BOLLITO MISTO
This is not only my Christmas menu secondo piatto, but also my favourite way to eat meat in winter days with family.
This is a monument of the Italian gastronomic tradition that requires the two most important cooking skills: love and time.
This dish gives you warmth, like a fireplace when outside is snowy.
The different cuts that are part of this nourishing recipe are different depending on the Italian region. My version takes of course its inspiration from my Nonna Armida and the Veneto region where she was from. I propose here an adaptation, with 5 cuts instead of 7, based on what you can find in Switzerland, because I live here and because I would like Swiss people to enjoy it. As you can see from the following photo, I was able to find Zampone (a kind of cooked salami) in Switzerland, but if you don’t you can replace it with Saucisson. The other cuts are: oxtail, soup hen, veal tongue and beef flank.
It is extremely easy to make Bollito Misto because you just have to boil the cuts and wait until they are tender. The only step I suggest to add at the beginning is to “seal” the meat by boiling it in salty water for 2 minutes and then cool it down under cold running water.
A lot of you that are reading this post have probably never tried beef or veal tongue. I can assure you it is the most ever tender red meat and it is definitely worth it to try! Don’t be impressed by the next photo: the tongue (here with the oxtail pieces) has got a skin that you remove after you boil it, you then cut the tongue lengthwise in slices. Tongue is my favourite of all these cuts and I particularly like to eat it with the Salsa Pearà that I am going to introduce you to next week.
I know that to foreigners this dish can look like something too exotic, but this is a poor dish that our ancestors used to make all over the world (for example it is still popular in France and Austria). Luckily in Italy we haven’t lost our culinary tradition.
Unfortunately it is not the same in Switzerland where it is very difficult to find homemade traditional food. Too often even in restaurants many dishes are supplied, prepackaged and pre-cooked, by larger food chain distributors and are only warmed up in the kitchen. It is very difficult to find here people that are willing to put time and dedication into the food they are going to eat or serve.
The love I put into preparing this recipe for this blog is only a drop in the ocean of the love for family cooking my grandmother left behind.
If I could inspire just one person to try this, I would be happy.
- 1 Soup Hen (ca 1Kg)
- 1 Beef Flank (ca 1Kg)
- 1 Veal tongue (Kalbs Zunge)
- 8 Oxtail pieces
- 1 Zampone (or Cotechino or Saucisson)
- 1 Carrot
- 1 Onion
- 1 piece of Celery Root
- 1 Bayleaf
- 2 garlic
- Juniper berries
- Peppercorns
- Clean surface areas and get your ingredients nice and ready.
- Put 5l of water with ingredients for the bouillon on the heat. If you don’t have a big pot use two pots and make two bouillons.
- Put another big pot of water with 40g of salt on the heat.
- Wash and dry the different cuts. If needed eliminate some nerves and fat from the beef flank.
- When water from the second pot boils, put the cuts (except for the zampone) in it for 2 minutes. Take them out and run them under cold water.
- Put cuts in the bouillon and let them cook at low heat: the beef and the tongue for 2 hours; the hen and the hox tail for 4 hours.
- In the meantime cook the zampone in another pot of boiling water. The time is written on the package.
- When tongue is ready and cooled down a bit peel the skin off of it (it comes really easily).
- Slice all the pieces except for the oxtail. The tongue is nicer when cut lengthwise.
- Put all the slices on a tray in which you previously poured two fingers of bouillon.
- Put fireproof tray above the flame of tea candles to keep all the cuts warm.
- 1 Suppenhuhn (ca.1kg)
- 1 Siedfleisch durchzogen (ca.1kg)
- 1 Kalbszunge
- 8 Stk. Ochsenschwanz
- 1 Zampone oder Cotechino (ital. Kochwurst) oder Schweizer Saucisson
- 1 Karotte
- 1 Zwiebel
- 1 Sellerieknolle
- 1 Lorbeerblatt
- 2 Knoblauchzehen
- Wacholderbeeren
- Pfefferkörner
- Arbeitsfläche reinigen und Zutaten bereitstellen.
- 5L Wasser mit dem Gemüse aufkochen. Wenn Sie keinen grossen Topf haben, nehmen Sie zwei kleine und machen zwei Bouillons.
- Stellen Sie noch einen grossen Topf mit 40gr. Salz auf den Herd.
- Die verschiedenen Fleischstücke waschen und trocknen. Wenn nötig, Sehnen und Fett vom Siedfleisch entfernen.
- Sobald das Wasser für das Fleisch kocht, alle Stücke, ausser die Zampone(Saucisson) hineingeben, nach 2 Min. wieder herausnehmen und unter kaltem Wasser abspülen.
- Das Fleisch zur Bouillon geben und auf kleiner Hitze köcheln lassen: das Siedfleisch und die Zunge etwa 2 Std., das Huhn und die Ochsenschwänze ca.4 Std.
- Die Zampone oder Saucisson seperat nach Anleitung kochen.
- Wenn die Zunge fertig ist, etwas abkühlen und die Haut abziehen.
- Das Fleisch, ausser die Ochsenschwänze, in Stücke schneiden. Die Zunge sieht schön aus, wenn sie längs geschnitten wird.
- Auf eine Servierplatte 2 fingerbreit Bouillon giessen und die Fleischstücke darauf verteilen.
- Stellen Sie die Platte auf ein Rechaud, um alles schön warm zu halten.
