SC - Nutella

[Laura C. Minnick]

"E. Rain" wrote:
> 
> Thomas writes re my notes on eggplants:
> > << similarly I do not find them in [...] Scully's 15th c. neapolitan
> > colletion >>
> >
> > It is mentioned in recipe #33. The word "Marignani" seems to be one of
> > the many regional variants; see Scully's glossary.
> 
> yes indeed I missed this since it's not a variation of the word I was
> familiar with.
> Scully says in his notes "This vegetable seems to be unknown in early
> European cookery outside of the italian and iberian peninsulas.  among
> Italian recipe collections only ours recognizes it."
> seems a pretty clear sign that they only reason they knew of it in naples is
> because of the spanish influence.
> 
> > Scappi 1570 has a recipe for "minestra di melanzane in
> > diuersi modi con
> > brodo di carne" (Cap. II 224, p. 83a); he says that eggplant can be
> > prepared in some ways like the "zucche". Then, on fol. 151b and 363a
> > there are several recipes with "molignane". If I am not mistaken, this
> > is yet another word form for eggplants.
> 
> it may also be molegnare - a kind of plum (per Florio)Perhaps the word you
> are thinking of is melongeua which florio cites as the latin for eggplant?
> Unfortunately my scappi uses a different numbering system as far as i can
> tell (Harvard, Kress Library edition)  so I can't go look for myself  if you
> can give me the original scappi numbering ie "Libro Due, capitolo XIV" maybe
> I can track them down & see what words my version uses :->
> 
> (The parallel recipe to the
> > Neapolitan recipe collection #33 in the Riva del Garda Manuscript of
> > Maestro Martino begins: "103. Per fare cocere li mollegnani ...";
> > Benporat p. 190).
> 
> Working with the Library of congress edition (as well as the english
> Epulario) I find no paralell to this recipe, although I've already come
> across another recipe that is in the Riva del Garda, but neither of mine, so
> I'm becomeing very interested in that edition :->  However per the scully
> quote above, and the plum possibility, I would question whether this is in
> fact an eggplant dish.
> 
> Eden

Molignane is apparently still used today by some Italian-Americans,
particularly those of Neapolitan and Sicilian ancestry, to describe
eggplants, and also as a slang expression coming under the heading
"ethnic slurs". Didn't you ever see "The Godfather"? Whether this is
common in modern Naples or Sicily, though, I have no idea.
 
Adamantius (who just looked at the recipe, and said, "Plums??? Yecch!")
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com