Bollito Misto

Mixed Boiled Meats

A true triumph of Italian cuisine. The meats used to prepare a good bollito misto are fowl, beef, veal, and fresh sausage such as cotechino and zampone. The size or the types of meats to be used for bollito cannot be too small, or the result will be poor. Leftovers can be served cold in various preparations. The recipe given below is for minimum quantities and types of meat.

One can readily see that if the bollito is for several people, larger cuts of meats can be used; the dish will therefore be more flavorful.

1 carrot
1 onion
1 celery stalk
1 lb. brisket
1/2 lb. veal breast
1/2 lb. calf's head
1 pig's foot
1 fresh cotechino
1/2 capon
1/2 lb. veal tongue
salt

Start the meats in boiling water to seal in the juices. If you start in cold water, you will obtain a good broth, not a good bollito.

Bring the water to a boil with the chopped vegetables in a large pot. Add the beef, the veal parts (breast, tongue and calf's head) and the pig's foot. Add the seasoning. Cover the pot, lower the flame and cook for 2 hours, then add the capon and cook for 30 mins. Cook the cotechino in salted water in a separate pot, pricking the sausage so the casing will not burst. When the cotechino is soft (it normally takes about 1 1/2 hours), add to the other meats. Cook for another 1/2 hour and remove from fire. Separate the fatty meats from the lean, skim the broth and keep the meats in the broth, until ready to serve.

Ideally, boiled meats should be presented in their broth and sliced only at tableside.

Note 1: This is the original version but all the various cuts of meat may also be cooked separately.

Note 2: Bollito misto may be accompanied by several types of sauces, salsa verde (green sauce), mostarda di frutta (preserved spiced fruit), or cipolline in agrodolce (spring onions in sweet and sour sauce), pickled vegetables or minced raw pepper with oil and vinegar, salt and pepper.

Note 3: Leftovers from bollito misto may be served in various ways: as a salad with capers, anchovies, gherkins, or aromatic herbs mixed in oil and vinegar or with a condiment of tomato sauce and onions (in which case it is served hot). It may also be ground for polpettone (meat loaf).