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.


 

Minestrone alla milanese

Minestrone alla milanese is my favourite version of minestrone. Tonight I couldn't stick to the real original for two reasons: I didn't have borlotti beans (only the large variety called corona) and I didn't have the savoy cabbage to add to it. Minestrone alla milanese must be eaten with rice, at least that is the way it should be, in summer is often served cold.

This quantity is for 3-4 servings

1 big leek (take out the outer leaves and the green top, divide in two, wash and finely slice)
1 onion
pancetta in cubes
some cherry tomatoes or a san marzano
1 zucchini
2 1/2 carrots
2 legs of celery from the heart and the leaves
chopped parsley
some fresh borlotti beans
2 floury potatoes
3 handfull of vialone nano

Sweat the leek, the finely chopped onion and the pancetta in cubes at very low flame for about 15-20 minutes, add the celery and leaves chopped finely, give some more cooking. Add the carrots in small dices, some parsley (reserve some to add at the end for color), add the cherry tomatoes divided in two, the fresh borlotti beans (or canned, washed and rinsed, or dry and soaked overnight) and the salt, sweat some more minutes, and add boiling water to cover. Let it go at medium heat, adding hot water to keep it wet. After 50 minutes add the whole peeled potatoes and the zucchini in small dice, keep cooking for another half an hour. Here the tradition would want some tender savoy cabbage finely shredded and more cooking. I had to skip this passage. I added three handful of vialone nano, let it cook for 5 minutes, I turned it off, covered and let rest for 15 minutes. At the end the rice was perfectly cooked and the soup creamy and tasty. I broke with the spoon the potatoes and added some parsley.
You can serve it with finely grated grana o parmigiano.