BLOG BY BINNS: Timballo

Tuesday, December 21, 2021

Timballo

TIMBALLO

I know what you are thinking, "What is this Timballo?", well a Timballo or Timpano depending on Italian dialect or location is a baked mound of dough stuffed with a bunch of goodness inside. The internal items can range from meats, cheeses, pasta, fish, vegetables, etc. Anything you truly prefer. I used a small metal oven proof bowl to bake this in but a ceramic one would work too. The dish was showcased in a 1996 movie Big Night about an Italian restaurant owned by 2 brothers struggling during the holidays. This dish my family has decided to add to our Christmas Eve Feast along with a bunch of different seafoods to accompany our Feast of the Seven Fishes meal. It seemed daunting and hard to put together, however I found it quite simple once I got the hand of it. Please enjoy my Timballo.

Ingredients:

Dough:

2 cups all purpose flour
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp olive oil
1/4 cup water

Filling:

2 cups diced salami
2 cups provolone cheese
6 hard boiled eggs sliced
2 cups mini meatballs
4 cups homemade red sauce
1 1/2 lb baked rigatoni
1 tbs olive oil
1/2 cup Romano or Parmesan cheese
3 eggs

1. Start by making the dough. Combine flour, eggs, salt, olive oil and water in a mixer and mix until dough forms a ball. Kneed by hand for 10 minutes or with dough hook for roughly 3 minutes. Let rest for 5 minutes. Grease with butter the inside of the baking bowl.

2. Roll out onto floured surface until large enough to fill the bowl you are baking it in as well as cover the bottom of your creation.

3. Prepare the inside. (Some of this can be done ahead of time so you can easily fill like a assembly line. I made this even easier on myself by buying store bought mini Italian meatballs. I know, Sacrilege).

4. Start filling the dough lined bowl. I started with some rigatoni then followed by the salami, then the provolone, eggs, meatballs, provolone again and then some sauce. Repeat again until the mixture fills to the top of the dome. Take the last 3 eggs, scramble and pour over the top so it filters down through the fillings. Fold over the hanging dough and seal with a little water. You can trim some if there is too much.