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Pigeons Bologna-Style
cat: main, fancy
servings: 2

2 pigeons or squabs with their livers
8 slices fatty prosciutto crudo, pancetta
- or other slices of quality pig fat
10 sage leaves
1 bay leaf
3 cloves
Salt and pepper
3 oz vinegar
4 oz dry wine, red or white
1 c stock, chicken if possible
2 c green peas
1 onion
A little butter and oil
1 lemon
Stale bread
Kitchen string

Pigeons with Peas, Bologna Style Piccioni in umido

Gorgeous self-contained romantic dinner in a pot. A
traditional recipe from Bologna, Italy.

For one so keen on taking pictures of food you'd think that
my favorite cookbooks are the ones with the most pictures.
Not quite! Food photography ages very fast and excellent
books written 10 years ago sometimes reek of naphtaline when
you look at the pictures. A picture may be worth a thousand
words, but words just age better. So in my cooking library,
the place of choice is reserved for unillustrated books
describing the food of yore. One of my favorite collections
are the Italian Traditions books by Newton Compton, the
Italian publisher, with their trademark ruby robe. They sell
for less than $10 a piece, a real bagain when you consider
that each book contains over 700 recipes from one region of
Italy. I have them all. Why are they unknown if they are so
good? They are in Italian only. When you think that in
America three new cookbooks are published every day, most of
which will never make it to the bookshops, I wonder when
somebody will have the idea of translating those. One of my
favorites is La cucina bolognese by Alessandro Molinari, a
food journalist from Bologna. It is a treasure-trove of old
recipes. One of them, called 'Piccioni in umido' intrigued
me by the author's comment: "Gourmets know of no better way
of preparing pigeons". It is simple to prepare and will make
a wonderful romantic supper provided you can find the
pigeons. And please, don't tell me you work in the City and
have never seen a pigeon in a shop.

Untie and wash the pigeons. Remove the internal organs and
wash the hearts, livers and gizzards. Make sure there is
absolutely no trace of the greenish bile on the liver or
this would turn your dish into a bitter prison disciplinary
stew. Stuff a few sage leaves inside the pigeons.

Place a few sage leaves on the pigeon skin and wrap with the
ham, prosciutto, pancetta or bacon slices. Do not be afraid,
it is really easy as the ham will stick to the meat. Cut a
forearm-long piece of kitchen string, make a loop and tie
the back of the pigeon, then make another loop around the
legs to close it.

Heat a little butter with a tablespoon olive oil in a large,
heavy pot with a tight-fitting lid.

Fry the onions gently until they become soft. Do not let
them turn brown at this stage.

With your hands or kitchen tongs, delicately place the
pigeons in the pot for their last voyage, making sure not to
tear the ham or string.

Add three cloves and one bay leaf crushed in tiny pieces.

Let the pigeon roast on one side;turn them around with care.

When the pigeon is nicely browned all over, add the organs.
You can crush them or chop them into tiny pieces, but you
can't discard them - bird offal is essential to the taste.
If you don't believe me please try with a wee bit of pigeon
liver in the sauce and see how nice it is, nothing like the
awful pork liver they serve in the army.

Continue to fry over medium high heat until the liver has
coagulated - it will turn grey.

Vinegar now? Yes, a small glass of fine vinegar goes into
the pot, followed by a large glass of dry red or white wine.
After the long simmering there will not be very much left of
the wine apart from some sweetness and tartness, so the
color of the wine does not make a huge difference. The
vinegar apparently evaporates during the cooking and what
seems like an unwieldly large quantity is barely perceptible
on the tongue when you serve the dish.

Let the liquid boil and the alcohol evaporates over high
heat; then add a cup of hot stock. Season with salt and
pepper.

Cover and simmer over low heat for 30 minutes or so. My
recipe indicated a minimum of 40 minutes but nowadays we
like our pigeon red, so I would recommend 20 to 30 minutes.

Italian cuisine can play tricks on foreign visitors. You
need to order the main course and any accompaniment
separately. If you order pigeons, they'll serve you pigeon
with nothing else. This dish is a very pleasing exception as
it is entirely self contained. We will now cook the green
peas in the pigeon sauce.

First we will remove the pigeons from the sauce to avoid
overcooking them while the peas cook. Prepare a flat dish
and kitchen tongs.

See how the ham has become crisp and still nicely wrap the
pigeon after the long simmer?

Reserve the pigeons and cover to keep warm.

Pour the peas into the stock.

Mix well. You can leave the gizzards, hearts and livers in
the pot. Don't eat them if they scare you but they'll add to
the peas' flavor.

Simmer well-covered for about 20 minutes or until the peas
are no longer floury. Bring out your best ladle.

Cut your stale bread into slices and toast them. What we
need is really hard bread that will not turn into a mush
when dipped into the sauce. You could also fry one-day-old
bread slices in some oil or let it dry for a half an hour in
a 70C oven. Lay the bread in the serving dish.

Carefully place the peas and cooking liquid over the bread
with the ladle, including the gizzards.

Continue until you either run out of peas or your dish is
filled up.

On this green bed lay the pigeons for a short rest. Sprinkle a
little lemon juice on top the pigeons to wake the tartness up.

Serve with sauce-soaked croutons. A delicious way to eat
pigeons indeed!

fxcuisine.com

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