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Sformato di Patate (Italian Potato “Cake”)

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July 13, 2020

I published a photo for this dish on my Facebook feed last week and got so much attention that I decided to actually post the recipe.

Sformato di Spinaci (spinach sformato or, if you must, spinach casserole) is a dish that garners great reverence in my husband’s family.  A while ago, I published my adaptation of the family recipe.

I make sformati out of lots of different vegetables besides spinach, including Swiss chard, zucchini, and cauliflower, among others.

Sometimes I swap out the ground beef in my husband’s grandmother’s recipe for sausage or Calabrese salame, or mushrooms.  This is a heretical act in his family but everyone still eats the sformato.  This is compounded  by the blasphemy of adding besciamella to the mix.

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Although I make several versions of potato “cakes” I never thought of them as sformati until I stumbled upon the genre while perusing Italian-language food websites.

Although I had mixed meat, such as salame or prosciutto, and cheese into the potato mixture before baking it, I had never made a layer of filling in the middle.  Doing so changes the whole character of the dish.  It really feels like a main course (or what would be a secondo in an Italian meal) rather than gussied up potatoes that should be served as a side dish (contorno)!

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When serving sformato di patate, I often start with soup and end with a salad… unless it’s a meal for which I developed a new gelato flavor to try! (This happens once, if not twice, per week… the gelato, not the sformato!)

This recipe calls for prosciutto cotto (cooked ham).  This is not the cured ham that we simply call “prosciutto” in English.  It really is just a cooked ham.  Typically, it would not be smoked.  I have successfully made this with good quality ham from the deli counter as well a fully-cooked lightly-smoked ham from the meat counter.

Since the cheese is smoked, I find that smoked ham works as well as un-smoked ham though the former is more traditional.

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 Sformato di Patate (Italian Potato "Cake")
Italian prosciutto cotto is not smoked so the most traditional ham would be unsmoked but since the cheese is smoky, I’ve occasionally used a lightly smoked ham and gotten fantastic results. If the ham is not sliced very, very thinly, cut it into batons about the size of wooden matchsticks. I’ve chosen to keep this recipe in the metric measures that I use. You can click the button below to change to American measures. Feel free to round the quantities up or down a bit.
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Course Meats
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 90 minutes
Passive Time 15 minutes
Servings
people
Ingredients
Course Meats
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 90 minutes
Passive Time 15 minutes
Servings
people
Ingredients
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Instructions
  1. Peel the potatoes. Dice and cook in salted water until they can be easily pierced with a fork but are not falling apart.
  2. While still hot, pass the potatoes through a ricer and allow to cool until they are comfortable to touch.
  3. Combine potatoes with eggs, Parmigiano and milk. Mix well. Add salt and pepper to taste.
  4. Butter a 22 cm springform pan and coat with fine dry breadcrumbs.
  5. Press about 60% of the potato mixture onto the bottom and up the sides of the pan.
  6. Layer the prosciutto and scamorza inside, making two alternating layers of each.
  7. Top with the remaining potato mixture and smooth the top.
  8. Sprinkle the top with breadcrumbs and dot generously with butter.
  9. Bake at 350°F for approximately one hour, until golden, adding the rosemary sprig to the top of the sformato after about 20 minutes of baking.
  10. After an hour, the internal temperature should be close enough to 165°F that it will reach that temperature while it rests.
  11. Remove from the oven and allow to cool approximately 15 minutes before removing the sides of the pan and serving.
Recipe Notes

Copyright © 2020 by Villa Sentieri, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Recipes

Porchetta: A Festive Pork Roast from Italy

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February 14, 2020

Porchetta is roast pork, but it’s no ordinary roast pork.  In its most traditional form, it is made from a whole pig, well-seasoned, and slowly roasted.

Porchetta can be found throughout Italy at festivals and street fairs, such as the one in Bagni di Lucca that I attended this past August.

Porchetta, made from a whole pig, at a festival in Bagni di Lucca.

Though there is some debate, Porchetta probably originated in Lazio in Central Italy.  Lazio is the region where Rome is located.

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Seasonings vary with the region and often include some combination of garlic, rosemary, fennel, and black pepper.  Some regional variations include chopped entrails or liver in the mix.

Perhaps the most unusual version of Porchetta that I’ve encountered is made at the Italian Culinary Institute in Stalettì, Calabria.  It is seasoned with salt and a large amount of truffle puree!

Chef Juan and Chef Chris about to carve a truffle-laden porchetta at the Italian Culinary Institute.

Most of us are not going to roast an entire pig which raises the question of what cut or cuts to use.  This is especially important as much of the mouth-feel of porchetta derives from the combination of fatty and lean meat inherent in using an entire pig.

One solution, that makes for an elegant presentation, is to roll a slab of pork belly around a lean pork loin and tie it.  This strategy allows one to cut neat slices that contain both lean and fatty meat.

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Another solution is to use a cut of meat that inherently contains about 20% fat.  A pork shoulder fits the bill nicely.  The bone must be removed and the thickest parts of the meat butterflied before being seasoned and tied.  This cut of meat doesn’t create consistent slices as does the pork-belly-wrapped-around-a-pork-loin method.  It does, however, create supremely succulent meat, more so that the pork loin that’s encased in the pork belly.

A porchetta vendor in Rome. (Photo by Alessandro Pinna – Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34665585)

I lean towards the “pulled pork” version of porchetta, so slices aren’t really important to me.  I always opt for the boneless shoulder method and pull the cooked meat apart in large chunks.  Given the chance, though, I’d like to try a whole pig.

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 Porchetta
The seasonings in this version of Porchetta closely adhere to what is used in central Italy. Be sure to spread the seasoning very evenly on the meat before rolling and tying.
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Course Mains, Meats
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 10 hours
Passive Time 2 days
Servings
persons
Ingredients
For the initial seasoning
Final seasoning and cooking
Course Mains, Meats
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 10 hours
Passive Time 2 days
Servings
persons
Ingredients
For the initial seasoning
Final seasoning and cooking
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Instructions
For the initial seasoning
  1. Crush fennel seeds in a mortar. Reserve.
  2. Puree the garlic and olive oil in a small blender jar.
  3. Add the crushed fennel seeds, salt, black pepper, rosemary, chile and enough olive oil to make a paste.
  4. Rub the paste over what will be the inside of the roast once it is rolled and tied.
  5. Roll up roast and tie with butcher’s twine.
  6. Put the tied roast, fat side up and seam down, into a non-reactive roasting pan and cover with plastic wrap.
  7. Put the cover on roasting pan (or cover tightly with aluminum foil) and refrigerate for 2 days.
Final seasoning and cooking
  1. Remove the pork from refrigerator about 60-90 minutes before roasting.
  2. Using a mortar and pestle, grind the fennel seeds.
  3. Add garlic and salt to the fennel and crust into a paste.
  4. Add black pepper and rosemary. Combine well.
  5. Rub spice mixture over the top of the roast.
  6. Pour the white wine into the bottom of the roasting pan.
  7. Cover the pan and roast at 250°F, for 10 hours, occasionally basting with pan juices after about 5 hours.
  8. Uncover the pan for the last hour of roasting. If necessary, but usually not, add a bit of water to the pan.
  9. Remove the roast from the roasting pan and place it on a serving platter. Pull the roast into chunks.
  10. Skim the fat from the pan drippings. Drizzle the pan drippings over the meat.
Recipe Notes

Copyright © 2020 by Villa Sentieri, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Recipes

Thanksgiving Gravy

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November 7, 2019

I’m not much of a turkey person.

If it were up to me, I’d probably never make turkey, except for the fact that turkey is a GREAT excuse to make killer stuffing and gravy.

OK, OK, those of you who know me know that I’m enough of a traditionalist that I’d probably still make turkey on Thanksgiving, with or without stuffing and gravy, because it’s, well, traditional.

Turkey aside, though, I absolutely LOVE stuffing and I LOVE gravy.

After Thanksgiving, I carefully hide the leftover stuffing in the fridge and keep it all for myself.  There usually isn’t much leftover so I get maybe two days of snacking on cold stuffing.  And it has to be cold, not warm, with a bit of added salt because the taste of salt is dulled by the coldness of the stuffing.

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As for the gravy, when I was a kid, I liked gravy so much that I would stir enough into my mashed potatoes that they became runny and spread out over my plate!  I don’t do that anymore but I still love gravy.

I love gravy so much that I roast poultry specifically to make gravy then discard the poultry because I’ve browned it to a fare-thee-well to get a really flavorful gravy.  But I only do that once a year—on Thanksgiving—hence the name Thanksgiving gravy.

When I was growing up, my parents hosted Thanksgiving dinner.  My Aunt Margie and Uncle Joe hosted Christmas Eve dinner.

On Thanksgiving, while my mother and Aunt Margie were getting everything ready to bring to the table (everything included a full Italian meal with sausage, meatballs, lasagna, etcetera alongside a full traditional American Thanksgiving meal!) my Aunt Mamie would make gravy from the pan drippings.

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From my current vantage point, however, there is a very limited amount of gravy that can be made that way, otherwise it doesn’t have enough meaty goodness.  Though I have to say that Aunt Mamie did a great job of making gravy.  Hers was the one that I most often stirred into my mashed potatoes.

The search for lots of meaty-tasting gravy is what got me started on the path of roasting poultry a few days in advance simply to make a brown stock to use as the base for my gravy.

I guess, in reality, my gravy is more of a variation on French brown sauce (Sauce Espagnole) with added pan drippings than traditional American-style gravy but it packs the flavor that I expect from good gravy.

If there’s any leftover gravy, I warm it with some cream and sautéed mushrooms and then gently reheat leftover turkey in the sauce.

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 Thanksgiving Gravy
Roasting poultry to make a flavorful stock creates a gravy with an extra punch of flavor. Turkey wings and necks are ideal but chicken and Cornish hen work very well, too. Whatever poultry you use, cut it into lots of pieces to create more surface area for browning. I use a lot of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese and I put all the rinds in a container in the freezer. I use one whenever I make stock or broth, as I do for the stock for this gravy. It is not necessary to peel the onions and garlic.
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Course Savory Sauces and Marinades
Cuisine American
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 11 hours
Passive Time 12 hours
Servings
cups
Ingredients
Brown Stock
Gravy
Course Savory Sauces and Marinades
Cuisine American
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 11 hours
Passive Time 12 hours
Servings
cups
Ingredients
Brown Stock
Gravy
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Rating: 0
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Instructions
Brown Stock
  1. Cut the turkey or other poultry into chunks. Put the cut-up turkey into a heavy roasting pan. Mix with ¼ cup of extra-virgin olive oil. Season generously with garlic powder and salt.
  2. Roast the turkey at 425°F until dark brown, turning often, 1½ to 2 hours.
  3. Meanwhile, in a heavy-bottomed stock pot, large enough to hold all the ingredients, sauté the carrots and celery in ¼ cup of extra-virgin olive oil over high heat.
  5. As the carrots and celery begin to brown, add the onions and garlic.
  6. Continue cooking, adjusting heat to medium if necessary, to create nicely browned vegetables and fond without burning.
  7. When the vegetables are brown, add 1/2 cup of red wine and 1 cup of water to stop the cooking and set the pot aside until the turkey is ready.
  8. When the turkey is brown, add it and any pan drippings to the stockpot with the vegetables.
  9. Using some of the water, deglaze roasting pan and add the liquid to the stockpot. All these brown bits are important for flavor.
  10. Add the bay leaf, rosemary, sage, parsley, whole cloves, Parmigiano Reggiano cheese rind, if using, black pepper, and enough water to cover generously. Bring to a simmer and simmer, partially covered for six hours, stirring occasionally.
  11. Strain and refrigerate the stock. The stock may be made up to three days in advance.
Gravy
  1. Skim the fat from the top of the stock. Heat the fat to cook off any water. Measure ¾ cup of melted fat and reserve. Add butter, if necessary, to make ¾ cup.
  2. Gently boil the skimmed stock to reduce it to about six cups, if necessary.
  3. Meanwhile, in a heavy-bottomed saucepan, gently brown the flour in the fat from the stock.
  5. Add the six cups of hot stock, approximately ¾ cup at a time, stirring well after each addition, to avoid lumps.
  7. After all the stock has been added, bring to a simmer. Add the wine. Season with 1 teaspoon salt and pepper to taste. (The drippings from the turkey can be fairly salty so the gravy should be under-salted until the final adjustment of seasoning.)
  8. Simmer gently till thick, approximately 2 hours, stirring frequently. Set aside, covered, until the turkey is ready.
  9. After removing the turkey from the oven, deglaze the roasting pan with water. Skim the fat from the deglazing liquid. Pour the defatted drippings into gravy and simmer briefly to achieve the desired consistency. Adjust seasoning.
Recipe Notes

Copyright © 2019 by Villa Sentieri, LLC. All rights reserved.

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