Pani câ Meusa

Spleen and lung simmered then held in hot lard, served in a roll plain or with cheese.

Veal. Not vegetarian — contains lard, ricotta whose rennet the source does not name, veal.

Ingredients

• 600 g veal spleen
• 300 g veal lung
• 300 g lard
• 4 sesame rolls
• 150 g caciocavallo or ricotta, if serving it maritata
• 2 lemons
• 1.5 teaspoons salt

Method

1. Simmer the spleen and lung in salted water for 45 minutes, then cool them completely — overnight is better. Cold meat slices thinly; warm spleen tears.
2. Slice both as thinly as you can manage, in strips.
3. Melt the lard in a deep pan until it is properly hot but not smoking.
4. Fry the strips in batches for 3 minutes, then KEEP THEM SUBMERGED IN THE WARM LARD rather than draining them. They are held in the fat until ordered and that is what keeps them soft — drained and left, they turn to leather within minutes.
5. Warm the rolls and dip the cut faces briefly in the lard.
6. DECIDE WHICH IT IS: schietta, plain with lemon and salt, or maritata, married, with caciocavallo or ricotta inside. Those are the only two, and they are the whole choice.
7. Lift the meat out with a slotted spoon, let it drip for a second, and pile it in. Squeeze lemon over and eat it immediately.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Italy · All recipes