TOPINI FROM MONTALCINO
MEAT-STUFFED ZUCCHINI FLOWERS TRADITIONAL IN THE FARMHOUSES OF MONTALCINO, KNOWN AS TOPINI BECAUSE THEY ARE ROUND AND HAVE A TAIL
by Donatella Cinelli Colombini, winedestination, Fattoria del Colle, Casato Prime Donne
Until fifty years ago Montalcino was a poor town where families ate little meat and lots of vegetables because everyone had a vegetable garden. For this reason, the little beef was often boiled, which was mixed with sausages and rigatino to then be stuffed with onions, artichokes, courgettes, potatoes … depending on the season of the year. Housewives had in fact managed to invent delicious dishes that fed even the largest and poorest families. Today stuffed zucchini flowers or topini, as they are called in the Montalcino lexicon, are a delicious rarity. In fact, although they are delicious to eat and can be prepared in advance and then served after heating them in the oven they require a long preparation time. This circumstance discourages young people with very little time available.
INGREDIENTS TO MAKE TOPINI DI MONTALCINO
Ingredients Topini from Montalcino – Fattoria del Colle, Trequanda, Toscana
For 6 people, easy to make, takes about two hours 20 courgette flowers, 2 cloves of garlic, a quarter of a red onion, a sprig of parsley, 50g of salty rigatino, 100g of salty Tuscan prosciutto, 100g of minced boiled beef or minced meat or alternatively 2 fresh pork sausages, 50g of Tuscan breadcrumbs, a glass of milk, 2 eggs, 50g of grated dry pecorino cheese, 50g of extra virgin olive oil, half a glass of white wine, 3 tablespoons of tomato paste or a cup of tomato puree, salt and pepper.
PREPARATION OF TOPINI FROM MONTALCINO
Keep the courgette flowers with the stem immersed in water to prevent them from opening. Remove the pistils because they are spicy and wash the flowers. Finely chop the garlic, onion, parsley, rigatino and prosciutto. Mix with the minced meat or fresh sausage. Soak the bread crumbs in milk, squeeze them gently and add them to the mixture together with the eggs and grated pecorino. Add salt, pepper and mix the filling well. Divide the mixture into small portions and use them to fill the flowers, closing the petals at the top. In a pan, fry the garlic in extra virgin olive oil. When it turns golden, remove the garlic and cook the stuffed flowers, browning them on all sides.
Add the white wine and reduce slowly. When the topini are dry again, pour the tomato paste dissolved in warm water or the tomato puree into the pan. Continue cooking over low heat. The cooking time is about an hour in total. Serve the topini piping hot or keep them in the fridge and heat them in the oven before bringing them to the table.
PAIRING TOPINI WITH WINE
This is a delicious and very tasty dish that should be paired with an important but not too demanding wine. I am thinking of a Supertuscan like Il Drago e le 8 Colombe from Fattoria del Colle or a Rosso di Montalcino produced at Casato Prime Donne