or years La Pentola dell'Oro has been offering Florence
- an international crossroads of art, culture, and tourism - distinctive
critical reinterpretations of the great Florentine-Tuscan culinary
tradition. But this time the aim is to go one step further and produce
a dish that will amaze the "disenchanted" Doctor Lecter
with its extraordinary likeness to his (rather horrible!) culinary
fantasies.
The dish is part of popular folklore rooted in ancient ritual sacrifices
- bloody, cruel, and pitiless - the robust vigor of which is an
integral part of the Tuscan being.
In the 19th century, Pellegrino Artusi defined it as a "
a tasty dish
. but
not to be offered to outsiders".
It has never caught the popular imagination, which for centuries
has associated it with the "cannibalesque" episode in
the Tuscan collective imagination (the story of Count Ugolino and
Archbishop Ruggeri recounted by Dante in The Divine Comedy), and
indeed this dish is sometimes named after these characters on the
menus of trattorias in the Pisa area.
Serves 4:
· Heads
of 4 lambs, ready for cooking (with fur and skin removed, the heads
cut in half lengthwise, and 4 of the halves with the eyes removed
- it is a good idea to get the butcher to do this)
· 4-5
gloves of garlic, finely chopped together with some parsley leaves,
the leaves of 4-5 sprigs of marjoram, and the leaves of 2-3 stalks
of mint
· 1
glass of dry vin santo
· 1
litre of delicately-flavoured meat broth, with added parsley and
thyme
· 400
grams of ripe tomatoes
· 1
tablespoon of tomato puree
· 40
grams of butter
· 5-6
tablespoons of Extravirgin Tuscan olive oil
· Salt
and pepper
Buy the heads from a butcher who can guarantee they
are Tuscan milk lambs, which will have a delicate flavour and won't
taste of a farm shed.
Two hours before starting to cook, put all 8 half-heads in an appropriate
recipient with the cut edges upwards. Barely cover them with water
and allow the water to continue running gently to remove all traces
of blood and to eliminate the flavour of impurities from the cut
bones.
When this process is complete, take a wide deepish pan, add the
butter, oil, chopped garlic and herbs, and cook gently on a medium-low
flame for 4-5 minutes, stirring continually.
Remove the heads from the water and dry well, handling them carefully
so the brain and tongue do not slip out of their natural positions.
Flour them lightly, salt and pepper them a little all over, and
place them on top of the lightly-cooked garlic and herbs with the
uncut part (i.e., the part of the eye) downwards. Brown them very
slowly for 15 minutes, scraping away anything that sticks to the
bottom and wetting them frequently with the broth so it doesn't
get too dry. Then, again taking care not to disturb the brains and
tongues, turn them over and repeat the same process for a further
15 minutes.
Next, remove the heads from the pan, drain carefully, and put them
to one side to keep warm. Add the vin santo and a ladle of broth
to what remains in the pan, turn up the flame, and thoroughly scrape
the bottom and sides. Stirring constantly, cook for 4-5 minutes,
allowing the wine to evaporate and the sauce to diminish in volume.
Remove from the flame, pour the sauce into a blender, add the tomatoes
and puree, and blend well till the mixture is homogenised, then
return it to the pan.
Arrange
and allign the heads carefully eye-downwards on top of the mixture,
adjust the heat so the contents are just simmering, cover, and leave
to simmer for 20-25 minutes. It's a good idea to shake the pan frequently
so the contents don't stick (and add more broth if they get too
dry).
When they are cooked, taste and adjust for salt, turn off the heat,
take 4 piping hot plates, quickly lay the table so as to recreate
the congenial phatos of an intimate dinner with Lecter-Starling
and
Krendler: put 3-4 spoons of sauce on each plate, then
place a half head (the one with the eye removed) on each plate so
the convex part is facedown (and the brain is in full view); then
put the other halves eye-upwards so they are lying alongside the
other ones in such a way that the eye of the lamb (Krendler) gives
the impression of looking at the open cranium.
Pepper generously and place immediately on the table with a side
dish of cress and valerian salad dressed with oil and lemon.
Accompany with Starling's favourite white wine: well-chilled Burgundy.
To remain in keeping with the character in the book, one should
only eat the brain, extracted directly from the cranium, but this
would be a pity and an unpardonable waste. Because, as Artusi notes,
the tastiest part is the bit around the eye!
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