Beet dishes Italian-style \ ane THE FRUGAL GOURMET BEEF IS quite expensive in Rome. at least by our standards. } suspect this has always been the case given the fact that Rome was literally at the crossroads of the world for so long. . Foods came in from all over the Mediterranean, bul meat had to be local. If you were not a free citizen | expect you saw few dishes like the following, which centre around beef. I think you will enjoy these beef dishes with an Italian flair. HINT: When browning meats use a very heavy frying pan and small batches of meat. If you put all the meat in a thin pan at once the lit- de heat available in the thin metal of the pan will be absorbed quick- ly and you cannot sear the meat, only slowly cook it, thus toughen- ing the meat. Proper browning means that you sear the meat quickly, thus sealing in the flavorful juices and coloring the natural sugar that is in the meat. : BEEF, ROMAN-JEWISH STYLE (Serves 6) The Jewish ghetto in Rome, a place you must visit, still has a few restaurants that serve food that has been typical of these people for the last few hundred years, . You will find kosher bakers and kosher butchers. And you will find a few dishes like the follow- ing. 2 pounds boneless beef pot roast, eut into f-inch cubes 4 tablespoons olive oil 3 cloves garlic, chopped fine Sait and freshly ground black © pepper to taste Blue-rib inquisitive Cook. SUE WILSON ANNE GARDINER &2 cup fresh or canned beef soup stock '2 cup dry red wine 2 cups lalian Tomato Sauce (rec- ipe below) [n a large (rying pan brown the meat pieces very well in the olive oil and garlic. You may have to do this in iwo or three batches. See HINT above. Place the meat in a suitable stove-top covered casserole and add the remaining ingredients. Simmer, covered, until the meat is very tender, about 2 hours. You may have to add some water to the pot now and then. Do not let the dish dry out. This can be served in a bowl with a great deal of bread or with pasta. ITALIAN TOMATO SAUCE (Makes 3 quarts) 2 28-02. cans tomato puree 1 6-0z. can tomato paste 1 quart fresh or canned chicken stock or 1 quart fresh or canned brown soup stock 2 cups dry red wine Y% cup olive oil 2 yellow onions, peeled and minc- ed 6 large cloves garlic, chopped fine 2 ribs celery, with leaves, minced U carrot, unpeeled, grated 2 cup chopped parsley Y% pound fresh mushrooms, chopped V2 teaspoon crushed red-pepper flakes 1 tablespoon oregano 1 teaspoon dried rosemary 2 bay leaves, whole ! tablespoon dried basil or 2 ta- blespoons fresh 2 cloves, whole Y2 tablespoon freshly black pepper 2 tablespoons salt, or to taste I teaspoon sugar Place the tomato purec, tomato paste, chicken or beef stock and wine in a large pot. Heat a frying pan and add the olive oil. Saute the onions, garlic, celery and carrot until they just begin to brown a bit. Add to the pot along with all remaining in- gredients. Bring to a light boil, ther turn to a simmer. Simmer for 2 hours, partly covered. “Store in the tefrigerator in plastic, glass or stainless steel containers, NEVER ALUMINUM, because the acid in the tomato will ‘teat’? the alumi- num. The sauce will keep for a week in the refrigerator. Ofl COO A CRACKLED surface and crunchy inside are as much a part of gingersnaps as their spiciness. ground And somehow shortbread wouldn't really be shortbread if it didn't almost melt on your tongue, Surprisingly, how a cookie lasies is not its only important quality. How it feels in your mouth also affects whether you like it or not. Chewy, crisp, and soft each describe texture, or Structure, and are quite distinct from characteristics of flavor. In baking, we often juggle in- gredients which offer the desired flavor and those which influence texture. Take fats, for instance. Butter NEWS photo Paul McGrath THE EVER-PRESENT tomato adds flair to Italian beef dishes. BEEF SLICES WITH ROSEMARY (Serves 6 as part of an Italian meal) The butcher in Rome, who may very well operate from a mobile truck shop in the middle of the market squure, will slice meat very thin for you. You buy just a few slices for the family and grill them in this way. 3 tablespoons olive oil 2 cloves garlic, chopped medium 1 pound Jean beef roast, sliced quite thin Salt and freshly pepper fo taste 1 tablespoon rosemary Y cup dry white wine Heat a large heavy frying pan and add the oil and garlic. Pan- fry the meat on beth sides quickly ies more is renowned for its rich flavor but it melts more easily than other fats. Margarine, a combination of vegetable oils and milk products,: is often used interchangeably with butter and also melts easily. So cookies made with butter or mar- garine tend to spread in baking. Cookies made with shortening held their shape as shortening melts more slowly than other fats. Because they spread less, they’re also moister and more chewy. But shortenings are bland, so other ingredients such as dried fruits or chocolate chips add extra flavor. Generally the amounts of fat and egg are higher in cookies than cakes, and the amounts of liquid and leavening are less. Cookie rec- ipes that spread excessively in baking usually have too much fat or too little fleur. ground black chopped fresh over medium-high heat. Salt and pepper the meat and remove it to a heated serving platter. Add the rosemary to the pan along with the white wine. Deglaze the pan and pour the sauce over the meat. MEATBALLS, ROMAN STYLE (Makes 20 meatballs, serves 6-8 persans) This version from Rome has a very deep flavor due to the pancetta and prosciutto THE MEATBALLS 2 pounds lean ground beef Y: pound ground pork 6 ounces pancetta, small 6 ounces prosciutto, and chopped 3 eggs 1 cup chopped parsley 3 cloves garlic, crushed diced very sliced thin 1992 - North Shore News - 39 to x .. ae t cup bread crumbs, soaked in 1 cup milk Saft and freshly pround black pepper to taste (cacefull with the salt, the pancetta and prosciutto will add salt to the dish) 14 cup olive oil for browning Tt SAUCE l cup dry red wine 2 cups Italian Tomato Sauce (ree- ipe above) 1 cup fresh pravy { ounce dried mushrooms, soaked in 2 cups water (reserve the water) Addilionat parsley for garnish Mix the meatball ingredients together, with the exception of the oil for browning. Form into 20 balls and pan-brown in the olive oil. Do this in two or three bat- ches. Place the meatballs, along with the oil, in) a 6-quart stove-top casserole. Deglaze with the wine the frying pan in which you cook the meatballs. Add the wine to the pot along with the two sauces and the mushroom water. Chop. the tnushrooms and add to the pot. Cover and bring to a simmer. Leave the lid ajar so the sauce will reduce a bit. Cook for about % hour. . Place meatballs ona platter and serve the gravy separately. POT ROAST SHREDDED I cannot figure out any other way of getting a fresh-tasting beef flavor into a dish as they do in Rome. The beef must be cooked separately, then blended with the sauce at the last minute so it does not have that ‘‘cooked forever" flavor. In any case, you will find it helpful to have a cooked and shredded pot roast sitting in your refrigerator. It will add depth to many dishes such as a Bolognese Sauce or a meat salad. 1 boneless pot roast, 3 to 4 pounds 1 tablespoon olive oit 1 cup dry white wine 2 cups water Sale and freshly ground pepper to taste Pan-brown the roast in a large frying pan with the olive oil. Place in a stove-lop covered casserole and add the wine and water. Cover and simmer for about 2% hours. It should be very tender. Add the salt and pepper to taste. Cool and shred the meat, saving the juice. Store in the refrigerator with the juice on the meat. or canned brown black than just flavor In contrast to cakes, not all the sugar dissolves in cookies. This creates the characteristic open tex- ture and crispness as cookies bake. Creaming the fat and sugar together adds air to the dough. The jagged edges of the sugar crystals also trap air during creaming. And eggs add air in a variety of ways. Well-distributed air pockets and leaveners con- tribute to a light texture as air bubbles expand during baking. Brown sugar contains molasses so cookies have a slightly richer flavor, a darker color, and are more moist than those. with granulated sugar. Cookies with honey keep well and stay soft as fructose, honey’s sugar, aftracts moisture from the surroundings. Chewy cookies usually have a high egg conten;. But note that chewy is different from tough. Tough cookies are overmixed after the flour is added. Even greasing the cookie sheet makes a difference. As the dough becomes more fluid in the oven, cookies slide easily across a greas- ed surface. Refrigerator and rolled cookies use ungreased sheets to help keep their shape. Thick, fat, country-style cook- ies are often deliberately under- baked to keep them moist. Thin, crisp cookies are usually baked longer, or at stighily higher temperatures, A blue-ribbon cookie is pleas- ing in both texture and flavor. There’s just one problem: it’s hard to stop at one.