Thanksgiving Turkey Italian Style
It's been my duty and pleasure to be in charge of all things Turkey on Thanksgiving day since I moved to the US many years ago. Embrace your new culture but stay connected to your traditions is my motto - and that applies to Turkey as well. So here it is.
Ingredients (quantities apply to a 14 lbs Turkey)
- Organic free range Turkey (14 lbs)
- 1 lb Luganega sausage or similar, thin and lean pork sausage.
- 1/2 lb Veal ground meat
- 1/2 lb Angus beef ground meat
- 3/4 lb Mortadella (Bologna)
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 lb bread cubes
- 6 teaspoons of dry ground bread
- Milk
- 4 small Rosemary branches
- Celery
- 20 leafs of fresh Sage
- Parsley
- 2 Shallots medium size
- 2 whole white onions - small to medium size
- White wine
- 20 chestnuts
- Butter
- Olive Oil EVOO
- Nutmeg
- Salt, Pepper
- Butter
- Aluminum foil
Turkey releases a lot of fat during cooking, which tends to penetrate into the filling and make it too heavy for my taste. Because of that, I like to cook the stuffing separately.
Let's start by preparing the Turkey - it will take many hours to cook to perfection so you'd better putting that bird in the oven early!
Peel the two onions, and cut them into 4 quadrants each. Make sure you remove anything from inside the Turkey! Often turkeys come with their interiors inside a plastic bag. Put the 8 quarter onions inside together with two rosemary branches and some chopped parsley. You will later remove these, so their purpose is to give the turkey some flavor.
Prepare an emulsion with 2-3 teaspoons of olive oil, two pinches of salt and one pinch of pepper. You can then use a brush to spread this on the surface of the turkey. I personally like to use my hands and kind of 'massage' the turkey to let some of the emulsion penetrate the skin.
Wrap the turkey entirely in the aluminum foil, then OPEN THE FOIL so that the turkey is exposed and put in the oven at 400 F for 30 minutes. Pour some white wine and cook for another 30 minutes. After this (total 1 hour), very carefully (It's hot) close the foil so that the turkey is completely enclosed, and put the turkey back in the oven at 350 F.
Now onto the stuffing!
Boil the chestnuts for 15 minutes (from when the water boils - add some sea salt to the boiling water). A small cut in the chestnuts will make it easier to peel them. Cut the Mortadella into small cubes. Take the content out from the sausages (throw away the skin). Soak the bread cubes in milk. Cut the celery into small rounds - one 10 inch long celery branch will suffice. Put the veal ground meat, the grounded beef, the Mortadella and the sausage meat into a large mixing bowl. Mix with your hands until it's an even compound. Add two eggs and two pinches of salt, and continue mixing it until the egg amalgamates with the meat.
Cut the rosemary, sage, parsley, celery and shallots finely with a large cooking knife, and add to the mix.
Peel the chestnuts (if possible also remove the brown inner skin) and break them into small pieces. Add the chestnuts and the soaked bread cubes to the mix. Add some pepper and 1/2 of a coffee spoon of nutmeg and amalgamate everything. At this point you should have a consistent, evenly mixed compound. Put it into a large saucepan, cover it with a curved lid (like a Dutch oven) and let it cook with a low flame for 30 minutes. Open and mix with a wooden spoon every 10 minutes or so. Make sure the meat is well cooked throughout.
Let the stuffing sit until the Turkey reaches two and a half hours of cooking.
Take the turkey out of the oven, open the aluminum foil. If possible remove the excess melt fat from the bottom of the foil with a spoon. Save it for later. Remove the temporary stuffing (onions and rosemary) and replace it with the actual stuffing. Close the back of the turkey with cooking string and a large needle so that the stuffing does not come out. Spray the turkey with some white wine and put it back into the oven for another hour, with the foil open. Keep an eye and if the turkey gets dry, put some more wine.
After a total of 3 1/2 hours, the turkey should be ready! Cut it up, put the stuffing in a separate serving bowl, and impress your guests!
An alternative and simple version is not to put the stuffing into the Turkey and keep it separate. In this case, add a spoon of Turkey fat to the mix after it's cooked, and cook it for about 45 minutes as opposed to 30 minutes.
Cranberry Sauce
Essential! And super easy to make.
Ingredients:
--1/2 cup of water
--1/2 cup of orange juice
--3/4 cup of brown sugar
--1 12oz package of cranberries
--1 fresh orange peel
Put the water and orange juice in a medium saucepan with medium heat and add sugar slowly. Stir until sugar is dissolved in the water and juice. Rinse the cranberries and add them to the mix. Boil for 15 minutes or until all cranberries have burst. Add some grated orange peel for additional flavor. Cool it naturally before serving.
Gravy
Remember the fat you saved from the turkey (it will be most likely at the bottom of the aluminum foil)? Now it's time to put it to use!
Ingredients:
--Fat from turkey
--Equal amount of flower
--Chicken stock q.b.
Mix the fat in a saucepan with equal quantity of flower. If you don't have enough fat, you can add butter. Mix the flower and fat together until they amalgamate and form a thick sauce (what the French call 'Roux'). Add the chicken stock and start stirring with a whip vigorously. At the beginning, the sauce will be quite liquid and the roux will float. Do not despair! Keep whipping it and it will start becoming more consistent and dense - lower the heat and continue stirring - in approx 10 minutes the sauce should be homogeneous and thick enough to stick to a spoon.
Enjoy!
