Timpano (Italian pasta dome)

Some time ago I watched television (which I seldom do) and a Dutch culinary chef introduced a typical Italian dish: the Timpano. The chef referred to the movie 'Big Night', in which there is a dramatic final dinner scene where a Timpano is served: a kind of drum made of pasta dough filled with layers of pasta, meat, sauce and eggs. Intrigued by the beauty of the result they showed on television, I started to scan the world wide web for recipes and made my own Timpano. This is how I did it....

Ingredients:
-  tomato sauce (recipe below)
- 15 small Italian meatballs (recipe below)
-  béchamel sauce (recipe below)
-  pasta dough (recipe below)
-  about 900 g baked sausages (I used a combination of pork and beef sausages)
-  about 800 g pasta, preferably penne rigate
-  6 boiled eggs (or 15 very small ones, which I get from my bantam chickens
- 300 g grated cheese (Parmesan and old Gouda cheese)
- nutmeg

Tomato sauce:
Make this great sauce the day before preparing the Timpano; it's getting (even) better the next day....
- 1 onion
- 15 whole cloves
- 4 tins peeled tomatoes (in my country a tin contains 400 g tomatoes and there juice)
- 170 g tomato paste
- 4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
- a glass of red wine
- a teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
- a teaspoon dried basil
- a tablespoon sugar
- olive oil
- pepper and salt

Cut the onion in 2 halves and  pierce the cloves into it. Let the onion simmer for about 5 to 10 minutes in a good splash of olive oil in a sauce pan on the baking plate. When browned and all the flavors are infused into the oil, remove them and put the garlic in the pan and sauté them for some minutes, until golden brown. Add the tomatoes, the paste, the herbs, the sugar, the red wine and pepper and salt. Bring it to a boil and transfer the pan to the simmering oven for about  an hour and a half. Take it out a few times for stirring. When ready, let it cool down for using the next day.

Italian meatballs:

Make the meatballs also a day before and keep them overnight in the tomato sauce.

- 900 g mixed ground meat (beef and pork)

- a large teacup breadcrumbs

- a lot of chopped fresh parsley

- a teaspoon dried Italian seasoning

- 80 g of the grated cheese

- 2 teaspoons salt

- half a teaspoon pepper

- a quarter teaspoon ground nutmeg

-  a large egg, beaten

- almost a teacup of warm water

Mix all the ingredients with your hands and form about 15 small meatballs. Put the meatballs in a baking tin (on a sheet of baking paper) and let them bake for about half an hour in the baking oven (turn them over after 20 minutes). Keep them overnight in the tomato sauce.

Béchamel sauce:
- 70 g butter
- 70 g flour
- 700 ml milk
- 2 teaspoons salt
- a half teaspoon nutmeg

In a medium saucepan, heat the butter on the simmering plate until it is melted. Add the flour and stir until smooth. Cook until light golden brown, 6 to 7 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat the milk in a separate pan until just about to boil. Add the milk to the butter mixture 1 cup at a time, whisking continuously until very smooth. Bring to a boil and cook for 30 seconds. Remove from heat and season with salt and nutmeg.

Pasta dough: 
- 325 g flour
- 170 g cold butter + 30 g butter
- 4 egg yolks
- a half teaspoon salt
- 125 g toasted breadcrumbs
- 30 ml olive oil
- 1 teaspoon ice water

Prepare the dough by putting the flour on the working surface and make a well in the top. Cut the cold butter into small cubes and place them in the center of the well with the egg yolks, the salt and the ice water. Mix well with the tips of your fingers to form a lumpy mass. Bring together as a dough and knead it for about 5 minutes. Wrap the dough in plastic and let it rest a few minutes.

Now the great moment is there... building the timpano!
Roll out the pasta dough to a large circle, about 5 mm thick. Butter a large metal bowl (20 to 30 cm wide, I used a large pan) and dust it thickly with the toasted breadcrumbs. Line the bowl completely with the pasta dough, with an overhang which is large enough to cover everything when the timpano is filled with all the ingredients. Now cook your penne in enough water, 3 minutes less than the package instructions state. Drain the penne and refresh under cold running water until cold. Toss with some olive oil and mix 1/3 of it it with a large amount of the of the tomato sauce and half the grated cheese. Set aside.
Mix the rest of the penne with the béchamel sauce (you won't need all the sauce), the rest of the grated cheese and some nutmeg. Put it into the bowl, and press lightly.

Place 1/3 of the tomato sauce penne into the bowl and press lightly. Sprinkle with some of the grated cheese and arrange the meatballs on top in an even layer, and press down again. Sprinkle with more grated cheese. 

Now spread half of the remaining tomato sauce pasta over the meatballs and press down gently. Add a layer of the cooked sausages and the cooked eggs.

Repeat with a final layer of penne with tomato sauce.

Fold the extra pasta over the whole thing, and press gently to seal.

Let it bake in the baking oven for about 2 hours, halfway the beakingtime cover the top loosely with aluminium foil.

Remove from the oven, remove the foil, and invert onto a large serving platter, without removing the bowl. Allow to rest 10 minutes, then carefully loosen the pasta around the sides with a knife and knock with your knuckles to release the bowl.

Serve immediately, cutting the timpano into wedges to serve. Timpano is a great dish for a crowd with a side salad.

Klik hier om dit recept in het Nederlands te lezen.