By David Tanis, The New York Times
The classic Italian dish bollito misto is no stranger to strong opinions.
Essentially a large pot of boiled meats and vegetables and beloved especially in northern Italy, the dish seems to be fairly straightforward. But every cook makes bollito slightly differently, insisting that his or her method produces the best brodo (the savory broth that is part and parcel of the bollito experience).
I was chatting over coffee with chef Danielle Glantz, who runs Pastaio via Corta, a pasta shop in Gloucester, Massachusetts. She trained with me when I ran the kitchen at Chez Panisse, and we kept in touch over the years.
She introduced me to her friend Gaia Bonadeo, a food and beverage consultant from Turin, Italy, and an accomplished home cook raised in the tradition of Il Gran Bollito Misto, an enormous feast prepared for holidays and special occasions.
In a charming email, Bonadeo detailed the process, which really is a head-to-tail rendition. You start with seven kinds of beef cuts, plus veal cheek, tongue, oxtail and a sausage-stuffed pig’s foot or cotechino sausage. Each part is added separately, according to its own cooking time, and, at some point, a stewing hen or capon is usually added to the caldron, too.
It’s served with an all-important sauce called il bagnet vert, which Bonadeo said was something her family always argues about. “A huge amount of parsley” is a given, she said, but no one agrees about how many capers or anchovies are necessary. Her version includes bread soaked in vinegar, a couple of chopped eggs and only a tiny amount of garlic. “I tend to use Aglio di Vessalico, which has an amazing perfume and soft taste,” she said. “At the end mix it all together with a ton of oil — Ligurian oil!”
To attend such a feast would be mind-bogglingly sensational. No work involved, just gluttony. If you don’t have the desire or wherewithal to cook it yourself, an annual Piemontese bollito festival in Carrù begins at 6 a.m. and goes all day. There are also plenty of bollito restaurants in Northern Italy, where all the meats are served from carts with seven traditional sauces.
There is no getting around the fact that making your own bollito requires a firm commitment. My version is simpler, but it is a project and easier to deal with if the work is spread over two or three days. Still, it is a worthy adventure. I used chuck and beef shank, along with cotechino and Italian fennel sausages, and served a large platter of boiled vegetables, a green sauce and a spicy red sauce alongside.
For this menu, I also served the brodo in little cups for sipping, although some serve the broth as first-course soup garnished with small stuffed pasta shapes. Either way, it’s so important to get the brodo right, which requires very gentle simmering, straining, refrigerating, de-fatting and reducing to concentrate the lovely flavor.
To begin the meal, we had a refreshing Belgian endive salad with medium-cooked eggs and lemony anchovy vinaigrette. (For this reason, my salsa verde contained neither eggs nor anchovies.) Then came the resplendent, if downsized, bollito, plenty for six to eight hungry people. For dessert, I made a favorite frangipane crostata with pears, cut in smallish portions.
Honestly? It was a grand meal, but I also would have been happy with only bollito misto, a crusty loaf of bread and a bottle of wine.
And to Drink …
Bollito misto is not elegant, but it is wonderful. It calls for a red, and it’s more important for the wine to be thirst-quenching and assertive than contemplative and subtle. I think first of numerous wines of northern Italy, where this dish originates. Barberas from the Langhe are a classic accompaniment. A good dolcetto, or one of the lesser-known wines for the region, like a Pelaverga di Verduno, would be excellent. Straying from the Piedmont region, you could try a sangiovese from Romagna or maybe even a Lambrusco, if you like bubbles. Easygoing bottles of Chianti Classico and Etna Rosso would be delicious. Analogous wines from other countries are fine — Beaujolais, Chinon, Bairrada from Portugal — but the combination of acidity and bittersweet fruit flavors that is characteristic of Italian wines would be best. — ERIC ASIMOV
Endive Salad With Egg and Anchovy
For a cool-weather salad, pale green Belgian endive dressed with an assertive anchovy vinaigrette is a refreshing beginning to a meal — or a nice light lunch. For more color, try adding other endive relatives: the red-leafed variety, frisée, different types of radicchio or speckled Castelfranco chicory. All of these winter salad greens have sweetness and a pleasant hint of bitterness. Belgian endive is the mildest of the bunch. As for anchovies, look for good fat meaty ones. Rinse and blot, then coat with a little good extra-virgin olive oil.
Yield: 6 to 8 servings
Total time: 30 minutes
For the Vinaigrette:
- 2 garlic cloves
- 10 to 12 anchovy fillets, rinsed and blotted
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice, plus more to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
- 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
- Salt and pepper
- 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
For the Salad:
- 6 to 8 large Belgian endives
- A few handfuls of radicchio leaves or other brightly colored chicories (optional)
- 6 to 8 large medium-boiled eggs, cooled and peeled
Directions
1. Make the vinaigrette: Pound together (or hand chop) garlic and 4 anchovy fillets to make a rough paste. Transfer mixture to a small bowl.
2. Add 2 tablespoons lemon juice, zest and Dijon mustard and stir well. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Whisk in olive oil. Taste and adjust lemon juice, salt and pepper. Just before preparing salad, taste vinaigrette again and adjust seasoning as needed.
4. Cut the bottoms off endives and discard any withered outer leaves. Separate the leaves and pile them in a large salad bowl. (Cut the hearts in half or quarters lengthwise.) Add the radicchio, if using.
5. Just before serving, sprinkle leaves lightly with salt and pepper, and drizzle with 2 tablespoons vinaigrette. Toss gently, then distribute among six to eight plates. Garnish each plate with an egg cut in half or into quarters, and an anchovy fillet, then drizzle plates with remaining dressing.
Bollito Misto (Italian Boiled Meats With Red and Green Sauces)
Bollito misto is the Italian version of a boiled dinner, somewhat similar to the French pot au feu but more complex. (A New England boiled dinner pales in comparison.) The dish can be quite an extravagant affair, with many cuts of veal, beef, tongue, sausages and a fat capon. This is a simpler version, although it is still a project and easier to complete if the work is spread over two or three days. But it is a worthy adventure. Serve the broth as a traditional first-course soup garnished with tortellini or other small stuffed pasta shapes, or plain, in little cups, for sipping. Two bright sauces — one green, one red — round out the dish as condiments.
Yield: 6 to 8 servings
Total time: About 5 hours, plus up to 2 nights’ marinating
For the Meats:
- 4 pound chuck roast, rolled and tied
- 3 pounds bone-in beef shank, sliced 1 1/2-inch thick
- Salt and pepper
- 4 whole cloves
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 large onions, peeled
- 1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
- 2 celery stalks
- 2 large carrots, peeled
- 1 precooked cotechino sausage (about 1 pound)
- 6 sweet Italian sausages, with or without fennel seeds (about 1 1/2 pounds)
For the Vegetables:
- 8 medium carrots, peeled
- 3 fennel bulbs, trimmed and cut into wedges
- 6 medium golden beets, turnips or rutabaga, peeled, cut into wedges
- 1 1/2 pounds small potatoes, such as Yukon Gold
- Parsley sprigs, for garnish
For the Salsa Verde:
- 3 bunches parsley, leaves and tender stems (about 3 cups)
- 1 bunch basil, leaves only (about 2 cups)
- 2 tablespoons capers in brine
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- Generous pinch of red-pepper flakes
- Salt and pepper
- 4 thinly sliced scallions
- 2 tablespoons grated horseradish
- A few drops of red wine vinegar
For the Salsa Rossa:
- 1 cup cubed day-old bread (1/2-inch pieces)
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- 2 large roasted peppers (jarred are OK)
- 2 small garlic cloves
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon paprika (sweet or hot are fine, as long as it’s fresh)
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne
- 2 to 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- Salt and pepper
Directions
1. Prepare the meats: Season chuck roast and beef shank generously with salt and pepper and let sit for 1 hour at room temperature or refrigerate overnight, if time permits. Transfer meats to a 12-quart pot. Use the whole cloves to stick the bay leaves onto the whole onions, and add to the pot along with peppercorns, celery stalks and large carrots.
2. Cover with 4 quarts water (or a little more to cover) and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover with lid ajar and cook at a bare simmer for 2 to 3 hours, until meats are fork tender.
3. Make the salsa verde: Purée parsley, basil and capers in food processor with about 1 cup olive oil to make a rough, loose paste. Transfer to a bowl, and stir in red-pepper flakes, salt and pepper, scallions, horseradish and vinegar. Thin with more oil to desired consistency. You should have 1 1/2 cups. (Both sauces can be made well ahead of time. The salsa verde will keep for 2 to 3 days in the refrigerator and is great on grilled fish, chicken or vegetables.)
4. Make the salsa rossa: Soak bread cubes with red wine vinegar until soft. Transfer to a blender or food processor, along with roasted peppers, garlic, tomato paste, paprika and cayenne. Blend until smooth, thick and creamy. Transfer to a bowl, stir in olive oil until it’s the consistency of a milkshake. (Don’t worry if it’s a little thin.) Season with salt and pepper. Taste and adjust seasoning — it should be spicy, and you should have 1 1/2 cups. (The sauce will keep in the refrigerator for 1 week.)
5. Once meats are tender, remove them from the pot and set aside. Strain broth through a fine mesh sieve and discard aromatics. Ladle off any surface fat. (If time permits, refrigerate meat and broth overnight.) Reheat meat in a small amount of broth. Bring remaining broth to a simmer and reduce for 10 to 15 minutes to concentrate flavors. Season to taste.
6. Bring a separate pot of water to a light simmer over medium heat and cook the precooked cotechino sausage for 30 minutes. Add the Italian sausages and simmer for 12 minutes, until firm and cooked through. Turn off heat and keep sausages warm in their cooking liquid.
7. As sausages cook, prepare the vegetables: Bring a pot of well-salted water to a boil. Cook each type of vegetable separately until soft but not mushy, about 10 minutes each, a bit longer for the potatoes. Blot on a kitchen towel, then arrange on a platter and keep warm.
8. To serve, cut chuck roast into 3/4-inch-thick slices and chop shank meat into rough chunks. Cut cotechino crosswise into 1/2-inch slices. Leave Italian sausages whole. Arrange all meats on a platter, moisten with a little hot broth and garnish with parsley sprigs. This meal works well as a buffet, or you may prepare individual plates. Pass salsa verde and salsa rossa at the table. Serve broth in small cups alongside, if desired.
Pear and Frangipane Crostata
Basically a batter of ground almonds in a buttery sweet Italian-style crust, this easy tart is sublime with a little sugared fruit baked on top — apples or pears in the cold months, cherries and stone fruit in summer — but it is also very good plain, served with a fruit compote alongside. A small wedge is sufficient after a big meal, but no one will complain if you serve a dab of whipped cream or ice cream on the side. This tart is best on the day it is baked: Save time by making the dough and lining the tart pan up to a week in advance and freezing.
Yield: 8 to 10 servings
Total time: 1 hour, plus chilling
For the Dough:
- 1/2 cup/100 grams granulated sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 1 whole egg, plus 2 yolks
- 1/2 cup/115 grams unsalted butter (1 stick), softened
- 2 1/4 cups/290 grams all-purpose flour
For the Filling:
- 1 cup/110 grams finely ground blanched almonds
- 1/2 cup/100 grams granulated sugar, plus 2 tablespoons for sprinkling
- 3 tablespoons/45 grams melted unsalted butter
- 2 egg yolks, plus 1 whole egg
- 2 tablespoons dark rum
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
- 2 or 3 medium pears, peeled and sliced 1/4-inch thick
Directions
1. Make the dough: Heat oven to 375 degrees. In a stand mixer or in a bowl with a sturdy whisk, beat together sugar, salt, eggs and butter. Fold in flour and knead the dough into a ball. Squash the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour or up to 2 days before using. (Dough can also be frozen up to 2 months.) Roll out dough using a lightly floured rolling pin or press dough into a 10-inch French tart pan. Freeze or refrigerate tart shell while you make the filling. (It is not necessary to blind bake the tart shell.)
2. Make the filling: Whisk together almonds, sugar, butter, egg yolks and whole egg until creamy, then whisk in rum and almond extract.
3. Spread the frangipane batter evenly over the bottom of tart shell and arrange pear slices over in a circular pattern. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons sugar. Bake at 375 degrees, for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 degrees. (If pastry is browning too quickly, loosely cover edges with foil.) Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until golden but not too dark and a toothpick pushed into the center of the tart comes out clean. If it doesn’t, bake a few minutes longer.
