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Stuffed Italian Squash
(Zucchini ripieni) For a description of the Zucchini see No. 32.
To make the stuffed zucchini first cut them lengthwise in two halves and remove the interior pulp, leaving space enough for the filling.
Le Take some lean veal (quantity in proportion to the squashes) cut it into pieces and place it on the fire in a saucepan with a hash of onion, parsley, celery, carrot, a little corned beef cut in little pieces, a little oil, salt and pepper. Stir it often with a spoon and when the meat is brown pour in a cup of water and then another after a while. Then rub the gravy through a sieve and put it aside.
Chop the cooked meat fine and grind it in the grinder and make a hash of it and one egg, a little grated cheese, a crumb of bread boiled in milk or in soup stock and just a taste of nutmeg.
Put this hash inside each half squash and put them to brown in butter, completing the cooking with the gravy set aside. 92
A two-stage recipe: you braise the filling meat first, then reuse its strained gravy to finish the stuffed halves. Nothing is baked — the whole thing happens in a pan on the stove.
- Quantities are left to youThe original gives proportions for nothing. For four medium zucchini (about 6-7 inches each), figure roughly 3/4 lb lean veal shoulder, 2 oz cured pork, 1 egg, 2 tablespoons grated Parmigiano, and a slice of crustless bread soaked in 1/4 cup milk. That yields eight halves: two per person as a first course for four, or four apiece as a main for two.
- "Corned beef" is a translation artifactThe Italian behind this was most likely a cured pork rather than brisket: 'carnesecca' or similar salted/air-cured meat used as a flavour base. Pancetta or a scrap of prosciutto end is the closest thing on a modern counter.
- Hollowing the squashHalve lengthwise and scoop with a teaspoon or melon baller, leaving a shell about 1/4 inch thick. Salt the cavities lightly and let them drain cut-side down for 20 minutes; zucchini is mostly water and this keeps the filling from loosening. The scooped pulp can be chopped into the meat hash rather than thrown out.
- The braise is the hingeEverything the dish tastes like comes from browning the veal properly with the soffritto before any water goes in. Give it 8-10 minutes over medium-high heat until there is real color on the pan bottom, then add the water in two stages as directed and simmer covered about 40 minutes until the meat shreds easily.
- Rubbing through a sieveThis means pressing the vegetables and pan liquid through a fine strainer to make a thin, thickened gravy — a food mill or blender followed by a strainer does it faster. Reserve about a cup; you will need it to finish the squash.
- Grinding after choppingChop, then pass through a meat grinder on the coarse plate, or pulse in a food processor. Do not reduce it to paste — the filling should still have some texture once the egg, cheese, bread panada and nutmeg are worked in. Nutmeg here means a scant grating, no more.
- Finishing in the panBrown the filled halves filling-side down in butter for 3-4 minutes, turn, add the reserved gravy to a depth of about half an inch, cover and simmer 15-20 minutes until a knife slides through the shell without resistance. The gravy reduces to a glaze; add a splash of water if the pan goes dry.
Maria Gentile's The Italian Cook Book (1919) was written for American households, which is why zucchini gets both an English name and a cross-reference to an earlier explanatory entry — the vegetable was still unfamiliar enough in the United States that it went by "Italian squash" or "cocozelle" in seed catalogs well into the mid-twentieth century. Squashes are American in origin, carried to Europe after 1492; the small, thin-skinned summer varieties picked immature that we now call zucchini were developed in northern Italy in the nineteenth century and are generally traced to the area around Milan. The filling method here is thoroughly Italian domestic practice: a cheap cut braised with soffritto, the cooking liquid saved and strained as sauce, the meat ground and bound with egg, cheese and bread soaked in milk. Nothing is wasted, and one small piece of cured pork does the work of seasoning the whole dish.