Serves 6
700 g (1 1/2 lb) fennel bulbs
60 g (2 oz) unsalted butter
sea salt
300 ml (1/2 pint) full-fat milk
30 g (1 oz) flour
a generous grating of nutmeg
3 free-range eggs
4 tbsp freshly grated Parmesan cheese
freshly ground pepper, preferably white
3 tbsp dried breadcrumbs
‘A sformato, a dish which figures largely in Italian home cooking but never in restaurants, is a cross between a soufflé and what we should call a pudding.’ Thus wrote Elizabeth David in Italian Food, first published in 1954. And how right she was so many years ago, when nobody outside Italy, or even outside northern Italian families of a certain milieu, knew what a sformato was. In my home, sformati of different vegetables, often mixed in sections in the same mould, were the usual entremets at dinner parties. They replaced fish on giorni di magro – fast days – when a sformato would precede a sea bass or a daurade.
My impression is that nowadays sformati are rarely served at home; while, with slight modifications, they have become the most fashionable fare to be had in a restaurant, where they appear in individual portions and are called sformatini or timballini – timbales in Britain. One reason why a sformato is less often served at home is that the usual meal now consists of no more than three courses, and the Italians like a minestra for the primo and meat or fish for the secondo.
A sformato makes a good supper dish or a perfect start to a dinner party. It looks most impressive when served, and it is less nerve-racking for the hostess than a soufflé, since it will not collapse. If you butter a mould very carefully and very generously, and sprinkle it all over with dried breadcrumbs, you will have no difficulty in unmoulding it.
A sformato can be made with French beans, with fresh or dried peas, with carrots, artichokes, spinach, aubergines, in fact with most vegetables that are cooked first and then chopped or puréed. In the past, eggs and béchamel were used for binding, but now cream is often used instead. A sformato can be served with various sauces, the most common being a tomato sauce, perfect with a sformato of French beans or of aubergines, and a fonduta (here), my favourite with spinach or with the fennel mould described below.
You can make individual sformatini by using darioles or ramekins. Unmould them on individual plates and surround them with a little of the chosen sauce. The recipe here is for a large sformato.
Cut away all the green tops of the fennel, also the stalks and any bruised or brown parts of the outside leaves. Reserve a handful of the green top. (Do not throw all the rest away, it will make a good soup for the family with the addition of a potato or two.)
Cut the fennel bulbs into vertical slices about 5 mm (1/4 inch) thick. Wash the slices, and the reserved fennel top and dry with kitchen paper.
Melt 30 g (1 oz) of the butter in a sauté pan. When the butter begins to foam, add the fennel and cook for 5 minutes. Add salt and half the milk. Cover the pan and cook very gently until the fennel is tender – about 20 minutes. Keep a watch on the fennel and add a little water if it becomes too dry.
Chop the fennel by hand or in the food processor to a very coarse purée. Transfer to a bowl.
Heat the oven to 190°C (375°F) mark 5.
Make a fairly thick béchamel sauce (see here) with the remaining butter, the flour and the rest of the milk. Flavour the béchamel with the grated nutmeg and then add to the fennel purée.
Beat the eggs together lightly with a fork and add to the fennel mixture together with the Parmesan and the pepper. Mix very thoroughly, then taste and adjust the seasoning.
Prepare the mould. Butter a ring-mould of 900 ml (1 1/2 pint) capacity very generously. If you are nervous about unmoulding the sformato, line the base of the ring with parchment paper and butter the paper. Sprinkle the mould with the breadcrumbs and then shake off the excess crumbs.
Spoon the mixture into the prepared mould. Place the mould in a baking tin and fill the tin with very hot water to come two-thirds of the way up the side of the mould. Place the tin in the preheated oven and cook for about 45 minutes, until a thin skewer or a toothpick inserted into the middle of the sformato comes out dry.
Allow to stand for 5 minutes. Loosen the sides of the sformato with a metal spatula and place a round dish over it. Turn the dish and the mould over, shake the mould lightly and lift it off. Remove the paper, if you were using it.
Fill the hole in the sformato with the sauce, and spoon a few tablespoons around it. Serve the rest of the sauce in a warm sauce-boat.