Behold The Majesty Of Stanley Tucci’s Family Timpano Recipe!
What a way to celebrate the holiday – with a feast designed to dazzle the eyes as well as the taste buds!
It’s A “Pasta Pie!”
Yes, this is called a Timpano, and I made this incredible dish. If you don’t know what it is, then get ready for a wild culinary tour through Italy by way of an Actor / Writer / Cookbook Author’s family history!
Celebrating Stanley Tucci’s “Taste!”
Acclaimed Actor and Author Stanley Tucci published a memoir about growing up in an Italian family, and that meant a “taste” for great food – like a “Timpano!”
Here’s how Tucci describes it in his terrific memoir “Taste”:
“There is a dish, a very special dish, that is served in our home on Christmas Day. It is called “Timpano.” This is a baked drum of patty-like dough filled with pasta, rags, salami, various cheeses, hard-boiled eggs and meatballs. It’s a big, heavy dish, and needless to say very filling. The recipe and the tradition of serving it on special occasions, particularly Christmas, were brought to America by my father’s family.”
Well, not to give anything away, but I did it with a lot of help!
How did I get to that point? Well, I am going to share all of it with you!
This is a perfect holiday dish: big enough to feed a lot of people, and it really does “show well” as they say!
This recipe calls for three different preps: the dough that encases the Timpano, the filling of the Timpano, and the sauce for the Timpano!
First up, let’s get the sauce going, as it simmers for hours!
Here are your ingredients:
1 pound stewing beef, trimmed of fat and cut into medium chunks
1 pound country spareribs
1 cup chopped onion
3 garlic cloves chopped
1/2 cup dry red wine
6 oz. can tomato paste
1-1/2 cups warm water
8 cups canned whole plum tomatoes, pureed in a blender
3 fresh basil elaves
1 tbl. oregano
First, warm the olive oil in a stew pot and sear the beef over medium-high heat until brown on all sides – five to ten minutes total…
Set the beef aside and add your spareribs into the same pot and do the same, then set them aside as well –
Now, add the onions and garlic, reduce the heat to low and cook about 5 minutes – yes, the house is already smelling terrific!
Next, add the wine and stir to bring up the meaty bits in the pot – oh, and if you need a glass of it to help the process along, feel free – I did!
Next, add the tomato paste – then add 1/2 cup water and stir to make sure the tomato paste is smooth….add the rest of the water, cook for 2-3 minutes then add the tomatoes – I used whole and mashed them up in the pot!
Hello Basil, my old friend! Dice your bail and add it to the sauce…
Add your Oregano as well, then cover the lid partly and simmer for 30 minutes – what an aroma!
Return The Meat To The Party!
After letting the sauce simmer, add the meat back to the pot and let it simmer for 2 hours – and here is what you get!
This is a rich, delicious meaty sauce – the meat and ribs have broken down in the sauce…rich and hearty and ready for the Timpano!
So now we need the dough to hold this!
Here are the ingredients for the dough – which you make while the sauce is simmering:
4 cups flour plus a bit for dusting
4 large eggs
1 tsp kosher salt
2 tbls. olive oil
1/2 cup water
I used a mixer until it formed a nice ball. Alex captured a bit of the process:
After kneading it for 10 minutes, it’s time to roll it out for your Timpano casing!
Dust your board and roll it out until it is about 1/16th inch thick and the diameter you need. Tucci explains how to determine that amount below:
The dough is rolled out into a thin round, the diameter determined by the size of the pan being used….Add the diameter of the bottom the top and twice the depth – that’s how much dough you will need!
Here are the final ingredients for your “Timpano” build:
3 pounds Ziti, cooked very al dente (about half the suggested time)
2 tbls olive oil
4 cups diced Genoa Salami
4 cups cubed sharp provolone cheese
12 hard-boiled large eggs, which when ready to compile the Timpano will be quartered lengthwise then cut in half again for chunks
A dozen meatballs, formed and ready to use
1 cup finely grated pecorino romano
6 large eggs beaten
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees – and it’s time to put this together!
Fold the dough in half and in half again to form a triangle and place in the pan. Unfold the dough and arrange it, gently pressing it against the bottom and the side and draping the extra dough over the side.
Alex captured the entire process!
Here it is again: as you can see in the video, it’s a process of building the interior laters of flavor in the Timpano…layer after layer of flavor…
Distribute those 4 generous cups of pasta over the dough on the bottom of the Timpano.
Top with one cup of salami, 1 cup of provolone, 3 of the cut hard-boiled eggs, 1 cut of meatballs and 1/3 cup of the Romano cheese.
Pour two cups of the ragu sauce over it all.
Do it all again exactly the same way until you are within one inch of the top of the pan, and finish with 2 cups of ragu.
The last thing to do is to pour the beaten eggs over the whole thing and now it’s time to close it up!
Carefully fold the dough over the top and make sure it is completely sealed!
Make sure your Timpano is tightly sealed, using the leftover scraps of dough as a seal – use a small bit of water to moisten them so they stick tightly.
Now, put it into your oven and let it bake until lightly brown, about an hour!
After an hour. cover the top with aluminum foil and continue baking until it’s golden brown, about 30 more minutes.
Pull from the oven and allow to rest for 30 minutes, which will make it contract slightly and come out of the pan…use a knife along the space between pan and pie if needed to ensure it is loose.
Now the fun part: place a large baking sheet or cutting board on top – make sure it covers the whole pie – and invert it. You can see our friend David Goldberg ready to help me do just that….enjoy!
We had to “listen” to make sure the Timpano was ready….here is the shot from “Big Night” where Tucci and Shalom do the same!
The “Timpano” Revealed!
And here is the end result! It came out of the pan easily and held its shape perfectly!
Yes, I was VERY happy with how this turned out – but how did it look inside?
To serve, Tucci says to cut a circle about 3 inches in dimmer in the center of the Timpano…make sure to cut all the way to the bottom!
Alex shot this as I sliced a piece f the Timpano, because it was time to serve:
As you can see, you slice it into individual portions…the center three inch circle will provide support to your pie and as you pull out a cut piece it will, as Stanley writes:
“Reveal the building-up layers of great stuff!”
And did it ever!
WOW.
As the group re-filled their champagne glasses for a toast, I took a closer look at this dish:
Stanley admits it’s a tough dish, a temperamental one, but it will be worth it!
I probably should have let it rest a bit longer, but it still held up very well, and you can see the egg, cheese, meatballs and of course pasta packed in to the homemade casing!
After all of that work, it was time to gather around the table and enjoy – thanks to Nicole, Bill, Sophie, Olivia, Ana, David and of course Alex, who seemed happy at the end of the table:
Wow, what a labor of love, and it really was an impressive dish to share with guests for a holiday feast!
Stanley Approved My Timpano – And Revealed A Family Secret!
The best part of this story? When Tucci was on my wife Alex’s TV show two months ago, she showed him my Timpano – and he loved it! And then guess what? He revealed to Alex that he loves to make them, but the rest of the family hates it!
HA!
I am currently preparing another Christmas dish from a holiday cookbook, and will be sharing tomorrow.
Darlene Foster also reviewed a cookbook – and shared a review as well…and guess what? It’s the same cookbook I will be reviewing tomorrow!
See what she tried out by clicking on her recipe here!
It all began when Jo’s terrific website Brookford Kitchen Diaries began a Christmas Cookbook Review series yesterday – click here for all the details and some recipes to kick it all off!
Back to Stanley Tucci, I have actually cooked several times from his various books:
Tucci Rules!
I cooked from “The Tucci Cookbook” as well, another family recipe, and guess what?
It was delicious, and you can see why by clicking on my story here:
When not cooking Tucci, I am still influenced by his love of food – here’s a case in point:
“Sunday Gravy” With A Tucci Assist!
Yep, this “Sopranos” Sunday Gravy recipe had a Tucci assist – click here to see why:
There seems to be a Hollywood connection with these recipes, but since I work in entertainment, it makes sense….that’s why I cooked from the cookbook for Hollywood’s oldest restaurant:
Yes, the legendary Musso & Frank restaurant included some classic recipe snacks – and of course Hollywood’s best Martini as well – click her for all of the recipes!
The popular Hollywood them continued thanks to Elizabeth Taylor:
You see, Liz loved the Chili from Chasen’s restaurant, and you will do when you make it – here’s the recipe!
If you like what you see, please click on my link and follow this blog as well!
Thank you for following along on my culinary journey. If you like the story, share it with friends on social media! Thanks!
Categories: Bite Eat Swallow, Bite! Eat! Repeat!, Books / Media, Chef memoirs, Cookbooks, Eat This!, Fine Dining, Food, Food Writing, Recipes, Wacky Food, World's Wildest Food
Bite! Eat! Repeat! 
Oh my goodness that’s a labour of love – and super impressive! As an aside, it’s a great book too… Thanks for linking up.
It’s not a traditional holiday book, but it’s packed with family recipes from his life and it’s a great holiday dish…my other dish will be shared tomorrow…I will explain the delay and the challenge to find an ingredient in a city of 9 million!
Oh congratulations on your successful creation! I am very impressed. I have watched Tucci make it on YouTube I think – a real labour of love.
It really is, but you know what? Not that bad, just a pie dough rolled out and then you just stuff stuff stuff it with good things! Thanks for the comment!
Bravo to you for the perfect cooking of the amazing Timpano. I love that film!
Best wishes, Pete.
Pete, I love that film as well..I was very proud to have Stanely tell my wife that my Timpano looked great!
I’ve never attempted this, although my mother-in-law, and accomplished chef, used to make this every other year or so when she was able to enlist her daughter to help. Quite a feat John! Thank you for your videos of the process, it must have been a ton of fun, especially the eating part with lots of friends.
That’s a BIG pie!
Thank you for the comment! It was so much fun, and the presentation is a showstopper to be sure…and it feeds about a million people so have a large group or expect leftovers for days and that’s ok too!
Thanks for the shout out, John. I can’t believe I was featured in the same post as Stanley Tucci! Well done making his pasta pie. It looks fabulous!
I loved this!!! I listened to his book and thought this sounded interesting so it was fun to see it come together along with the videos. I don’t think my family would enjoy it, but I’m always up for trying new things. I had a friend one time take leftover lasagna and braid bread dough around it and bake it. It was actually so good.
Thanks for the comment! It’s a real showstopper, and worth the effort! I love that idea of the leftover lasagna…not sure if you saw this, but I made lasagna out of leftover pizza! https://biteeatrepeat.com/2023/04/20/have-you-made-pizza-lasagna-heres-the-recipe-for-my-leftover-pizza-mashup/
Wow, just wow. Looks very filling
You can serve a large party with it and everyone will love the look and taste! Happy holidays to you and your family!