Timballo is an Italian cuisine consisting of pasta, rice or , with one or more other ingredients (cheese, meat, fish, vegetables or fruit) included.
Etymology
The name comes from the Italian from the French word for '
Timpani' (timbale).
Varieties of
timballo differ from region to region, and it is sometimes known as a
bomba,
tortino,
sartù (a type of Neapolitan
timballo with rice and tomato sauce) or
Pastitsio (which is used more commonly to refer to a similar dish baked in a pastry crust).
It is also known as
timpano and timbale. It is similar to a
casserole and is sometimes referred to in English as a
pie or savory
cake.
Preparation
The dish is prepared in a dome or
springform pan and eggs or cheese are used as a binder.
Rice is commonly used as an ingredient in
Emilia-Romagna, where the dish is referred to as a
bomba and baked with a filling of pigeon or other game bird, peas, local cheese and a base of dried pasta.
Crêpes are used as a base in
Abruzzo, and other regions use
ravioli or
gnocchi.
In
Sicily, it is typically made with pasta and
eggplant.
Mushroom sauce, a rich cheese soup and sauce, are sometimes used, and Anna Del Conte wrote that béchamel is the most consistently used ingredient in timballo.
By the 1990s in Campania, timballo was rarely made in homes, more often purchased as take away from food businesses, whole or by the slice.
In popular culture
An impressive
timballo (
un torreggiante timballo de macheroni) is served as the first course in a sumptuous formal dinner hosted by the fictional Prince of Salina in Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's 1958 novel
The Leopard, and also features in the 2025 miniseries adaptation of the novel.
Timballo featured prominently in the 1996 film Big Night, although the dish there is referred to as timpano (a regional or family term),
See also
External links
