This soup is prepared with whatever vegetables are in season, for example, cabbage, carrots, garden sorrel, celery, and winter celery. Julienne the cabbage and heat it over the fire, then squeeze it dry. The carrots and the celery should be cut into inch long strips. Trim the stems of the garden sorrel, and set all the vegetables to cook in a pot with a bit of butter, seasoning them lightly with salt and pepper. Once the greens have absorbed the butter, add broth and simmer till done. Meantime, take good quality day old bread, dice it, and fry the pieces in butter, oil, or lard. Make sure the fat is hot before you add the bread, or the bread will absorb it. Put the bread in the tureen, pour the broth and vegetables over it, and serve the soup.
[Artusi fails to give proportions here. Assuming you use a half a head of cabbage about seven inches across, you will probably want one large carrot and two ribs of celery. As Artusi suggests, feel free to add whatever else strikes your fancy.]
With the use of the proper tools, the vegetables can be carved into decorative shapes.
It would be more appropriate to call this dish fine croquets. Take a piece of lean stewed veal, a small brain that's been boiled or simmered in meat sauce, and a slice of prosciutto. Mince them, then grind them to a paste in a mortar. Add a yolk or a whole egg to the mixture, and a little bit of bechamel sauce, made following the instructions given in recipe 137. Heat the mixture until the egg cooks, stirring constantly, then remove it from the fire and stir in two tablespoons grated Parmigiano, a pinch of nutmeg, and some finely sliced truffles. Once the mixture has cooled, shape it into balls the size of a small walnut and flour them. Dip them in beaten egg, dredge them in bread crumbs, repeat the operation, and fry them.
Almost everybody likes well fried zucchini, and they are ideally suited to accompany any other fried food.
Take elongate, finger sized zucchini, wash them, and cut them into half inch strips, removing some of the center from each strip. Lightly salt them and let them sit for an hour or two, then drain them and flour them. Shake off the excess flour and transfer the zucchini to a deep fat fryer filled with hot oil or lard. Wait until they have firmed up to stir them, or they will break, and remove them with a slotted spoon when they have begun to brown.
These zucchini can be cooked following the instructions given in artichokes cooked in a baking tin, recipe 246, though they should be cut into disks rather than strips. If you do choose to cook the zucchini this way, salt them as you would if you were frying them.
This dish, called a timballo [kettle drum], perhaps gets its name because the vessel's shape is similar to that of the musical instrument. Mince a slice of prosciutto, two tablespoons of onion, and one each of carrot and celery. Saute the battuto in a pat of butter, adding one or two pigeons, depending upon the number of people who will be enjoying them. Add their combs, livers, and gizzards, along with those of a chicken, if you have them. Season with salt and pepper, and when the pigeons are browned, sprinkle them with broth and simmer them till they're done, taking care that the sauce not dry out. Blend the sauce and stir it into a pot of macaroni that you have partially cooked and drained. Keep the pasta by the fire, turning it every now and then. Make a small amount of bechamel sauce [see recipe 137] and cut the pigeons into pieces, discarding their heads, feet, and backs if you'd rather not bone them, which would be better. Coarsely chop the livers and gizzards.
Once the macaroni have absorbed the sauce, season them with grated Parmigiano, bits of butter, finely sliced prosciutto, nutmeg, and finely sliced truffles. In the absence of the latter, use a handful of dried porcini that have been steeped. Finally, stir in the bechamel sauce.
Take a casserole large enough to hold the ingredients, grease it with butter, and line it with shortbread. [You can also use pie crust] Pour in the stuffing, cover the pie with crust, and bake it in the oven [at 450° for ten minutes, and then 350° for another thirty].
3/4 pound of macaroni and two pigeons will produce a pie sufficient for ten to twelve people, assuming they're not heavy eaters. If you wish, you can also shape the pie like the pasticcio described in recipe 349.
To improve the appearance of asparagus, scrape the white part of the stems with a knife and trim the asparagus stalks to the same length before cooking them. Tie them into small bunches, and, to preserve their green color, salt the water. Bring the water to a rolling boil before adding the asparagus, and fan the coals to bring the water back to a boil as soon as possible after adding them. The asparagus is cooked as soon as the spears begin to droop their heads. To confirm that they're done, make sure they bend under a gentle pressure of the fingers; keep in mind, however, that they're better undercooked than overcooked. When you remove them, run them under cold water to interrupt their cooking, and serve them hot, which is the way most people prefer them.
This green is precious not just because of its diuretic and digestive qualities, but also because of the high price it commands. Once it has been boiled, it can be prepared in many ways, but the simplest and best is to sprinkle it with very good oil, and vinegar or lemon juice. For variety's sake here are several other methods for preparing it, after it's been boiled half way. Saute the asparagus whole in butter; transfer it to a serving dish, and after having seasoned it with salt, pepper, and a small pinch of grated cheese, pour melted butter over it. You can also separate the white and green parts of the stalks and arrange them as follows in a heat proof dish. Dust the bottom of the dish with grated Parmigiano, and arrange the points of the asparagus in the dish, seasoning them with salt, pepper, grated Parmigiano, and bits of butter. Continue laying down layers of green asparagus in alternating directions, so as to form a grid, seasoning them in the same manner, but go easy on the seasoning lest they become heavy. Heat the asparagus in the oven to melt the butter, and serve the dish hot. If you have meat sauce handy, you can boil the asparagus till half cooked and simmer it until done in the sauce, seasoning it with a little butter and a thin dusting of grated cheese.
In a mixed fried dish, you can dip the green tips of the asparagus spears in the batter described in recipe 156 and fry them.
Other and sundry methods for preparing asparagus can be found in cookbooks, but gourmets consider them to be unsuccessful jumbles. Despite this opinion, I suggest that the sauce listed in recipe 124 will be welcome when served on the side with boiled asparagus, or with quartered boiled artichokes.
The nasty odor produced by asparagus can be transformed into the sweet smell of violets by adding a few drops of turpentine to the chamber pot.
Grilled pigeon
The high fibrin and albumin contents of pigeon meat make it extremely nutritious, and recommend it to the sick and the weak. In Macchiavelli's Clizia, the elderly Nicomacco eats a large pigeon, roasted rare so it still bleeds a little, to prepare himself for an amorous tryst.
Take a large, young pigeon, cut it in two lengthwise, and squash the pieces flat with your hands. Saute them in oil for four to five minutes, or just enough to firm up the flesh. Season them while they're still hot with salt and pepper, and then prepare them as follows. Melt 3 tablespoons of butter without letting it brown, beat an egg, and mix the two together. Soak the pigeon thoroughly in this mixture, for a half hour or more, and dredge it in bread crumbs. Grill it over a slow fire, and serve it with a sauce or a side dish.
CARCIOFI RITTI
Upright artichokes
This is what the Florentines call simply cooked artichokes. Remove the useless leaves that grow on the stems and trim the stems. Discard the tough outer leaves of the artichokes, trim the tops off them, and spread the inner petals out as far as possible. Set the artichokes in a pot with the peeled stems, sprinkle them with a goodly amount of oil, salt, and pepper, and saute them, covered. Once they have browned, sprinkle them with water, recover them, and simmer them until done.
Boil the sugar in the water for ten minutes, uncovered. Press the strawberries through a strainer, squeeze in the juice of the orange and the lemon, strain the syrup and add it too, and pour the mixture into an ice cream machine.
This recipe will serve eight.
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