Name: Grimod’s Gratin
Yield: serves 4-6
Ingredients: 8 oz trimmed and sliced leek; 12 oz dry macaroni; 4 oz peeled and diced parsnip; 4 oz trimmed and chopped celery; big pinch ground cinnamon; 6 oz peeled and diced carrot; 4 oz peeled and diced turnip; 3 oz butter plus a little for greasing; big pinch ground allspice; salt and freshly ground black pepper; 1 lb chopped raw chicken livers – cleaned; 6 oz block Parmesan – freshly grated

Preparation info

serves
4-6

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

The Independent Cook

By Jeremy Round

Published 1988

About

A hearty composite gratin, like lasagna or moussaka, of the type that cookery books used to label ‘family suppers’. It is adapted from a peculiar eighteenth-century gourmand, Grimod de la Reynière’s, potage à la camerani.

Ingredients

3 oz butter plus a little for greasing
salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 oz peeled a

Method

Melt the butter in a large, heavy saucepan. Add all the vegetables and cook, partly covered, for about 30 minutes, stirring from time to time. Add the livers, a lot of black pepper, a little salt, the allspice and cinnamon about 10 minutes before the end of cooking. The vegetables should be almost tender and the liver cooked through. Boil off any excess liquid.

Boil the pasta in salted