Simple Italian Cookery
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Antonia Isola >> Simple Italian Cookery
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 cucumber. Arrange the lettuce-leaves in a salad-bowl,
mix the other ingredients with a sufficient quantity 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 shells without breaking the nuts, and put them
into a saucepan with one level tablespoon of powdered sugar and
one-half glass 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 pass them through a sieve. Put them back in a bowl with
one-half a tablespoon of butter, 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 butter 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 shells carefully,
put them in a bowl, and pour over them one-half a glass 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 glass 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 glasses, and serve hot.
MILK OF ALMOND ICE
Take one half pound of almonds. Remove the shells 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 quantity of almonds and the other
half of cantaloup seeds, pound together, and proceed in the same
manner. This combination is refreshing and delicious.