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Ragout of Squabs
(Manicaretto di piccione) Cut two or more squabs at the joints, preferably in four parts each, and put them on the fire with a slice of ham, a piece of butter, and a bunch of parsley. When they begin to dry, add some broth and before they are completely cooked their giblets and fresh mushrooms cut in slices. Continue pouring in broth and allow the whole to simmer on a low fire. Add another piece of butter over which some flour has been sprinkled, or flour alone. Before serving, remove the ham and the bunch of greens and squeeze some lemon juice over the squabs.
Some sweetbread may be added with good effect, but it must be first scalded and the skin removed. 49
A braise built on broth added in stages, thickened at the very end. The whole method depends on keeping the liquid low and the heat gentle, so the birds poach in their own concentrated juices rather than boiling.
- SquabSquab is a young domestic pigeon, four weeks old and never flown, sold whole at about 12-16 oz. Order from a game butcher or online supplier; two squabs serve two to three people. Cornish hens are the usual stand-in, though the meat is paler and milder and cooks slightly faster.
- Cut at the jointsFour parts each means two legs and two breast halves with wing attached. Save the backbones and necks for the broth if you are making your own.
- The slice of hamAn unsmoked cured ham — prosciutto crudo, or a thick slice of pancetta. It goes in whole as a flavouring and comes out before serving, so a single 2-3 oz piece with some fat on it is what is wanted, not diced ham.
- GibletsHearts and livers, added late because the liver turns grainy with long cooking. Squab giblets are tiny; ten minutes in the pan is enough. If your birds come without them, chicken livers work, added in the last few minutes.
- Adding broth graduallyThis is the hinge. The pan should never be swimming — add a few tablespoons at a time so the liquid keeps reducing and glazing the meat. The recipe gives no quantity or timing; a cup or so in total for two birds over something like 35-45 minutes of low simmering is a workable guide.
- Butter rolled in flourA beurre manié: knead about 1 tbsp softened butter with 2 tsp flour and whisk it in off the boil, then return to a bare simmer for a minute or two to lose the raw flour taste. Flour alone, as the alternative suggests, will lump unless slaked in a little cold broth first.
- SweetbreadVeal sweetbread, scalded means dropped into simmering salted water for 2-3 minutes so the membrane peels away cleanly. Slice and add with the mushrooms. Sweetbreads must be very fresh; order them and use them the same day.
- DonenessSquab is traditionally served with the breast still pink, but in a braise like this it is cooked through — the legs want the time. Judge by the leg meat pulling from the bone rather than by a set number of minutes.
- Bunch of parsleyA tied bundle of stems, not chopped leaves, since it is fished out at the end. Kitchen twine saves hunting for it in the sauce.
The Italian Cook Book (1919), compiled by Maria Gentile for an American audience, belongs to the same Italian domestic tradition codified by Pellegrino Artusi, whose La scienza in cucina had made pigeon dishes like this familiar to middle-class Italian kitchens. Manicaretto is an old word for a dainty or well-made dish, generally traced to the same root as manicare, to eat — closer to "a nice little something" than to the businesslike "ragout" of the English title. Pigeons were long a part of Italian farm cookery before they became a restaurant luxury: towers and dovecotes kept squabs on hand through much of the year, and because the birds were killed before they could fly, the meat stayed tender enough for a short braise. The sweetbread offered as an optional enrichment, and the slice of ham used purely as seasoning and then discarded, both suggest a recipe written when a cook expected to have odds and ends of butchery about and time to build flavour in layers.