The Discovery of Pasta by Luca Cesari

Author:Luca Cesari
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Published: 2023-01-03T00:00:00+00:00

These sauces made with meat, vegetables and spices figured in a wide range of dishes and were a key element in the cuisine of the time. A ‘brodo generale’ (standard broth) of beef and vegetables (carrots, celery, parsnips, turnips, leeks, onions and parsley root) was added to deglaze the browned ingredients and extract all the concentrated flavour of the meat. Thanks to the Maillard reaction, the resulting liquid was dark, glossy and highly fragrant: a true delight (even for modern palates). It is no coincidence that the second edition of L’Apicio moderno starts off with the declaration that ‘Broths are the foundation of fine cooking.’23

Francesco Leonardi’s book also marks the broadest use of ragùs up to that point, with a proliferation of different kinds – he presents 73 recipes, no less. These sauces are now a culinary category unto themselves. I will quote just one that is particularly classic and enduring, for ‘Ragù Melè’.

Mixed Ragù

Take one or two mongana24 sweetbreads blanched in boiling water and cut in large pieces, or whole sweetbreads of kid or lamb blanched in the same way, and put them into a pot with sliced truffles, good prugnolo mushrooms, a slice of prosciutto, a bouquet of different herbs, a piece of butter; let them cook on the fire, then bathe with a little meat coulis, half a glass of Champagne, or another white wine, and when two thirds of it has boiled off, season with salt and crushed pepper; simmer it gently, then skim the fat, remove the prosciutto and bouquet, add chicken livers, combs and testicles, unlaid eggs, prawn tails, artichoke bottoms, all of them cooked and properly prepared; let it boil again for a short while, and the eggs should be added last to the ragù. Serve with some small Chenefs [delicate meatballs], and lemon juice, or in a Terrine [a baked dish], or for an Entremet, garnishing the dish with fried croutons; or over an Entrée of poultry, game &c. If you want to use this Ragù to fill a Grenade [a moulded dish], a Timbale &c., you must make it without too much Sauce, and without Chenefs. See in the section on special Ragùs how to prepare the chicken livers, coxcombs, testicles, &c.25

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