The Oxford Companion to Italian Meals by the meals historian Gillian Riley is rarely removed from and fairly often on my desk. It was on my desk and open, as was her e-book Meals in Artwork, once I acquired a message that Gillian had handed away in her sleep. She was 90, and had been engaged on her subsequent e-book.
I knew Gillian solely a bit, which felt like a large amount. It was due to Russell Norman that we first started corresponding, about lard, in 2015. In addition to possessing huge information and an important mind, she was additionally beneficiant, humorous and curious, and it was in Russell’s Polpetto in London that we first met for lunch. One of many final instances I noticed her was with Owen Barrett at his former deli, Monty’s, and the three of us ate salt beef sandwiches whereas chatting about sausages.
I felt extremely saddened on studying this message, however then, there Gillian was once more, broad open and stuffed with mental focus and the pleasant particulars for this week’s recipe: a spiced cake referred to as certosino di Bologna. Her magnificent encyclopedia of up to date Italian meals in its historic background was open on the spice entry, web page 508. It features a part on an nameless 14th-century manuscript entitled Libro di cucina (cookbook), which was reprinted in 1899 due to Ludovico Frati, who was liable for historic manuscripts at Bologna college.
Thought-about one of many oldest recognized recipe books, Libro di cucina was supposed for home (rich) relatively than court docket kitchens, so provides an perception into cooking on the time and the usage of spices, which had been standing symbols that introduced a lot status and pleasure to those that might afford them. (For an intensive examination of the way in which medieval Europe was formed by the spice commerce, I like to recommend Paul Freedman’s Out of the East.) Again to the Libro di cucina, which provides three spice mixes: spezie fini (that’s, advantageous spices for common use: pepper, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and saffron); spezie dolci (or candy spices for a lot of good issues: cloves, ginger, cinnamon); and spezie forti (or sturdy spices for sturdy flavour: cloves, pepper, lengthy pepper and many nutmeg). On the time, spices arriving in Europe by way of well-established commerce routes had been bought by pharmacists at speziali (apothecaries), together with sugar and medicines. And this brings us to the open web page in Gillian’s Meals in Artwork, a powerful work that makes use of artwork to light up the story of meals, and that additionally demonstrates her background as a e-book designer.
Web page 125 is the story of the German Benedictine abbess and polymath Hildegard of Bingen, and Gillian dedicates three pages to Hildegard and her mental understanding of crops and spices, and of their gastronomic and healing properties. She additionally consists of Hildegard’s recipe for nutmeg, cinnamon, clove and breadcrumb biscuits that “calm bitterness of thoughts, quicken lethargic emotions and produce readability of thoughts”. Hildegard had the humane realisation that medicinal qualities work finest when giving pleasure, and pharmacists knew this, too. They began making spiced breads for festive instances, a well-known instance being panforte, nevertheless it was frequent apply in most nations. In Bologna, speziali bought panspeziale, a splendidly dense preparation of honey, nuts, fruit and spices. Later, when Carthusian friars took over its manufacturing, it turned often known as certosino di Bologna, made distinct by a superb bling ornament of candied fruit and nuts.
You resolve which spice combine to make use of: advantageous, candy, sturdy or your individual, taking into account that the spices and certosino ought to take away melancholy ideas, gladden your coronary heart and produce pleasure. Certosino di Bologna can also be the proper technique to have a good time the season, in addition to Gillian Riley and her inimitable work.
Fruit and nut cake from Bologna (certosino di Bologna)
Makes 16 slim slices
300g honey, plus additional, warmed for brushing
150g combined candied fruit and cherries, giant items of citrus peel and the cherries halved
350g flour, plus additional for dusting
200g shelled almonds, 150g roughly chopped, the remainder left complete
50g pine nuts
12g baking powder
3 tsp spice combine
50g cocoa
75g darkish chocolate, chopped
150g quince or apricot jam
75g marsala
15g butter, for greasing
Walnuts, halved, for adorning
Heat the honey in a saucepan and, when it’s fully liquid, pull off the warmth and stir in half the chopped candied fruit.
Put the flour in a big bowl, then add the chopped almonds, pine nuts, baking powder, spices, cocoa, chopped chocolate, jam, marsala and the honey/candied fruit combine. Stir gently however totally, then pour right into a greased and floured tin – ideally a hoop tin, however a spherical 25cm cake tin will work, too. Depart to relaxation for 4 hours.
Adorn the cake with the remaining 75g candied fruit, complete almonds and walnut halves, then bake at 180C (160C fan)/350F/fuel 4 for 45 minutes, till agency. Take out of the oven, go away to chill a bit, then take out of the tin and go away to chill fully. Brush with heat honey, then slice and serve.
