National viands à la mode

Truss and flatten a young chicken, and slightly cook it in a saucepan with some butter, and then moisten with a wineglassful of light white wine and the same quantity of stock ; add a bunch of mixed herbs, salt and pepper, and cook for an hour over a very slow fire without letting it boil. Then take the chicken out of the saucepan and thicken the sauce with a piece of butter the size of a walnut worked up with flour. Take the hot dish on which the chicken is to be served and pour on it a portion of the sauce, and mix with it a good spoonful of grated cheese. Dish up the chicken and pour over it the rest of the sauce, with the same quantity of grated cheese ; then put it in the oven till it is slightly brown, and the sauce is completely absorbed. Polio con Olive Chicken and Olives Take some celery, onions, parsley, and carrots in equal portions ; chop them up and put them into a frying-pan with some butter, and let them fry a few minutes ; then truss a fowl, sprinkle a little salt over it, and roast it, basting well with boiling stock. Pound some large olives in the mortar with a little tomato juice ; add this to some of the gravy from the fowl, and let it boil up till it thickens, and when the chicken is cooked surround it with the same and serve ; two or three whole olives should be added to the sauce before serving. Polpettone Cut two onions into small pieces, fry them in oil till of a golden brown, then put them into a stewpan with meat cut into small pieces, a few slices of raw apple, salt, pepper, and some hot water ; let all boil up together, then add two spoonfuls of curry powder ; leave on the fire for ten or twelve minutes, then dish up and serve. Ravioli Prepare a paste with flour, eggs, and a pinch of salt. Have ready some forcemeat made from cooked fish, meat, or poultry, mixed with fine herbs and lemon peel chopped very fine. Roll the paste till it is as thin as parchment, cut it into circular pieces three or four inches in diameter ; place on each a portion of the forcemeat, then double the paste, and pinch the edges together. Place the raviuoli in a deep fire-proof dish, pour some stock over, and powder with grated Parmesan cheese. Put them in the oven for twenty or thirty minutes, and serve very hot in the dish in which they have been baked. Ravioli alla Fiorentina Take a quantity of beetroot, cut out the heart, wash it, and let it boil, and when it is cooked throw it into fresh water and leave it for a few minutes ; then squeeze it and pass it through a sieve and put it into a basin, mixing with it four eggs, an ounce of grated Parmesan cheese, a spoonful of rennet, an almond, spices, and salt, thoroughly macerating the different ingredients. Sprinkle some Vienna flour on the board, and put to it small pieces of dough, and with the palm of the hand roll it about and form into little balls the size of a nut. See that it is well covered with flour. Put these ravioli to cook in some boiling stock, throwing in a few at a time, and so gently that the liquid does not stop boiling, and when they have all risen, and swim to the top of the stock, take them out quickly and serve them with some good beef extract and grated Parmesan cheese. Risotto a la Milanaise