Walking in Florence during the lock down has caused in me a double emotion, although the empty city was chilling and a bit dismal.
Staring at the monuments, at the pretty palaces and churches without trying to see them above the sea of heads of the overcrowded streets has been enjoyable. The facade of the Duomo was more beautiful than ever: its vision could really cause the Sindrome of Stendhal.
Unavoidable for my mind, always tense with thoughts on space and time, to go back to the past. In 1800 this monuments were already here: my great grandparents saw them. Their grandparents saw them in 1700, and the same going back to 1600 and 1500. How was the life at that time? Florence, the Flower, was crowded, for sure. It was already an international centre: birth place of bank system, important political pole for “politicians meetings”, city of fashion, where ladies could buy expensive and rare silks and count on skilled and imaginative taylors to sew never- seen – before outfits. City of arts and crafts, full of “botteghe” creating all what is the most needed pleasure: Beauty.
Why the Renaissance started here? Why is Florence the city of the New Birth? I have my answer: freedom. The freedom to create beauty. The freedom to put in practice what people had in their mind. Something that looks obvious nowadays to us, western people. But this freedom, the simple, basic right to express yourself is still denied in a too large part of the planet.
Florence was the city of election for scientists, doctors, architects, painters, taylors, artisans of any crafts, musicians and money lenders, bankers, business men.
The De Medici were researchers themselves: pharmacists, alchemists and … cooks. Their job – and passion – was elaborate formulas, either with chemicals and …with foods. They found “recipes”. In Italian language the word “ricetta”, that is recipe, is valid for both medical prescription and cooking recipe. It is synonym of “formula”.
The De Medici found also the formula of the béchamel: fat, starch, liquid in the ratio of 1-1-10. Today we tend to use butter: their fat was the olive oil.
There is a video on FB of me explaining the béchamel.
https://www.facebook.com/gigliocooking.school.florence/videos/217374536817689
The De’ Medici also “invented” the crepes, that they named “crespelle”.
The recipe of the Crepes of Caterina is still a “must” in the Florentine cuisine. The princess Caterina de’ Medici got married with Henry de Valois, future King of France in 1533, when she was 14. She was a sophisticated princess, used to the etiquette of the Florentine court and used to the elaborated food at their table, where all the guests had a napkin (unknown in France), a fork (unknown in France), a personal glass (….); where the courses were served one by one and not in large trays all together on a messy table. She brought to France the Family cook book and… good manners. Since then, the “Florentine formulas” became French recipes.
Before giving you the recipe off the Crespelle alla Caterina, I would like to let you know that in the member ship site there will be a column devoted to the REAL foods of Italy.
You find the recipe below.
CRESPELLE ALLA FIORENTINA DI CATERINA DE’ MEDICI
Ingredients for the dough:
150 gr (5 oz) flour
375 ml (1 + ½ cup) milk
3 eggs
a little spoon of salt
butter for the frying pan
Beat up the eggs in a bowl, whisk in the flour, the salt. Pour the milk into the batter slowly whisking continuously. Set for a half of hour.
Melt a little nut of butter in a not-sticking pan, spread in a ladle of batter and cook on both sides.
Ingredients for the filling:
400 gr (13 oz) spinach
200 gr (7 oz) fresh ricotta cheese
45 gr (1 + ½ oz) grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
45 gr (1+ ½ oz) extra virgin olive oil
salt, pepper and nutmeg
1 garlic clove
Rinse well the spinach. In a large brown the garlic in the extra virgin oil. Toss in the raw spinach, salt and cook with a lid on, for a couple of minutes, until they are soft. Then drain, let cool down and squeeze out the excess water. Chop them. Then mix with ricotta cheese, Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. pepper and nutmeg.Ingredients for sauce:
30 gr (1 oz) flour
50 gr (1 1/2 oz) extra virgin olive oil or butter
1 / 2 L (2 cups) milk
45 gr (1 + ½ oz) grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
salt, pepper and nutmeg
Heat the extra virgin olive oil and add flour mixing. Add the milk, previously heated, to the mixture all at once and simmer for about 2 minutes. Add salt, pepper, nut meg and Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.
Put the filling in each crespella. Grease a fire-resistant glass pan, continuing to stir, with butter and lay down them. Cover with the sauce and Parmigiano Reggiano. Cook in an oven at 200° C – 400 F until the surface will be golden (12 minutes).
Marcella Ansaldo © 2021