Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking - Marcella Hazan [243]
A 1-quart ceramic soufflé mold
Butter for smearing the mold
½ pound imported fontina or Gruyère cheese, sliced thin
½ cup freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese
1. Put the reconstituted mushrooms and their filtered water in a small saucepan, and turn on the heat to medium. When all the liquid has simmered away, take off heat and set aside for later.
2. Wash the fresh mushrooms quickly under cold running water, separate the caps from the stems, and pat both thoroughly dry with a soft cloth towel.
3. To even off and flatten the bottoms of the caps, cut off a thin slice straight across their base. These slices will look like rings. Cut them in two and set aside, leaving the caps whole. Cut the stems lengthwise into the thinnest possible slices, and set them aside, combining them with the slices cut from the bottom of the caps.
4. Break the eggs into a deep dish and beat them lightly with a fork. Dip the mushroom caps in the egg, letting the excess flow back into the dish as you pull them out. Turn them in the bread crumbs, coating them all over, and tapping the crumbs with your fingers against the mushrooms to make them stick firmly.
5. When all the caps have been breaded, put half the vegetable oil in a small frying pan, and turn on the heat to medium high. When the oil is hot, slip the caps into the pan, no more at one time than will fit very loosely. When they have formed a fine, golden crust on one side, turn them, do the other side, then transfer them to a cooling rack to drain or to a platter lined with paper towels. After you have done half the caps, the oil in the pan will probably have turned black from the bread crumbs. Turn off the heat, carefully pour out the hot oil into whatever container you keep waste oil in, and wipe the pan clean with paper towels. Put in the remaining vegetable oil, turn the heat on again to medium high, and finish frying the caps.
6. Preheat oven to 350°.
7. Put the olive oil and the garlic in a saute pan, and turn on the heat to medium. Cook and stir the garlic until it becomes colored a pale gold, then put in the sliced mushroom stems and the chopped parsley. Turn the heat up to medium high, and cook for about 5 minutes, turning the mushrooms over frequently.
8. Add the cooked, reconstituted porcini mushrooms, a few pinches of salt, and several grindings of pepper. Stir once or twice, then put in the chopped tomatoes. Continue cooking, stirring from time to time, until the oil floats free of the tomatoes. Taste and correct for salt and pepper, and take off heat.
9. Smear the bottom of the souffle dish with butter, and cover it with a layer of the fried mushroom caps, their bottoms (the underside) facing up. Sprinkle with salt, cover with a layer of sliced fontina or Gruyère, spread over it some of the mushroom stems and tomato mixture, then top with a sprinkling of grated Parmesan. Repeat the procedure in the same sequence, beginning with a layer of mushroom caps. Leave yourself enough mushroom caps to top the timballo, their bottoms always facing up. They will be facing right side up later, after you invert the timballo.
10. Place the dish in the upper third of the preheated oven and bake for 25 minutes.
11. Let the dish settle out of the oven for 10 minutes, then run a knife all around the sides of the mold to loosen the timballo. Put a dinner plate, bottom up, over the top of the mold. Grasp the plate and mold with a towel, holding them together tightly, and turn the mold upside down. Lift the mold away to leave the timballo standing on the plate. Let cool another 5 to 10 minutes before serving.
Ahead-of-time note You can prepare the timballo up to this point several hours in advance. Warm up the mushroom stems and tomatoes slightly before proceeding with the next step.
Sweet and Sour Onions
THE SECRET INGREDIENT in this delectable combination of tartness and sweetness is merely the patience it takes to nurse the onions through an hour or more of slow simmering. The actual preparation couldn’t be simpler. If you can put it on