recipe january/february 2005
Pan unto: Crostini with cheese.
An italian antipasto from the sixteenth
century Dutch
version of this recipe
The Italian cuisine is one of my favourites. So,
here is another recipe from Italy's rich culinary past!
I have made these small toasts many times, and each time my guests were
pleasantly surprised by the simplicity and delicious taste of these
"crostini".
The flavour is unexpected for modern palates: cheese, sprinkled with sugar and
cinnamon, and rosewater!
In France (and The Netherlands) the
sixteenth century was a relatively calm period with regards to cookbooks. Most
"new" cookbooks were revised editions of medieval cookbooks, or had at
least borrowed heavily from them. But in Italy some really original cookbooks
appeared, written by more or less well known cooks/ stewards like Bartolomeo
Scappi (see recipe for tortelli).
The recipe below is taken from La singolar
dottrina by Domenico Romoli (first edition 1560).
Not much is known about the life of Domenico Romoli. It is clear that he must
have lived in the 16th century (seeing the year of publication of his book), and
a contemporary of his described him as "a Florentine gentleman, well-versed
in the art of cooking as well court, with a profound knowledge of the classic
and modern authors".
He had a nickname, "Panunto" (oiled bread). He was proud of it,
because on the title page of his book he is called M. Domenico
Romoli sopranominato Panunto.
De Singolar dottrina is not
purely, or even for the most part, a cookbook. It consists of twelve books, and
has an appendix, "Vn breve et
notabile trattato del reggimento della sanità [...]" according to Roberto
Gropetio.
Here I provide a brief description
of the twelve books. Brief, because of my limited knowledge of (16th century)
Italian.
The first book describes the tasks of a master-carver (or steward?
"scalco" is not mentioned in my Italian dictionary). In the second
book you can find in which time of the year all kinds of cattle, game and
poultry is at its best. In book three you can find the same for fish and
shellfish (and snails), turtles, mushrooms and, if I am not mistaken, fish eggs
and parsnips. Book four contains menus for a whole year, starting on March 10
1546 (Ash Wednesday). Book five is the actual cookbook, the only part with
recipes. In book six the nature of all kinds of meat and poultry are described
(even camel meat!), specifically their effect on one's health. Book seven does
the same for eggs, milk and cheese, and fish. Book eight analyses the
taste/properties of foodstuffs (sweet, bitter, salt, sharp, fat and bland, sour,
constipating, purging [?]) and the optimal sequence of dishes in a meal. Book
nine describes the properties of several herbs and vegetables that are used in
salads. Book ten mentions legumes, but also aniseed and cumin. Book eleven is
about tree-fruits (apples, pears, peaches and such, but also citrus fruit,
almonds, chestnuts and olives), fruits we consider vegetables (melons,
courgettes), and grapes. Book twelve finally describes the properties of spices,
sugar, salt, vinegar, water and wine.
Here are two menus from the fourth
book, to give you an impressions of what the meals were supposed to be like. In
the translation of the dishes you see many question marks. If you can, please
help me out.
In many menus the last dish mentioned is "fennel". I wonder if these
are sugar-coated fennel seeds.
A menu from Lent (Thursday 18 March 1546):
Antipasti: Uue secche con zuccaro (raisins with sugar), insalata di radicchi
(salad with radicchio), scalognetti freschi (fresh shallots), fritelle di
pastinache (fritters with parsnip), cefali marinati (marinated grey mullet), tonno in
graticola (grilled tuna)
Alesso ("cooked dishes"): anguilla di Malta con cauoletti verdi (eel
from Malta with small green cabbages -?Brussels sprouts?), calamari in potaggio
(squid in thick soup), minestra di pignuoli (soup from pine nuts), schiene di
arrenghe (the backs of herrings), sauor di noci, con aglio (walnut sauce, with
garlic)
Fritto ("fried dishes"): zucca marina con salsa verde (sea pumpkins?do
they exist? with green sauce), barbe di petrosemolo stufate (barbel or red
mullet, stuffed with parsley?), fragolini (sea bream), gambaretti (small
lobsters),
limoni trinciati (cut lemons), oliue (olives)
Frutte: Ostriche in bragia (grilled oysters), mandole mondo con zuccaro (peeled
almonds with sugar), carcioffi (artichoke), castagne secche
abbruscate (roasted dried chestnuts), finocchia (fennel -green, bulb or seeds?)
Collatione per la sera (supper): insalata di cipolle cotte (salad with cooked
onions), sparigi fritti con sugo di melangole & pepe (fried asparagus with
juice of bitter oranges), pasticci di
tartuffi (pastry with truffles), noci monde in uino rosso (peeled walnuts in red
wine), & finocchio (fennel).
A menu in the summer (Wednesday 18
August 1546):
Antipasti: melloni (watermelons), cascio vecchio Parmigiano (old Parmesan
cheese), quaglie arroste (grilled quails), vua moscatella (muscadines),
crostate di piccioni (pie with pigeons), capretto (kid), limoni
trinciati (cut lemons).
Alesso: anadrine (duck?), capretto (again kid, or a mistake),
pollastri stuffati con presciutto (stuffed chicken with ham), agresto
(verjuice),
sauor di verzure (sauce with greens?).
Frutte: Visciole con le suppe (morellos in soup -with bread), cascio marzolino
(cheese from March?), pere (pears), persiche in vino (peaches in wine), nocchie
(hazelnuts), finocchio (fennel).
Romoli also gives menus for meals "alla francese"
for each month. I won't go into that.
The original text from the recipe,
taken from La singolare dottrina di M. Domenico Romoli
sopranominato Panunto, Dell'vfficio dello Scalco [...] (Venice, 1593), book V,
page 156r.
Pan unto con provatura fresca.
Quando hauerete fatte le fette del pane nel
modo della rignonata, & abbruscate, mettetele à soffrigere con butiro,
riuolgetele una uolta distendete le fette nella padella, & metteteui per
ciascuna una fetta sottile di prouatura fresca, mettasi di sopra il coperchio
caldo, & come la prouatura sarà risolata, spruzziuisi un poco di acqua
rosa, & mettauisi di sopra il zuccaro & cannella: cauate poi, mandatele
in tauola, & sopra tutto operate che si mangino calde.
(fragment from the recipe for "pan dorato in
Rognone di Vitelle):
Pigliate un pan grosso duro, scorticatelo, tagliatelo in fette non troppo
grosse, mettetele à seccare al fuoco [...]
Baked bread with fresh buffalo cheese.
When you have prepared slices of bread in the manner of "rignonata"
(a preceeding recipe) and you have toasted them, you bake them in butter. Turn
once, lay them in a frying pan, and cover each slice with a thin slice of fresh
provatura cheese. Cover with a heated lid, and, as soon as the cheese has
melted, sprinkle [the toasts] with some rose water. Then sprinkle with sugar and
cinnamon. Wait a short while, then bring them to the table, and mind that they
are eaten hot.
Take a large coarse bread, decrust it, and
cut it in slices that are not too thick, let it dry by the fire [...]
The modern adaptation of the recipe.
According to the recipe the bread must be decrusted. You may do so, but you
don't have to.
The bread is first toasted, then fried in butter, and finally grilled. In the
original recipe the cheese is melted by putting a hot cover on the frying pan,
but I prefer to profit from the modern appliances we have.
Ingredients:
18 slices french bread (1 to 1.5 cm/about 1/2 inch), or some slices of coarse bread you cut
small rounds from
3 Mozzarella cheese made with buffalo milk of 150 gram
(1/3 pound) each
60 gram (1/4 cup) butter
1 Tbsp. powdered sugar (icing sugar) with 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 or 2 Tbsp. rose water
Preparation in advance:
Toast the slices of french bread or larger slices. Then fry them shortly in
butter over a slow fire. The bread must be golden, not brown.
Cut the cheese in 18 slices.
Preparation:
Heat the (oven with built-in) grill.
Cover each piece of bread with a slice of Mozzarella. Place the crostini under
the grill until the cheese has melted and is starting to colour. Take from the
grill, sprinkle sugar with cinnamon over it, and rose water.
To serve:
As soon as possible.
Mozarella
or Provatura made from buffalo milk: According to the recipe you have
to use "provatura", a fresh cheese made from the milk of buffalos. The
difference between Mozarella and Provatura is mainly the place of origin:
Provatura cheese is made in the vicinity of Rome, Mozarella is produced near
Naples.
Originally these cheeses were made from buffalo milk, but nowadays they are
mostly made from cow's milk. There simply aren't enough buffalos to provide all
the milk needed for the production of these cheeses! Just use ordinary Mozarella
or Provatura if you can't get cheese from buffalo milk.
pan grosso
duro: My knowledge of sixteenth century Italian bread isn't
sufficient to decide what exactly is meant here. It could be bread made of durum
wheat, or "hard" (stale or heavy?) bread which is either thick/large,
or coarse in structure. Maybe the big, flat Tuscan bread that is used for making
bruscchetta is meant (with thanks to Silvia Coenen for her suggestions).
rose water: This is indeed water that is perfumed with rose
petals. In the modern Western cuisine its use is obsolete (except in e.g.
marzipan), but during the Middle Ages and Renaissance it was a popular condiment
(as was orange blossom water). In the Middle-East and India rose water is still in
use.
