Meat Filling for Puff-Pastry Pastries

Name: Meat Filling for Puff-Pastry Pastries
Cuisine: Italy
Ingredients: sweetbreads (animelle); butter; salt; pepper; meat gravy (sugo N. 4); spoonfuls balsamella (bechamel, N. 137); salted tongue or fat-and-lean prosciutto; grated Parmesan; nutmeg; truffles

Origin: Florence, Italy

Source: Pellegrino Artusi, 1891

Ingredients

sweetbreads (animelle)
butter
salt
pepper
meat gravy (sugo N. 4)
spoonfuls balsamella (bechamel, N. 137)
salted tongue or fat-and-lean prosciutto
grated Parmesan
nutmeg
truffles

Instructions

Choose the meat: sweetbreads (preferred), overcooked milk-fed veal, or chicken livers; add truffle aroma if in season.
For sweetbreads, start them in butter with salt and pepper, and once colored finish cooking with meat gravy (sugo N. 4).
Chop to the size of a chickpea and mix with a spoonful or two of balsamella, diced salted tongue or fat-and-lean prosciutto, a pinch of Parmesan, and nutmeg.
Chill the mixture well to firm it up.
Enclose in puff pastry (N. 154), either baking the filling inside or filling baked shells through a cut lid; gild the top with egg yolk before baking.