Recipes

Bollito misto

December 4, 2012

Ingredients

  • 0,500 kg of veal
  • 0,500 kg of tail
  • 0,500 kg calf’s head
  • 0,500 kg of rump
  • 0,500 kg of muscle
  • salt
  • water
  • half a handful of parsley
  • two stalks of celery
  • one onion
  • rosemary

What to prepare

  • a large pot
  • a carving fork

Procedure

Choose a piece of veal thigh, tail, a piece of calf’s head, rump and a piece of muscle; plunge in boiling salted water and let boil for many hours, adding to the water parsley, celery, onion and rosemary.

Serve very hot together with a scrumptious and appetizing bagnèt (sauce) in which you may dip the meat.

Curiosities

Jana the horse struggled with her wagon up the road that winded to the farm. The package with the meat was warm because the sun shining on our hills from the beginning of the journey from Alba.

As soon as Vigiu arrived on the farmyard he jumped off the wagon and ran toward the house to bring his package in the kitchen. Since in those days there were no refrigerators, Madlena started to cook the meat right away (in order not to risk the consequences caused by the heat) leaving it halfway through the cooking: this way the boiled meat could be served the day after as a Sunday dish.

This is a scene I used to see as a child and I remember it was considered a sign of wisdom: the best boiled meat I ever tasted was the one I ate in those trattorie where they used to forget the meat maybe for a day or two, on the corner of the stove: where it continued cooking slowly if the fire allowed it.

Photo Credit: Alexa Clark