Bollito Misto

bollito misto a N. Italian dish of various boiled meats; the name means literally ‘boiled mixed’. The mixture of meats varies according to the region but, as Anna del Conte (1987) explains, ‘should include beef, veal, chicken, tongue, cotechino (sausage) and half a calf’s head’. The meats are cooked in boiling water at different times according to how long they take to cook.

A bollito misto is accompanied by various sauces, the most common one being salsa verde (a piquant parsley sauce), although salsa rossa (a tomato sauce) is also popular. The dish is usually made for a large number of people, at least 12, and in restaurants it is often wheeled around on a special trolley with separate compartments keeping the meat hot in its stock and carved specially for each person; this prevents the meats from drying out. Del Conte asserts that the best bollito misto is to be had in Piedmont, but people in Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna might well disagree.