I believe I first saw this when we rented the Stanley Tucci movie The Big Night.  When I googled it I found a link to The Proud Italian Cook’s blog.  And then I was commited to finding the bowl and enough mouths to feed to warrent making the dish. 

The word timpano can be found in three languages: Italian, Spanish and Portuguese.  It can mean drum or ear drum.

When I read through the recipe I thought the hard boiled eggs seemed odd (wrong).   I decided to leave them out.  Then I decided to put them in.  I went back and forth several times.  In the end, I included 8 of the 12 called for in the recipe.  DO PUT THE EGGS IN.  It seemed wrong when reading the recipe.  When you eat the Timpano, they belong. 

I will be giving you the way I made the Timpano and the order in which I prepared it.  I made the dough, the ragu and meat balls the day before I planned to serve the Timpano.  If you already have a family favorite for Ragu and/ or meat balls, I’m sure it would be wonderful.

The day before serving prepare the ragu, meatballs, dough and hard boiled eggs.

Timpano Alla Big Night

Drum of Ziti and Great Stuff

Adapted from:

Cucina & Famiglia

by

Joan Tropiano Tucci & Gianni Scappin

see filling below  ****

Ragu

1 1/2 pounds stewing beef (cut into 1/2 inch cubes)

2 medium onions chopped

5 cloves garlic chopped

1 cup dry red wine

6 ounce tomato paste (1 can)

1 cup water

8 cups (two 35 ounce cans) whole plum tomatoes

fresh basil to your taste (I used 1/4 cup chopped)

fresh oregano leaves (I used two stems)

Salt & pepper the stew beef and sear it in olive oil till nicely browned.  Remove meat from pan and saute onions till soft with minimal browning.  Turn heat down to saute the chopped garlic for about a minute.  Add wine and allow to simmer for a minute or two.  Add tomato paste and water and scrape the bottom of the pan.  Squeeze each plum tomato into pieces in your fist over the pan (try to avoid spashing all over yourself).  Return meat to pan and simmer until tender about an hour. 

Allow to cool.  Remove meat from ragu.  Measure 8 1/2 cups ragu, add in 1/2 cup water to the 8 1/2 cups.  This will be used for the Timpano. 

Add the meat to any remaining ragu and use for another meal.  Great as spagetti sauce.

Meat Balls

small loaf potato bread (that’s what I’d just baked the day before, Italian bread is called for)

2/3 pound ground beef

1/2 pound ground veal

1/2 pound ground pork

4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

6 garlic cloves chopped fine

1 large egg

3/4 cup parmesan cheese microplane grated fine

salt & pepper to taste

Cube thick bread slices trimmed of crust to cover a quarter sheet pan.  Allow to dry in the open a day or place in warm oven ( 175°F) for several hours until dry.

Pour enough water over bread crumbs to moisten.

Mix all ingredients until it holds together as a soft dough.

You can fry the meat balls but . . . well you know I took the easy way out here.  I just poached them in the ragu’s last 35 minutes of simmering and then fished both the meat balls and the stew meat out after it was cooled.   Easy enough to seperate the two as you pull them out. 

Dough

4 cups all-purpose flour

4 large eggs

1 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons olive oil

3 tablespoons water  PLUS

mister of water

Put the eggs, olive oil and 3 tablespoons of water in a small bowl and stir together.

Put the flour and salt in the mixing bowl and turn the mixer on.  Pour the liquid into the flour with the mixer running on low speed.  Continue mixing and add additional water until the dough comes together into a ball.  I used almost 6 tablespoons total of water.  Turn the dough out onto the counter and knead to be sure it is well mixed.  This is kneading the dough for just a couple of turns. 

Flatten the dough into a circle that fits in a plastic bag and refrigerate.

Eggs

Hard boil 8 to 12 eggs and refrigerate.

Assembly

Everything prepared the day before should be close to room temperature for assembly so remove from the refrigerator about an hour ahead.

****Filling****

1 pound Genoa salami pieces (or a favorite)

2 1/2 cups smoked provolone cheese (small cubes)

8 to 12 hard boiled eggs, shell, quartered

2 to 3 cups small meatballs

9 cups Ragu sauce

1 3/4 pounds penne pasta cooked very al dente

1 cup microplane grated Romano or Parmesan cheese

(four eggs beaten lightly - um. . . I forgot to put these in)

butter & olive oil to grease the bowl VERY well

Cook the pasta very al dente it will finish cooking in the oven.

If you have not do so earlier, separate the meatballs and the stew meat into separate bowls.  Toss the al dente cooked pasta with 2 cups of the Ragu sauce. 

Roll the dough out into a very large circle.  Place the bowl in the middle of the dough.  The circle needs to be big enough to come up the sides of the bowl and then cover the top.  The dough will be very thin - only about 1/16 inch thick.  Dust the counter and the dough with enough flour to prevent it from sticking.  Flip it over frequently.   Rolling the dough got very difficult toward the end.  Misting the middle of the dough with water just lightly from time to time kept the dough moist enough to continue rolling and made it easier.

Fold the dough into quarters to position it in the well greased bowl.

Layer the fillings into the dough lined bowl as follows:

almost half the pasta sauce with ragu

half the salami

half the provolone cheese

4 quartered hard-boiled eggs

half the meatballs

half the parmesan cheese

2 cup ragu sauce

Repeat:

half the pasta sauce with ragu

half the salami

half the provolone cheese

4 quartered hard-boiled eggs

half the meatballs

half the parmesan cheese

2 cup ragu sauce

thin layer of remaining pasta with ragu

4 gently beaten eggs

top with remaining ragu sauce

Fold the dough hanging over the sides of the bowl to cover the pasta.  Trim excess especially double and triple layers but seal completely.

(Maybe refrigerated an hour or two before baking.)

Bake uncovered until lightly browned, about an hour.  Cover with foil.  Bake another 30 to 50 minutes - until the internal temperature measures at least 120°F.

Allow to cool 20 to 30 minutes.  Invert onto serving platter and allow another 15 minutes to sit.

The recipe says to cut a circle (about 3 inches in diameter) in the center.  The center acts as something of a center support column while the outside is cut into pie like wedges to serve.

This was impressive to bring to the table to say the least.  Everyone enjoyed it immensly.  Since I forgot the beaten eggs at the very end it could have used some extra ragu.  When I make it again I may leave the eggs out but if I do I’ll add more ragu and or serve some extra ragu on the side. 

One of my regular reads is More Than Burnt Toast written by the lovely blogger Val.  Val has a post up on Pastitsio Venetsianiko.  I believe you’ll see an immediate resemblance between these two dishes - they are not the same but do share some connections.  Let me know what you think.

Dessert . . . well yes we did have a lovely dessert but it’s way to early to tell you about that . . . later I promise. 

And bread . . . well yes we had bread as well and I’ll get to that in good time as well.

This is a great dish for a crowd of good friends and family.  Even if there seems to be nothing extra special to celebrate  bringing this dish to the table will bring out the celebration in everybody.  It takes time but so much can be done ahead and the assembly is not difficult.  I know I’ll be doing it again.