CookEat Recipe
Fried Pastry Parcels with Sweetbread Filling
Small paired pastry discs filled with a cooled sweetbread mixture, sealed and fried until golden.
Method
Steps
Step 1
Gather the ingredients: 250 g plain flour for the firm dough, plus about 2 g for the filling sauce and a little for dusting; 2 eggs; 1 tablespoon anise liqueur, traditionally fumetto or mistrà; 1 tablespoon olive oil for the dough; 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest; 250 g professionally trimmed food-grade veal sweetbreads; 30 g butter: 20 g for the sweetbreads and 10 g for the small batch of milk sauce; About 150 ml prepared strained beef jus; 100 ml milk; 30 g finely diced prosciutto with fat and lean; 1 tablespoon grated Parmesan; A small pinch of nutmeg; Salt and black pepper to taste; About 600 ml suitable frying oil, or enough for the chosen pan; only part is absorbed.
Step 2
Make the filling from recipe 161 first. Gently brown the prepared sweetbreads in 20 g butter with salt and pepper. Add the beef jus gradually and simmer until tender and cooked through to 74°C, about 20–35 minutes. Cut into pieces no larger than chickpeas.
Step 3
For the small batch of thin balsamella, stir the remaining 10 g butter with the 2 g flour over gentle heat until the flour begins to colour. Add the 100 ml milk gradually and simmer about 5–8 minutes until the flour is cooked. Combine only 1–2 tablespoons of this sauce with the sweetbreads, prosciutto, Parmesan and nutmeg. Cool promptly in a shallow container in the refrigerator until firm enough to handle. Refrigerate the extra sauce separately and use within 2–3 days.
Step 4
For the firm dough from recipe 212, combine the 250 g flour with the eggs, anise liqueur, lemon zest and a little salt. Knead thoroughly, gradually working in the tablespoon of olive oil, until smooth and firm enough to roll. Let rest covered for about 20 minutes. The flour amount and rest are practical estimates; add a small dusting of flour only if needed.
Step 5
Roll the dough about 2 mm thick. Cut matching scalloped discs about 7 cm across. Put a small spoonful of cold filling in the centre of half the discs, leaving clean borders. Moisten the borders with water, cover with the remaining discs and seal firmly without trapping air. The exact number depends on rolling and cutter size.
Step 6
Heat the frying oil in a suitable deep pan to about 170°C, leaving plenty of headroom. Fry in small batches for about 4–6 minutes, turning carefully, until the pastry is fully cooked and golden and the filling reaches 74°C. Drain and serve hot. Do not dust with sugar or apply the egg-yolk glaze used for baked puff-pastry parcels.
Step 7
For the source puff-pastry alternative, replace the firm dough ingredients with about 400 g prepared puff pastry. To make the source 154 batch, mix 200 g flour, salt, 1 tablespoon brandy, 15 g butter taken from a total of 150 g, and about 90 ml water as needed; knead thoroughly for about 30 minutes and rest. Enclose the remaining 135 g cool pliable butter, roll into rectangles roughly three times as long as wide, and make six folds in thirds, resting and chilling about 10 minutes between turns. Finish with a seventh fold in half. Chill, roll to about 2 mm, cut, fill, seal and fry as above. Allow about 140 additional minutes for making this pastry from scratch.
Step 8
The filling may instead use 250 g fully cooked tender veal or 250 g chicken livers cooked to 74°C in the same butter and jus. Small dice of ready-to-eat cooked salted beef tongue may replace the 30 g prosciutto; optional 10 g cleaned sliced truffle may be warmed into the filling before cooling. Keep these as separate choices. The larger giblet stew for vol-au-vent in recipe 161 is not used in these small parcels.
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