Historical story

Renaissance Cuisine Recipes:Rice with Almond Milk

Sumptuous late Renaissance banquet. This recipe for rice with almond milk dates back to the 1400s

Another recipe directly taken from a text by the great Renaissance cook Maestro Martino da Como.

This almond milk rice at the time it was consumed mainly on fasting days, for example during Lent, and when convalescing.

In 1400 rice in Northern Italy was still a fairly "new" cereal, as it had just arrived after being imported by the Arabs.

Here is the recipe, which I report verbatim.

Get almonds, rice, sugar and, if you can, goat's milk and proceed as indicated by Martino:

To make ten menestre, take away a pound of loving them and world them well that they are white. And remove half a pound of rice, and wash it two or three times with tepid water, and place it in the fire with clear water and cook it well:Then caccial fore and put it to dry. Then I track the companies very well, loving them by wetting them and sbroffandandole above often with a little bit of fresh water, so that they do not make oil; et distemperale with fresh water and pass it through the stamegnia et mitti to boil this lacte in a pot with half a pound of sugar. And as the mittivi begins to boil in the rice and place the pot on the brascia longi from the fire, turning often with the chariot so that it does not catch smoke, and let it boil by spatio de meza hora. Similarly, you will be able to cook rice with goat's lacte or with other lacte. To make ten soups, take a pound of almonds and peel them so that they turn out white. Take half a pound of rice and rinse it two or three times in warm water, then put it to cook in clear water until well cooked. Then take it off and put it to dry. Crush the aforementioned almonds very well by wetting them and spraying them many times with fresh water so that they do not produce their oil and then dilute them with cold water and then filter them in a strainer. Then put this almond milk to boil in a saucepan adding half a pound of sugar and, when it begins to simmer, pour the rice and place the pot away from the heat, stirring often with a ladle so that it does not take on the taste of smoke and let it boil for half ' Now. With the same technique you can also cook rice with goat's milk or other type of milk (Photo gives:cakemania.it).