Making a Timpano is a great experience for an enterprising cook. The job is not for everyone and though it could be completed in one day, most cooks who do it suggest spreading it out over two days (it takes about 8-10 hours, including baking.) If you haven’t seen “Big Night”, a terrific film for anybody, you should. It was this film that brought the dish, Timpano, to the attention of American cooks.

The fillings are spread out and ready as I begin to roll the dough.

The dough is rolled. Note the large steeel mixing bowl in which the Timpano will be baked.

On top of a layer of penne in bechamel sauce and peas I am placing some sauteed chicken livers.

And here’s a layer of hard boiled eggs and sausages and eggplant. Note that ALL ingredients are cooked in advance.

Then a layer of meatballs (making these and the ragu sauce takes a bit of time) and mozzarella. This was topped by a layer of penne in a very rich ragu sauce. The pieces of dough hanging down and lying about were patched in to cover the top. Since that later becomes the bottom a bit of imperfection here doesn’t matter much.

Michael (left), our guest for a special dinner for his birthday, was there to grab the pan in case I slipped when inverting. But … no problems and I’m all aglow with how beautiful it looked after baking, inverting (scary), and removing the bowl.

Here are links to some websites I used and comments about where I deviated

I used the chicken liver recipe from 1.

I combined the dough recipes from 2 and 4 and increased the quantity to about five cups of flour. I used the besciamella from 2.

I selected filling ideas from 1 and 2 (and perhaps elsewhere). Adding cubes of eggplant is my own idea; I haven’t seen it elsewhere.

My ragu combined techniques from 1 and 2 as did my meatballs.

There’s a great deal of discussion about using a proper Timpano pan which traditionally is a porcelain on steel wash basin (and these days obtainable hardly anywhere.) As can be seen above, my large mixing bowl, easily available and a useful item for any kitchen, worked beautifully. I oiled the interior with olive oil and sprinkled on commercial dried bread crumbs. There was no sticking whatsoever.

Future changes:

I'd like to get the final product to slice better. Another layer of pasta might fill in some gaps and solidify the interior. Also one recipe pours beaten eggs into the dish (I didn’t). Next time I might make even more dough and seal the bottom better OR (as mentioned above) use foil on the bottom. Also a few more peas might improve the color of the interior.