[Sca-cooks] Indian maize recipes from scappi (long)

[Louise Smithson]

OK in Scappi there are three recipes which utilize Formentone as a grain. This is the coarse wheat which was identified as maize in Capatti and Montanari's volume Italian Cuisine A Cultural History.  As I indicated earlier the modern translation of formentone is maize, however the 1611 version of Florio's Italian English dictionary calls it merely the biggest form of wheat, while formento is the generic Italian for grain. It appears from these recipes that what is being used is a dry whole grain, not flour (this is based on usage instructions i.e. soak then cook a long time). I will try and hunt through some of the agricultural texts and see if a more precise description of formentone can be found which should allow a definitive definition of formentone as either maize or not maize.  
  Helewyse
   
  Formentone - is translated throughout the recipes as coarse wheat.
  Anything in parenthesis is an alternate translation or a suggestion as to the implied meaning of a word
   
  To make a thick soup of coarse wheat and peeled (scotch) barley. Cap 185, 2nd book, folio 70 Scappi. 
  The coarse wheat is a grain much larger than that which is used to make bread, and in Lombardy one finds it in quantity.  The which is used for tarts and Fiadone (flat cakes) as is described in the book on pastries in their respective chapters.  Select it therefore and wash the dust of it, and put it to soak in tepid water for ten hours, changing the water several times.  Put it to cook with cold fat meat broth in a tin lined copper or ceramic vessel. Add yellow Milanese sausage, or sausage (salami) or a piece of salted pork mendrolla (? belly? hock?) to give it taste.  Afterward add cinnamon and saffron and put it to cook on the pot stand a distance from the flame and cover (seal) the vessel. Don't let it cook for less than two and a half hours.  Serve with cheese and cinnamon on top.  This soup should be very thick.  In the same way one can cook peeled (scotch) barley, the which should boil more than the coarse wheat because the one and the other need large (long) cooking, and
 one can enrich both with cheese, eggs, pepper, cinnamon and saffron. 
   
  To make a pastry of various grains with four corners, the which is commonly called Fiadoni (flat cake). Chap 47, folio 349, fifth book Scappi. 
  Put to cook the coarse wheat with fat meat broth, and when it is cooked take Parmigiana cheese and fresh (soft) cheese, enough saffron, four ounces of raisins, an ounce of cinnamon, half an ounce of pepper, three ounces of soaked pine nuts.  When the grains are cooled one mixes everything together. Then take a sheet of pasta.  Made of fine flour, egg yolks, rosewater, salt and tepid water mixed together so that it is firm like coarse pastry. for each pound of pastry take eight ounces of butter and little by little put it into the pastry, mixing continuously, until one has used all the butter. And once this pastry has become soft and smooth one makes of it a round sheet of the thickness of a knife blade.  This sheet one can make large or small however one wants.  Put in the middle of this sheet the stuffing and close it up  and make four corners in the fashion of an oil lamp.  Give it color all around and on top with beaten eggs and saffron. Put it into an oven with some heat above,
 because the pastry will become firm sooner. And put it to cook, and one doesn't want it to take too much color, one puts on top a sheet of cartridge paper. When it is cooked serve hot. One can also serve it cold and reheat it in the oven or on the grill. If you want to make Fiadone (flat cakes) in a day when one cannot eat meat, cook the coarse wheat in cows milk or goats milk with butter.  In the same way one can make Fiadone (flat cakes) with peeled (scotch) barley, rice, spelt and also millet and fox-tail millet. One can make it with only Parmigiana, delicate fat cheese, sugar, spices and dried raisins. 
   
  To make a tart of coarse wheat Chap 88, folio 359, fifth book, Scappi.
  The coarse wheat is a rather large grain, larger than wheat. In Lombardy they use it enough in dishes. Take it, clean it and put it to soak in tepid water for four hours and wash it in more tepid water.  Put it to cook in good meat broth as one cooks both rice and spelt. And make the tart with the same ingredients and method as the chapter above. 
   
  To make a tart of rice cooked in meat broth Chap 87, folio 359, 5th book Scappi. 
  Cook a pound of well peeled rice in fat meat broth, and when it is cooked in the way that it is still firm empty it and let it drain. Grind it in the mortar with a pound and a half of fresh provatura (mozzarella) and a pound and a half of good Parmigiana cheese, and half a pound of fat cheese, three quarters of an ounce of pepper, an ounce of cinnamon, a pound and a half of sugar, four ounces of butter to keep it moist and six fresh eggs. With this stuffing make a tart with a sheet of pastry both underneath and on top with decorations all around. In this way one can make it with spelt.  If you want it to stay white cook the rice in goats milk and pass it through a fine strainer if you want. In place of provatura (mozzarella) add ricotta, in place of spices add ground ginger, egg whites without the yolk and more sugar and a little grated Parmigiana cheese. 

		
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