Brodo alla Celestina

 













Brodo alla Celestina, as Consommé Celestine of the French cooking, has a baked and diced pancake in it.
The stock with polpettine and cardoons reminds me of a Pugliese soup, the pancake baked in the oven is a common addiction to stock in Emilia Romagna and it is called zuppa imperiale.
For this recipe I have to thank Donatella Talone from Abruzzo.

She told me that the stock is a composed one with hen and veal.
Cardoons are cleaned from fibrous parts, blanched (adding a slurry of lemon juice and flour to the boiling water). Some very small polpette ( of ground beef and veal, grated parmigiano and nutmeg) are prepared and boiled, I prefer to saute' in oil and so I did. And the pancake -that Donatella called pizzetta-is baked in the oven then cut into cubes. She gave to me a huge quantity of 10 eggs, 10 tablespoons grated parmigiano, 5 tablespoons flour, salt and chopped parsley and the very tip of a knife of baking powder. I think one egg is enough for 2 people.
Warm up the stock, add the preboiled cardoons, the polpettine, the pizzetta cubes and cook about 1/2 hour more, until nicely reduced. Serve with grated cheese.

P.S.: for the stock and for polpettine I used beef only.