Simple Italian Cookery

Italian home cooking explained to Americans in 1912, every dish still carrying its own name: Brodo di Carne, Minestrone alla Milanese, Zuppa di Merluzzo.

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Polenta Fritters

Put one pinch of salt and one tablespoon of sugar into a cup of milk, and put it on to boil. As soon as it boils pour in, little by little, one-half scant cup of fine Indian meal, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Allow it to boil gently for twenty minutes.

Take it off the stove, add one level tablespoon of butter and the yolk of one egg and a little grated lemon-peel. Beat up well to mix the egg and butter. Then turn the mixture onto the bread-board, which has been dampened; spread it out to the thickness of a finger. Allow it to cool, then cut into squares or diamonds or little rounds, dip these into egg and then into the bread crumbs, and fry them in boiling lard, a few at a time. Sprinkle with sugar, and serve hot.

Polenta "alla Toscana" 2 cups of Indian meal 3 pints of cold water Put the water on, and when it boils add salt. Then add the Indian meal, little by little, stirring all the time. Allow it to boil over a moderate fire for one-half hour, stirring constantly. When the meal has become quite stiff, take a wooden spoon and dip it into hot water, and with it detach the Indian meal from the side of the saucepan, then hold the saucepan for a moment over the hottest part of the fire, until the Indian meal has become detached from the bottom. Then with a wire cut it into slices about the thickness of a finger. Place these slices on a hot platter in a layer; pour over them a good meat gravy and grated cheese; then put on another layer of the polenta, and add more gravy and cheese, and so on, until your polenta is used up. Polenta with Chopped sausages Prepare the Indian meal as in the preceding receipt. Take four Deerfoot sausages (or two, if a larger variety of sausage), remove the skins, chop fine, then fry in butter. When they are a nice brown add one tablespoon of stock, and two tablespoons of tomato paste thinned with hot water (or a corresponding amount of the tomato sauce).

Cook for fifteen minutes more. Then cut the polenta in slices as in preceding receipt and add the chopped sausages with their sauce and grated cheese, in layers as before.

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