ITALIAN RECIPESINTRODUCTION
ITALIAN RECIPES
Vegetables should be well washed in cold water to remove insects and dust; if not fresh gathered, leave them some time in cold water, and remember that they take longer to cook than fresh ones. Green vegetables must be put into salted water (one tablespoonful of salt to every two quarts of water) and rapidly cooked over a brisk fire in an open sauce-pan until they are tender. All green vegetables should be removed from the water as soon as cooked, and be well drained before adding the seasoning.
So much depends on sauces that only the best ingredients should be used in making them. Rancid or impure oil or bad butter will ruin sauces and salads. Both butter and oil should always be tasted before buying, as good cookery is impossible unless they are perfectly fresh and good in every way; butter must be added to sauces in small bits, or it will form a greasy line. To skim sauces, take the sauce-panoff the fire and put in a teaspoonful of cold water, which will make the grease rise. Remember that wine increases the taste of salt, so when wine is used in a sauce put in very little salt until after the wine has been added.
Eggs must bequitefresh, if they taste of straw the sauce will be spoiled. They should therefore be broken one at a time into a saucer and examined before using. A pinch of salt added to the whites of eggs makes them whisk better, and none of the yolk must be allowed to get mixed in.
The following is a good recipe for the spices so necessary in cooking: Half an ounce of cloves, two ounces of nutmeg, half an ounce of sweet basil, half an ounce of white pepper, two ounces of cinnamon, one quarter of an ounce of dried bay leaves, half an ounce of thyme. Pound well together, then pass through a sieve, and put them into a bottle, or box, hermetically closed to preserve the perfume.
Take one bay leaf, one sprig of thyme, two cloves, and one stalk of well-washed celery, place round these six sprigs of parsley, fold and tie them so that the cloves, etc., cannot fall out.
Onion juice is obtained by grating an onion on a coarse grater, after peeling it. Press hard, and each stroke will give one drop of juice.
For every quarter of a pound of flour use one egg and two tablespoonfuls of warm salted water. Take as much flour as needful, make a hole in the centre, and put in the water and the eggs. Beat them up with a spoon, mixing the flour in gradually, then knead well. Roll the paste into very thin sheets, and place them on a clean cloth to dry for half an hour. This paste will not keep more than one, or one and a half days, and must always be put into boiling water or broth to cook. If soaked before cooking the flavour is spoiled.
Put an earthenware pot, filled with water, on the fire, add two tablespoonfuls of salt, and boil. Put in three-quarters of a pound of fresh maccaroni, twisting it round carefully so as not to break it. Boil for seventeen minutes, then remove from the fire; drain, and put it in cold water; drain again, and it is ready for use. Spaghetti are blanched the same way.
To make croûtons, cut bread into whatever shape you want. Take off the crust, dip the pieces into melted butter, and toast in the oven, turn often in order to colour evenly, or fry them in boiling oil or fat. They must be crisp and of a light brown colour.
A Bain-Marie is a large copper pan placed on the fire, and containing boiling water in which are put smaller pans with anything to be kept hot, or cooked without boiling. Milk is better cooked in Bain-Marie, than in a sauce-pan on the fire.