Book of Days Tales

Today is the birthday (1463) of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, an Italian Renaissance nobleman and philosopher. Not a common household name these days, although his influence was (and is) wide ranging. Those with some historical knowledge remember him for the events of 1486, when, at the age of 23, he proposed to defend 900 theses on religion, philosophy, natural philosophy, and magic against all comers, for which he wrote the Oration on the Dignity of Man, which some have called the “Manifesto of the Renaissance” because it lays out the details of Renaissance humanism and of what has been called the “Hermetic Reformation”. He was the founder of the tradition of Christian Kabbalah, a key component of early modern Western esotericism. He is often called Mirandola which is more of a geographic designation (like da Vinci) than a family name, although his family owned the estate of Mirandola. His actual family name was Pico.

I sometimes use 15^th century recipes from Libro de arte coquinaria by Maestro Martino de Como. Here’s a simple one for fried slices of vegetable marrow (zucca in modern Italian), that is not so very different from contemporary recipes, except for the fennel and verjuice.

Zucche Fritte

Togli de la zucche e nettale bene. Et dapoi tagliale per traverso in fette sottili come la costa d’un coltello. Et dapoi gli fa’trare solamente un boglio in acqua, et cacciale fore; et dapoi le poni a sciuttare. Et poneli de sopra un pocho pocho di sale et involtale in farina bella, et frigile in olio. Dapoi caciale fore et togli un pocho di fiore de finocchio, un pocho d’aglio et di mmollicha di pane; et pistali bene et distempera con agresto in modo che resti ben raro, et passa per la stamegnia, et getta questo tal sapore sopra le ditte zucche. Le quali etamdio son bone ponendogli solamente di sopra agresto, et fior di finocchio. Et se voi che’l ditto sapore sia giallo metevi un pocho di zafrano.

Fried Vegetable Marrow

Take marrows and clean them well. Slice them crosswise in slices as thin as the blade of a knife. Give them a quick boil in water, remove them, and let them to drain. Sprinkle them with a very small amount of salt, toss them in flour, and fry them in oil. Then remove them. Take a little fennel seed, a little garlic and the inside of a slice of bread; grind these together, mixed with a very little verjuice. Pass this through a sieve and sprinkle this sauce on the marrow. They are also good seasoned only with verjuice and fennel seed. If you prefer the sauce to be yellow add a little saffron.