Bollito misto, a boiled meat and vegetable dinner, is taken seriously in northern regions such as Emilia Romagna and Piemonte. Typically, a server rolls a cart to your table and dishes up boiled meats and side dishes from covered containers according to each diner’s preferences.
In Parma I once overheard a large party enter into vigorous negotiations with the server once their carello arrived. “No chicken breast!” decreed one man, leaping up to better supervise the server’s work. He said yes to boiled beef, tongue and cotechino sausage, however, and to the creamed spinach and whipped potatoes also on offer.
At home bollito misto can be a simpler affair, tailored to your preferences and the number of people at your table. My version, more accurately known as a piccolo bollito, consists only of brisket, chicken thighs and sausage, plus potatoes and carrots simmered in the meaty broth. Here’s how it begins.
I recently served bollito misto to my family of 10, and can say it was a festive and fun meal. My sons-in-law immediately made an Italian-meets-Irish connection, comparing bollito misto to a corned beef and cabbage boiled dinner. I could see their point, although I also think bollito misto is pretty different. For one thing, it never occurred to the Irish to accompany their boiled dinner with the piquant parsley sauce favored by Italians, a brilliant counterpoint to the deeply satisfying but bland flavors of boiled food.
This time I also took the trouble to find mostarda di Cremona, a spicy poached fruit confection that is the other traditional sidekick to bollito misto. (If you happen to live in the Boston area, the Kendall Square branch of Formaggio had it.) The jewel-like fruits remain firm after a carefully orchestrated poaching process and even in Italy the necessary mustard essence can be found only in pharmacies.
My advice is to buy the jar or skip it. A boiled dinner is supposed to be an easy dinner so keep it that way.
Bollito misto is a festive northern Italian dish most often served in restaurants, consisting of various boiled meats and side dishes served from a cart that passes through the dining room. This homebound version could more accurately be called a piccolo bollito, with meats limited to brisket, chicken thighs and sausage. Potatoes and carrots simmered with them absorb flavor from the lovely broth. The traditional accompaniments are a piquant parsley sauce and mostarda, a spicy poached fruit confection for which the city of Cremona is known.
- 1 onion halved
- 8 whole cloves
- 4 or 5 large carrots
- 1 stalk celery
- Several sprigs parsley
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
- 2 pounds beef brisket
- 4 to 6 large boiling potatoes, peeled
- 8 small bone-in chicken thighs (about 2 pounds)
- 1 1/2 pounds mild or hot Italian sausage
- 1 cup Piquant Parsley Sauce recipe follows
- 1 jar Mostarda di Cremona (see Note) optional
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Stud onion with cloves. Cut 1 carrot and the celery stalk crosswise in half. Combine in Dutch oven or other large saucepan with onion, parsley sprigs, 1 tablespoon salt and peppercorns.
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Fill saucepan two-thirds full of water (about 4 quarts) and bring to a boil. Lower brisket into saucepan, and when water returns to a boil, adjust heat to a gentle simmer. Skim off any scum that rises to top during first few minutes of cooking. Cook, partially covered, until meat is tender, about 2 hours.
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Remove brisket from saucepan. Fish out and discard onion, carrot and celery. Strain broth through a fine strainer into a bowl or another pan. Pour strained broth back into original saucepan. Transfer brisket back to pan.
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Quarter potatoes and cut remaining 3 carrots in similar-sized chunks. Add chicken thighs to saucepan and simmer until tender; Transfer to a cutting board and pull off skin with tongs. Return chicken to pan. Add potatoes and carrots and cook until just tender.
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Fill medium saucepan with enough water to cover sausages. Bring to a boil. Add sausages and simmer until cooked through, about 20 minutes. Transfer sausage pieces to bollito.
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(At this point, bollito can be cooled and refrigerated overnight; remove solidified fat before proceeding.)
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Shortly before serving, heat contents of saucepan over low heat or in a 350F oven. Skim off any fat shimmering on top.
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To serve: Transfer brisket to a cutting board and carve across grain into thick slices. Arrange on a deep platter with chicken, sausage, carrots and potatoes. Spoon some broth over meats and vegetables, to moisten them (see Note 1).
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Serve with parsley sauce and, if using, the mostarda di Cremona (larger fruits can be halved or quartered for serving).
Note 1: If you are not ready to serve the bollito after arranging on a platter, keep warm in a 250F oven for up to an hour.
Note 2: If there are leftover meats and vegetables, return them to the broth; reheat the next day and you have another meal. Otherwise, use the rich broth in other ways: soups, risotto, sauces and so on.
Variation: To make lesso di manzo, a streamlined version of what is already a simple preparation, skip the chicken and sausage. Instead, simmer a brisket weighing 4 to 5 pounds, adding vegetables toward the end. Serve with parsley sauce.
This wonderful sauce--a pesto, really, just made with parsley instead of basil-- is a traditional partner for bollito misto. It could also accompany roasted meats and other dishes.
- 1 tablespoon capers
- 2 cups flat-leaf parsley leaves firmly packed
- 1 large garlic clove roughly chopped
- 2 anchovy fillets
- 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
- fresh lemon juice
- sea salt or kosher salt
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Combine capers, parsley, garlic and anchovy fillets in a food processor or powerful blender bowl. Pulse until mixture is chopped. Slowly add olive oil, pulsing until mixture is pureed but still has some texture, pausing once or twice to scrape sides of bowl.
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Scrape sauce into a small serving bowl. Season to taste with fresh lemon juice and salt.
I’ve tasted my way through their truffle-flavored honey, preserved truffles, creamy truffle spreads and truffle pasta. But I failed to spring for a fragrant white truffle during its brief November-December season, and that felt like a mistake. Black truffles continue into March, however, so when food-loving friends arrived for a weekend, I asked Fidel to save one for me.
As Fidel lifted the case cover, a wave of truffle aroma rose. I chose one that weighed 1¼ ounces, ample for the four of us. Wearing white gloves, Fidel gently rubbed it with a soft brush. Wrapped in a paper towel and nestled in a plastic container against a Coolpak, it was mine.
This time I was determined not to miss that window of freshness. The Italian approach to truffles to keep the dish simple, allowing the earthy flavor to shine through—so that night we sat down to freshly made tagliatelle with a light sauce of butter, cream, Parmigiano Reggiano, salt and pepper. The truffle shaver acquired during the Alba trip had gone missing. Instead, I used a mandoline on the finest setting. It made satisfactory shavings, substantial enough for us to appreciate not only the aroma, but the somewhat brittle texture of the truffle as we chewed.