Italian Country Paté
Italian country paté is the Italian equivalent of the French Paté de Campagne. A mixture of coarser meat cooked in an earthenware terrine.
Patés and terrines have been known in Italy since Roman times, and although the words are often used synonymously there is a distinction. It Italy, a paté is a mousse of finely ground meat of fish, while the terrine is more coarsely chopped and prepared in a water bath under lid.
Both types of preparation are peasant food made from the ingredients that happen to be cheap and available, which explains the widespread use of variety meats. The exquisite flavour, however, makes them a popular addition to the tables at Christmas and Boxing Day in Italy known as Santo Stefano.
Ingredients
250 g speck or bacon
2 slices of bread
200 ml double cream
1 onion
4 cloves of garlic
250 g minced beef
250 g minced pork
250 g chopped chicken liver
2 eggs
1 tbsp salted pistacchio nuts
50 ml Marsala
Olive oil
Orange zest
Rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper
Preparation
Remove the crust and soak the bread in double cream.
Grease and line a 2 litre terrine with speck (or bacon) but save a few slices to cover the top.
Saute onions and garlic in olive oil
Mix minced meat and chopped liver with an electric mixer.
Stir well with soaked bread, fried onions, eggs, pistacchios, Marsala, grated orange zest, chopped rosemary and thyme and salt and pepper.
Fill the meat mixture in the terrine and seal with speck.
Cover the terrine with baking paper and lid.
Bake it in a bain marie at 175 C / 350 F for 90 minute or more.
Leave the Italian country paté to settle and cool in the fridge overnight.
Serve Italian country paté as antipasti or as cold meat dish accompanied by nice a cabbage salad or with mixed carrots and beets and ketchup made of red peppers from Senise in Basilicata.
Italian Country paté served with a salad of mixed carrots and beets and a ketchup made from red peppers from Senise.
Italian Notes
I am confused about the part of mixing the meat with a mixer, does that mean what I mix cakes and whip cream with or a food processor? The liver is chopped but is it supposed to be chopped fine? I don’t usually have trouble with recipes but the picture you show seems to be something that is processed more then jus5 a mixer, looks more like a food processor or the liver would show in the slice.
My electric hand mixer has two kinds of beaters, a dough hook and a wire whip. I use the wire whip to mix cakes and whip cream, and the dough hook for heavier mixtures like this country liver paté. You could just stir it by hand instead. A food processor would turn the meat into one uniform blend and eliminate the different textures that makes this paté special.