[Sca-cooks] Scappi's Aromatic Spinach

[Terri Spencer]

Many thanks for the suggestions for a filling fighter's feast.  My
recipe search list includes plentiful charred protein with sauces,
hearty soup, starchy lozenges or ravioli, salty fried things, sweet
fritters and puddings.

As for veggies, what could be more strengthening than spinach?  The
recipe from _Renaissance Recipes_ caught my attention when Christianna
and I looked up Michelangelo's lenten menu - yes, it was there in both
of our libraries all the time.  The recipe as given:

Aromatic Spinach
2-3 lbs. fresh leaf spinach
1/2 cup dried fruit
4 salted whole anchovies
1/2 cup pine kernels
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt, pepper, white sugar, and cinnamon to taste
Balsamic vinegar

Wash the spinach under cold running water...dry and put into a large
pan.  Cover and cook slowly over low heat, turning gently from time to
time until the leaves wilt.  Rinse salt from the anchovies and chop
them into quarter-inch lengths.  Warm them through in a little olive
oil.  Fry the pine kernels untile golden.  Soak the dried fruit in a
little Balsamic vinegar.  When the spinach is tender but not soggy,
pour off any juices and stir in the rest.  Season with spices.

This seems to be a common Mediterranean dish. _A Mediterranean Feast_
gives two modern recipes  that are essentially the same, minus
anchovies, add garlic, substitute nutmeg, fruit = golden raisins soaked
in water.  It talks about the medieval culinary connection between
Catalonia and Italy, and an older Arab tradition, but gives no details
(a failing of this book).  It lists it as traditional in Rome, Venice,
Provence, Languedoc, Sicily, Attica, Catalonia (with Swiss Chard),
Andalusia (with Swiss chard, almonds & saffron).  Also as a filling for
rissoles or calzone.  There are lots of recipes on the web,   described
as Catalan or Sephardic, served in Greece, Turkey and Italy.

I was served a similar dish (with cream, over fresh pasta) by an
owner/chef from Venice in a small cafe in (of all places) Douglasville,
GA.  I made it this weekend with frozen spinach and even that was good.
 Soggy but tasty.

I'll serve it anyway, but I'd really like to see the original pre-1600
recipe.  Platina suggests spinach with sweet spices, and recommends
pine nuts with raisins, but doesn't put them all together.  No luck
with Scully's Neopolitan Collection either.  Has Scappi's _Opera
dell'Arte del Cucinare_ been published in English?  Has it been
re-published in a modern edition at all?  I can translate one recipe -
how hard can it be?  Is this dish in any of the various Catalan
collections that folks are working on?  Arabian collections?  Anything
like it that might have evolved/fused into this version?

Here's something that popped up in my search...
http://www.worldbookdealers.com/books/martayanlan/0000103800/bk0000103817.asp

Author: SCAPPI, Bartolomeo.
Title: Opera... Cuoco Secreto di Papa Pio Quinto...Con le Figure che
fanno bisogno nella Cucina, & alli Reverendissimi nel Conclave.
Publication: Venice, Alesssandro Vecchi, 1598.
Price: $11,000         Reference No: ML/LBF68

Book Description
Rare early edition of this illustrated gastronomical classic by Scappi,
rarely found complete and in good condition as here.
WITH THE OFTEN-MISSING BANQUET PROCESSION PLATE

1000+ recipes and pictures...worth every penny!
Tara

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