Bolognese Christmas lunch: recipes & photos
A traditional Christmas day lunch in Bologna, Italy has a few requisite elements: Bolognese tortellini in brodo (tiny pasta purses filled with delicious meat float in a golden homemade broth), followed by lesso, which is a kind of beef boiled with carrots, celery and onion. The broth produced from the boiling is served with the first course tortellini. The boiled beef is accompanied by salsa verde, which literally means "green sauce." It is literally also a flavor-packed pesto-like condiment that made my mouth sing when I had it for Christmas last month.
The recipe, accompanied by photos, follows. It takes a little while to chop everything by hand, but if you use a food processor, it's an easy, breezy snap.
Lia's Salsa Verde
2 bunches of cleaned and trimmed parsley
10 cornichons (tiny sour cocktail pickles) -- I can usually find this in my olive bar at Whole Foods, but I can also find them in jars in other groceries.
1 small jar of capers (not salt-packed) -- I used half a 1 pound jar
8 anchovies (from a small can, packed in oil)
1-3 cloves of fresh garlic
salt, red chili pepper & ground black pepper to taste
extra virgin olive oil
Two bunches of cleaned and trimmed parsley. I used a salad spinner to shake the water off and I cut off the stems below the leafy part of the bunch. It is not necessary to remove the leaves from the stems.
I used a mezzaluna, a half-moon blade with two handles, to mince everything. Yes, I made this the old-fashioned way, the way an old Italian grandmother might have made it. But you can just put the parsley in a food processor and let it run until everything is finely minced.
All minced! As Nigella Lawson notes, working with a mezzaluna can be very soothing, actually.
Left to right: cornichons, anchovies, capers. I rinsed all of these in several changes of water and I let them soak in cold water as well. You want to try to get out as much of the vinegar and saltiness as possible because they are tart and salty all by themselves.
A few cloves of garlic. The recipe calls for 1, but I love garlic, so I used 3.
Again, I minced this with the mezzaluna, but you can put all of it in the food processor.
Put the minced parsley and the minced cornichons, anchovies and capers into a bowl.
Sprinkle with red chili powder, to taste. Also add salt & black pepper to taste.
Mix everything together very well.
Add a good amount of extra virgin olive oil. The recipe says "to cover" with oil, but I didn't go quite that far. I added a little less than the amount to cover.
Mix well.
Transfer to a container to store, or to serve.
Enjoy!
Note: While salsa verde is traditionally served with the boiled beef of lesso, it can be used on many other things, like bread or potatoes, or tossed with pasta, or on vegetables or other meat. It's also yummy stirred into rice or into other sauces.[Note: Nicola, the Bologna-native, absolutely disagrees that salsa verde should ever be used with pasta, vegetables, rice or other sauces. Hmph.;)]
Refrigerate to store, and use within one week.
To make the lesso:
Christmas Lesso
~2 pounds of beef rump, or ~1 pound beef rump and ~1 pound beef shank (or shin)
3 peeled potatoes (we used Yukon Gold)
2-3 celery stalks
2-3 carrots
1 medium onion, peeled
potatoes, celery, carrots, all cleaned.
A good amount of salt.
Place vegetables and salt in the bottom of a large, heavy-bottomed pot or pressure cooker.
Beef rump and shank. Place these on top of the vegetables. Add water to cover. Cover the pot, and bring to a boil, if using a pot. If using a pressure cooker, lock the lid and apply the weight.
Once it is boiling, boil for 2 hours (covered), adding water as necessary if the level drops too much. If using a pressure cooker, cook for 45 minutes from the time the weight begins to vibrate.
At the end of two hours, remove from the heat. If serving immediately, place meat and vegetables to a serving dish and put aside to keep warm. Bring broth to a boil and cook tortellini in the broth. Ladel cooked tortellini and broth into bowls and serve with plenty of grated parmigiano-reggiano. Once the tortellini is consumed, bring out the serving dish with the lesso, and serve with salsa verde.
Last Sunday, we made this for icajoleu, and also for ourselves, to ease the post-Italy blues.
The tortellini in brodo is served with a large quantity of freshly-grated parmigiano-reggiano sprinkled on top. No need to be shy about the amount - we dump quite a lot on our bowls! The key is that it's real parmigiano-reggiano and not the icky powdered parmesan in the green cannister (or anything similar).
The lesso! Along with the salsa verde, this can also be served with good bread, and of course, a good red wine. Good company is, of course, a requisite to such a meal! :)
Let me know if you have any questions. And if you make this, I'd love to know how it goes! :D
The recipe, accompanied by photos, follows. It takes a little while to chop everything by hand, but if you use a food processor, it's an easy, breezy snap.
Lia's Salsa Verde
2 bunches of cleaned and trimmed parsley
10 cornichons (tiny sour cocktail pickles) -- I can usually find this in my olive bar at Whole Foods, but I can also find them in jars in other groceries.
1 small jar of capers (not salt-packed) -- I used half a 1 pound jar
8 anchovies (from a small can, packed in oil)
1-3 cloves of fresh garlic
salt, red chili pepper & ground black pepper to taste
extra virgin olive oil
Two bunches of cleaned and trimmed parsley. I used a salad spinner to shake the water off and I cut off the stems below the leafy part of the bunch. It is not necessary to remove the leaves from the stems.
I used a mezzaluna, a half-moon blade with two handles, to mince everything. Yes, I made this the old-fashioned way, the way an old Italian grandmother might have made it. But you can just put the parsley in a food processor and let it run until everything is finely minced.
All minced! As Nigella Lawson notes, working with a mezzaluna can be very soothing, actually.
Left to right: cornichons, anchovies, capers. I rinsed all of these in several changes of water and I let them soak in cold water as well. You want to try to get out as much of the vinegar and saltiness as possible because they are tart and salty all by themselves.
A few cloves of garlic. The recipe calls for 1, but I love garlic, so I used 3.
Again, I minced this with the mezzaluna, but you can put all of it in the food processor.
Put the minced parsley and the minced cornichons, anchovies and capers into a bowl.
Sprinkle with red chili powder, to taste. Also add salt & black pepper to taste.
Mix everything together very well.
Add a good amount of extra virgin olive oil. The recipe says "to cover" with oil, but I didn't go quite that far. I added a little less than the amount to cover.
Mix well.
Transfer to a container to store, or to serve.
Enjoy!
Note: While salsa verde is traditionally served with the boiled beef of lesso, it can be used on many other things, like bread or potatoes, or tossed with pasta, or on vegetables or other meat. It's also yummy stirred into rice or into other sauces.[Note: Nicola, the Bologna-native, absolutely disagrees that salsa verde should ever be used with pasta, vegetables, rice or other sauces. Hmph.;)]
Refrigerate to store, and use within one week.
To make the lesso:
Christmas Lesso
~2 pounds of beef rump, or ~1 pound beef rump and ~1 pound beef shank (or shin)
3 peeled potatoes (we used Yukon Gold)
2-3 celery stalks
2-3 carrots
1 medium onion, peeled
potatoes, celery, carrots, all cleaned.
A good amount of salt.
Place vegetables and salt in the bottom of a large, heavy-bottomed pot or pressure cooker.
Beef rump and shank. Place these on top of the vegetables. Add water to cover. Cover the pot, and bring to a boil, if using a pot. If using a pressure cooker, lock the lid and apply the weight.
Once it is boiling, boil for 2 hours (covered), adding water as necessary if the level drops too much. If using a pressure cooker, cook for 45 minutes from the time the weight begins to vibrate.
At the end of two hours, remove from the heat. If serving immediately, place meat and vegetables to a serving dish and put aside to keep warm. Bring broth to a boil and cook tortellini in the broth. Ladel cooked tortellini and broth into bowls and serve with plenty of grated parmigiano-reggiano. Once the tortellini is consumed, bring out the serving dish with the lesso, and serve with salsa verde.
Last Sunday, we made this for icajoleu, and also for ourselves, to ease the post-Italy blues.
The tortellini in brodo is served with a large quantity of freshly-grated parmigiano-reggiano sprinkled on top. No need to be shy about the amount - we dump quite a lot on our bowls! The key is that it's real parmigiano-reggiano and not the icky powdered parmesan in the green cannister (or anything similar).
The lesso! Along with the salsa verde, this can also be served with good bread, and of course, a good red wine. Good company is, of course, a requisite to such a meal! :)
Let me know if you have any questions. And if you make this, I'd love to know how it goes! :D