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The working recipe — the Market List, the Method, and where it lives or dies
I
Origin
Sardinia
II
Description
A sealed dome-shaped pastry pie from the Assemini area of Sardinia — filled with bone-in lamb pieces, sliced potato, saffron and lard, sealed in a thick semolina pastry crust and baked until the lamb is completely tender inside the sealed pastry. The pastry retains all the lamb and potato juices, creating a self-basting environment. Broken open at the table, it releases a rush of fragrant steam.
III
The Thread
—Sealed pastry filled with meat and potato baked until the filling self-braises in steam — same sealed-pastry-self-braising principle Cornish
—Lamb sealed and baked in a pastry or clay envelope — same self-basting sealed environment as the Sardinian panada Greek
—Sealed pastry pie with meat filling — the bastilla is sweet-savoury; the panada is savoury only; both are sealed domed pastry pies Moroccan
IV
Flavour Context
The steam of saffron, lamb and lard released on opening is the first sensation; inside, the meat is falling from the bone in its own fragrant juices; potato has absorbed the lamb fat and saffron — sealed-pastry cooking at its most theatrical
Pillars V — VII
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