Our Garden and Table n'at: Making a Timpano

A timpano is a fairly complicated and time consuming layered "lasagna-like" dish from southern Italy. It is encased in a pasta shell and baked in an enameled or steel bowl. And as Primo explains in the movie Big Night, it is filled with "all the most important things in the world". The timpano they create is one of the "stars" of the movie. As you will see, a timpano is a big deal reserved for a big night.

The timpano scene from the movie - "Big Night" -

Here is our timpano!

Like lasagna, there are different versions of what goes into a timpano. We based ours on the timpano in the movie. The recipe is in Stanley and Joan Tucci's book "Cucina & Famiglia". These are the kinds of ingredients that should (but not limited to) be included - ziti or penne, Italian sausage, soppressata or salami, meatballs, mozzarella, ricotta and pecorino cheeses, hard boiled eggs, tomatoes, garlic, basil, marinara sauce, olive oil. You could add these vegetables, or sub the meat with, grilled eggplant,fennel or zucchini, roasted peppers, onions, mushrooms. The outside crust is formed from hand rolled homemade pasta dough.

Here are pics and guidelines on how we made our timpano –

This is not an actual "recipe" because a lot depends on the size of the bowl you are using and what you want to include in the filling. Just start with the ingredients list below and use your own judgment as how much of each ingredient to prepare and what seasonings you prefer. The amounts are approximately what we used for the size bowl we had. Yah, I know, that's not much help from us, is it? Look at it this way, better to err to the side of having a little too much. If you have extra sauce, meatballs, sausage, cheese, eggs or pasta put them in the refrigerator to have with something else. The important thing is have fun with this. So be sure to have a glass of wine (or two...) along the way.

Ziti or penne - 1 box
Italian Sausage - hot, sweet or mild your choice - 3 links
Mozzarella shredded - 2 cups
Hardboiled eggs cut into pieces - 4 eggs
1 " Meatballs - 25 to 30 + you know you are going to want to munch on some...
Pecorino Romano cheese - 1/2 cup
Roasted Roma tomatoes - 2 lbs
Ricotta cheese - 1 1/2 cups

For the pasta dough - 3 cups all purpose flour, 3 eggs, 1/2 tsp Kosher salt, 2 tbs olive oil, 1/3 -1/2 cup water. Mix together, knead, wrap in plastic wrap set aside.

For the marinara - everyone has their own favorite way to make marinara sauce, use yours. You'll need about six cups worth. Two to mix with the ziti and three to use to spoon on the plate to sit the slices of timpano in.

For the roasted tomatoes - cut the Romas into chunks, put in a glass casserole and add garlic, lemon zest, rosemary, olive oil, salt & pepper. Roast at 400 degrees for about 30 - 40 minutes, stirring half way.

Building the layers:
1st layer - 1/3 of the ziti mixed with marinara sauce
2nd layer - 1/2 of the sausage
3rd layer - 1/2 of the shredded mozzarella
4th layer - 1/2 of the hardboiled eggs cut into pieces
5th layer - 1/2 of the meatballs
6th layer - 1/2 of the pecorino cheese
7th layer - 1/2 of the roasted Roma tomatoes
8th layer - 1/2 of the ricotta cheese
Repeat so there are two layers of each but end with a third layer of ziti and sauce.

You have to have something to cook the timpano in. An enameled or stainless steel bowl is perfect. The enameled pot we used came from Lisa's uncle Ed, who, thanks to being a pack rat, had an old enameled bowl that was just right. It measured 9" x 7" x 4". Stainless steel mixing bowls are easier to find and come a variety of sizes.

Oven roasted Roma tomatoes

Little 1" meatballs

Italian sausages cooked and sliced

Marinara sauce

With a rolling pin, roll the dough out into a disk. Measure the bowl you will be using – add together the diameter of the top, the diameter of the bottom and twice the height. and you will get the diameter of the dough disk you will need. In our case it was 24”: 7 + 9 + (2x4) = 24.

Grease the inside of the bowl well with butter and lay the dough in.

Ziti and marinara sauce first

Roasted Roma tomatoes

Ricotta cheese

Sausage

Hardboiled eggs

Meatballs

Begin and end with the sauced ziti

Fold over the pasta to cover the top

Cook at 350 degrees for 30 minutes then remove, cover with aluminum foil and back in for 20 more minutes.

When done, should look like this. Let it rest for about 20 minutes.

Lay a cutting board on top of the timpano, hold on to the handles and the board and carefully flip over. It will now look like this, unless you've dumped it all over the kitchen floor...