Does it feel darker this time of year? Many folks think it’s darkest on the winter solstice. But it’s actually in early December! Bob Berman explains this phenomenon.

To most of us in North America, this is a dark time of year—and you’re right. The sunsets come exceedingly early. It might surprise you to learn that the earliest sunsets come several weeks before the winter solstice, not on the solstice, as many would guess.

This puzzles people, but it’s actually a reliable yearly sequence.

• First comes the earliest sunset, in early December.
• Then there’s the winter solstice half a month later—on December 21 in the Northern Hemisphere—the day with the fewest minutes of daylight.
• Finally, another two weeks later, in early January, we get our murkiest morning—the latest sunrise.

In early December, North America slams bang at the low point of afternoon sunshine. And since far more people are awake and aware of things at 4:30 PM than they are at 6 in the morning, in a very real sense, you can forget about the solstice and the official “shortest day of the year” in terms of daylight. 

The Darkest Time of Year

So far as what most folks actually experience, early December is the darkest time of the year. 

For example, in Boston, the Sun started setting at 4:13 p.m. on December 3 and won’t start setting later, at 4:14 p.m., until December 15. 

Of course, the degree of darkness varies, depending on how far north you live. The time the clock reads at sunset also depends on how far east or west your home sits relative to your standard time zone.

• For northern latitudes, the earliest sunsets of the year happen around December 7. Think about 40 degrees latitude, so New York City, Philadelphia, Kansas City, Denver, and Reno. 
• If you live in the southernmost U.S., or a comparable latitude (about 25 or 26 degrees N. latitude), your earliest sunsets are actually in late November.
• Drive just an hour east from where you are right now, and the Sun sets ten minutes earlier. That’s because going east around the Earth’s curve makes your western horizon rise up to block the Sun sooner.
• Go a mere 35 miles east, and the sun sets five minutes earlier.

In my region, which is the rural Northeastern US, the very earliest sunsets happen for those who indeed live both north AND east—namely, along the upper coast of Maine.

Your Sunset Time?

Test this out yourself! See when your sun starts setting. Try putting in two days ago, and then today, and one week from now!

→ See the Almanac’s Sunrise & Sunset Calculator.

Why is the earliest sunset well before the winter solstice? 

Simply put, it all reflects the reality that tropical sunsets hardly vary throughout the year, while polar sunsets change wildly through the seasons. If you lived smack on the equator, like in Quito, Ecuador, your minutes of daylight would never budge throughout the year, not even by one second.

By contrast, our northern friends in Canada and Alaska experience the most radically short days in December.

But wherever you live, before the winter solstice starts, the afternoons will start getting brighter!

Learn all about the winter solstice coming up!

If you’ve ever wanted to see the Milky Way galaxy from Earth, late September through October is your window of opportunity! Right now, we’re aimed toward the most concentrated part of the Milky Way. Learn more to see the kind of inspirational, star-filled panorama experienced in planetariums!

If you live – or can visit friends – in a rural location away from city lights, October can be very special. It’s when amazing things hover straight overhead. Spread a blanket or set up a deck chair and gaze up anytime after dinner, say around 8 PM.

Lunar brightness won’t be around before midnight after October’s first week, and the sky will be totally moonless mid-month, making for a perfect 8 PM sky-session. Star-filled planetarium conditions will linger until the approach of the Hunter’s Moon near the end of the month.

So what’s straight up?

It’s the Milky Way, which splits the sky from north to south and crosses the heavens overhead! A century ago, it was widely believed to be the entire cosmos. Now we know that our Milky Way galaxy is just one of hundreds of billions that make up the universe.

What is the Milky Way?

Of course, the Milky Way is our home galaxy. It a “barred spiral” type of galaxy with giant spiral arms that make it look like a spinning pinwheel. It includes our solar system and Sun, which is located on a smaller spiral arm, about half the distance from the center of the galaxy to its outer edges. While we on Earth orbit the Sun, our solar system’s one-and-only star orbits the center of the Milky Way!

Why is it called the Milky Way? This describes our galaxy’s appearance from planet Earth: a hazy, milky band of light stretching across the night sky. No one knows where the name came from, though the ancient Greeks used the word “Galactos” to refer to milk; there is a Greek myth about the goddess Hera who sprayed milk across the sky. Ovid, a Roman poet, later wrote about the Milky Way in “The Metamorphoses” in 8 A.D.

How Many Stars are in the Milky Way?

It’s estimated that there are several billion stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. All the stars you see from Earth are part of our home galaxy. However, how many stars you can see from Earth depends on the time of year!

Right now, in late September through October, we’re facing the highest concentration of stars. The Milky Way neatly splits the sky and passes directly overhead. The Moon is absent, so rural places away from city lights provide perfectly dark conditions, while early fall’s ‘typical crisp, dry air affords the kind of transparency that allows the countless subtle details of the Milky Way to emerge in all its glory.

It’s a far cry from the spring, when the Milky Way is almost coincident with the horizon and invisible. Then, the sky offers only a smattering of stars to see. Ever noticed this? 

Best Time to See the Milky Way

From September to October: The Milky Way is visible in the evening.

Look straight up! We’re aimed toward the most concentrated part of the Milky Way Galaxy. 

1. Look between 8 P.M. and 10 P.M. in the evening, looking up and towards the south.
2. View on a new Moon or within a few days of the new Moon. See the Moon Phase Calendar for your area. Or,  check when the Moon will rise and set.
3. Check for clear skies. It will be hard to see much on a cloudy night. Here’s the 5-day weather forecast.
4. Go to a dark place with no lights. Frankly, with light pollution, the Milky Way is all but invisible. From non-light-polluted places, it’s a wonderland.

When you do get to see the Milky Way on a dark, moonless night and in its full splendor, it’s very hard not to be in complete awe. It’s humbling and, for many, spiritual. It feels like stepping back to an ancient cosmos before lights existed. 

Lately, wide-angle photos of nighttime landscapes with the Milky Way filling the sky keep appearing on the internet. It’s as if starry glow of our galaxy’s edgewise portion has suddenly been discovered after a long absence. In truth, long exposures made with expensive equipment, and taken in areas with an inspirational foreground like from Arches National Park, are indeed gorgeous.

Image: Arches National Park. Credit: NPS/Chris Wonderly

However, some of us, like myself, whose house is in a state park where the nearest village has a population of 153, can get the experience by merely turning off the house lights and stepping into the backyard.

And now is the best time to do that.

Places to See the Milky Way Galaxy

In terms of place, you simply need dark skies! Drive out to the country one evening or on the weekend. With most of the world now living in cities, the full impact of the Milky Way often requires overnight camping at some very rural site. Usually, driving inland away from a city is your best bet. If you’re willing to travel, check out the best “Dark Sky” sites.

From a dark location, it takes about 20 minutes for human eyes to become fully sensitive to faint light. Away from the lights of town, lie on a blanket or lounge chair (reclining helps ease neck strain). You will witness the combined light of uncountable stars populating the dense, central hub of the Galaxy. These suns are so concentrated that you see billowing “clouds” of stars!  

TIP: When you view the Milky Way, try looking through a camera which can accumulate light that the naked eye can not. Take a look at what the naked eye sees compared to the camera.

How to See the Milky Way

Looking toward the dark skies at the right time of year, the naked human eye should see a whitish glow stretching in a huge arc. This band has been visible in the heavens since Earth first formed. This glowing line of light is the center of our galaxy, as seen from one of its spiral arms where we are located. It’s because our eyes cannot distinguish the individual stars that make up the glowing band of light that it all appears “milky.” 

Take fifteen minutes to let your eyes adjust to the darkness. Then explore the creamy glow of the Milky Way, punctuated by patches of fuzz that binoculars show to be star clusters and gas clouds in our Galaxy’s spiral arms.  

Here, knowing the stars or constellations is as unnecessary as naming each trout in a stream.  But if you’d like to name something, well, that brightest star overhead at nightfall is Vega. (But say and think “VEE-ga,” not “VAY-ga.”)

Buried in that glow straight up at 8 PM hovers Deneb.  It’s not as brilliant as Vega, which is very high though not perfectly straight up.

But Deneb is special. It’s one of our galaxy’s most luminous stars, shining with the light of 60,000 Suns! Only its vast distance of 1,500 light-years keeps it from lighting up the countryside like a street lamp. And it happens to mark the direction toward which our entire solar system is zooming. (Read my post, “Where in Space Are We Headed?”)

Our own Sun, taking us along for the ride, will reach that area around Vega and Deneb, that straight overhead territory, in about a million years. But since those stars are moving away from us like horses ahead of us on a carousel, we’ll never actually catch them.

And low in the south where the Milky Way has a brightening and a bulge, that’s the center of our galaxy. It’s the amazing place around which every star, including our own Sun and its retinue of planets, revolve once every 225 million years.

To the ancient Peruvians and Mayans, the Milky Way was the center of the universe. And even in our Space Telescope age, it’s still the heart of ours—our resident galaxy, observed not from the outside but from our worms’-eye viewpoint within its pinwheel motif.

Video: Zooming in on the heart of the Milky Way

This video by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) starts with a broad view of the Milky Way. We then dive into the dusty central region to take a much closer look. There lurks a 4-million solar mass black hole, surrounded by a swarm of stars orbiting rapidly. We first see the stars in motion, thanks to 26 years of data from ESO’s telescopes. We then see an even closer view of one of the stars, known as S2, passing very close to the black hole in May 2018. The final part shows a simulation of the motions of the stars.

What else is up this month? See the October Night Sky Guide.

Before you pour salt on your driveways to melt snow and ice, consider its impact on your plants, pets, pavement, and water quality. Explore seven less harmful ways to melt ice—as well as ways to use less salt!

Rock salt (sodium chloride) has been the conventional choice to melt ice on driveways and sidewalks as salt has a lower freezing point than water. Rock salt is effective to approximately 12°F but can damage soils, kill plants and grass, and cause driveway and car problems. It’s also toxic to animals when ingested. Plus, if you care about keeping local waters pristine, salt causes problems with the over-salinization of rivers and lakes.

Negative Impact of Salt

• If your front walk or driveway is made of porous paving materials like concrete or brick, salt causes freeze and thaw cycles that eat away at it and make it prone to cracking and crumbling.
• Salt can dry out and burn your pets’ sensitive paws, causing painful cracks and open sores. Licking the salt off also puts them at risk for gastrointestinal problems. If they ingest enough salt, it can be lethal!
• Salt runoff can contaminate well water and reservoirs and wash into lakes and streams where it is toxic to fish and amphibians.
• Salt injures plants in many ways often causing a slow death. Roots take up salt which accumulates in plant tissues causing nutrient imbalances. Salts also make it difficult for some roots to absorb water which leads to dryness and drought stress. 
• Large amounts of sodium can chemically change the clay in the soil, decreasing drainage.
• Salt spray, splashed up from the roads, can cause chemical toxicity to the plants, especially evergreens within the splash zone.
• Salty deposits on the surface of twigs, leaves, and buds dehydrate them and interfere with photosynthesis, transpiration, and respiration.

Signs of Salt Damage to Plants

The University of Wisconsin lists these signs of salt damage to be on the lookout for:

• Browning leaf edges
• Wilting during hot dry weather
• Off-color foliage
• Stunted growth
• Fewer or smaller leaves
• Yellow leaves that are a sign of chlorosis
• Premature fall color and early leaf drop
• Smaller than normal flowers and fruit
• Evergreens with discolored needles

7 Alternatives to Rock Salt

There’s no “perfect” ice-melt solution, but here are some solutions that are less damaging than 100% rock salt.

1. Rubbing Alcohol: In a bucket, mix 1/2 gallon of warm water with 6 drops of dish soap and 1/4 cup of rubbing alcohol ($1.99 for 16 ounces where I live which would make MANY batches). Splash this around on your icy spots and watch the ice bubble up and melt away. It’s very effective and satisfying! The rubbing alcohol has a much lower freezing point than water so it thaws ice and prevents re-icing! (Rubbing alcohol often appears as one of many ingredients in commercial ice melts.)  
   
   You can also combine the alcohol with water in a spray bottle, creating a portable ice-melting solution to keep in your car to defrost your windshield! Often, airplanes use rubbing alcohol to defrost the wings of a plane.  
    
2. Epsom Salt: Epsom salt isn’t as harmful to plants or vegetation as rock salt (or table salt). You may already have some on hand from the garden. It is an abrasive and melts ice slowly. To speed up your Epsom salts’ melting power, combine sugar and Epsom salt in a 1:1 ratio. As Epson salt costs more than rock salt (6 pounds for $5.29 where I live), perhaps save it for the front steps when company is coming. Learn about using Epsom salt in the garden.
    
3. Garden Fertilizer/Alternative Salts:  Check your garage to see if you have any fertilizer left over from gardening, and check the label for the below ingredients. These salts are slightly gentler than rock salt, though they are more expensive and they still have some of the disadvantages of salts described above.  
   
   —Calcium chloride is the popular ingredient in commercial de-icers and melts ice to about -25 degrees F, lower than rock salt. It will form slippery surfaces on its own, so mix it with sand—one part to 3 parts—to stretch it and add abrasive qualities. It’s very quick-acting and melts ice almost instantly. It’s less damaging to concrete than other ice melts. However, overapplication can still harm plants as well as corrode metals, damaging your car. Plus, it’s strength makes it the least pet-friendly of the salts and very irritating to pets’ paws.  
   
   —Magnesium chloride is effective down to 0 degrees and also a popular ingredient in de-icers. The advantage is that it offers a more environmentally friendly alternative to calcium chloride. It causes minimal damage to surfaces, it’s less harmful to plants, and it’s less irritating to pets’ paws than rock salt or calcium chloride. However, keep it mind it’s still a salt so it still has the issues of salt residue and crumbling driveways as all salts, just less severe.  
    
4. Urea: While also an ingredient in fertilizer, Urea (carbonyl diamide) is not salt-based. It’s environmentally safe and doesn’t cause damage to concrete. It’s often used on airport runways. It can melt ice down to temperatures of 15℉. In the spring, you might notice that the edges of your lawn grow more vigorously! The ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center recommends an urea-based product as it’s gentlest on pets paws and least likely to cause poisoning. Urea is different because it doesn’t pull water from paws as much as salts do. If eaten, urea is nontoxic to dogs (though it may cause vomiting).  
    
5. Calcium magnesium acetate (CMA): A new, salt-free melting agent, CMA works differently than other materials in that it does not form a brine-like salt. Instead, it helps prevent snow particles from sticking to each other or the road surface. CMA is made from dolomitic limestone and acetic acid (the main compound of vinegar). This material has little impact on plants and animals and is a good alternative for environmentally-sensitive areas. It’s considered biodegradable and don’t damage brick or concrete surfaces. That said, it is a more expensive alternative.  
    
6. Natural Fertilizer: Alfalfa meal, wood ashes, coffee grounds. Alfalfa meal is a great non-chemical fertilizer that won’t burn your plants. Wood ash from your fireplace contains potassium salts that help melt ice. Ash also absorbs solar energy, increasing the temperature to melt the ice.  All these abrasives will help speed melting AND improve traction. Plus, they have relatively few impacts on the environment or plants.   
    
7. Salt Plus Hot Water: Here’s a way to use rock salt but also lessen the harm that it does while increasing its effectiveness! To melt ice more quickly, salt shouldn’t sit on top of the ice; it needs to permeate the ice When that water re-freezes, the corrosive effect of salt damages the concrete. The trick is to use hot water to melt the ice and then a small amount of salt to prevent the liquid water from re-freezing.  
   
   For your doorsteps or a stubborn area, just boil a large pot of hot water and gently poor on ice. The trick is to sweep the water off the surface so that it doesn’t get cold and freeze. Then sprinkle the salts. Using hot water is not less harmful and more effective but also means that you will end up using less salt.

8 Ways to Use Less Salt

1. Clear the snow first! The more snow and ice present, the more de-icing compound is needed for melting. Use minimal de-icing product to treat the pavement.
2. If you’re going to use salt, don’t scatter it around willy-nilly. Put it in the spots where you need it, not over the entire driveway. For example, sprinkle it near the door and along the entryway to your house after you shovel off everything you can.
3. Get a shovel with a sharp aluminum edge strip on the end of the shovel scoop. This metal strip is more effective at removing ice from your driveway!
4. When landscaping, avoiding planting right along the driveway. Plant any salt-susceptible plants away from roads and sidewalks.
5. In the spring, irrigate the areas that had snow/salt buildup to lessen effects to the root zone of plants. Especially pay attention to any landscape beds that become heavily contaminated (from salty snow being dumped on them) and flush with fresh water as soon as possible.
6. Salt-covered foliage should be hosed off with clean water as soon as possible.
7. Use barriers, gutters, and hardscaping to channel de-icing materials away from the garden and plants.
8. If vegetation is located in areas where heavy salt spray occurs, erect barriers or screens to protect plants (especially evergreens) during the winter months.

Abrasives to Stop Slipping

If you are running out the door or have guests coming and you can’t wait for ice to melt, toss kitty litter or sand or sawdust by hand over the ice! Make sure it’s plain non-clumping clay kitty litter (save the clumping perfumed stuff for inside the house). In general, it’s always a good idea to combine a de-icer with an abrasive to keep folks from slipping. 

Learn anything new today? Whatever de-icer and abrasive you choose to use, keep the safety of people, pets, property and the planet in mind!

Looking for a meal that says “celebration”? Look no further than Timpano. Learn all about this impressive Italian baked pasta dish—plus five tips to simplify the recipe for a fabulous feast. 

Timpano is a baked pasta dish with a huge round dome of crust stuffed with delicious ingredients—pasta, meatballs, cheeses, salamis, and sauce. The word timpano means “drum” in Italian.

When my Italian-American grandparents, aunts, and uncles visited from out of town for a special family event, I wanted to think of a dish worthy of the occasion. 

If you’ve ever seen the “foodie” movie Big Night, you’ll be familiar with Timpano. Take a look at the movie clip here.

Timpano is more of a recipe “activity” than a “let’s get dinner on the table” meal. It’s one crazy Italian dish that is meant for a gathering—and it really helps if you have some guests in the kitchen. 

That said, the ingredients are not out of the ordinary: pasta, cheese, meatballs, eggs, salami, and so forth.

Traditional Timpano Recipe

This recipe makes 16 servings using a 6-quart enamelware bowl. Yes, you may have leftovers!

You may make or buy your dough. The dough for timpano is rolled out like pizza, the diameter of which is determined by the pan you are baking it in. Add together the diameter of the bottom of the pan, the diameter of the top of the pan, and twice the height of the pan. The total will equal the approximate diameter needed. The dough may be kneaded in advance and set aside or refrigerated overnight. Return it to room temperature before rolling it out. Place the rolled dough in the timpano baking pan while the pasta cooks.

Ingredients:

Dough
4 cups all-purpose flour
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup water
Filling
2 cups 1/4 x 1/2-inch Genoa salami pieces
2 cups 1/4 x 1/2-inch sharp provolone cheese cubes
12 hard-boiled eggs, shelled, quartered lengthwise, and each quarter cut in half to create chunks
2 cups little meatballs: you can buy small-size meatballs or follow recipe below*
8 cups of Ragu sauce: You can buy or make homemade.
3 pounds ziti, cooked very al dente (about half the time recommended on the package) and drained (18 cups cooked)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2/3 cup finely grated pecorino Romano cheese
4 large eggs, beaten
*Meatballs
1 pound ground beef chunk
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
1 large egg, lightly beaten
5 tablespoons finely grated pecorino Romano cheese
1 cup fine bread crumbs
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
Combine all the meatball ingredients. In a large nonstick frying pan, warm olive oil.  Roll the meat mixture into very small balls, using 1/2 tablespoon of meat for each. Then brown meatballs on all sides, about 8 minutes. If they stick to the pan, they are not ready. Set aside.

Directions:

1. Dough: Place the flour, eggs, salt, and olive oil in a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook or a large food processor. Add three tablespoons of the water and process. Add more water, one tablespoon at a time, until the mixture comes together and forms a ball. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead to make sure it is well-mixed. Set aside to rest for 5 minutes. (To knead the dough by hand, mix the flour and salt together on a clean, dry work surface or pastry board. Form these dry ingredients into a mound and then make a well in the center. Break the eggs into the center of the well and lightly beat them with a fork. Stir in 3 tablespoons of the water. Use the fork to gradually incorporate some of the dry ingredients into the egg mixture. Continue mixing the dry ingredients into the eggs, adding the remaining water one tablespoon at a time. Knead the dough with your hands to make a well-mixed, smooth, dry dough. If the dough becomes too sticky, add more flour. Set aside to rest for 5 minutes.
2. Flatten the dough out on a lightly floured work surface. Dust the top of the dough with flour and roll it out, dusting with flour and flipping it over from time to time, until it is about 1/16 inch thick and is the desired diameter. Generously grease the timpano bowl with butter and olive oil. Fold the dough in half and then in half again, to form a triangle, and place it in the pan. Open the dough and arrange it in the pan, gently pressing it against the bottom and the sides, draping the extra dough over the sides. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
3. Filling: Salami, provolone, hard-boiled eggs, meatballs, and ragu sauce should be at room temperature. Toss the drained pasta with the olive oil and 2 cups of the ragu. Distribute six generous cups of the pasta on the bottom of the timpano. Top with 1 cup of the salami, 1 cup of the provolone, 6 of the hard-boiled eggs, 1 cup of the meatballs, and 1/3 cup of the Romano cheese. Pour 2 cups of the ragu over these ingredients. Top with 6 cups of the remaining pasta. Top that with the remaining 1 cup salami, 1 cup provolone, six hard-boiled eggs, 1 cup meatballs, and 1/3 cup Romano cheese. Pour 2 cups of the ragu ver these ingredients. top with the remaining 2 cups of ragu over the pasta. Pour the beaten eggs over the filling. Fold the pasta dough over the filling to seal completely. Trim away and discard any double layers of dough.
4. Bake until lightly browned, about 1 hour. Then cover with aluminum foil and continue baking until the timpano is cooked through and the dough is golden brown (and reaches an internal temperature of 120 degrees F), about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 30 or more minutes. The baked timpano should not adhere to the pan. If any part is still attached, carefully detach it with a knife. Grasp the baking pan firmly and invert the timpano onto a serving platter. Remove the pan and allow the timpano to cool for 20 minutes. Using a long, sharp knife, cut a circle about 3 inches in diameter in the center of the timpano and cut all the way through to the bottom. Then slice the timpano as you would a pie into individual portions, leaving the center circle to support the remaining pieces.

5 Timpano Recipe Tips

No matter what recipe you use, there are a few tips for making a good Timpano, which I’ll share below. Plus, here are a couple of tricks on shortening the process, which won’t affect the result.

1. Use the right pan or bowl: It is very important to have the right-sized bowl to create that dome shape. Traditionally, Timpano is baked in a round enamelware bowl (literally, a wash basin), evenly distributing the heat. This type of bowl is wider on top than it is on the bottom. Here is an example of an enamelware bowl. Any enameled Dutch oven might be fine if it’s deep enough.

I borrowed my enamel bowl from a neighbor. The recipe calls for a 6-quart bowl to get that drum shape. Unfortunately, the closest size I could find was 4 quarts (yes, I had a lot of leftover ingredients!). You can see from my photos that my Tmpano is not very high (that said, it turned out of the bowl perfectly!).

Be sure to grease the bowl heavily with extra-virgin olive oil and butter, as the recipe states!

2. Call your pizza parlor: The trickiest part is to figure out the correct diameter needed for the dough (crust). The crust must hang over the pan’s edge and then completely over the filling so it’s all sealed in.

Making the dough yourself is possible, but rolling it into a consistently 1/8-inch thick sheet requires significant effort. I have a fantastic brick oven pizza parlor in town, and asked the owner if I could buy his dough for Timpano, and his guys helped me roll it out! Call your pizza parlor a few days in advance.

Most pizza parlors make a traditional 24-inch round, so you will need to ask them if they need to roll it out larger based on the size of your pan (see above directions). I was able to stretch the pizza round for my 4-quart bowl. 

3. Prepare ingredients in advance: You can prep most everything in advance if you wish. I followed a tip to make the sauce, penne, and meatballs the night before and let them all sit together. They meld nicely and make a nice crust on the meatballs. 

At my pizza parlor, I was told, “Next time, just ask us for our homemade sauce, and I’ll get the meatballs for you, too.”  Two more time savers if you need them! 

Also, I am more conservative when adding the sauce to the Timpano. I advise adding just enough so the pasta seems cohesive, not to make it wet or it will collapse. I added the extra sauce later on the side when serving the slices.

4. Create an assembly line: Before filling the Timpano, set out individual bowls with ALL of your chopped cheese, salami, and eggs (we omitted yolks due to a no-yolk guest), plus your pasta and sauce. I mean it! You must have everything ready to go pronto on the counter because you need to layer in all the ingredients before the dough dries out. All ingredients should be at room temperature.

As you layer the ingredients (not too thick!), feel free to shake the pan so that they settle; you want a firm Timpano. In the picture below, my husband is pressing down to make it sturdier and to make more room! Fill up the pan until the ingredients are even with the edge. Then, cover it with dough and seal it with a little olive oil.

5. Let it sit for AT LEAST 30 minutes after baking, maybe more, so the Timpano will stay together better.  This is CRITICAL. Don’t lose your Timpano! Here is what you do:

• After baking the Timpano and resting for 5 minutes, set a platter or cutting board on top of the Timpano pan. Then … DRUM ROLL … flip it over! My brother did the honors.
• Keep the hot enamel dish with the Timpano sitting on top of the platter for those 30 minutes so it settles, firms up, and does not fall apart. We waited 45 minutes.  Then, the Timpano will gently release from the pan, and you can lift the pan off for the “reveal!”

Cut the Timpano into wedges and serve with a bit of red sauce. A big green salad and a nice bottle of red wine are all you need to add since Timpano is a meal unto itself. You’ll be stuffed!

The result? Bellissimo! The entire family was satiated—and is still talking about the meal.

Dessert? I kept it very light for those who like to end on a sweet note—biscotti, a scoop of gelato, and vin santo (dessert wine).

How does it look to you? And do you have your own “big” night dinner ideas? I would love to hear about your experiences with a new food adventure.

Buon appetito!