SC - medieval Italian salads

[Uduido@aol.com]

At 1:57 PM +0000 6/5/97, Erin Kenny wrote:
>I was looking through the Miscellany at the dessert section and I
>came upon the Torta of Herbs in the Month of May (cites Platina book
>8).
>
>Part of the instructions state: add juice from bleta
>Which is defined:
>"Blette-Name given in some parts of France to white beet or chard."
>Larousse Gastronomique.]
>
>I was wondering if anyone out there could tell me what relationship
>bleta might have to Swiss Chard.

We had no idea what bleta is, except that the rest of the things you are
adding with it ("juice from bleta, a little marjoram, a little more sage, a
bit of mint, and a good bit of parsley;") are all herbs.  The original
language of this recipe is a 15th c. Italian's version of Latin; we are
working from an English translation.  We tried the Larousse Gastronomique
for a guess, and the closest thing we found was blette, with the definition
given above.  So our best guess was that bleta was something of that kind.
>
>I noticed that the redaction used  spinach (with water to produce juice),
>and I was thinking that spinach is much more strong tasting than swiss
>chard.  Does this torta end up tasting strongly of spinach?

No; there are a lot of other herbs in it, and they outweigh the spinach.
We used spinach because I couldn't find any chard in the local grocery at
the time we worked this one out.
>
>Just Curious (never had swiss chard till I met my husband, but I like
>it much better than spinach)
>
>Claricia Nyetgale
>Canton of Caldrithig
>Barony of Skraeling Althing
>Ealdormere  (still mostly in the Middle Kingdom)

Elizabeth of Dendermonde (whose Miscellany it is, too)