The Cook's Decameron Part 24

No. 177. Spinaci alla Milanese (Spinach)

Ingredients: Spinach, b.u.t.ter, Velute sauce, salt, pepper, flour, stock.

Wash three pounds of spinach at least six times, boil it in a pint of water, then mince it up very fine, pa.s.s it through a hair-sieve, and put it in a saucepan with one and a half ounces of b.u.t.ter, add a cupful of reduced Velute sauce (No. 2) with cream, salt, and pepper, add a dessert-spoonful of flour and b.u.t.ter mixed, and boil until the spinach is firm enough to make into a shape, garnish with hardboiled eggs cut into quarters, and pour a good Espagnole sauce (No. 1) round the dish.

No. 178. Insalata di patate (Potato salad)

Ingredients: New potatoes, oil, white vinegar, onions, parsley, tarragon, chervil, celery, cream, salt, pepper, tarragon vinegar, watercress, cuc.u.mber, truffles.

Steam as many new potatoes as you require until they are well cooked, let them get cold, cut them into slices and pour three teaspoonsful of salad oil and one of white vinegar over them. Then rub a salad bowl with onion, put in a layer of the potato slices, and sprinkle with chopped parsley, tarragon, chervil, and celery, then another layer of potatoes until you have used all the potatoes; cover them with whipped cream seasoned with salt, pepper, and a little tarragon vinegar, and garnish the top with watercress, a few thin slices of truffle cooked in white wine, and some slices of cooked cuc.u.mber.

No. 179. Insalata alla Navarino (Salad)

Ingredients: Peas, bean onions, potatoes, tarragon, chives, parsley, tomatoes, anchovies, oil, vinegar, ham.

Mix a tablespoonful of chopped parsley, a teaspoonful of chopped onion, a teaspoonful of tarragon and chopped chives with half a gill of oil and half a gill of vinegar. Put this into a salad bowl with all sorts of cooked vegetables: peas, haricot beans, small onions, and potatoes cut up, and mix them w ell but gently, so as not to break the vegetables.

Then add two or three anchovies in oil, and on the top place three or four ripe tomatoes cut in slices. A little cooked smoked ham cut in dice added to this salad is a great improvement.

No. 180. Insalata di pomidoro (Tomato Salad)

Ingredients: Tomatoes, mayonnaise, shallot, horseradish, gherkin, anchovies, fish, cuc.u.mber, lettuce, chervil, tarragon, eggs.

Mix the following ingredients: two anchovies in oil boned and minced, a gill of mayonnaise sauce, a little grated horseradish, very little chopped shallot, a little cold salmon or trout, and a small gherkin chopped. With this mixture stuff some ripe tomatoes. Then make a good salad of endive or lettuce, a teaspoonful of chopped tarragon and chervil, season it with oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper (the proportions should be three of oil to one of vinegar), put a layer of slices of cuc.u.mber in the salad, place the tomatoes on the top of these, and decorate them with hard-boiled eggs pa.s.sed through a wire sieve.

No. 181. Tartufi alla Dino (Truffles)

Ingredients: Truffles, fowl forcemeat, champagne.

Allow one truffle for each person, scoop out the inside, chop it up fine and mix with a good forcemeat of fowl. With this fill up the truffles, place a thin layer of truffle on the top of each, and cook them in champagne in a stewpan for about half an hour. Then take them out, make a rich sauce, to which add the champagne you have used and some of the chopped truffle, put the truffles in this sauce and keep hot for ten minutes. Serve in paper souffle cases.

Macaroni, Rice, Polenta, and Other Italian Pastes{*}

* Italian pastes of the best quality can be obtained at Cosenza's, Wigmore Street, NW. For the following dishes, tagliarelle and spaghetti are recommended.

No. 182. Macaroni with Tomatoes

Ingredients: Macaroni, tomatoes, b.u.t.ter, onion, basil, pepper, salt.

Fry half an onion slightly in b.u.t.ter, and as soon as it is coloured add a puree of two big cooked tomatoes. Then boil quarter of a pound of macaroni separately, drain it and put it in a deep fireproof dish, add the tomato puree and three tablespoonsful of grated Parmesan and Cheddar mixed, and cook gently for a quarter of an hour before serving. This dish may be made with vermicelli, spaghetti, or any other Italian paste.

No. 183. Macaroni alla Casalinga

Ingredients: Macaroni, b.u.t.ter, stock, cheese, water, salt, nutmeg.

Cut up a quarter pound of macaroni in small pieces and put it in boiling salted water. When sufficiently cooked, drain and put it into a saucepan with two ounces of b.u.t.ter, add good gravy or stock, three tablespoonsful of grated Parmesan and Cheddar mixed, and a tiny pinch of nutmeg. Stir over a brisk fire, and serve very hot.

No. 184. Macaroni al Sughillo

Ingredients: Macaroni, stock, tomatoes, sausage, cheese.

Half cook four ounces of macaroni, drain it and put it in layers in a fireproof dish, and gradually add good beef gravy, four tablespoonsful of tomato puree, and thin slices of sausage. Sprinkle with grated Parmesan and Cheddar, and cook for about twenty minutes. Before serving pa.s.s the salamander over the top to brown the macaroni.

No. 185. Macaroni alla Livornese

Ingredients: Macaroni, mushrooms, tomatoes, Parmesan, b.u.t.ter, pepper, salt, milk.

Boil about four ounces of macaroni, and stew four or five mushrooms in milk with pepper and salt. Put a layer of the macaroni in a b.u.t.tered fireproof dish, then a layer of tomato puree, then a layer of the mushrooms and another layer of macaroni. Dust it all over with grated Parmesan and Cheddar, put it in the oven for half an hour, and serve very hot.

No. 186. Tagliarelle and Lobster

Ingredients: Tagliarelle, lobster, cheese, b.u.t.ter.

Boil half a pound of tagliarelle, and cut up a quarter of a pound of lobster. b.u.t.ter a fireproof dish, and strew it well with grated Parmesan and Cheddar mixed, then put in the tagliarelle and lobster in layers, and between each layer add a little b.u.t.ter. Strew grated cheese over the top, put it in the oven for twenty minutes, and brown the top with a salamander.

No. 187. Polenta