Timpano Is a New Thanksgiving staple

Many people have decided to throw off the comforting blanket of tradition and familiarity and ask the big question: How has turkey, a meat that can be easily dried and described as “flavorless,” become the star of this holiday season’s most gluttonous culinary event? While turkey can be delicious when cooked properly, it will taste exactly like turkey. There are many other options. A pan of lasagna is an excellent solution to this problem. Your guests have the option to eat it as a side or main dish at their own discretion. This year, however, we are moving from lasagna to a pasta entree that is truly a show-stopper in Hollywood: Timpano.

Timpano creation and unveiling includes all the ingredients necessary for a lively Thanksgiving love feast: the teamwork involved in the prep, drama during the flip, and the cheers and ahhs at the reveal. This is a dish that you can bond with and make a fuss about. Timpano doesn’t require you to abandon your family’s traditional recipes. The Grandma Tootsie’s meatballs with sauce, Aunt’s spinach pie and Uncle’s rustica pizza are just a few of the ingredients in our timpano. Do you realize how similar that sounds to a casting call on The Sopranos?

What is Timpano?

Tony Shalhoub, a character in the 1996 food-feast classic Big Night said that Timpano was a pasta with a unique crust… It’s one of the most important things in this world.” In Italy, it’s called “timballo” (or simply “timpano”), a dome-shaped pasta shell made from pasta, rice, eggplant and filled with a delicate layering of meat, cheese, vegetables, and pasta that varies from one region to another. Stanley Tucci’s family recipe is well-known. It includes his family’s ragu and meatballs, as well as hard-boiled eggs, Genoa salami, pasta, and hard-boiled eggs. We have given it a twist by adding sauteed spinach and replacing the hard-boiled eggs with pizza rustica filling, which is a mix of Italian deli meats and cheese, bound together with an egg. It’s a bit like a quiche.

This is no easy meal, but it can be done if you plan ahead and get some help. It’s not just one dish, it’s a collection of Italian dishes that are committed to living together under the pasta shell. Each layer needs its own recipe and set-of hands. This creates a terrifying moment of suspense when someone inverts the dish onto the base, before cutting open it. Timpano works best when it is unveiled before a crowd of hungry guests. Your hard work will be greatly appreciated and rewarded with much-deserved praise.

While making a timpano is a time-consuming task, it doesn’t need to be stressful. Planning ahead is the biggest tip. You can make the majority of the pieces of the Timpano puzzle up to four days before baking. You can make the pizza rustica filling or sauteed spinach up to four days ahead of baking. You can make uncooked meatballs, shape them, and store in the fridge for up to one day. You can also refrigerate the pasta dough for up to one day, but we recommend that you make it the day before to avoid it becoming stiff and difficult to roll.

It will help to break down the tasks and check them off over the weeks leading up Thanksgiving. After everyone has been able to get together to put the ingredients into the pasta shell, you will have a moment of panic when you think that your beautiful layers won’t fit in. Don’t worry about it. They will fit.

The pizza rustica filling

Ingredients:

• 1/4 pound aged Provolone
• 1 lb ricotta
• 1/4 pound pepperoni
• 1/4 lb ham
• Prosciutto 1/8 pound
• 1 lb Genoa salami
• 7 oz low-moisture shredded cheese
• 10 large eggs. (Note: While many pizza rustica recipes call for more ricotta, there are still plenty of good options. However, you will need the extra eggs to create a solid binding layer at the bottom of your timpano.)
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper

We hope you are excited to eat some cured meats or cheeses during preparation. Ask your butcher for 1/4 inch thick slices when buying meat. It will make your job much easier as you can then dicing and mix the meat. After you have cut the salami, prociutto, ham and pepperoni into quarter-inch pieces, combine your meat and cheeses in a bowl with 10 eggs and pepper. If you are doing this ahead of the time, cover it and let it cool in the refrigerator.

Meatballs, sauce and preparation

Ingredients for the meatballs:

• Ground beef 1 lb
• Ground pork 1/2 lb
• Ground veal 1/2 pound
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup breadcrumbs, soaked in 1/2 cup milk. Let sit for a few moments.
• 1/2 cup parmesan
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper

Ingredients for the sauce:

• 2 28-ounce jars with San Marzano tomatoes
• 1 jar 14-ounces of tomato puree or passata
• 3 minced garlic cloves
• 1/2 yellow onion, diced
• 1 teaspoon salt
• red pepper
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• Fresh basil

Milk is one of the secrets to tender moist meatballs. So soak your breadcrumbs in milk. Mix the ground beef, pork, and vegetable in a large bowl. Add eggs, parmesan cheese and minced garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Grab your rings and watches off and get down to work. Mix everything together. Add the moistened breadcrumbs to the mixture and mix them in. The mixture should be rolled into 1-1/2 inch balls. You can freeze the meatballs up to one day if you do this ahead.

Once you are ready to prepare your sauce, brown the meatballs. To make your sauce, heat a nonstick skillet or cast iron skillet until it is hot. Then add oil. Make sure to brown the meatballs evenly on all sides. Rotate them frequently. To avoid crowding the skillet, you’ll most likely need to cook this in 3-4 batches.

Heat oil in large saucepan over medium heat. Cook the red pepper flake and diced onion until translucent. Add any herbs. Add the minced garlic, and cook until fragrant. Add the San Marzano tomatoes and passata, or tomato puree, to the mixture. Season with salt. Reduce the meatballs to the marinara, and let it simmer for an hour.

Sauteed spinach

Sauteed spinach ingredients:

• 4 bags of spinach
• 3 cloves garlic,
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 pinch ground nutmeg
• Half a lemon zest
• Flakes of red pepper

Rinse the spinach and remove any hard stems. In a large skillet, heat olive oil. Add the minced garlic and red pepper flakes. Add the spinach. You can add the spinach in small batches. Wait until it starts to wilt before adding more. Stirring constantly, cook the spinach on high heat until it is fully wilted. Salt and pepper, along with a pinch of ground nutmeg and lemon zest, should be added. Next, squeeze out any excess water from your perfectly wilted spinach. Transfer the mixture to a strainer. Use a wooden spoon to push it down until all liquid is gone.

The crust

Ingredients:

• 4 cups flour
• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 tablespoons of water

The task should be given to the most experienced person in a room. Make a mound of flour and then dig out a place for the eggs, olive oils, and salt. Mix the dry ingredients with the salt in a flour divot. Beat the dough using a fork until it is smooth. Add additional tablespoons of water if necessary to make a shaggy dough. Kneel for 10 minutes, until the dough is smooth and not sticky. Let the dough rest for half an hour before covering it. After letting the dough rest for half an hour, roll it out on a floured surface. It’s okay if it takes a while. It’s normal for the dough to feel a little stiff and then spring back.

The most important part

You will need these items and other ingredients to complete the assembly.

• Butter
• Large cutting board
• 2 lb ziti
• 7 ounces low-moisture mozzarella
• 8 ounces fresh mozzarella
• A dutch oven or enamel timpano dish
• Rolling pin

It’s time. Get your team together and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Use a mixture of butter and oil to coat the inside of the dutch oven. We don’t want your delicious creations to stick. Place the pasta sheet in the dutch oven by gently rolling it. Start by filling the timpano first with pasta. Next, add a layer of meatballs and then a layer of pasta. Next, add half of the low-moisture mozzarella to your sauce. Continue this process to make another layer. You want to fill as much space as you can. Place your sauteed spinach in an even layer. Don’t be afraid of rubbing it down to ensure it’s smooth. Add the final layer of pizza rustica topping. Make sure to cover the dough from all sides with the extra dough.

Bake covered for 45 minutes until the crust is golden brown. Bake covered for an additional half-hour or until internal temperature reaches 120 degrees. Although it will be tempting to slice it immediately after it has been removed from the oven (or until it reaches 125 degrees), it is important that it rests for at least an hour.

You are now ready. Invert your timpano onto the large cutting board before your hungry crowd. Allow it to rest for 20 minutes more so that the ingredients can settle before you slice into it.