Six small onions

For stuffing
A piece of bread
Milk
One tablespoon of grated Parmesan cheese
The yolks of two hard-boiled eggs
Fine-chopped parsley
A pinch of sugar, salt and pepper
Yolk of one raw egg

For coating
Flour
Egg

For frying
Lard

For topping -- piquante sauce
Pickles
Capers
Pickled pepper
One-half cup of water
One tablespoon of butter

"Take six small onions, remove the centers with an apple-corer. Boil them for a few moments, drain them, and stuff them with the following: Take a piece of bread, dip it in milk, squeeze out the milk, and mix the bread with one tablespoon of grated Parmesan cheese, the yolks of two hard-boiled eggs. Mix well together, then add some fine-chopped parsley, a pinch of sugar, salt and pepper, and the yolk of one raw egg; mix again well, and then stuff the onions with the mixture. Then dip them in flour and in egg, and fry them in lard. Put them on a platter and serve

with a piquante sauce, made as follows: Chop up fine some pickles, capers, and pickled pepper, and add one-half cup of water. When these are cooked, add one tablespoon of butter and cook a little while longer, then pour over the onions and serve."

This recipe was taken from "Simple Italian Cookery" written by Antonia Isola (pen name for Mabel Earl McGinnis). It was published in the United States by Harper and Brothers in 1912. It is believed to be the first American cookbook that contains Italian recipes. For the complete copyright-free cookbook see www.archive.org....Photo: Mary Melfi.

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