Everyone has a food goal. A quest. A grail, if you will. That thing that you want to make that you feel that you don't have the skills to do. David calls it "slaying the food dragon."
For lovers of Italian food (me) and movies (me again), that food dragon is the timpano, the dome-shaped pasta baked in a ceramic basin and filled with layers of pasta, ragu, meatballs, chunks of cheese and salami and hard-boiled eggs that features in the long dinner party scene at the center of the terrific movie Big Night. If you love food--and if you're reading this I have to assume that you do--then you owe it to yourself to see this movie about two Italian brothers trying and failing to run a restaurant serving traditional food in 1950s New Jersey.
Ever since I first saw this movie in 1997, I have wanted to make the legendary timpano. For my birthday this year, David bought me a pan that he asserted was for us to finally make it. Six weeks passed, and this past weekend we were planning a big cast and crew dinner for Inspecting Carol on Sunday night. During the week I said, "why don't we make the timpano?"
We hemmed and hawed and looked at recipes. There's no doubt that it is a lot of work. You make a pasta dough for the shell, the ragu and meatballs for the filling. Lots of cutting and slicing and precision work. But in the end, we just went for it.
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| These were adapted from a recipe by Lidia Bastianich, and they were the bomb. More on them to come. |
Revelation: it's not that hard.
Yes, it's a lot of work, and I will keep tweaking the recipe before I blog about making this. The ragu wasn't quite right, and the dough for the shell needed to be thinner. For those who are curious about what it entails, I found this one on the internet. The one we used is a little different, and more closely approximates the one in the movie, which is an adaptation of actor Stanley Tucci's family recipe.
I did love the meatball recipe I used and adapted, which I will blog about separately this week. In the interim, what I'd love to know is this: what is your food grail? I look forward to hearing!
Holy moly! This is awesome! I agree with you about the grail!
ReplyDeleteYes, it is hard to step out of the comfort zone and I do have a dessert item that I do need to get out of my system. I need some quiet time and a lot of it if I want it to come out right and the idea of failure is what is keeping me from it.
ReplyDeleteBravo to you for finally taking that step, it turned out perfectly! Simply delicious.
Wow, this looks completely amazing! :) I bet it was beyond delicious!
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I have a Food Grail, but maybe it would be Kaiserschmarrn.
What an outcome with plenty of patience to creative this recipe and great job done but I am not sure whether I am game for it.
ReplyDelete@Kiri, I have no idea what a Kaiserschmarrn is, but now I'm curious and will look it up.
ReplyDelete@Tina, what is that grail dessert? Inquiring minds want to know!
It's shame on me that I thought I love Italian food but I never knew about Timpano! WOW! You nailed it! It does look a bit tricky to cook it but I would be too scared to give it a try. It's true - totally it is slaying the food dragon experience!
ReplyDeleteWow, that is impressive! Great job!
ReplyDeleteI love that you made this! I made a post (http://wp.me/p12mpj-vH) over a year ago about wanting this and still haven't made it. You go girl!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Krista! This looks awesome and I thank you for sharing it with us.
ReplyDeleteWow.. I have never heard of this pasta dish. It looks very interesting...with meatballs and hard boiled eggs. You know I'm a little crazy about meatballs. I ordered the Mozza cookbook... I can't wait to get it and try it. :)
ReplyDeleteThis is a work of ART my dear girl Bravo!~
ReplyDeleteIt's in my future. It may even be a resolution. Been thinking about it all autumn. Brava to you for doing it!
ReplyDelete@Claudia, if you make one you I'd love to see it!
ReplyDeleteCroissants. Have the recipe, have been eyeballing it for months, will do it some day I have all day to fold and chill, fold and chill.
ReplyDeletegreat post,very impressive !!
ReplyDeleteRidwan
This dish is very impressive. Yum!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations! For me it's croissants, zabayon and hollandaise. You ROCK! ...and it looks delicious!
ReplyDeleteWhat a fabulous food goal! This dish looks amazing...I can't wait to see your eventual masterpiece as round one looks darn tasty!
ReplyDeleteI have tagged timpanos in cookbooks to make, but have never gotten to making one. I am so impressed that you actually did it. I cannot wait to see your final version.
ReplyDeleteWHOA! That is totally a food beast! That's like the Orochi of food. Looks fantastic, well done :)
ReplyDeleteOh, and there certainly is a Michael's Gen in Florida! Have you been?
I have a lot of food dragons I need to slay haha! You did an awesome job on this one! I hope it was as delicious as it looks ;)!
ReplyDeleteYou've totally slain that dragon! I'm going to have to make this pasta pie!
ReplyDelete@Jill, I think that's a great goal--I made croissants once years ago, and it's an enormous amount of work. David probably wishes I would make them again!
ReplyDelete@Ann, I've seen your recipes--I know you're more than up to sabayon and hollandaise!
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ReplyDeleteWHY HAVE I NEVER HEARD OF THIS BEFORE? This may be the single greatest thing I have seen in a long time. Vegetarian or not, I can appreciate the amount of awesomeness stuffed into one pocket of heaven!
This dish looks great.
ReplyDelete