Guess Who's Coming To Dinner: Secondo, La Credenza and Sources

 

And now, the rest of the story...

Secondo

• Beef Roast
• Saracen style Sauce
• Lombard sauce
• Sauteed Parsnips
• Dry broccoli
• Pear tart

Beef Roast

Rub up a joint of beef with olive oil, salt and pepper*. Roast at 180C for 20 minutes per 500g (about 2.5 hours). Let rest for 20 minutes before carving. Slice into 5-6mm slices for serving.

*There was a pepper allergy, so we substituted ground Grains of Paradise for black pepper wherever it was called for

Saracen style sauce

Libro di cucina, Anonimo Veneziano

LXXXVIII. Salsa sarasinesca

Se tu voy fare salza sarasinescha toy mandolle, uva passa, zenzevro, cenamo e garofalli e melegette, gardamono, galanga e noce moscate; masena ogni cossa inseme e distempera con agresta; questo è bon savore.

LXXXVIII. Saracen style sauce

If you want to make saracen style sauce, take almonds, currants, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, grains of paradise, cardamom, galangal and nutmeg; mix everything together and temper with verjuice; this is a good relish.

Recipe

Serves 6

230 g currants

120 g flaked or slivered almonds

½ tsp Ground Cinnamon

¼ tsp Ground Ginger

1/8 tsp Ground Cloves

1 tsp Grains of Paradise, crushed

¼ tsp Ground Cardamom

½ tsp grated Galangal

½ tsp Nutmeg

¼ C Verjuice

Combine all ingredients in a bowl.  Refrigerate at least an hour or overnight.  Serve with roast meat.

Adaptations

We simply left the almonds out due to nut allergies.

Lombard Sauce

Cuoco Napoletano, Anonimo Napoletano

CXV. Salsa Lombarda

Piglia juivert, menta, salvia, alio, pepe, serpillo, una foglia de biete, pane brusculado infuso in aceto, he pista ogni cosa insieme he distempera cum aceto; he s’el’e tropo forte, mite inseme saba ho uno poco de brodo.

CXV. Lombard sauce

Get mint, sage, garlic, pepper, thyme, a chard leaf, and toasted bread soaked in vinegar, and grind everything together and distemper with vinegar; if it is too strong, add in must or a little broth.

Recipe

serves 6

1 bunch Parsley 

2 sprigs Mint

2-3 leaves Sage 

1 clove Garlic peeled

2 sprigs thyme

225 g chard, chopped

60ml white wine vinegar

60 ml c olive oil

A few bloops of grape must for balance

Blend ingredients in a food processor until well mixed and allow to sit for 12-24 hours to let the flavours meld.

Adaptations

The change for this sauce to remove the gluten was to simply leave the bread out, then use a bit less liquid so it remained thick.

Sautéed parsnips

Opera, Bartolomeo Scappi

Per cuocere scorze de zucche dal vulgo dette zazzere

Son portate a Roma & in diversi altri luoghi da savona scorze di zucche secche, in mazzuili legati nel modo che si legano le gavette di corde da liuto & son bianchissime, & pareno stringhe de corame bianco, & quando son cotte, una libra d’esse farà cinque piatti, & percuocerle si fanno perlessare in acqua che bolla, & perlessate, si tagliano in pezzuoli, & se ne fa minestra concipollette battute nel modo che si fa delle freschenel Cap. 224. Ma son molto migliori dapoi che son cotte & fritte senza cipolle inuolgendole in agliata fatta di noceo di mandole. Si possono ancho soffriggere dapoi che son perlessate con petro semolo & herbuccie, e spigoli d’agli battuti, & si serveno con pepe & sugo di melangole sopra. Nel medesimo modo si possono accommodare le pastinache salutiche che saranno perlessate, & le scorze di rape, & di melloni secche, & habbiasi avvertenza che hanno da esser poste al suoco in acqua che bolla, & no fredda, perche noon si cocerebbono.

To cook squash rinds, popularly called zazzere

Dried squash rinds are brought to Rome and various other places from Savona in small bound bundles the way bunches of lute strings are tied. They are very white and look like fine strips of white leather. When they are cooked a pound of them will make five servings. To cook them, you parboil them in boiling water, then you cut them into small bits and make a thick soup of them with beaten spring onions the way you do with the fresh ones in Recipe 224. However, they are much better after they are cooked and have fried without onions, being coated with a garlic sauce made with walnuts and almonds. After they have been parboiled, they can also be sautéed with parsley and herbs and beaten cloves of garlic. They are served with pepper and orange juice over them. In the same way, you can do wild parsnips that have been parboiled, or dried turnip rinds or dried melon rinds. Note that they have to be put into boiling water on the fire because in cold water they would not cook.

Recipe

Serves 6

1 k parsnips, peeled and sliced

1 Tbsp Italian seasoning

3 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped

3 Tbsp olive oil

Add parsnips to boiling salted water and parboil for 10 minutes. In a pan over medium high heat, sautée the parboiled parsnips in olive oil with Italian seasoning and garlic until starting to turn golden. Serve immediately.

Adaptations

For simplicity’s sake, I opted for parsnips simply sautéed with herbs and garlic.

Dry broccoli

Opera, Bartolomeo Scappi

Per cuocere broccoli asciutti

Pigliomosi broccoli dal mese di Febraro per tutto Marzo netti delle frondi, & habbiasi la parte piu tenera che non sia fiorita, & facciasi bollir l’acqua con sale, & come i broccoli saranno accommodati in mazzuoli pong anosi in quella acqua bollente, & non si faccia no troppo cuocere, ma cavinosi, e sciolganosi & ponganosi in piatti, & dapoi habbiasi oglio bollente, e spargasi cosi caldo con la cocchiara sopra i broccoli, giungendovi sugo de melangole, pepe, & un poce di quel brodo nel qualson cotti, & servanosi caldi, percioche altriviente non vagliono. Si può soffriggere con l’oglio uno spigolo d’aglio ammaccato per dare odore al broccolo, & quando si vorranno conservare per una o due hore, si porranno in acqua fredda, & si lascie ranno stare poi che saranno perlessati fin’a tanto che si vorranno ricuocere. In questo modo si conserveranno i broccoli verdi, & non piglieranno tristo odore, & si serviranno nel modo sopradetto.

To cook dry broccoli

Get broccoli between February and the end of March, with its leaves removed. Take the tenderest part of it that has not flowered. Boil salted water. With the broccoli done up into little bunches, put it into that boiling water. Do not overcook it but take it out and put it into dishes. Then get boiling oil and drip it hot with a spoon over the broccoli, adding orange juice, pepper and a little of the broth in which it was cooked. Serve it hot because otherwise it is no good. You can also sauté a crushed clove of garlic in the oil to flavour the broccoli. Whenever you need to hold it back for an hour or two, put it into cold water after it has parboiled and leave it there until you want to recook it. Green broccoli is kept the same way and it will not take on a bad smell. It is served in the above way.

Recipe

Serves 6

900g tender-stem broccoli

60 ml Olive oil

3 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed

15 ml orange juice

Salt/pepper to taste

Heat olive oil and garlic in a small saucepan until hot and the garlic has infused the oil. Add splash of orange juice, salt and pepper to taste. Add broccoli to boiling water and cook for 5 minutes. Put broccoli on serving platter, and drizzle with oil mixture right before serving. Serve hot.

Pear tart

Le cuisinier françois (1651), La Varenne

Tourte de poires

Pelez vos poires, & les coupez fort deliées ; faites les cuire avec eau & sucre. Estant bien cuites, mettez y peu de beurre bien frais, battez le tout ensemble, & le mettez dans vostre abaisse fort deliée : bandez la si vous voulez, & la faites cuire : Estant cuite, arrosez la d'eau de fleurs, la sucrez & servez.

Pear tart

Peel your pears and cut them very thin; cook them with water and sugar. When they are well cooked, put in a little fresh butter, beat it all together, and put it in your very thin dish. Band it if you like, and cook it. When it is cooked, sprinkle it with flower water, sweeten it, and serve it.

Recipe

Serves 8

400(ish) g tinned pears in their juice (avoid ones packed in syrup – they lose the pear flavour)

1 Tbsp sugar (with enough reserved for sprinkling on at the end)

1 Tbsp butter

Single pie crust, cut in two and rolled thin enough to fill an 8” pie tin

Orange blossom water

Drain pears, saving juice. Slice thinly. In a saucepan, combine the sliced pears, the reserved juice and sugar. Boil over medium heat until the juice is nearly gone, and the pears are quite soft. Add butter and mix gently. Pour pears into prepared tart shell, and top with remaining crust. Bake at 180C for about 40 minutes, or until the crust is starting to brown. Cool, then sprinkle lightly with orange blossom water and sugar.

Adaptations

Obviously, this is French, not Italian, but La Varenne’s recipe from 1651 is a lovely mash-up of several earlier Italian recipes, and is a truly simple and elegant sweet. I added a bit of cinnamon and cardamom to the stewed pear, because the flavours go nicely.

La credenza

• Stuffed Dates
• Spiced nuts (sweet)
• Mixed nuts (savory)
• Sliced fruit
• Mostaccioli

Stuffed dates

2k dates, pitted

1k pistachio nuts, shelled

Lemon juice

Sugar

Stuff pistachio nuts into the pitted dates. Dunk in lemon juice, then roll in sugar.

Adaptations

These are not strictly period, in that I’ve not bothered to try and find any justification beyond general plausibility. They’ve been a show-stopping favourite in previous feasts, though, and go nicely on a dessert sideboard.

Spiced nuts

175 g sugar

45 ml water

1 egg white, lightly beaten

¾ tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp ground cloves

¼ tsp allspice

¼ tsp nutmeg

825 g whole mixed nuts of your choice

Preheat oven to 120C degrees. In a large bowl, mix together everything but the nuts. Add the nuts and stir until coated well. Spread evenly onto a greased/lined cookie sheet or baking pan. Bake for 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes or so. Spread out on waxed paper to cool. Store in a zipper bag or airtight container.

Adaptations

These are also not strictly period, in that I’ve not bothered to try and find any justification beyond general plausibility. They have also been previous favourites and go nicely on a dessert sideboard.

Mostaccioli

45 g unsalted butter softened

75 g cup must

75 g cup honey

1 egg

300 g unbleached all-purpose flour

¼ teaspoon salt, preferably kosher slightly crushed

½ teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

40 g very finely chopped candied orange peel

120 g very finely chopped walnuts (but not to a flour)

Mix wet and dry ingredients separately and then mix to make a dough—the dough will be sticky, so turn it out onto a sheet of parchment paper. Spread it out with your hands in a rectangular shape, sprinkling with flour. Roll out with a rolling pin, continuing to sprinkle with flour, trying to keep a rectangular shape, until it is about 3mm thick. Press some sort of decorative design into it, then cut into 2-bite rhomboidal shapes, leaving them on the parchment. Place the parchment on a baking sheet and bake for 15 min in a 180° C oven. Remove. Turn the oven down to 100°. Cut and separate the pieces when cool enough to handle. Flip the pieces over and return to the oven for another 15 min. Open once to release steam if necessary. Remove the tray and flip them over right side up and bake another 15 min. Prop the oven door open with a wooden spoon and leave the cookies in it to cool.

Adaptations

Scappi mentions mostaccioli as part of a well-stocked sideboard, and they’re often mentioned as an ingredient, to be crumbled and added to other dishes, like breadcrumbs. This specific recipe comes from an historic food blogger that I nominally follow, and she has maddeningly posted a ‘composite recipe’ for the Renaissance version of these (they date back to Ancient Roman times), and she never cites her sources. MADDENING. But they’re tasty, and I plan to track down proper period recipes and see how hers stacks up.

Bibliography

Food.com. (n.d.). Retrieved September 2022, from https://www.food.com/recipe/sugared-spiced-nuts-28564

Markham, G. (1623). Country contentments, or The English huswife. London: J. Beale for R. Jackson.

Moyer-Nocchi, K. (2019, August 11). The Eternal Table. Retrieved September 2022, from https://www.theeternaltable.com/historical-recipes/mostaccioli

Napoletano, A. (2000). Cuoco Napletano - The Neapolitan Recipe Collection. (T. Scully, Trans.) Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.

Platina, Bartolomeo. (1480). De honesta voluptate et valetudine. Cividale di Friuli, Italy: Gerardi de Flandria.

Scappi, Bartolomeo. (1570). Opera. Venice: Appresso Michele Tramezzino.

Scappi, Bartolomeo. (2008). The Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi (1570) - the Art and Craft of a Master Cook. (T. Scully, Trans.) Toronto, Buffalo, London, Canada: University of Toronto Press.

The Feudal Gourmet. (n.d.). Dining on the Edge: A collection of 16th & 17th century European recipes (Vol. II). (A.-M. R. Witsoe, Ed.) Seattle, WA, USA: Madrone Culinary Guild.

The Feudal Gourmet. (n.d.). Dining on the Edge: A collection of 16th & 17th century European recipes (Vol. I). (A.-M. R. Witsoe, Ed.) Seattle, WA, USA: Madrone Culinary Guild.

The Feudal Gourmet. (n.d.). French Food in the Renaissance. (A.-M. Rousseau, Ed.) Seattle, WA, USA: Madrone Culinary Guild.

Varenne, F. P. (1651). Le cuisinier françois (1651). Paris: Éditions Manucius.

Veneziano, A. (2002). Translation of Libro di cucina/Libro per cuoco. Retrieved 2003, from Medievalcookery.com, Home page of Helewyse de Birkestad: http://www.medievalcookery.com/helewyse/librorough.html