Stuffed turkey breast. A recipe from my cooking repertoire

Easter for me are the church bells ringing in the morning sun and a new Spring coat, the Tuscan Easter schiacciata from San Gimignano and the dark chocolate, the fresh pasta and the spring vegetables, the lamb and the blessed eggs. Easter is the beginning of the good season and windows wide open on rolling hills. 

As Easter is approaching and we’re already working on our festive menu, I thought I’d share an easy and reliable roast, one of the protagonists of family lunches and cooking classes, my mum’s stuffed turkey breast.

When I lived with my parents, my bedroom was right above the kitchen. It could be reached from a steep staircase, which brought up the chatter of family and friends, the laughter of my parents watching TV after dinner, the first noises in the morning, and all the aromas of my mum’s cuisine. When I was lucky, it was the subtle grumbling of the moka on the stovetop to wake me up, followed immediately by the toasted smell of coffee that would tickle my nostrils when I was still under the blankets. Most of the time, though, it was the clatter of dishes, pots and pans, and mum who unloaded the dishwasher as first thing in the morning.

Sunday was different, there was a tacit agreement between my mum and me, a mute imposed on the sounds that came from the kitchen.

I would often open my eyes to find the sun flooding my bedroom, and immediately afterwards I would heard the sizzling of a roast, the smell of olive oil, garlic and rosemary, the aroma of Sunday at home. Arista alla fiorentina, a pot roast rabbit, a roast beef or a stuffed turkey breast… My mum has a basic but functional cooking repertoire, and she has always had the habit to prepare lunch several hours in advance. I could tell what we would be eat that day for lunch from the first smells that would seep into my bedroom, well before breakfast.

Even if mum does not believe it possible, I learnt to cook meat from her. I recognise the smell of a good roast with closed eyes, trained by years of waking up to the smell of soffritto and white wine. She has always had an empirical approach to cooking, mindlessly repeating gestures that are now a habit. She does not venture off the beaten and tested path. Over the years she has collected those recipes that work for her and for her approach to cooking, practical and effective.

One of the recipes that my mum taught me and that I immediately associate with Sunday lunches is the stuffed turkey breast, roasted on the stovetop and not in the oven. It is a humble dish, but it has an enormous potential.

The stuffed turkey breast and my cooking repertoire

It’s always handy to have a traditional arrosto in your cooking repertoire.

Two years ago I decided to share these recipes, staples of a Tuscan repertoire, analysing the ingredients and the process with plenty of details so that, if you want, you’ll be able to include them into your collection and make Tuscan cooking your signature style.

After the crespelle alla fiorentina and the eggplant meatballs, after the ricotta and kale gnudi, after one of the desserts you loved the most, a humble Tuscan apple olive oil cake, and the summer baked eggplants with a breadcrumb topping, after the Tuscan ragù, I want to share with you the recipe for a stuffed turkey breast. 

The turkey breast on its own – take a grilled turkey breast slice for example – is pretty sad. It’s lean, true, but it doesn’t have a great taste. Moreover, it is easy to overcook it, ending with a dry and stringy piece of meat.

When I think about my mum’s stuffed turkey breast, though, it reminds me of festive days and long tables with the family gathered for a meal together.

It is a juicy and tasty meat. It makes me reach for a slice of bread to mop the sauce left at the bottom of the pan, made with extra virgin oil, white wine, melted cheese and meat juices. In short, for us who do not have the tradition of roasting a whole turkey to celebrate a festive day, the turkey breast is the most convenient choice: a lean, cheap and versatile cut of meat.

As you will see in the recipe, I prefer cooking the turkey breast on the stove top rather than in the oven. I can better control the cooking time, which is shorter, and, above all, the result is a juicier stuffed turkey breast.

How to stuff the turkey breast

Once you find a good butcher, befriend him. There you will find good and possibly local meat, he will answer to your questions about the best cut to use for a recipe and, most importantly, he will also be able to butterfly the turkey breast for you to stuff it. From here, it’s all downhill. You can change the filling depending on the season, on the occasion and on what you have in the pantry. The most classic filling is that of today’s recipe, with prosciutto cotto, cooked ham, fontina and an omelette, but just follow the season and your taste. 

Remember that the omelette will give moisture to the filling, and that it is preferable to opt for cheeses that melt, but do not release too much liquid. So yes to fontina, scamorza and fresh pecorino, while it is better to avoid mozzarella, stracchino or robiola.

These are just a few ideas:

• Fresh pecorino and an omelette with vegetables. Choose your favourite seasonal vegetables and add them to the omelette. It works well with spinach, artichokes, asparagus, peas…
• Smoked ham, or speck, and smoked scamorza cheese. Tommaso’s favourite combination.
• Grilled eggplants, cooked ham and scamorza cheese. Grilled eggplants have the same role of an omelette, making the filling moist and tasty.
• Sausage, diced apple and dried chestnuts. A demonstration that even a simple turkey breast can be dressed up for a party.

A Tuscan Easter menu. Serve the stuffed turkey breast with… 

Let’s start thinking about a possible Easter menu, what do you think? I’m feeling quite traditional, I like the idea of choosing recipes both from the Sienese and the Florentine area, this makes me feel at home. We can open the festive lunch with the crostini neri, that belong to my family tradition, and continue with the crespelle alla Fiorentina, replacing the spinach with asparagus. Our main course will be my mum’s stuffed turkey breast, with a side of fresh peas cooked with garlic and pancetta. Finally, a semolina and chocolate cake, which I associate with Easter since I met Tommaso.

• Chicken liver spread for crostini. The sweet smell of butter that soften the chicken liver reminds me of happy days, early Christmas mornings or my birthdays in summer. It surrounds you and brings you into the middle of the Tuscan countryside. It is supposed to be spread on toasted Tuscan bread slices, just forgive any other refined bread.
• Crespelle alla fiorentina. It is a handy recipe to learn as you can vary the filling according to the season: asparagus, artichokes and butternut squash are some of my favourites along with spinach and Swiss chard. You can mix the vegetables with fresh milky ricotta or add some béchamel into the filling.
• Semolina and chocolate tart. Chocolate and semolina are two ingredients that apparently have two completely different lives. The first is the king of the most spectacular desserts, dark, deep, sometimes mysterious and reserved just for the grown-ups. The second one reminds childhood, simple food, motherly cuddles. They meet and fall in love in this tart, two different layers, but well-balanced. It has a homey, familiar character, as each tart made with short pastry.

All the recipes of my cooking repertoire

These are all the recipes I added so far into my cooking repertoire. This is an ever growing list, an always expanding collection which represents the way I live Tuscan food and cooking. Have you already tried something?

• Crespelle alla fiorentina. It is a handy recipe to learn as you can vary the filling according to the season: asparagus, artichokes and butternut squash are some of my favourites along with spinach and Swiss chard. You can mix the vegetables with fresh milky ricotta or add some béchamel into the filling. Cheese is a welcomed ingredient: Parmigiano Reggiano, Tuscan or Roman Pecorino, ricotta salata, or any other savoury aged cheese that you would happily grate over your pasta.
• Ricotta and Tuscan kale gnudi. There are two crucial ingredients here which can help you ease the anxiety while waiting for your gnudi to float tot the top: ricotta and cavolo nero, the Tuscan kale. Use a well-drained ricotta and squeeze very well the cooked kale. Once you make this, they will be your next success in the kitchen.
• Tuscan ragù. The Tuscan ragù is cooked with red wine, poured in little by little, and with tomato purée (just tomatoes that have been peeled and blended into a sauce), even better if it is your home made tomato purée, made during the heat of summer. To give more character to the ragù and have a more rustic sauce, sometimes I prefer to replace the passata with the same weight of peeled tomatoes, roughly crushed with my hands.

Main courses and side dishes

• Beef and eggplant meatballs. According to the season, you can substitute roasted eggplants with boiled potatoes, roasted butternut squash or breadcrumbs soaked in milk. I usually choose between grated Parmigiano Reggiano, aged Pecorino or Provolone to add flavour to the meat, sometimes adding brined capers, too. This time I opted for Parmigiano, along with a pinch of dry oregano to give a mediterranean touch.
• Baked eggplants. Colours and textures of that once loved recipe surfaced along with the ingredients: eggplants of course, either the round purple ones or those thin long ones, then breadcrumbs, parsley, capers, garlic and some grated Parmigiano. There it was, my forgiving recipe, thick slices of eggplants topped with boldly flavoured breadcrumbs, roasted in the oven until golden and crisp.
• Italian potato salad. So a potato salad, which I had overlooked for years, becomes a distinguishing element of a menu, especially if you dress it with an Italian twist, with wild fennel, capers and olives. You can find the same aromas in a roasted pork loin with olive oil and wine, or in the baked eggplants that you are planing to serve as an appetiser.

Desserts

• Apple olive oil cake. You can dress it up for a dinner party: serve a slice of warm apple cake with a scoop of vanilla gelato, a cloud of whipped cream or a drizzle of custard. Wrap in foil a slice of cake for a school break or an office break. Bake the olive oil apple cake on a Sunday and enjoy it for breakfast on the first days of the week with a strong coffee or a cappuccino.
• Coffee and vanilla pound cake. A versatile recipe to make a pound cake with the ingredients you have at hand, with a detailed explanation of the four macro categories of ingredients you can use, plus a recipe for a vanilla pound cake marbled with coffee, designed to wake you up in the morning. Use white farro flour, white sugar and dark cane sugar, Greek yogurt and butter.
• Ricotta crumb cake. I still have to decide if I prefer the cake warm from the oven, or after a few hours of fridge. This ricotta crumb cake is an unmissable summer cake, and I’ll let you decide when to serve it, if you are in hurry or armed by adamant patience.

Link Love

• Listen to the second episode of our podcast, Cooking with an Italian Accent: we talk about roasts and the rules to cook them properly. In the podcast it was a roasted pork loin, but when it comes to roasting a piece of meat on the stove top, you can apply the same principles.
• Spring is a busy season for food related books, I have the longest list of books I want to read (Bee Wilson, Joanne Harris, Jenny Linford to name a few authors on my list).
  One of the books I am most excited about is Ruth Reichl’s new food memoir, Save me the plums. Here you can read an article about her memoir. What are you reading now? What’s next on your list?
• M.F.K. Fisher and the Art of the Culinary Selfie. This is about the great food writer M.F.K. Fisher, about how she wove food and life (and death) and about the role of food memoirs in our culture, yesterday and today.
• The Italian Woman Who Changed Home Cooking Forever. Another article on food writing, dedicated to the Italian Anna Del Conte, who had the same role in England as Marcela Hazan had in the United States in making Italian cuisine famous. She is one of Nigella Lawson’s favourite authors, too.

Related posts:

Crespelle alla Fiorentina and my cooking repertoire Roasted turkey with sage and almonds A midsummer night’s dinner. Chicken galantina Stuffed pork loin. When your butcher comes for dinner