Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking - Marcella Hazan [181]
SUGGESTED GARNISH
Thin slices of lemon
Pitted black olives cut into narrow wedges
Whole capers
Whole parsley leaves
Anchovy fillets
1. In a pot just large enough to contain the veal (or the turkey breast or pork loins), put in the meat, carrot, celery, onion, parsley, bay leaf, and just enough water to cover. Now remove the meat and set it aside. Cover the pot and bring the water to a boil, then put in the meat and when the water resumes boiling, cover the pot, adjust heat to cook at a gentle, steady simmer, and cook for 2 hours. (If it’s turkey breast, cook it about 1 hour less.) Remove the pot from heat and allow the meat to cool in its broth.
2. Make the mayonnaise.
3. Drain the canned tuna, and put it into a food processor together with the anchovies, olive oil, lemon juice, and capers. Process until you obtain a creamy, uniformly blended sauce. Remove the sauce from the processor bowl and fold it gently, but thoroughly into the mayonnaise. No salt may be required because both the anchovies and capers supply it, but taste to be sure.
4. When the meat is quite cold, retrieve it from its broth, place it on a cutting board or other work surface, snip off and remove the trussing strings, and cut it into uniformly thin slices.
5. Smear the bottom of a serving platter with some of the tuna sauce. Over it spread a single layer of veal (or turkey or pork) slices, meeting edge to edge without overlapping. Cover with sauce, then make another layer of meat slices, and cover again with sauce. Repeat the procedure until you have used up all the meat, leaving yourself with enough sauce to blanket the topmost layer.
6. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 24 hours. It will keep well for at least a week. Bring to room temperature before serving. When you remove the plastic wrap, use a spatula to even off the top, and garnish with some or all of the suggested garnish ingredients in an agreeable pattern.
BEEF
La Fiorentina—Grilled T-Bone Steak, Florentine Style
ONE OF ITALY’S two prized breeds of cattle for meat—Chianina beef—is native to Tuscany. Its only rival in the country is Piedmont’s Razza Piemontese. The latter is the tenderer of the two and sweet as cream, whereas the Tuscan is firmer and tastier. Chianina grows rapidly to great size so that it is butchered when the steer is a grown calf, vitellone in Italian. To Italians who love beef, a T-bone grilled in the Florentine style is the ultimate steak. It owes some of its appeal, of course, to the distinctive flavor of the meat, but as much again can be attributed to the Florentine way of preparing it which can be applied successfully to a fine, well-aged steak anywhere.
For 2 servings
A charcoal or wood-burning grill
Black peppercorns, ground very coarse or crushed with a pestle in a mortar
1 T-bone beef steak, 1½ inches thick, brought to room temperature
Coarse sea salt
OPTIONAL: a lightly crushed and peeled garlic clove
Extra virgin olive oil
1. Light the charcoal in time for it to form white ash before cooking, or the wood long enough in advance to reduce it to hot embers.
2. Rub the coarsely ground or crushed peppercorns into both sides of the meat.
3. Grill the steak to the degree desired, preferably very rare, approximately 5 minutes on one side and 3 on the other. After turning it, sprinkle salt on the grilled side. When the other side is done, turn it over and sprinkle salt on it.
4. When the steak is cooked to your taste, and while it is still on the grill, rub the optional garlic clove over the bone on both sides, then drizzle the meat very lightly on both sides with a few drops of olive oil. Transfer to a warm platter and serve at once.
Note I have seen cooks rub the steak with oil before putting it on the grill, but the scorched oil imparts a taste of tallow to the meat that I prefer to avoid.
Pan-Broiled Steaks with Marsala and Chili Pepper
For 4 servings
Extra virgin olive