnamon. Put it onto the fire and stir until the sugar is dissolved. When the wine boils, strain it through some cheese-cloth and pour it into gla.s.ses, and serve hot.

MILK OF ALMOND ICE

Take one half pound of almonds. Remove the sh.e.l.ls and skins, and put them into a large receptacle of cold water. Add three bitter almonds to the number. Remove them from the water, and pound them up in a bowl, adding from time to time a little water. Then add more water and put them into a cheese-cloth and wring it, to extract all the juices you can. Then pound them some more, adding water, and squeeze out as before. To the milk you have extracted from the almonds add four tablespoons of powdered sugar and one-half tablespoon of orange water; put into the freezer and freeze.

If desired, you can put half the quant.i.ty of almonds and the other half of cantaloup seeds, pound together, and proceed in the same manner. This combination is refres.h.i.+ng and delicious.