Pigeon Timballo
Origin: Florence, Italy
Source: Pellegrino Artusi, 1891
Ingredients
- pigeons
- prosciutto, onion, celery, carrot
- butter
- pigeon and chicken giblets
- g macaroni
- balsamella (béchamel)
- Parmesan cheese
- fat-and-lean prosciutto
- nutmeg
- truffles or dried mushrooms
- pasta frolla (short pastry)
- broth
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Brown one or two pigeons and their giblets on a chopped base of prosciutto, onion, celery and carrot with butter, seasoned with salt and pepper.
- Cook with broth, keeping some sauce; sieve it and use it to finish partly boiled macaroni near the fire.
- Make a little balsamella; joint or bone the pigeons and cut the giblets in largish pieces.
- Dress the sauce-soaked macaroni with Parmesan, butter, prosciutto, nutmeg, truffles or mushrooms, and fold in the balsamella.
- Line a buttered mold with short pastry, add the mixture, cover with pastry, bake, turn out hot and serve (300 g macaroni and two pigeons serve ten to twelve).