Region: Lombardy

Menu: Meat-Stuffed Turkey Roll, Steamed Broccoli

            With Thanksgiving just finished and Christmas around the corner, let’s talk about turkey. As one of the few domesticated livestock native to the Americas, it was a favorite treat for the Aztecs. They often ate it in tamales. When Columbus brought the first turkeys to Europe, they were immediately added to poultry yards. Not all Europeans knew where they came from, hence the names like “Turkey cock” or “Indian chicken.” But their origin didn’t matter. European diners knew that a previously unknown type of edible fowl had appeared from somewhere. It was big and showy, tasted good, and therefore belonged on holiday tables. By the time English settlers in Virginia and Massachusetts saw wild turkeys in North America, their domestic cousins were widespread in England.

            Roasting and stuffing a whole turkey is just one way of preparing it. Another showy presentation comes from flattening a boned turkey breast, adding a stuffing, and rolling everything up like a giant jelly roll. In this particular recipe, popular in Lombardy (around Milan), the stuffing includes sausage meat, chestnuts, walnuts, vegetables, and herbs. After baking, the roast is sliced to reveal the spiral pattern and served with a sauce of slightly-thickened pan drippings. I didn’t manage to flatten the meat enough to get a spiral roll, just a stuffed circle, but it still tasted good. Steamed broccoli complemented the meat without overpowering it. The turkey roll was too complicated to make regularly, but would be great for a small Thanksgiving or Christmas.

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