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Had they cream in Italy in the 18th-century? Yes, since 1530, at least, & even with Pasta!!! |
The Mozart Pasta Series No. 1 1. Pasta with Cream Sauce (1790) or Maccaroni al Fiore di Latte or Maccaroni alla Panna |
The famous recipes from the 18th-century most famous kitchens of the Italian aristocracy of Rome and Naples and other cities, at whose salons Mozart & Leopold often spent their time in 1770s. |
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DIFFICULTY: Pasta al dente, e non scotta!!! |
1. PASTA WITH CREAM SAUCE (1790) With the term Maccaroni, in reality, various types of pasta were generically meant. For this recipe with cream, the best type of pasta is: real maccheroni, tortiglioni, rigatoni, paccheri (in this case, better if not gratinati in oven), and penne, if you want a more Florentine nuance, being penne a favourite type of pasta in Florence (as Paolo Petroni well pointed out). But maccaroni can be also spaghetti, bavette, trenette and bucatini! Only in Naples in 1770s, when Mozart and Leopold were there, even 30 different types of pasta (maccaroni) were regularly produced! INGREDIENTS: real maccheroni (500gr; of semola di grano duro, i.e. durum wheat flour; serving 5 persons) butter (ca 80gr; fresh, unsalted) butter (ca 50gr; to be kept melted) cream (250ml; Italian type da cucina, i.e. for cooking = with fat 20-25%) salt (2 tablespoons for 500gr of pasta) pepper (crushed) nutmeg (some grated) salt (a pinch) real Parmigiano Reggiano (abundantly grated) METHOD: 1. Fill a deep pot with water. When the water start boiling, pour the 2 tablespoons of salt into the boiling water. 2. Immediately pour the 500gr of pasta in the salted boiling water, maintaining the flame very vivid for ca. 8-10 minutes, until the pasta is al dente... Otherwise, if you lower the flame, you may get a wrong too soft consistency, almost mashy, as if overcooked. You recognize al dente pasta consistency (i.e. you understand the consistency with your teeth in your mouth), when the exterior part of pasta is sufficiently soft, but the thin interior part is still hard. Usually, each different type of pasta have different cooking time: always check on the package of the pasta you have purchased. 3a. MANTECATURA Remove the pasta al dente from the deep pot, by draining, and pour them into a large pan with 80gr of butter. Sautée the pasta with butter, the 250ml of cream, a pinch of salt, crushed pepper and some grated nutmeg. Stir the pasta and the sauce well (i.e. mantecatura; mixing a sauce or ingredients for a creamy and full-bodied consistency). 3b. Remove the large pan from the fire. Pour on the pasta a part of the grated real Parmigiano Reggiano. Stir well again, until you get the pasta and the cream has reached a homogeneous consistency. 4a. GRATINATURA Then pour the pasta and the sauce in a Terrine for Oven. 4b. When you have poured the well stirred pasta and cream sauce into the Terrine, pour, on them, the other part of real Parmigiano Reggiano and then distribute on it the melted butter. 4c. Put the Terrine in hot oven for the gratinatura (i.e. au gratin). The pasta is ready, when the superficial level with the Parmigiano has a golden colour and the cheese is substantially melted. Pay attention that under the surface the sauce must remain creamy, thick and viscous and never dry. 5. ALTERNATE VERSION WITHOUT GRATINATURA With paccheri, and rigatoni, in particular, and also with maccheroni, tortiglioni and penne, you can omit the parts 4a,b,c of GRATINATURA, and serve soon after the parts 3a,b of MANTECATURA. In fact, paccheri (as the name itself says it: from Greek pacch- it's the sound of a slap = a friendly slap) are designed exactly to perfectly feel (and hear!) the thick viscous consistency of the cream sauce. This use of skipping the GRATINATURA is very common in modern Italian cuisine, while in 1700s the GRATINATURA passage was a favourite one for the tables of aristocracy and middle-high class people. In the Italian manuals of cooking of 18th/19th-century for common people, you are told that you can serve pasta soon after the MANTECATURA without GRATINATURA. |
MACCARONI AL FIORE DI LATTE Quando i maccaroni saranno cotti con acqua e sale, scolateli, prendete una cazzarola con un pezzo di butirro, metteteci i maccaroni, passateli sopra il fuoco, aggiungeteci per ogni libbra di maccaroni mezza foglietta di fiore di latte, un poco di sale, pepe schiacciato, e noce moscata; mescolate bene sopra il fuoco; poscia tirate indietro, poneteci del parmigiano grattato a proporzione, mescolatelo, versate nella Terrina, coprite con parmigiano, aspergete con butirro squagliato; fate prendere colore ad un forno ben caldo, e servite subito. |