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Omelette, Pavia
Crack eight fresh eggs in a bowl, add half gill cream, two tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese, half teaspoon salt and one saltspoon cayenne pepper, sharply beat up with a fork for two minutes. Heat two tablespoons melted butter in a black frying pan, drop in the eggs, sharply mix with fork for two minutes, let rest for half a minute; fold up the opposite sides to meet in the centre, let rest for a minute, turn on hot dish. Place an ounce butter in pan and toss on the fire until a light brown, then add teaspoon freshly chopped parsley and a teaspoon vinegar, toss a little, pour over the omelette and serve.
A large folded omelette finished with browned butter and vinegar — essentially a beurre noir sauce poured over eggs. The whole thing takes under ten minutes, so have the hot serving dish ready before the eggs go in.
- Half a gillA gill is half a cup, so half a gill is 1/4 cup (2 fl oz) of cream. That is a generous amount for eight eggs and will give a soft, loose set.
- A saltspoonThe saltspoon of the period holds about a quarter teaspoon. A quarter teaspoon of cayenne across eight eggs is assertive but not punishing; scale back to a pinch if your cayenne is fresh and hot.
- The black frying panThis means a well-seasoned carbon-steel or cast-iron pan, black from use, not a modern nonstick. A 10- to 12-inch pan is right for eight eggs. Get it hot before the butter goes in and keep the eggs moving for the first two minutes so they set in curds rather than a sheet.
- The hinge: the browned butterEverything rests on the finishing butter. Take it to a nutty light brown and no further — once it goes past hazelnut colour it turns acrid, and the ounce of butter is small enough to burn in seconds. Add the parsley and vinegar off the direct heat; they will spit.
- The vinegarThe recipe specifies only "a teaspoon vinegar"; a sharp white wine vinegar suits it well. This is beurre noir, the classic French sauce for skate and brains, borrowed onto eggs; the acid is what keeps the browned butter from tasting merely rich.
- ParmesanGrate it yourself from a wedge. Pre-grated tubs often carry anti-caking agents that will not melt into the eggs cleanly.
- Doneness"Let rest for half a minute" before folding assumes a still-wet top. The omelette carries on cooking in the pan and again on the hot dish, so turn it out while the interior is visibly soft.
- YieldEight eggs makes a substantial omelette for four as a light main course, or six as a first course. Serve immediately — the browned butter dulls as it cools.
Filippini's International Cook Book (1906) includes many dishes named for places, and Pavia, the old Lombard capital south of Milan, is best known in cookery for zuppa alla pavese — broth poured over toasted bread, cheese and a raw egg, a dish traditionally said to have been improvised for Francis I of France after his defeat at the Battle of Pavia in 1525. This omelette shares that dish's egg and grated cheese but is really a French kitchen preparation with an Italian label: the finishing sauce of browned butter, parsley and vinegar is textbook beurre noir, a standard nineteenth-century accompaniment to skate and calf's brains. Filippini worked for many years at Delmonico's in New York, where geographic names on the menu could serve as flavour shorthand as much as claims of provenance.