Today’s Best Italian Recipe is scrippelle ‘mbusse in fish broth with meatballs of shrimp, a typical first course from Teramo revisited by Carla De Iuliis, journalist and communications manager of a public body, passionate about food and local traditions, who wrote to us: «Legend has it that it was the assistant chef Enrico Castorani , in the early nineteenth century, to invent scrippelle ‘mbusse, following a gross mistake in the kitchen. Castorani worked in the canteen of the French officers stationed in Teramo, in Abruzzo, where they used to serve the soldiers revisited “crêpes” (without milk, but with water), instead of bread (made of corn flour), which was little appreciated by the officers . One day it happened that the scrippelle, ready to be served at the table, accidentally fell into a pan containing chicken broth.
The chef, instead of throwing away the scrippelle completely soaked in broth, decided (and, we add, fortunately) to serve them anyway, finding great success. Since then, scrippelle with broth have become one of the cult dishes of Teramo cuisine, once typical of the Christmas holidays, but now used on every important occasion. They are simple and cheap, to make them you only need eggs, flour, water and a pinch of salt; then, just dip them in a boiling meat broth and sprinkle them with plenty of grated parmesan (formerly with pecorino strictly from Abruzzo). Carla told us that there is a variant of the recipe, typical of Montorio al Vomano, a town a few kilometers from Teramo, where the scrippelle are accompanied by very small meatballs, fried in extra virgin olive oil. Precisely this variant gave her the idea for her dish: «I remembered the fish broth that my grandmother prepared, always trying to recover every possible waste in the kitchen; so I made a delicate broth with the fish and shrimp scraps, which I used to make meatballs.” The finishing touch? «A slightly unusual plating, which goes beyond tradition, but gives a gourmet and contemporary touch to the recipe.

The recipe: scrippelle ‘mbusse in fish broth with shrimp meatballs

Effort: medium
Time: 1 hour and 15 minutes
Styling and cooking: Joëlle Néderlants

Ingredients for 1 person

For the broth and meatballs

• 15 prawns
• 4 cherry tomatoes
• 1 carrot
• 1 stalk of celery
• 1 egg yolk
• fish bone such as sea bream or St. Peter’s fish
• parsley
• bread crumbs
• extra virgin olive oil
• seed oil
• fine salt
• coarse salt
• black peppercorns

For the scripelle

• 1 egg
• 00 flour
• lard or extra virgin olive oil
• salt

Method

For the broth and meatballs

Fill a pan with high sides with a liter and a half of water; add the heads and shells of the prawns, the fish bone, the carrot, the celery stalk, a few sprigs of parsley with the stalks, the cherry tomatoes, the coarse salt and the peppercorns; cook for about an hour, over low heat, then filter the broth.
Pour a drizzle of oil into a pan and brown the prawns for a couple of minutes. Let them cool then transfer them into a bowl with the egg yolk, a few spoonfuls of breadcrumbs, a sprig of chopped parsley and the egg yolk, seasoning with salt and pepper. Work the mixture, forming small balls, dip them in boiling seed oil for about 30 seconds, then drain them on kitchen paper.

For the scripelle

Break the egg into a bowl, add ½ shell of water, a level spoon of flour and a pinch of salt. Mix everything until you obtain a homogeneous mixture.
Heat a pan (20 cm diameter), greased with lard or a drizzle of oil, and pour in the mixture, one ladle at a time; as soon as the edges of the pan lift slightly from the pan, turn it over and continue cooking until you obtain a sort of thin crepe. Repeat the operation with the remaining mixture: you will obtain approximately 3 scrippelle.
Roll up the scrippelle, cut them into rounds, a couple of cm high and place them on a deep plate. Pour the hot fish broth over the scrippelle, complete with the shrimp meatballs and serve.

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