GRANDMOTHER EMILIA’S TIMBALLO: SO GOOD YOU COULD TASTE IT

A family recipe, too tasty to remain secret. Discover his three variations and prepare this iconic Abruzzo dish at home with this detailed recipe.

A Teramo specialty full of memories

When I was a child, on school trips, all the children had a sandwich… I had my grandmother Emilia’s timballo. This traditional dish teramano looks at first glance like a lasagna, but it is distinguished by the use of scrippella — thin pancakes — instead of sheets of dough.

Unlike lasagna, it does not contain bechamel. In place of ragù classic, some families add tiny meatballs, called pallottine.

Every household has its version, sometimes with a secret ingredient never revealed. Here is my grandmother's, proven and infallible.

Grandma Emilia's timballo recipe

This recipe accompanied my entire childhood. My grandmother prepared it with ragù, meatballs, or even a variation with vegetables. Let's start with the classic version.

Ingredients

For the scrippelle (thin pancakes)

• 3 eggs
• 600 ml of water
• 370 g of type 00 flour
• 8 g of salt
• Extra virgin olive oil

For the filling

• 500 g mixed minced meat ragù
• 300g mozzarella
• 100 g grated parmesan
• 3 hard boiled eggs
• 50g butter

Preparation

In a salad bowl, beat the eggs with the salt, add the water little by little, then the flour, whisking until you obtain a fluid dough without lumps. Heat a non-stick pan, lightly oil and pour a ladle of batter to cook each scrippella about 1 and a half minutes per side.

Once the pancakes are ready, prepare the ragù. Grease a baking dish, line it with scrippelle (leaving the edges hanging over), then alternate the layers: scrippelle, ragù, mozzarella, sliced ​​hard-boiled eggs, Parmesan. Fold the edges, cover with scrippelle, brush with melted butter and bake at 180°C for 40 minutes, until the surface is golden brown.

Variation: timballo with small meatballs

In Teramo, the sugo con le pallottine (mini-meatball sauce) is an institution, often used for spaghetti alla chitarra. But it also enhances the timballo. Here's how to prepare it.

Ingredients for the dumplings

• 300 g of minced beef
• A pinch of nutmeg
• Salt and olive oil

Preparation

Mix the meat with the nutmeg and salt, then form into tiny balls (the size of a pea). Fry them in olive oil or let them simmer directly in the tomato pasta. Then use this sugo instead of ragù in the previous recipe.

Original source: La Cucina Italiana – Il timballo di nonna Emilia: così buono da stuffed the merenda