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By Root 4065 0

sweet morsel is an accurate description of this most delectable portion of an animal’s anatomy. Sometimes the coarser, stringier pancreas is passed off as sweetbread, but the real thing is the thymus, a gland in the throat and chest of young animals, which disappears as the animal matures. There are two parts to the gland, the “throat” and the “heart.” The latter is the larger, more regularly formed, the less fatty of the two, and if there is a choice, it is the preferred one, but “throat” sweetbread is very nearly as good.

In the version given here, poached sweetbreads are sautéed in butter and oil, then cooked with tomatoes and peas. Many vegetables work well with this cream-like meat, but none more happily than peas, whose youth and sweetness are a natural match to the sweetbreads’ own.

For 4 to 6 servings

1½ pounds calf’s sweetbreads

A small carrot, peeled

1 celery stalk

1 tablespoon wine vinegar

Salt

3 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

2½ tablespoons chopped onion

⅔ cup canned imported Italian plum tomatoes, chopped coarse, with their juice

2 pounds unshelled fresh young peas OR 1 ten-ounce package frozen small, early peas, thawed

Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill

1. Working under cold running water, peel off as much of the membrane enveloping the sweetbreads as you can. It takes a little patience, but nearly all of it should come off. When done, rinse the peeled sweetbreads in cold water and drain.

2. Pour enough water into a saucepan to cover the sweetbreads amply later. Add the carrot, celery, vinegar, and salt, and bring to a boil. Add the sweetbreads and adjust the heat to cook at the gentlest of simmers. After 5 minutes, retrieve the sweetbreads and, while they are still as warm as you can handle, pull off any remaining bits of membrane. When cool and firmer, cut into small bite-size pieces, about 1 inch thick.

3. Put the butter, oil, and onion in a saute pan, turn on the heat to medium, cook and stir the onion until it becomes colored a pale gold, then add the sweetbreads. Cook, turning them, until they become colored a light brown all over. Add salt and the chopped tomatoes with their juice, and adjust heat to cook at a very slow simmer.

4. If using fresh peas, shell them and add them to the pan after the tomatoes have simmered for 15 minutes. If using frozen peas, add the thawed peas after the tomato has simmered for 30 minutes. Add pepper and turn over all ingredients thoroughly. Cover tightly and cook at a slow, but steady simmer, until the peas are tender if using fresh ones, or for 5 minutes, if using the frozen.

5. Transfer the entire contents of the pan to a warm platter and serve at once. If you find that the pan juices are too watery, transfer only the sweetbreads, using a slotted spoon or spatula, reduce the juices rapidly in the uncovered pan over high heat, then pour the contents of the pan over the sweetbreads.

Ahead-of-time note You can complete the recipe up to this point even a day in advance, stopping short, however, of cutting the sweetbreads into pieces. Refrigerate tightly wrapped in plastic wrap or in an airtight plastic bag. Cut into pieces when cold out of the refrigerator, but let them come to room temperature before proceeding with the next step.

Sautéed Lamb Kidneys with Onion, Treviso Style

THE METHOD that the cooks of Treviso use for this exceptionally simple and mild recipe for kidneys takes a step away from conventional procedure when it briefly heats up the kidneys in a pan all by themselves, before they are to be sautéed with onion. By this device they extract and discard some of the liquid responsible for the sharpness that is sometimes an objectionable component of kidney flavor.

For 4 servings

16 lamb kidneys

⅓ cup wine vinegar

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

3 tablespoons butter

½ cup onion chopped fine

3 tablespoons parsley chopped very fine

Salt

Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill

1. Split the kidneys in half and wash them in cold water. Put them in a bowl with the vinegar and enough cold water to cover amply. Soak them