[Sca-cooks] Cialdoni and Nevole - A Recipe Search

[Johnna Holloway]

There's a recipe for them in Sister Maria Vittoria della Verde’s notebooks as recorded in a Perugian nunnery of the late sixteenth century.
CIALDINI
Sister Maria Vittoria della Verde’s little wafers
For every ounce of flour take a ‘scodella’ ( a specific sized soup plate) of water, of that little, with the water underneath the line of the border. Into the water add sugar and mix and then add little by little the flour [and a little aniseed if you want], turning always with the mixing spatula in the border of the recipient {bowl} so as not to make clumps. If one plants in the middle {of the pastry/batter} the mixing spoon, it should almost stay straight. Then heat the iron and oil first before each use. Put it to warm a little without turning over, place it always on the same side [leave it a little, press well the handle].
Turn then the iron a single time [press less, give less pressure]. When the waters are too sweet they will fall into pieces. Use wax to grease {the iron}. Make the paste that is sweet but not the sweetest. When you draw back the iron beat it high in the way that the wafers come loose/detach. When the pastry sticks, one must not employ again the same side, but the other. When you want to use new {for the first time} the iron, make a wafer, cook it scarcely/a little and throw it away.
The fire should be sparse and with little flame [Put wafers or small wafers on the side that has not been used immediately preceding]. [When you obtain the result to roll up the cooked wafer over the ‘cannuccio’ (literal translation is reed or tube, probably refers to round object around which you roll wafers into tubes), it is the sign that it has the right amount of sugar.]
[Every eight or ten wafers, grease the iron and strike it.]
[Hold over the fire a little less than the time taken to recite one “Hail Mary” for each side.]
Translation by Mistress Helewyse de Birkestad, OL
Sister Maria Vittoria della Verde’s notebooks were published in: Casagrande, Giovanna. Gola e Preghiera N e!a clausura De!’Ultimo ‘500. Edited by Giovanni Moretti. Foligno: Edizioni dell’Arquata, 1989. This Italian work was recorded as being held in only six libraries in the world according to Worldcat in 2002. After a search of several years, I finally managed to locate and obtain a copy for my personal collection.

One recipe by Sister Maria uses only water, flour sugar and aniseed. Another uses water, aniseed, and flour. The problem with these very authentic wafers is that they stick, even to modern non-stick irons. The original recipe even complains that they stick. I have made them several times since; they always stick and that slows the process down to the extent that it’s really not practical to make them in quantities for an event. Another of these recipes that I tried took almost four times longer to make and
could only be made one wafer at a time due again to sticking. Another major drawback that I discovered is that these very authentic wafers tend to go limp in humidity. (I am convinced that they stick because they do not contain any fat and that they should be eaten soon after making or even as they are made fresh off the irons. They don’t keep or transport well.)

Hope this helps

Johnna

> On Dec 27, 2020, at 6:00 PM, Rebecca Friedman <rebeccaanne3 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Martino calls for "cialdone or nevole" in his marzipan recipe, but I can't
> find recipes for them in his cookbook. As best my dictionaries tell me, a
> cialdone is a wafer - that is, something made from flour for which you make
> the batter/dough ("paste") almost liquid, press it in irons, and cook it
> over the fire, which, taken from the irons and hot, rolls itself up like
> paper; to quote the other dictionary, it is "long wafers rolled up". As
> best my dictionaries tell me, a nevola is a term, probably dialectical or
> at least uncommon, for nebbia (fog, mist) or nuvola (cloud, fog). If
> there's a wafer, fritter, or other baked good by that name they don't
> mention it. I wouldn't be surprised if there were, naturally; it seems a
> perfectly reasonable thing to name something white and soft, but I don't
> have any evidence beside the one Martino reference.
> 
> Has anyone run across a recipe for either? Possibly in the Banchetti, or
> Sully, or one of the small Italian manuscripts? I only particularly know
> Martino and Due Libre B. Or does anyone have a period recipe for fritters
> that fit the above description (Cialdoni) even if it's not Italian? This
> seemed like the place to ask.
> 
> Thank you very much in advance!
> 
> Rebecca da Firenze
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