[Sca-cooks] Squash in Scappi's Opera

[Louise Smithson]

Rafaella wrote: 
It looks like the name Scully is translating from his source document
as "squash" is zucca, and in one case he says "the name of a dish is
Spanish, deriving from carabazza, the spanish word for Scappi's zucca,
Squash." He also says the qualifier "local" identifies crook-neck
squash.

Johnnae already pointed out my class on new world foods in old world menus, which is also in the florilegium.  And the fantastic Villa Farnesia paper, and a heck of a lot more sources I have to now bookmark. 

This particular translation was another place I had an issue with Scully.  In the original Italian it is easy to tell which is which, they are given as Zucche nostrale and Zucche Turchesche - or to put it another way, Gourds (most likely snake gourd which are still grown and eaten in Italy), i.e. old world squash, and Turkish or new world squash, which scappi himself then says "and you can make any dishes of these that you make of the gourd".  Which pretty much gives you a whole lot of leeway.  The images from the Villa Farnesia are absolutly one of the biggest indicators that squash travelled quickly and took over quickly.  The agricultural information (translation given in the above mentioned class) also seems to indicate that new world squash were quickly adopted, as they grow pretty much the same and are used in almost exactly the same way as old world squash. 
Book 2 - meats
recipe 218 - per far minestra di zucche nostrali con brodo di carne in diversi modi - To cook a dish of gourds with broth in many ways
Recipe 219 - per far minestra di zucche, & cipolle in diversi modi, dal vulgo detto carabazzata - to make a dish of gourds and onions in many ways, commonly called carabazzata
Recipe 220 - per far minestra di zucche truchesche - to make a dish of Turkish squash (aka new world squash)
Recipe 221 - Per alessare and cuocere in forno le sopradette zucche intere, ripiene in diversi compositioni - to boil and cook in the oven the above said whole squash (turkish) filled with various stuffings (this is a fun recipe a pumpkin is hollowed out and stuffed with meat and sausage meat then baked). 
The big one for me is recipe 220 which gives the description of squash as follows: 
Take squash in it's season which starts in October and lasts all through April.  
Book 3 lenten recipes
Recipe 225 - Per far minestra di zucche nostrali in giorno di quaresima - to make a dish of our gourds in lenten days ( also includes Marine squash which are New world)
Recipe 226 - Per empire zuchhe nostrali in giorno quaresimale - to stuff our gourds in lenten days
Recipe 227 - per friggere zucche nostrali - to fry our gourds (also references zuchhe marina, which has to be parboiled before frying). 
Recipe 228 - per cuocere scorze di zucche dal vulgo dette Zazzere - to cook skins of gourds, commonly called Zazzere.  


For this reason I cooked butternut squash this weekend for the feast I did.  Parboiled for 5 minutes and then fried on a griddle with lots of butter.   Oddly enough a lot of people wanted the recipe claiming it was the best squash they'd ever eaten, don't know why something so simple appears to be so popular. But there you go. 

Helewyse 
still not unpacked yet,