Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking - Marcella Hazan [128]
If using thawed frozen leaf spinach: Cook in a covered pan with salt for about 5 minutes. Drain it, when cool squeeze all the moisture out of it that you can, and chop it coarse with a knife, not in the food processor.
2. Prepare the béchamel sauce, making it rather thin, the consistency of sour cream. When done, keep it warm in the upper half of a double boiler, with the heat turned to very low. Stir it just before using.
3. Put the butter and chopped onion in a skillet or small sauté pan, and turn on the heat to medium. Cook and stir the onion until it begins to be colored a pale gold, then add the chopped prosciutto. Cook for less than a minute, stirring to coat it well. Add the chopped spinach, stir, and cook for another 2 minutes or so, turning it over 2 or 3 times to coat it thoroughly.
4. Turn out the entire contents of the pan into a bowl, add 1 cup of the grated Parmesan, a tiny grating—about ⅛ teaspoon—of nutmeg, ⅔ cup of béchamel, and a pinch of salt. Mix until all the ingredients are evenly combined. Taste and correct for salt.
5. Preheat oven to 450°.
6. Choose a baking dish that can subsequently accommodate all the rolled up crespelle in a single layer. Lightly smear the bottom of the baking dish with butter. Lay one of the pancakes flat on a platter or a clean work surface, and spread a heaping tablespoon of filling over it, leaving uncovered a ½-inch border all around. Roll up the pancake, folding it loosely and keeping it flat. Place on the bottom of the baking dish, its overlapping edge facing down. Proceed in this manner until you have filled and rolled up all the crespelle, and arranged them in the dish in a single layer without packing them in too tight.
7. Spread the remaining béchamel over the crespelle. Make sure the sauce covers the ends of the rolled up pancakes and fills some of the space between them. Sprinkle with the remaining ¼ cup grated Parmesan, and dot lightly with butter.
8. Bake on the uppermost rack of the preheated oven for 5 minutes, then turn on the broiler and run the dish under it for less than a minute, just long enough for a light crust to form on top. Let the crespelle settle for a few minutes, then serve at table directly from the baking dish.
Layered Crespelle with Tomato, Prosciutto, and Cheese
HERE THIN PANCAKES are assembled in the form of a pie and layered in the manner of lasagne, with an earthy filling whose robustness benefits from the moderating delicacy of the crespelle—and vice versa.
The “pie” should be no more than 8 or 9 layers thick. If you need to increase the recipe, distribute the additional crespelle among 2 or more baking pans.
For 4 to 6 servings
8 to 9 crespelle (thin pancakes) made with this recipe, using half the recipe, or crêpes made by any other comparable method
FOR THE FILLING
A tomato sauce made using: 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
1½ tablespoons chopped parsley
⅔ cup canned imported Italian plum tomatoes, cut up, with their juice
Salt
A 9-inch round cake pan
Butter for greasing the pan
½ cup prosciutto shredded very fine
¼ cup freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese
½ cup mozzarella, preferably imported Italian buffalo-milk mozzarella, diced very, very fine
1. Make the pancakes and set aside.
2. Preheat oven to 400°.
3. To make the filling: Put the olive oil and garlic into a small sauté pan, turn on the heat to medium, and cook the garlic, stirring, until it becomes colored a pale gold. Add the parsley. Cook just long enough to stir once or twice, then add the cut-up tomatoes with their juice and a pinch of salt. Adjust heat to cook at a steady simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring from time to time, until the tomato liquid has been reduced and has separated from the fat. Turn off heat.
4. Lightly smear the baking pan with butter. Choose the largest among the crespelle you made and place it on the bottom of the pan. Coat it thinly with