I’ve been reading Stanley Tucci’s autobiography, and in it he talks about his family’s tradition of making a timpano for Christmas Dinner. It means “drum,” and it basically involves encasing pasta, meatballs, hard-boiled eggs, and cheese in dough and then baking it in the oven. (A timpano features in a famous scene in Tucci’s film Big Night.) I suggested to Rodd that we give it a try.

Tucci’s recipe is, shall we say, quite involved. I realised when we made the shopping list that it was going to take multiple days and cost a mint. Then Rodd found this Food52 version, which seemed a bit simpler. With apologies to Primo and Secondo, we decided to go with the easier one. I handled the meatballs and sauce, while Rodd worked on the pastry.

This is where we ran into an issue. We neglected to notice that the Food52 recipe deliberately uses a pastry crust rather than a pasta dough. Rodd followed the recipe but struggled when it came time to line our pot. He’s couldn’t get it thin enough without it falling apart, and he therefore ended up having to make additional batches to have enough. He eventually managed to get it lined though, and I filled it up with pasta, meatballs, sauce, and eggs.

Then Rodd capped it off and sealed it. I honestly thought as he put it into the oven that we had maybe a 10% chance of it actually coming out in one piece.

We let it bake in the oven for a good 75min or so, and then brought it out to cool and contract.

And then it was the big moment… Time to get the sucker out.

Rodd used a cookie sheet to cover it and then carefully flipped it over. He gently wiggled and lifted until…

SUCCESS!! I could not believe it. It was every bit as thrilling as the moment in the movie. We all cheered. (We had guests over to help us eat this monster.) The crust was still looking a bit blond, so we decided to pop it back in the oven for some additional colour. It worked, but it also caused a minor structural failure…

No matter! It was still delicious.

If we were going to do it again, I’d definitely use Tucci’s dough recipe. It’s more of a stretchy pasta dough rather than this thicker crust.

And of course, the Boxing Day feast involved a lot more other food too…

And the Snook’s delicious homemade tiramisu was the perfect finale.

Happy Boxing Day, everyone!