OTHER PASTES.
Agnellotti ‘alla Poggio Gherardo.’
Take the meat of a boiled chicken (hare, pheasant, or any game will do as well) and pound in a mortar with one truffle, two ounces of crumb of bread soaked in veal broth, two ounces of butter, a pinch of salt, the same of pepper, and a little grated nutmeg. When well worked into a paste rub it through a sieve. Meanwhile take one pound of flour, three eggs, half a tumbler of milk, and a pinch of salt, mix up into a paste and work it well. Lay it aside for half an hour, then roll it out very thin, divide it in half and let it dry. Then take one half and put the meat paste on it in little heaps (half a teaspoonful) about three inches distant from each other. Cover them with the other half of paste, cut round the little heaps, and press the edges of the two pastes together to prevent the meat stuffing from coming out. Put the agnellotti into a sauce-pan with a great deal of salted boiling water in it, and boil slowly. When done take them out with a strainer, season with butter, grated Parmesan cheese, and good gravy. Serve very hot.
Crescioni.
Boil a bunch of spinach, drain it well and put it to simmer with some pure olive oil, a taste of shallot, some chopped parsley, and salt and pepper to taste: season with some raisins (stoned) and some currants, and a little sugar. Put the spinach into rounds of paste made of flour and eggs, about two inches in diameter, and fold the paste over the spinach (as you make a turnover). Fry in pure olive oil.
Gnocchi ‘alla Romana.’
Mix five and a half ounces of flour and two eggs in a sauce-pan, add one pint of milk by degrees, and three-quarters of an ounce of Gruyère cheese cut into bits. When the paste is cooked put in salt to taste, and three-quarters of an ounce of good butter, spread it in a dish to the thickness of three-quarters of an inch, and let it cool. Then cut it into small square pieces and pile it in layers in a baking-dish with three-quarters of an ounce of good butter in bits, and three-quarters of an ounce of grated Parmesan cheese between the layers (but not on the outside). Brown with the salamander or in a hot oven, and serve at once.
Gnocchi of Semolina.
Take one pint of milk, four and a half ounces of semolina and boil; before taking it off the fire add salt to taste, one ounce of good butter, and three-quarters of an ounce of Parmesan cheese. Before it gets cold mix in two eggs, then pour it out on a dish, spreading it in an even thickness of about three-quarters of an inch. When cold cut it in small square pieces. Pile them one on another in a vegetable dish, adding between each layer one ounce of good butter in bits, and some grated Parmesan cheese (but not on the top), put the gnocchi into a hot oven to be slightly browned, and serve hot.