I Doni delle Muse Associazione Culturale

15/06/2026

Both wild and cultivated asparagus were commonly used in Italy since ancient times. Diocletian’s Edict of Maximum Prices (4th century) mentions asparagi hortulani and asparagi agrestes, which testifies to the popularity of these vegetables in the Antiquity.
Traditional preparations in our country include frittatas, soups, and salads. Today, both wild and cultivated asparagus are also typical ingredients in risotto and lasagna in Italy.
Recipes for asparagus can also be used for other edible spring shoots, such as butcher’s broom, hop shoots, old man’s beard, and black briony, historically included in the meaning of the Greek word asparagoi.
The recipes usually call for boiling or frying the asparagus. Typical dressings include oil, garum, and vinegar, as recommended by Galen in De Alimentorum Facultatibus (2nd century), or oil, vinegar, cinnamon, and sugar, as presented in a medieval version in Michele Savonarola’s book on dietetics (15th century).
Anonimo Padovano (15th century) recommends seasoning the boiled and optionally fried asparagus with vinegar, spices, and salt. Asparagus are also grilled as described by Giacomo Castelvetro (17th century): they are oiled and sprinkled with salt and pepper before cooking, then served with a squeeze of orange.
This week, we prepared wild asparagus using a recipe from Anonimo Toscano’s Libro de la Cocina (14th century), replacing the onion with some three-cornered garlic that we found in the woods. Other options include shallot, scallion, or any type of wild garlic. We did not parboil the asparagus as the recipe recommends because they were very tender.

Ingredients
asparagus
three-cornered garlic
olive oil
saffron
salt

Method
Chop the asparagus and the wild garlic and soak the saffron in a little warm water. Sauté the asparagus and the wild garlic in olive oil, then add the saffron and a pinch of salt.
Cook for 5 minutes or until tender.

Original text
Togli li sparaci, e falli bollire; e quando sieno bulliti, ponli a cocere con oglio, cipolle, sale e çafarano, e spetie trite, o senza.

Translation
Boil the asparagus. When they are done, cook them with oil, onions, salt, saffron, and with or without ground spices.

YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/mcWCfcRkJ7M

For more information about vegetables in historical recipes, check out our book “Early Italian Recipes. Vegetables, fruit, herbs, and flowers”
English https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B4T8VPFQ
Italiano https://www.amazon.it/dp/B0B4V32FHR

“Libro de la Cocina. Medieval Tuscan Recipes”
English https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BMQQ6SFY
Italiano https://www.amazon.it/dp/B0BNG5J9MF

Check out our Patreon page for articles on historical food and several translations of primary sources
www.patreon.com/historicalitaliancooking

10/06/2026

While today sweets have a precise role and use in Italian traditions—as desserts, snacks, or breakfast foods—it was not always the case in the past. For instance, it may be surprising to learn that, in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, sweet dishes were served alongside savory ones because they belonged to the same food category: a pie, such as a pastello or a torta, would have been served with another pie, regardless of the filling. The same concept applies to stuffed pasta (which, like today, could be sweet or savory), as well as fritters, frittatas, or puddings.
Many sweets in ancient Rome and Greece were used more or less like today (although, as we will see in a future article, they were also part of religious rituals in both cultures), and in the context of a banquet, they were considered part of the so-called secundae mensae (deutera trapeze in Greek, both meaning “second courses,” or, more literally, “second tables”), which were the foods served at the end of the meal, preceded by appetizers (promulsis, gustus, or gustatio) and primae mensae (“first tables,” including the main dishes).
The full article is available on Patreon.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/152708336

Image: ancient Greek stamnos representing a symposium found at Vulci in Latium (5th century BCE)

08/06/2026

In medieval and Renaissance cookbooks, recipes for Lent featuring spring herbs—including the so-called herbe amare, bitter herbs—are very common: we find pies, stuffed pasta, and fritters, called frittelle or frictelle. Lenten versions are fried in olive oil instead of butter (allowed in the Renaissance during regular lean days but not in Lent and in the Middle Ages on Saturdays and vigils) or, obviously, lard.
In this article, we are going to analyze two types of preparations: in one, the herbs (usually aromatic herbs) are dipped in a batter and deep-fried; the other preparation, more specifically for bitter herbs, is more complex and varies by author and the period, although in a recipe by Bartolomeo Scappi, the batter used for bitter herbs can also be used for aromatic herbs such as rosemary and sage.
A basic batter recipe for the leaves of aromatic herbs can be found in Maestro Martino’s manuscripts (15th century). The version we are translating here comes from the manuscript known as Libro de Cosina. Unlike the recipe in the Libro de Arte Coquinaria, this preparation is recommended for borage leaves (and both are also for bay laurel leaves), and the author also suggests a fat version with lard.
The full article is available on Patreon with translations from Maestro Martino's Libro di Cosina, Bartolomeo Scappi's Opera, Cristoforo Messisbugo's Banchetti, and Cuoco Napolitano's cookbook.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/spring-herbs-in-151309864

Image: sage from a manuscript of Aldobrandino of Siena's Regime du Corps (Morgan Library MS M.165, 15th century)

06/06/2026

Our books“Libro di Cucina. Medieval Venetian Recipes”English http...

06/06/2026

01/06/2026

Pine nut is called nux pinea in Latin and by various names in the medieval and Renaissance sources (such as pinolo, pignolo, pignuolo, and pignocchio). In De Re Coquinaria, we find nuclei pinei, sometimes abbreviated to nuclei, a term that usually refers to kernels or nuts. In this case, it is evident that the meaning given by the author is not so generic: in fact, there are recipes in which are mentioned nuces (walnuts), amygdalae (almonds), abellanae (hazelnuts), and even glandes (acorns) in addition to nuclei. In this case, the presence of the names of the other nuts excludes the possibility that nuclei means something other than “pine nuts.”
The case of Vinidarius’ Excerpta is a little different. In this text, nuclei is used with the general meaning of nuts, and the author’s list includes nuces maiores (walnuts, literally “largest nuts”), nuclos pineos (pine nuts), acmidula (almonds), and aballana (hazelnuts). In the text, pine nuts are always called nuclei pinei.
Books on agriculture and medicine describe the various types of pines and pine nuts. Pliny describes four varieties of pine nuts in the Naturalis Historia, referred to as nuces pineae, although the fruits are also called nuclei.
The full article is available on our Patreon page with translations from Pliny's Naturalis Historia, Michele Savonarola's treatise on dietetics, Ugo Benzi's Regole della Sanità, and Costanzo Felici's letter on salads.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/150666133

Image: pine and spruce trees from Pietro Andrea Mattioli's Discorsi sulla Materia Medica di Dioscoride (16th century)

29/05/2026

A term that we find sometimes in historical cookbooks is biscotto, related to the verb biscottare. It means, very literally, “twice cooked,” usually in reference to bread, either savory or sweet.
The fact that biscotto is a type of bread implies leavening (unleavened bread is very specific and rare in historical Italian cuisine), although this step is often not mentioned in the recipes found in the sources.
One of the earliest examples of biscotto is buccellatum, which was part of the rations of the ancient Roman legionaries, as recalled by Vincenzo Tanara in his 17th-century L’Economia del Cittadino in Villa. This text is particularly interesting because it records the continuity of the method of preparing military hardtack throughout the millennia.

“Pane biscotto is cooked twice. Usually, after the first cooking, it is placed in the oven again, once cut into pieces. Since these pieces are called bucelle in Latin, this pane biscotto was called bucellatum, and it was the one that the soldiers brought with them to war. This was also called nautico, because it was used on ships. Today it is ring-shaped or made as a focacia with a hole in the middle so that each soldier can easily carry it tied through a rope, the fuse itself, or the belt.”
The full article is available on Patreon with translations from Anonimo Veneziano's Libro di Cucina, Cristoforo Messisbugo's Banchetti, Panunto's La Singolare Dottrina, and Vincenzo Tanara's L'Economia del Cittadino in Villa.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/150087834

Image: Still life with biscotti and sweets by Tommaso Realfonso (18th century)

25/05/2026

In the history of Italian cuisine, garlic has often been associated with a peasant, rustic diet. However, it also appeared on the tables of the wealthy in the Antiquity, featuring in a few recipes of De Re Coquinaria, and authors of agricultural books such as Cato (3rd century BCE), Columella (1st century), and Palladius (4th century) wrote extensively about its cultivation. However, the pseudo-Vergilian poem Moretum (1st century) depicts the farmer Simulus cursing against its smell, and a poem from Horace’s Epodes (1st century BCE) satirizes eating garlic, described as worse than hemlock, as a penance suitable for parricides.
During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, garlic was used more frequently in high-end recipes, particularly for preparing sauces, but it continued to be considered a peasant food. As the 15th-century physician Michele Savonarola recalls quoting Galen, garlic is the ginger of the peasant, and, a century later, the naturalist Costanzo Felici writes that it was mostly used by the peasants, and many people could not stand its smell. Nevertheless, several varieties of garlic were used in salads, soups, sauces, and roasts during his time.
For today’s recipe, a medieval garlic soup for peasants from Johannes Bockenheim’s Registrum Coquine (15th century), we used allium triquetrum, a type of wild garlic with a milder flavor than the cultivated varieties.
In fact, wild garlic has been used since ancient times, as recalled by authors such as Pliny and Galen. If you would rather use cultivated garlic, we recommend parboiling the cloves and discarding the water (a technique found in ancient as well as in medieval sources) before proceeding with the recipe.

Ingredients
wild garlic
chicken broth
black pepper
olive oil

Method
Chop the garlic and grind the pepper in the mortar. Stir-fry the garlic in olive oil, then add a ladle of hot broth and a pinch of pepper. Cook for 5 minutes and serve.

Original text
Recipe alleum et munda bene et fac illas petias bulire, et tunc mitte eas ad patellam, et frige eas cm oleo olive. Et tunc mitte intus bonum brodium cm modicis spetiebus. Et erit suavissimum pro rusticis in campo.

Translation
Take garlic and clean it well, boiling its cloves. Place them in a pan to fry with olive oil. Then pour good broth and a small amount of spices. It will be very good for the peasants in the fields.

YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/rX1FQp0DYmE

For more information about vegetables in historical recipes, check out our book “Early Italian Recipes. Vegetables, fruit, herbs, and flowers”
English https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B4T8VPFQ
Italiano https://www.amazon.it/dp/B0B4V32FHR

“Registrum Coquine. A Medieval Cookbook”
English https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0953XLBS3
Italiano https://www.amazon.it/dp/B0953YCJSJ

Check out our Patreon page for several translations of primary sources, including Cato's De Agri Cultura and Columella's De Re Rustica
www.patreon.com/historicalitaliancooking

11/05/2026

Medieval Italian sources offer several recipes for pancakes or fritters with various names, including crespelle, crispa, fristella, crostelli, and frittelle. The simplest versions recall Galen’s tagenitai, which are made with wheat flour soaked in plenty of water and fried in olive oil, then eaten with honey. The author specifies that the fritters become similar to cheese, suggesting some kind of leavening is involved. A similar preparation is called matafami by the Renaissance physician Lodovico Bertaldi in his commentary on Ugo Benzi's work on dietetics.
We find an essentially identical recipe in the Liber de Coquina and Anonimo Meridionale’s manuscript A, which includes yeast.
The full article is available on Patreon with translations from Anonimo Meridionale, Anonimo Toscano's Libro de la Cocina and Trattato, Liber de Coquina, and Cristoforo Messisbugo's Banchetti.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/148938887

Image: Woman holding pancakes by Jan van Bijlert (17th century)