Scrippelle ‘mbusse (Crepes in Broth)

Frank8 February 2020Abruzzo, primi piatti, Soups56 Comments

This lovely dish comes to us from the province of Teramo on the eastern slopes of the Gran Sasso in the region of Abruzzo. Scrippelle ‘mbusse, literally meaning ‘wet crepes’ in local dialect, are just that: light crepes (crespelle in standard Italian) that are filled with grated cheese, rolled up and doused with hot homemade broth. Sounds simple—and it is—but the combination is pure genius.

Tradition has it that scrippelle ‘mbusse were invented by mistake, when a young cook absent-mindedly dropped some crespelle he was making into boiling broth. Fearing for his job, he made out as if he had done it intentionally and served his new dish to the awaiting guests. Lucky for him, the accidental invention turned out to be hit.

Scrippelle ‘mbusse are light but very satisfying. And though made with simple ingredients, it looks quite elegant on the plate, so it is equally at home at a family supper or as a first course for an elegant dinner party. This warming dish is commonly associated with the colder months, but I’d be happy to tuck into a bowl of scrippelle at any time of year.

Ingredients

Makes about 12 scrippelle

4 eggs
65g (1/2 cup) flour
750ml (1-1/2 cup) or so water (or milk, or a mixture of milk and water)
Minced parsley (optional)
Grated nutmeg (optional)
Salt
Olive oil (or lard)

To complete the dish:

Grated pecorino (or Parmesan) cheese, q.b.
Homemade broth

Directions

Beat the eggs in a mixing bowl, then add the flour bit by bit, whisking all the time until you have a rather thick uniform paste. As you continue whisking, drizzle in enough water that the batter attains the consistency of light cream. Whisk in a pinch of salt and, if using, the parsley and/or nutmeg.

Let the batter rest for a good 30 minutes or more at room temperature.

Heat the oil (or lard) in a crepe pan or small nonstick skillet. When the pan is hot, drizzle in a bit of oil (or melt a small knob of lard) and then pour on a small ladleful of the batter and swirl it around so it very thinly covers the bottom of the pan. Let the batter set, and when it just begins to brown on the bottom, flip it over and let it cook very briefly on the other side. The whole operation should take less than one minute. Remove the resulting crêpe aka scrippella to a dish.

Repeat until you’ve used up all the batter.

Bring your broth to a simmer.

Lay your scrippelle aka crepes out on a flat surface to dry a bit, then top each with a very generous portion of the grated cheese. Roll the crepes up very tightly, with the prettier side on outside, and arrange them, in soup plates, seam side down.

Ladle the piping hot broth on top of the crepes.

Serve right away with more grated cheese on the side for those who want it.

Notes on Scrippelle ‘mbusse

One important word to the wise: Like a lot of Italian dishes, the simplicity of this dish leaves mediocre ingredients no place to hide. The broth especially needs to be top notch—and of course homemade—or your scrippelle ‘mbusse are likely to disappoint.

Recipes are all over the map when it comes to measurements (again like a lot of Italian recipes). The amount of liquid in particular, varies quite a bit. In calling for as much as 750ml/1-1/2 cups of water or milk, I’ve gone for the top of the range, as in my testing I found that more liquid produces finer crepes.

And indeed, your scrippelle should be paper-thin. If you find they are coming out too thick, add bit more water to the batter and/or use less batter in a single go. They will be quite delicate, even more so than the standard French crepes you may be familiar with, so you’ll need to handle them very gingerly. Don’t fret too much if they tear a bit here and there; small tears are easily hidden when you roll up your scrippelle. If they are just too delicate to handle, on the other hand, whisking an extra spoonful of flour into the batter should firm them up a bit.

Variations

As I’ve indicated in the ingredients list, many recipes for scrippelle ‘mbusse (including I suspect the original one) call for water as the only liquid for thinning out the egg and flour paste. Others call for a bit of milk and the rest water, and still others, like this lovely version from noted cookbook author and cyberfriend Domenica Marchetti, call for all milk, which I’m sure gives a lushly rich result.

The cooking medium for making the scrippelle was originally lard but these days olive oil often rules; a few recipes call for butter, in the French manner. The use (or not) of parsley, in the batter or sometimes sprinkled on top of the finished product, also varies from recipe to recipe. Most omit it but I thought it added a nice touch of color to an otherwise monochrome dish. Most recipes call specifically for chicken broth but others are less specific. Some call for a bit of nutmeg in the batter, while yet others call for a touch of cinnamon in the filling.

Another, perhaps less obvious variation, lies in how you serve your scrippelle. Just two or three on a plate makes this dish into a kind of soup, but some people will fill the dish with them, turning the dish into a kind of very wet pasta. If you want a proper soup, you can cut your scrippelle into strips rather than rolling them, and use your grated cheese as a topping rather than a filling.

Forgetting the broth altogether, you can make baked pasta dishes with scrippelle, using them much like pasta all’uovo to make cannelloni or, most famously, layered between meat sauce to make the lasagne-like timballo teramano, a popular dish for the holidays.

Making scrippelle ahead

You can make your scrippelle ahead of time. They will keep well for several days in fridge, covered in plastic wrap. (They say you can freeze them as well, but I haven’t tested that out myself.) Gently warm them in the oven (or give them a quick zap in the microwave) to bring them back to life, then proceed with the recipe from there.

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