Instructions: One of the best recipes Ive found for this legendary Italian dish! Recipe of a person named "Skip", and thats all I know about him.

The recent success of the movie, The Big Night has created a kind of mania over Timpano, or Timballo di Maccheroni. Perhaps rightly so: the dish takes several hours to prepare, combines three or four recipes that are delicious in their own right, and creates an instant feast when brought to the table.

But Italians have been enjoying Timpano-if only once or twice per year-in one form or another since the Renaissance. Nearly every region of Italy includes some kind of savory pie in their cuisine; from Torta Pasqualina in Emilia-Romagna, to Capelli dAngeli al Forno in Tuscany, to Timballo di Maccheroni in Abruzzi and Calabria.

The key to success with this dish will be your organization. Be sure to have all ingredients on hand, and allow enough time to get everything but the assembly done in advance. Your reward could be canonization, nomination for the Nobel Prize, or-at a minimum-a hearty round of applause when you bring the Timpano to the table.

As I said, this dish breaks down to be three or four excellent recipes, and you can cook 90 % of it in advance. When youve started the sauce-which will take three to four hours-you can complete the rest of the preparation at your lesiure and simply assemble the dish about one and a half hours before you plan to serve

Skips Ragu` Alla Napoletana:
1 Medium yellow onion, peeled and quartered 1 Stalk celery, washed and roughly chopped 1 Medium carrot, peeled and roughly chopped 4 Cloves garlic, peeled
2 oz. pancetta
4 Tbs. flat-leaf Italian parsley
2 Tbs. Olive oil
1 Lb. "Country-style" pork spare ribs
3 Cups dry red wine
1 4 Oz. Can tomato paste
1 28 Oz. Can Italian plum tomatoes
4 Sweet Italian sausages

Lauries Savory Pastry Crust:
I must give credit where credit is due. And I must confess that I dont bake.

My record for creating disaster out of pastry crust remains unblemished from the early nineteen-seventies. So I depend on Laurie, who is a genius-level baker, for this part of the recipe.

2 Cups All-purpose flour
1/2 Cup (2 sticks) frozen, unsalted butter, cut into 1 Tbs. pieces pinch (scant 1/4 tsp.) salt
2 Large eggs

Skips Meatballs:
If you grew up in an Italian-American household, as I did, youll very likely recognize this recipe for meatballs. But if you have a "secret recipe"

of your own, by all means use it here.

1/2 Lb. ground beef
1 Large egg
1/2 Cup bread crumbs
1 Clove garlic, peeled and finely chopped 4 Tbs. flat-leaf Italian parsley, finely chopped 1/4 Cup freshly grated Parmigiano
salt & freshly ground black pepper
Olive oil

Skips Chicken Livers:
1 Tbs. unsalted butter
1 shallot, peeled and finely chopped
4 chicken livers, all visible fat removed salt & freshly ground black pepper
2 Tbs. cognac

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