La Lama Mountain Ovens
Old Italian family recipes
and archives, baking tips, and bakery gifts
Family Secrets
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La Lama Mountain Ovens |
The best of the recipes, techniques, and methods practiced by our large extended Italian-American family - with emphasis on the legacy handed down to us by the original immigrants. This is a cookbook-in-process project. If you try any of these recipes please let us know how they turn out, whether or not you had any difficulties, and any clarifying improvements you might recommend to make them foolproof. We will of course acknowledge genuine "test-kitchen" assistance. |
Family Secrets #18Chicken Scaparelli By Ray Zara, La Lama Mountain Ovens |
| We’ve
all learned the basic wine with food rule, "Red wine
with pasta and meat, white wine with fish and fowl".
I’m quite sure that this basic guideline has
influenced your decision when choosing a bottle of wine
to serve with your dinner. Over the years I have stayed
fairly close to this premise, straying occasionally to
satisfy my own moods and personal choices. One would
further surmise the same premise holds true when cooking
with wine; but here we are going to stray from tradition
in the pursuit of turning the common chicken into a very
uncommon but delightful entrée. This was one of my sister Gloria’s favorite dishes. I have researched our library of Italian cookbooks and was unsuccessful in finding anything like it. While living in New Jersey, however, I remember seeing it on a menu in a great Italian restaurant in Union City called Casa Dante. The dish consists of chicken and sausage, braised in an infused rosemary red wine sauce. Scaparelli is simple to prepare and outlandishly delicious, and for those of you who are tradition bound, it is an opportunity to break the rules and serve a dry red dinner wine with a chicken dish. You may choose to use a whole chicken, or chicken parts cut in the same manner as my recipe for chicken spezzatino. Please reference the spezzatino recipe for cutting instructions. |
 Sister Gloria(1923-1995) Brother Bill (1921-1995) Picture 1929 |
| "Infusion" is a
very simple technique that will impart the flavor of
fresh rosemary into the sauce without having the herb
physically present in the finished dish. At the proper
time you will add a couple of sprigs of fresh rosemary to
the pan. Later, you will pick the rosemary out of the
sauce and discard it. "Cured" olives are used in this recipe. You can generally find them in the ethnic or deli section at your local supermarket. These olives are always packed dry and with pits, and are not to be confused with canned olives in liquid. They add a special layer of flavor to the final dish that cannot be achieved with a substitute. Although not absolutely necessary, brining the cut up chicken is recommended, if time allows. _____________________________ Chicken Scaparelli Serves four: |
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Step One: Brown the
chicken and sausage
Step Two: Deglaze pan
and precook chicken and sausage
Step Three: Braise the chicken and sausage and create the sauce
Step Four: Finish the sauce
_____________________________ If you prefer your sauce thicker, you may whisk in a couple of pats of floured butter while reducing. I personally prefer the sauce a little on the thin side, to dunk my homemade bread in while enjoying the Scaparelli. Generally in our home this dish was served without the benefit of side dishes other than a salad. However, a portion of polenta with a spoonful of pan sauce would be a very nice addition to the plate if you wanted to add a starch. Are there any hunters in your house? The above technique works very well with small game. My father would come home from a day’s hunt with three or four rabbits and prepare this dish the following day. He omitted the sausage from the recipe when using game, but it will work well either way. Domestic rabbit that can be purchased in supermarkets does not work in this recipe. They are simply too lean and dry out too quickly. The technique and recipe works extremely well with squab, if you are fortunate enough to find them. I can remember a young man who raised pigeons in a roof top coop next to the old Majestic Theater in Ellwood City, Pennsylvania, where I grew up. In the spring of the year dad used to purchase a basket of young squab, and he and I would butcher them and have them for dinner the following day. It was quite a chore, but well worth the effort. If you ever have occasion to get a dozen or so of these young birds, it will be a real treat for your family and friends. Remember, the bird has to be young enough to have never flown. Once flying, it is a pigeon and not acceptable for this delicacy . Altitude Adjustment: None required. |
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