Mary
Taylor Simeti's Chicken Baked In a Hollowed Breadloaf
Also known
as Chicken Awsat, also known as Sala Cattabia, also known
as Pasticcio Di Mohammed Ibn Itmnah (Thummah), Emir of Catania
(One Easter specialty from the town of Aragona, a timbale in which macaroni
and pork take the place of rice and chicken, requires more than three
pounds of cheese and a total of forty eggs!)
We opted
for this interesting version with chicken in a bread loaf.
Serves
8 to 10
- One
4-pound chicken in parts
- One-quarter
olive oil
- 2 cups
(approximately) chicken broth
- Salt
and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 large
round loaf of crusty Italian bread
- 1/8
cup toasted almonds
- 1/8
cup pistachios
- 1 tablespoon
capers
- 1 tablespoon
chopped parsley
- 2 eggs,
lightly beaten
- Juice
of 1 lemon
Brown the
chicken in the oil, add 1 cup broth, salt , and pepper, and simmer until
tender, adding more broth if needed. Cool the chicken, remove the skin
and bones, and cut the meat into small pieces. Reserve both the meat
and the broth.
Cut the
bread horizontally, a little less than halfway down, so as to make a
dish and lid. Hollow out the bread, combine the crumbs with the reserved
broth, and press through a sieve.
Grind the
almonds and pistachios, together with the capers and parsley. Add to
the bread puree together with the eggs and lemon juice. The mixture
should be quite moist, so you may need to add an extra tablespoon or
two of broth. Combine with the chicken meat, spoon into the bread crust,
and replace the upper crust.
Bake 20
minutes in a 350 degree F oven. Serve cold.
The following
recipe was taken from POMP
AND SUSTENANCE: TWENTY-FIVE CENTURIES OF SICILIAN FOOD by Mary Taylor
Simeti (The Ecco Press, 1998, Reprinted by arrangement with Alfred A.
Knopf, Inc.)
StarChef
Mary Taylor Simeti was born and raised in New York City. In 1962 she
made her first trip to Sicily, where she now lives with her husband
and their two children. She is the author of ON
PERSEPHONE’S ISLAND: A SICILIAN JOURNAL (1986).
