[Sca-cooks] Catalan and Italian Recipe Questions

[johnna holloway]

Since you are cooking the melon juice/pulp, I'd almost guess that you
ought to go with the best tasting once it's heated.
Then there's the cost factor. Davidson says that the variety mentioned
by Al Awam (d.1145) of Andalusia is not recognized as a variety grown
today. Melons are one of those plants that interbreed and don't stay
true from generation to generation, so it's probable that in the past
centuries that we've lost the original plants through natural
hybridization.

I can't recall any problems with the second recipe, but it's been a
number of years since I made it.

Johnnae llyn Lewis  Johnna Holloway

lilinah at earthlink.net wrote:
>> FIRST, i found a recipe in Scully's Neapolitan cookbook that looks
> intriguing, a savory cooked melon dish.>
> (Scully, page 181)
> 36. Melon Dish (Menestra de meloni)

> So, what sort of melons do folks think they would have used? Scully
> only says that he accepts that the word meloni designates a fruit
> similar to the modern melon. *The* modern melon? I don't know what's
> available where folks on the list live, but in California we have so
> many varieties - besides the usual cantaloupe and honeydew, we have
> Persian melon, Cranshaw, and so many more...
>
> -----
>
> SECOND,  the ricotta cheese balls ...some folks have mentioned having
> difficulty, others seem not to have had problems... what should i be
> on the lookout for or against?
> Thanks for any pointers, advice, etc.
> > Anahita