SC - Mediterranean Feast

[Lenny Zimmermann]

While not as "Mediterranean" in style as Greece or Turkey, there are
an exceptional number of salads and fruuit/veggie dishes listing in
"The Fruit, Herbs & Vegetables of Italy. An offering to Lucy, Countess
of Bedford", by Giacomo Castelvetro. The original is in Italian and
written in 1614 (just a hair post period). I tend to have the greatest
interest in Late Renaissance Italian cuisine, so this and Platina are
my current bibles. ;-) The copy I have is put out by Viking Press,
with Introduction and Translation by Gillian Riley (c) 1989 and
Foreword by Jane Grigson. ISBN 0-670-82724X. I am not sure if this
book is even in print any longer, but Amazon.Com was able to come up
with a copy for me.

The basic Italian salad would consist of greens (yes, including
lettuce) placed in a bowl rubbed with garlic and sprinkled with
vinegar, salt and (usually olive) oil. (Modern Italian salads, at
least in Northern Italy, are pretty much the same thing to this day.
Dump the "Italian Dressing"! ;-))

To be more specific, Castelvetro proclaims:"Of all the salads we eat
in the spring, the mixed salad is the best and most wonderful of all.
Take young leaves of mint, those of garden cress, basil, lemon balm,
the tips of salad burnet, tarragon, the flowers and tenderest leaves
of borage, the flowers of swine cress, the young shoots of fennel,
leaves of rocket, of sorrel, rosemary flowers, some sweet violets, and
the tenderest leaves or the hearts of lettuce. When these precious
herbs have been picked clean and washed in several waters, and dried a
little with a clean linen cloth, they are dressed as usual, with oil,
salt and vinegar." Let me reiterate that drying part, I know quite a
few people who can't stand going to a restaurant and having a puddle
of water at the bottom of their salad bowl. It is apparently
unappetizing to some people.

If you had some specific flavors or styles in mind, let me know and
I'll see what M. Castelvetro has to say about them. The listings are
by season and then, generally, by fruit/herb/veggie. Oh, and one of my
favorites is the listing under Sweet Fennel (it has a seed that tastes
like licorice): "Fennel Seeds are gathered in the autumn. We flavour
various dishes with them, and eat them on their own after meals." So
now I always have a little dish with Fennel Seeds to "sweeten the
breath" after a feast. It just seems like such a nice little touch.
Honos Servio,
Lionardo Acquistapace, Barony of Bjornsborg, Ansteorra
(mka Lenny Zimmermann, San Antonio, TX)
zarlor at acm.org