http://batter-splattered.typepad.com/battersplattered/in_the_garden/
Which brings me around to this: let me tell you about the supper I’d guard with my life.
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It’s a pasta timbale, the Italian ... or Spanish? ...or French? (I googled it but am even more confused now) word for drum, and so, no matter it’s etymological origins, it’s a big drum-shaped dome of pasta. I stumbled across the recipe and had to make it.
Hm. According to this source, the word ‘timbale’ is also “a Spanish euphemishm for the vulgar term cojones, since they come in pairs, are rather large, and make alot of noise...” Okay.
Boys!
This recipe reminded me of two things.
First: My mom used to make these huge pots of spaghetti sauce — are you with me when I say that pasta sauce tastes best when ‘tested’ using a wooden spoon, straight from the pot while simmering on the stove, still a few hours away from showtime, otherwise known as suppertime? Sure the stuff on your plate is good and all, and it’s the same as the stuff bubbling in the pot, but no, the wooden spoon sauce is the best. What’s even better is when you have a little bit of bread to dip into the pot.
After dinner, she’d stir all the leftover spaghetti noodles into the leftover sauce and put it in the fridge, then the next day she’d put it in a pan and bake it in the oven. So good! Baked leftover spaghetti — the sauce has thoroughly soaked into the pasta, the flavors are concentrated. Oh! So good.
It’s even better the next morning — we’re on day three here, if I’m not mistaken — talk about budget dining! I’d eat it cold for breakfast. I was such a sucker for cold pasta leftovers for breakfast when I was a kid.
Lasagna! Cold! For! Breakfast! You can keep your pancakes.
Second thing: if you’ve ever seen the movie Big Night, you know what I’m talking about with the drum-shaped pasta. Ah, Big Night. I think I watched you a thousand times and never got tired of you. Such a beautiful food movie. If you haven’t seen it yet, you owe it to yourself to seek out a copy. Although I think their drum-shaped pasta was named a timpano.
You say timbale. I say timpano. They say cojone. Either way, it’s a big drum-shaped and delicious stack of pasta.
Pastina Timbale
Serves 8
Salt
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1 pound spicy Italian sausage links, boiled for 6 minutes and cut into bite-size pieces
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 cup fresh bread crumbs
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan
1 pound pastina
Pastina Timbale Sauce, recipe follows
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Brush 8 (12-ounce) ramekins or 1 large oven-safe bowl with butter and set aside.
Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a saucepan and saute sausage until browned.
Meanwhile, combine 2 tablespoons of the oil and the minced garlic in a medium skillet over medium heat. Cook until the garlic is light brown, about 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the bread crumbs to the skillet and stir them every minute for 3 to 5 minutes until the crumbs are lightly toasted. Season with salt and pepper. Add 1/4 cup of the parsley and 1/4 cup of the Parmesan. Cook for 30 seconds.
Pour the bread crumb mixture into the prepared ramekins or bowl and press around the sides to line with the bread crumb mixture, using your fingers to evenly distribute it along the bottom and up the sides.
While the Pastina Timbale Sauce is simmering, cook the pastina in the boiling salted water until just shy of al dente, about 9 minutes. Drain the pastina in a colander.
Reheat the sauce, if needed, and add the drained pastina and then the browned sausage. Add the remaining 1/4 cup of parsley, and remaining 3/4 cup Parmesan. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Stir to combine. Transfer the pastina mixture to the lined ramekins (1 1/4 cups per ramekin) or large bowl. Allow to cool for 10 minutes.
Invert the molded pastina timbale onto warmed individual serving plates, and serve.
Timbale Sauce:
3 pounds canned diced tomatoes, drained
2 jalapeno chiles
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 cup minced onion
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh oregano leaves
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons Gorgonzola
1 small jar roasted peppers, julienned (about 1 cup)
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
In a bowl, toss tomatoes and whole jalapeno chiles with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Place tomato mixture on a cookie sheet and roast in oven for 15 or 20 minutes or until slightly browned. Remove from heat and finely chop the tomatoes. Transfer tomato pulp and any juices from the cutting board to a bowl. Chop the chiles and taste to determine their heat.
Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large saute pan over medium heat until hot. Add the onion, season with salt, and saute until softened, about 2 minutes. Add the garlic and oregano and stir. Add the chiles and simmer for another minute, only adding as much jalapeno as you want for spice. Add the tomatoes and their juice and bring to a boil over high heat. Lower the heat to medium and simmer until thickened, about 10 minutes. Add the vinegar and stir in the Gorgonzola. Stir in the roasted peppers and the parsley. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper. Keep warm until ready to serve.
Fried Zucchini
Serves 4
3 firm medium zucchini, sliced into half-inch pieces
Extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic, peeled and finely sliced
1/2 a fresh chili, sliced, or 1 small dried red chili, crumbled
handul of fresh marjoram or oregano, leaves picked, or 1 t dried oregano
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 good-quality anchovy fillets, in olive oil
zest and juice of half a lemon, in separate bowls
optional: sprig of fresh mint, leaves picked and chopped
Glug some olive oil in a pan on medium heat. Add garlic and chili. After 30 seconds, add zucchini and herbs and season lightly with salt and pepper. Make sure your pan’s not too hot — you don’t want the zucchini to cook too quickly. Mix it all up and cover with a lid slightly ajar to hold some steam in. Give pan a little shage every couple of minutes for the next 10 to 12 minutes. For last 2 minutes of cooking, add anchovies and lemon zest. Once anchovies have melted, season to taste, add a squeeze of lemon juice to balanc the chili and seasoning. Serve right away with chopped mint, if desired.
We had ours with strawberry ice cream. Yum.
Painted Fish Rhubarb Cake
Makes a 9x13 inch cake to serve, gosh, alot of people.
Mix 4 cups of diced rhubarb with 3/4 cup sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon or nutmeg.
Melt 2 tablespoons butter or margarine, place in a greased 9×13 pan. sprinkle with 1/4 cup brown sugar. add rhubarb mixture.
Mix 1 package yellow cake mix per directions, minus 1/4 water. pour over rhubarb.
Bake at 350 for 40 minutes, until batter pulls away from sides. let set 10 minutes.
Optional, depending on how quickly you want to eat rhubarb cake: place jelly roll pan on top of cake and turn over to remove cake. liquid may pour down the edges.
Does the past show us what we might expect in the future?
THE BAKERS’ REGULATIONS. VICTORY BREAD
The bakers have co-operated loyally. Probably no other food industry has been more vitally affected by the war. All bakers using three or more barrels of flour a month have been licensed and so are under the control of the Food Administration. This means practically all the commercial bakers of the country, and many hotels, clubs, and institutions. About two-fifths of the bread in the United States is made in bakeries and three-fifths in the home. The bakeries have used 35,000,000 barrels of flour each year, so the importance of this field for conservation is plain.
The amount of wheat flour they are now permitted to have has been reduced: at present 80 per cent of their last year’s quantity, or, if they are pastry and cracker bakers, 70 per cent. They must make no bread wholly of wheat flour. Some substitute must be mixed with the wheat. When the regulation went into effect in February, 1918, 20 per cent was required and later, 25 per cent. In pies and cakes there must be at least one-third substitute. The amounts of sugar and fat used are limited. Even the sizes of the loaves are fixed, so that the extravagance of making and handling all sorts of fancy shapes and sizes may be avoided. Bread must not be sold to the retailer at unreasonable prices.
Victory bread is bread made in accordance with these regulations. The name “Victory” was chosen as representing the idea underlying the conservation of wheat. The name is really a present to the Food Administration, having been used by two large firms who gave up all rights to their trade-mark.
Hotels and restaurants are required to make or serve bread containing at least as much of the wheat substitutes as Victory bread. They may not serve more than two ounces of bread and other wheat products to a guest at a meal. Many of them have recently promised to use no wheat at all till the next harvest. That means, of course, that only through intelligent effort can they serve yeast bread.
THE INDIVIDUAL’S ANSWER TO THE BREAD CRY
Until the wheat-supply increases and the Food Administration lessens restrictions, use no wheat at all if you can possibly do without. Remember that you can make delicious muffins and other quick breads from the substitute flours. And you need no bread at all at some meals. An extra potato or a serving of rice can be eaten instead of the usual two slices of bread and the body will be supplied with the same amount of energy. Do not be the slave of old food habits. When all Europe is eating to keep alive, fastidiousness and food “notions” must play no part in the dietary.
Some people find it is almost impossible to do without the baker’s loaf. Hundreds in crowded city quarters have no facilities of their own for baking. Women doing their share in factories and workshops cannot get up earlier to make corn bread for breakfast. Victory bread must be saved for them. For households which must use wheat, the Food Administration has fixed a voluntary ration of 1½ pounds of wheat per week for each person. This includes wheat in the form of bread, pastry, macaroni, crackers, noodles, and breakfast foods.
All who can should do more than their share—they must do their utmost to make up for those whose circumstances prevent them from doing it. The interests and desires of each of us in this war can be translated into service in no more effective way than by conforming our food habits to the needs of the hour.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/14055/14055-h/14055-h.htm