Pie in the sky

I HAVE finally managed to get the receipt of the macaroni pie described in The Leop- ard by Guiseppe Lampadusa. This comes from Anna Tasca d'Almerita, and is how the family make it now.

Timballo di Pasta Frolla Dolce

Make the meat sauce a day ahead:

1 lb lean, minced beef 2 onions, 2 carrots, 1 stick celery finely chopped 4 fluid oz of olive oil liot paprika 4 oz of frozen peas 24 fluid oz home-made tomato sauce

Put the meat into a non-stick frying pan and cook until browned, turning all the time to separate and fry evenly. Drain any fat or liquid off. Cook the vegetables in the olive oil until soft but not browned. Mix in the meat, peas and tomato sauce, paprika to taste; cover and simmer for 45 minutes until thickened. Cool, cover and refriger- ate.

Now for the pastry: Pasta FroIla:

14 oz of flour 8 oz of sugar 2 pinches of salt Grated peel of 2 lemons 721b of unsalted butter 5 egg yolks

For the béchamel:

1 level tablespoon of flour 1 oz of butter 18 fluid oz of milk 1 beef bouillon cube

For the filling:

'Mb (11 oz) perciatelli — or bucatini 24 fluid oz of the meat sauce

4 hard-boiled eggs 1 lb of fresh mozzarella 4 oz of chopped prosciutto 4 oz of chopped boiled ham 4 oz of freshly grated parmesan 2 egg whites lightly beaten for eggwash

Sieve the flour into a bowl or a work ser- vice. Make a well in the middle, add the salt, sugar and lemon peel. Cut the butter into half-inch pieces and work into the flour with your fingertips. Add the egg yolks one by one, working them into the dough. Avoid over-working the dough, just get it smooth and even and then wrap in cling film. Leave in the refrigerator to rest.

Make the béchamel sauce in the normal way and then add the bouillon cube (use a good one like 'Kano' which has no artificial additives) and simmer until thick. Butter a 10-inch springform tin and dust with flour. Cook the perciatelli or bucatini in boiling salted water until al dente. Drain thorough- ly and mix with the béchamel and the meat sauce.

Preheat the oven to Gas 6, 400F, 205C. Roll out half the pastry and line the tin, allowing the pastry to hang over the rim, or roll out a base and strips for the sides of the tin and reinforce the seams with rolled strips of pastry. Press firmly to seal the seams. Spread the base of the timbale with half of the pasta and sauce mixture. Thickly slice the eggs and mozzarella and lay evenly on top of the pasta. Combine the prosciutto and boiled ham with half the parmesan. Spread over the egg mixture. Finish with the rest of the pasta and sauce and sprinkle the remaining parmesan over the top.

Roll out the rest of the pastry into a cir- cle slightly larger than the tin. Cover the pie with the pastry and fold the overhang- ing dough up and over. Crimp together to seal securely. Decorate with the sign of the sun or the moon cut from the left over scraps of pastry and place in the centre of the timbale. Brush over with the eggwash. Place in the oven, lower the heat to Gas 4/5, 375F, 190C, and bake for one hour or until the pastry is golden brown. Let it rest for 2 minutes, then decant from the tin. Well, what an affair, but it will feed 10 to 12 people and would be splendid for a big Sunday lunch. All they will need after this magnificent creation is a salad and some fruit. Very suitable for this weekend, the 15th being the Assumption of Our Lady into Heaven. It is also Patrick Marnham's and Taki's birthdays, so good on them. I am very grateful to have got this dish at last, and am fascinated to find out that this old Sicilian family, the Count and Countess Giuseppe and Franca with their three daughters, Anna, Costanza and Rosemarie Tasca d'Almerita, all run a five-day intro- duction to the haute cuisine of Sicily from their family estate at Regaleali in Sicily. Must be heavenly, I can't wait to go. A famous winery, all the fresh food in the world and an hour from good old Palermo. Make me an offer I can't refuse.

Jennifer Paterson