Crostata Di Patate Di Biddamanna Recipes

FAGIANO ARROSTO ALLA SAVERIO DI NULVI

Steps:

• Pierce the casings of the sausages and poach them for 5 minutes in barely simmering water. Drain and cool the sausages. Remove their casings and mince.
• In a sauté pan over a medium flame, warm 3 tablespoons of the olive oil and brown the minced, poached sausages, rolling them about in the fat and crisping them. Add the onion, softening it a bit in the fat, before adding the pheasant livers, breaking them up and amalgamating them with the sausage and the onion. Sprinkle on the sea salt and generously grind pepper over all. Add 1/3 cup of the moscato, letting it evaporate. Add the zest and the sage, combine the components well.
• Fill the cavities of the pheasants with the stuffing. Bind their legs with butcher's twine.
• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
• In a shallow terra-cotta or enameled cast-iron casserole over a lively flame, warm 3 tablespoons of the olive oil and, one at a time, seal the birds, browning them well on all sides, then removing them to a holding plate.
• After the birds are sealed, lay 4 slices of pancetta over each of their breasts. Rinse the still-hot casserole with the remaining 1/3 cup of moscato and 1 cup of the red wine, stirring, scraping at the residue, and permitting the liquid to reduce for several minutes. Replace the birds in their casserole, cover them with the herb branches, and roast the pheasant for 1/2 hour or a bit longer, only until the flesh under a leg joint is rosy. Roasting a pheasant to grayness seems a sad thing to do. Remove the birds to a holding plate.
• Place the casserole over a lively flame, add the remaining cup of wine, stirring, scraping at the residue, permitting it to reduce for 5 minutes. Whack each bird in two at its breastbone. Lay the halves over a warmed, shallow platter and pour the pan juices over all.
• Having, perhaps, begun the feast with the crostata di patate di Biddamanna (page 228), one might present the luscious birds with a dish borrowed from Basilicata-brasato di funghi con aglianico del Vùlture (page 150) or the spiced chestnuts from Nicola Taurino (page 148). In any case, have at the ready warm bread for the juices and jugs of the same good red wine in which the birds were cooked.

CROSTATA DI PATATE DI BIDDAMANNA

Steps:

• In a small sauté pan over a medium flame, warm the olive oil and soften the onion, garlic, and orange zest for 5 minutes, permitting the mixture to take on some light color. Transfer the onion, garlic, orange zest combination to a large bowl. Add the mashed potatoes and the remaining ingredients, forming a well-amalgamated paste. Cover the paste and set it aside while you make the crust.
• In a large bowl, combine the flour, polenta, salt, and pecorino. Using your fingertips or a pastry blender, cut the butter into the dry components until it resembles coarse crumbs. Combine the egg with the cold wine and stir the liquids into the flour mixture, constructing a rough dough.
• Turn it out onto a lightly floured work space and gently, swiftly, work it into a smooth dough. Flatten the dough and cover it tightly in plastic wrap, covering the plastic wrap with a clean kitchen towel and leaving the dough to rest in the refrigerator for 1 hour or in the freezer for 20 minutes.
• Over a lightly floured work space, roll out the dough into a free-form sort of circle of about 16 inches in diameter. Transfer the pastry to a parchment-lined baking sheet. The pastry will be too large to fit on the sheet but that will soon be remedied.
• Place the potato filling in the center of the pastry, working it into a mound and leaving a 2-inch hem of pastry uncovered. Now lift the pastry hem and fold it over, pleating it a bit, covering about 2 inches of the filling. The less symmetric your form, the more homey and beautiful will be your crostata. Cover the crostata with a sheet of plastic wrap and set it, on its parchment-lined tin, to chill again in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
• Bake the crostata for 25 to 30 minutes or until the crust is deeply golden and the potatoes all golden and crisp.
• Permit the crostata a 5-minute rest on a cooling rack, transfer it to a cutting board and carry it to table, cutting it into fat wedges. Present it as a first course, to be eaten warm between sips of good red wine.