**Exploring the Flavors of Film: A Deep Dive into Timpano**

In this episode of "Food in Film," we're taking a culinary journey through one of the most iconic dishes from a beloved movie: Timpano, a secret recipe from Big Night. As Oliver Babish, the creator and host of this series, delves into the world of film cuisine, he shares his passion for recreating the flavors and techniques that bring these dishes to life.

**The Birth of Timpano**

Oliver begins by introducing us to Timpano, a dish that has been passed down through generations. "It's a secret recipe that they brought from their hometown," says the male patron, as he whispers excitedly about the dish. The female patron chimes in, equally enthusiastic about trying this new culinary experience. With lively accordion music playing in the background, Oliver takes us on a journey to recreate this beloved Italian dish.

**The Sauce: A San Marzano Tomato Masterpiece**

The sauce is where most great Italian dishes start, and Timpano is no exception. Oliver starts by crushing San Marzano tomatoes by hand before adding them to a large Dutch oven with 8 cloves of garlic and a tablespoon of fresh oregano sweating in olive oil and butter. "We're going to add most of the tomatoes, reserving two cups to add to the sauce when it's done," he explains. This sauce will simmer for six hours on the stovetop, allowing the flavors to meld together.

**The Meatballs: A Labor of Love**

Next up, we have the meatballs, a crucial component of Timpano. Oliver begins by finely chopping a small onion and parsley, which he'll use as the base for his meat mixture. He then adds a pound each of chuck and short rib, cut into one-inch cubes, and places them on a parchment-lined baking sheet to freeze for 15 minutes. This will help firm up the meat, making it easier to shape into perfect balls.

**Grinding the Meat: A Pebbly Grind**

With the meat frozen, Oliver proceeds to grind it using a food processor in batches until he reaches a nice pebbly texture. He repeats this process for his pork and veal mixture, creating two distinct ground meats that will be combined later. This step is crucial in achieving the perfect balance of flavors in the dish.

**Making the Meatballs: A Delicious Emulsion**

Oliver now adds 1/4 cup of buttermilk to his meat mixture, along with torn Italian bread, minced onion, crushed garlic, and a tablespoon of freshly-chopped oregano. He then adds kosher salt, chopped parsley, and a few twists of black pepper before mixing everything together using an electric mixer. This emulsion is essential in creating flavorful, beautiful meatballs.

**Adding Egg Yolks and Pancetta: The Finishing Touches**

With the meat mixture combined, Oliver adds 4 whole egg yolks, diced pancetta, grated Parmesan cheese, and a veal demi-glace to the mixture. He lets his mixer run for a few minutes before adding more ground beef and mixing everything together by hand to create an even more cohesive emulsion.

**Shaping the Meatballs: A Final Touch of Perfection**

Oliver shapes his meat mixture into 1-1/2-inch balls, which he'll place on a parchment-lined sheet to rest before cooking. He takes a moment to appreciate the beauty of his creations, admiring the way they hold together perfectly.

**Frying the Meatballs: Searing to Perfection**

With the meatballs prepared, Oliver moves on to frying them in a hot skillet. "We want to sear those meatballs until they're golden brown and crispy," he explains. This step is crucial in achieving that perfect texture and flavor.

**The Pasta: A Perfect Garganelli**

While the meatballs are cooking, Oliver turns his attention to the pasta. He begins by rolling out a sheet of dough into a ball, which he wraps in plastic wrap and lets rest for 30 minutes. This resting period allows the gluten to relax, making it easier to roll out thinly.

**Trimming and Cutting the Pasta: A Delicate Process**

Oliver carefully trims the edges of his pasta sheet before cutting it into thin rectangles. He then slices these rectangles down the middle, creating perfect 2-inch squares that will be used as the base for his garganelli.

**Rolling the Pasta: A Perfect Garganelli**

Using a small dowel, Oliver rolls each square of pasta into perfect little garganelli. This process requires patience and attention to detail, but the end result is well worth it.

**Placing the Meatballs on the Pasta: The Final Touches**

With both the meatballs and pasta prepared, Oliver places them on a floured baking sheet, carefully arranging each one to ensure they're evenly spaced.

**The Finished Dish: A True Masterpiece**

As we near the end of our culinary journey, Oliver proudly presents his finished Timpano dish. The aroma wafts through the air, tantalizing our taste buds and building anticipation for the first bite. With every element carefully balanced, this dish is sure to impress even the most discerning palates.

**A Recipe Fit for a King (or Frasier)**

As Oliver finishes his Timpano recipe, he can't help but feel a sense of accomplishment. After hours of cooking and preparing, he's created a true masterpiece that would make any king proud. And with six hours of watching Frasier under his belt, Oliver is ready to take on the next culinary challenge that comes his way.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enHey guys, this is Oliver Babishand I am back with episode twoin my little series where I explore what the food in film and television actually tastes like.This week I'm taking a crack at a dish from one of my favorite movies, Big Night,and one of the coolest looking dishes I've ever seen: Timpano.FEMALE PATRON: <whispering> What is that?MALE PATRON: <whispering> It's Timpano!<whispering> It's a secret recipe that they brought from their hometown.<whispering> I've only heard about it; I've never had it.<scattered murmurs of approval><lively accordion music plays><more scattered murmurs of approval>MALE PATRON: <bangs fist on table> GOD DAMN IT!Timpano starts where most great Italian dishes start: San Marzano tomatoes.Go ahead and have a drink, it's going to be a long night.We're going to start by crushing the San Marzanos by hand before adding them to a large Dutch ovenin which I have 8 cloves of garlic and a tablespoon of fresh oregano sweating with olive oil and butterI'm going to add most of the tomatoes, reserving two cups to add to the sauce when it's done.I'm also going to add two small onions, peeled and halved,a whole carrot peeled and cut into thirds(we're keeping all this stuff in big chunks so we can fish it out later)we're also going to add two stems of fresh basil and a tablespoon of tomato pastebefore the sauce makes its six-hour-long journey simmering on the stovetop.Next up, the meatballs.We're going to start with about a half cup of fresh parsley that we're going to chop very very finealongside a small onion that, likewise, we're going to finely minceFor the meat we're going to start with a pound each of chuck and short ribthat we're going to cut into one-inch cubes and place on a parchment-lined baking sheetand put in the freezer for about 15 minutes, until it gets nice and firm.We're going to do the same with a pound each of pork shoulder and veal neckand we're also going to finely chop a quarter pound of pancetta.Then it's time for the fun part: grinding our meat.So, in batches, we're going to add to a food processor and pulse until we get a nice pebbly grindwe're going to do the same thing for our pork and veal.And then comes my favorite part of this whole process, actually making the meatballs.We're going to start with 1/4 cup of buttermilk,to which we're going to add about 1/2 cup of torn Italian bread,our minced onion, 4 cloves of crushed garlic,a tablespoon of freshly-chopped oregano,a tablespoon and a half of kosher salt,our chopped parsley, a few twists of black pepper,and I'm going to add a veal demi-glace,which will add a lot of gelatin and help keep the meatballs moist.Now we're going to let our mixer run for a few minutes to combine all these ingredientsbefore adding 4 whole egg yolks,our diced pancetta,about 1/2 cup of grated Parmesan cheese,and then we're going to add roughly 1/4 of our ground meat,and turn the mixer on high to combine and make sort of an emulsion to which we can addthe rest of our ground beef and mix by hand to create flavorful, beautiful meatballswhich, my favorite part is shaping them into 1-1/2-inch ballswhich I'm going to place on a parchment-lined sheet to get ready for cooking.I could watch this all day, but I've got something even better to show you:the frying!I like to use a few good hunks of leaf lard in a cast-iron skillet.Get it ripping hot, to show you, for the first time ever......a new camera angle.You're going to sear these meatballs on all sidesbefore adding them to the sauce in its last hour of cookingto let all the flavors get to know each other.Next up, the pasta.Primo and Secondo make all their pasta by hand, so, even though it is 3 a.m. on a weeknight, I'm going to do the same.We're going to start by beating 4 egg yolks and 2 eggs into a 10-ounce mound of Doppio Zero flourslowly incorporating and massaging lovingly until it forms a smooth, not tacky, cohesive pasta doughthat we're going to roll into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap and let rest 30 minutesbefore dividing into 6 pieces and rolling out into sheets.Just take your time, roll it out as thin as you possibly can.Dust it with some flour as you need it, but don't dust it too much, or you're gonna get this gummy layer on the outside of your pasta.You want it thin enough that you can see the outline of your hand, or in this case, my rolling mat, through the pasta.We're going to trim the edges and cut it into a rectanglewhich we're then going to slice down the middle and cut into 2-inch squareswhich we're then going to place on our gnocchi striperand use a small dowel to roll into perfect little garganelliwhich we're going to place on a floured and towel-lined baking sheet.Now, at this point, it's 4:30 in the morning and I've been watching Frasier for about 6 hours, and I am truly losing my mind.Let's listen in...BABISH: \"Her...loss...Niles...\"Frasier...\"\"Roz's water...just broke...all over Niles'...Turkish...prayer...rug...\"\"Would you believe it?!? Up until 4:30 making PASTA!!!1!\"<singing> \"Color in a can...color in a cannnn...\"\"Every day's a winding road, you know?\"\"OK, it's way worse to lose your hair than to go grey...\"<singing>\"If you wish to be my briiide...\"\"And, it's not like Brad Pitt was a baby actor...\"<slurred singing>Okay, I got a solid 3 hours of sleep, and I am feeling a whole lot better.Also, this IS the next day. I know this shirt looks very similar, it's different, I swear I changed.Let's change this music too...<plays \"Awake\" by Tycho> That's better. I like that.All right, so now we're moving on to our Timpano crust,It's almost the exact same recipe as the earlier pasta dough, but it has more egg yolks in it, and a bit more olive oil.This is going to help give this a nice brown crust.We're going to knead it for a few minutes until it is smooth and not tacky.And then, just like the pasta dough, we're going to wrap it in plastic wrap and give it a rest for about 30 minutes beforeflouring it and rolling it out into a gigantic disk.Just take your time with this. Don't get too frustrated when it bounces back. Flour it liberally,try and flip it very carefully, and just appreciate the upper arm workout.Once we get it down to about 1/16-inch thick, it's time to prep the cooking vessel.We're going to grease the inside of a 6-quart Dutch oven with both butter and olive oil.I bought a huge Timpano pan like they use in the movie, but it was gigantic. It was 15 quarts; it was just way too big.So we're going to use our rolling pin to drape the dough over our Dutch ovenbefore gently pushing it down, and beginning the filling process.We're going to start with a layer of pasta that we've par-boiled for about 2 minutes,followed by a layer of meatballs that we break in half,Next up, a layer of hardboiled eggs, sliced lengthwise down the middle.After that we're going to do another layer of pasta,and a layer of mozzarella cheese, this is low-moisture mozzarella.You wanna throw a little bit of sauce between every other layer or so, so we get a lot of that great sauce all throughout the Timpano.We're gonna do another layer of meatballs,and next up, we're going to grate some aged provolone. This is going to give a nice funky Italian bite.Then, it's time to make one last layer of our eggs,followed by some Genoa salami, some nice dry hard salami,the rest of our mozzarella,the rest of our pasta,press the whole mixture down a little bit, and then we're going to grate a little bit more of that aged provolone.That's going to help seal all the ingredients inside when it comes time to flip it.Now we're going to gently fold the pasta over the top,making sure not to leave any open spots or points where it might be able to leak out.And last, but not least we're going to cover it and put it in a 375°F oven for about two hoursor until we are greeted with a sight and a smell like this.Now, you want to let it rest for at least half an hour, if not an hour and a half.But, most importantly, unveiling a Timpano is no fun without --<snaps fingers>-- dinner guests.So, here we go, don't forget your Ove-Gloves.Grab your large cutting board, place it over top of your Dutch oven,and use it to invert the entire cooking vessel...like that.And, as everyone holds their breath, gently lift the cooking vessel.<guests ooh and cheer and applaud>Now, like I said, you ideally want to wait about an hour and a half before cutting into this thing,but I've got a room full of people that have waited nearly 3 hours to eat, so...Don't forget to spoon some warm sauce onto the serving plate, and gently retrieve your prize.Grate some fresh nutmeg over top and serve.Now, as pretty as this thing is, I was worried it was just going to be just a glorified lasagna.But it's a lot more than that. It's an event. It's a whole bundle of culinary experiences rolled into one.I hope you all give it a try yourselves, but for gods' sake, do it on a weekend.\n"