Bollito

There are many forms of bollito. It is a dish found frequently in the north and to the east of Italy. Depending on the region, the compositon of the pot varies. It usually consists of some poultry - a large boiler or capon; beef (ribs and shoulder) or veal (breast and loin - the girello), a pork rind sausage - usually cotechino; other variations include tongue and calves feet.

It is a much loved dish and always involves quite a bit of fuss in service. At simpler places - it will be served from the kitchen. At ristoranti, a trolley will be brought to the table and the meats carved and served in front of you. As well as the meats poultry and sausage, the cooking juice is served and at least one sauce - often several. The traditional sauce for bollito is Salsa Verde (capers, gherkins, oil, parsley, chopped hard boiled eggs). Silvana uses a Salsa Piccante which is a variation on this.

My mother recalls having bollito at some of the grand spa resorts in Italy where her parents went ‘to take the waters’. There, gleaming silver trolleys - yes, more than one, would come to the table. Copper pots, an array of serving implements - knives and ladles- would all be used as part of the grand ritual.

Then in Australia, at the farm, her parents liked to serve their simplified version to Sunday lunch guests .

Mother recalls - "At the farm, the bollito used to be served from the kitchen. But I remember having bollito at the big hotel called La Pace at Montecatini in Italy. My parents used to go every year to La Pace to take the waters. We would often see the same guests each season. And that's why we went there, because it has such a family feeling and because the service was so careful. It was a beautiful hotel, very big but really something. And the service of the bollito was such a show."

Bollito is a dish for big families otherwise there is always a lot of wastage. It’s not something which is good re-heated. Rather use the left over boiled meats as part of an antipasto platter or make into polpette. With Patrizia Simone’s recipe in the Antipasto chapter, the Bollito is cooked especially for serving cold as a terrine.

Silvana's Bollito Misto - Mixed boiled meats

Serves 8

Ingredients

A calves head to start with if possible (this must begin cooking long before the rest)
1 beef or yearling topside
1 boiling chicken - ( or a turkey)
1 cotechino (pork rind sausage)
1 girello or loin of veal
2 carrots whole, scrubbed,
2 onions peeled
2 stalks of celery
peppercorns.
Water to cover

Method

Put calves head in water to cover , bring to the boil and simmer gently for 2 hours.

Add the chicken, meat, vegetables and peppercorns and continue simmering for 1 1/2 hours.

Add cotechino and cook another hour

When all meats are cooked, strain off the cooking liquor (discard the boiled vegetables) and put meats into a clean pot for service. Just cover with juices but keep some for cooking fresh vegetables. The vegetables to eat with the bollito can include fresh carrots, small onions, potatoes, cabbage and haricot beans.

Make Salsa Piccante (see below)

Other sauces can also be served - such as mostarda (fruits cooked in mustard syrup) or a peperata ( a mixture of marrow and butter, breadcrumbs, parmesan, black pepper and the cooking juices).

Serve meat boiling hot and the sauce at room temperature.

The vegetables are served separately. Boiled potato is the best thing to eat with bollito misto.

Salsa Piccante - Piquant Sauce

Ingredients

6 anchovy fillets, cleaned
1/2 bunch parsley chopped
50 grams of capers, drained
2hard boiled eggs, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
10 small gherkins, chopped
2 slices of bread, soaked and squeezed dry
45 ml olive oil
15 ml vinegar
a pinch of salt and of pepper

Method

Combine in a mortar the parsley, the capers, the garlic, a little of the onion, the anchovies, the gherkins and a little of the bread

Add a pinch of salt and pepper and continue to pound with the pestle until all the ingredients form a paste.

Put this paste into a bowl and then very slowly add the oil as you would in making a mayonnaise. Finally add the vinegar