[Sca-cooks] Re: Is this really what it sounds like?

[Louise Smithson]

Daniel,
Your knowledge of latin is leading you astray.  It is most likely
liver.  In modern Italian the word for liver is fegato.  In the medieval
italian cookery book I have been translating there is often linguistic
shifts much as there is in modern vs medieval english.  The elli ending
usually signifies a diminutive so it would translate as "dish containing
liver" or "liver dish".  As to whether you would eat it, depends on
whether you like liver or not!  So what is the recipe in it's original
italian.  I can give it a shot.
Helewyse

Was going through the ingredient list in Scully's "The Neapolitan
Recipe
Collection" (Italian, ca. 1500) yesterday and came across a reference
to
"fecatelli".  Now it was listed among things like "tripe" and
"bladders"
and such, and I know enough latin that this sounds like something I
really don't want to be eating.  Anyone out there have a good
dictionary
of Italian cooking terms?  Am I correct in assuming this is some kind
of
dish made with the contents of an animal's digestive tract?

- DM