Prompt #38: Dinner Write about your muse's favorite food. Describe a complete dinner from their point of view.
When I was a small boy, I loved confit: fruit boiled in sweet red wine. Grapes, apricots, figs, dates and raisins, all manner of fruit, stewed until the whole concoction was of a rich purple colour... I could gorge myself on confit until I was sick, and I remember I used to get my ears cuffed for indulging. But the fondness for over-sweet things is a prerogative of children, women, and very old men – in short, all manner of people with blunt palates.
Favourite food? You sound like my father. So modest, demanding so little in his private life. If he had his say, there was only one course, worse: one dish, to be shared by all, as if we were peasants huddled around a trestle table, poking our spoons in one great bowl. His public feasts were magnificent affairs, make no mistake about it; father knew how to silence the nay-sayers, preferably by stuffing honey-glazed capon in their mouths. Figuratively speaking, of course. But I hated dining with him alone and excused myself whenever I could; the prospect of staring at a single poveretto dish was not very inviting, see.
So, a feast. Tied in with the Liturgy, shall we say? Saints' Days are good occasions to bring out the best the larder has to offer. San Martino, perhaps? Well into autumn, when the fruit of the earth and the field have ripened, when nuts and chestnuts fall, and the first young wine begs to be savoured. A good time to give thanks, then. There'll be musicians, too - let's say we've hired that temperamental little fiammingo, Messer Desprez, and there'll be dances and allegories between servizi. Thus I cordially invite you to eat, dance, and rejoice until the small hours.
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Primo Servizio da la credenza - First service from the sideboard
Salad of greens cooked and raw of many kinds Salad of "stuffed hat" pasta and raisins Salad of veal feet Goat pie, of 6lb per pie, served cold Capon "sopramentati" served cold with lemon slices and sugar Mustard made for flavour Salted beef tongue and sausage cooked in wine, cut in slices Small, layered pastry filled with blancmange
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Primo Servizio da la cucina - First service from the kitchen
Partridge roasted on the spit, served with sliced lemons and sugar above Quail separated with six pounds of sausage roasted on the spit served with fennel flowers (or ground fennel) and salt Wood cock roasted on the spit, served with its own juices Pie of larks, with four per pastry Tart of kid sweet bread and rump of pigeons with "Lucchese" sausage Young hare roasted on the spit, served with pine nuts Pigeons stewed with ham and whole onions Veal pie of six pounds per pie, served hot Thick sour cherry sauce
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Secondo Servizio da la cucina - Second service from the kitchen
Kneaded capon, stuffed in the Lombard style, boiled, served with violets above Almond sauce Blancmange in plates, served with sugar and pomegranate seeds Partridge boiled with Bolognese cabbage and "cervellate" sausage Belly of veal braised with pork "mendrolla" and spices Dove pie with five per pie with pitted olives inside Boiled shoulder of mutton served with parsley above Salted cow meat boiled, served with mint above Garlic almond sauce for flavor
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Secondo Servizio da la credenza - Second and last service from the sideboard
White marzipaned tart Pies of bergamot pears, eight per pie Green tart Pie of quince with four per pastry Jelly in glass beakers A work of empty (puff) pastry Truffles stewed in oil, sour orange juice and pepper Raw truffles served with salt and pepper Many kinds of apple and pear Marzolino cheese of two pounds each split Maiorichino cheese Fresh grapes of many kinds Sweet chestnuts cooked on the grill served with salt, sugar and pepper Snow of milk, served with sugar above Wafers made like scrolls Small cakes (ciambelle) of Monaco
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Raise the tablecloth, wash hands, change the white napkins
Green fennel stripped from the stalk Scented toothpicks Bundles of scented flowers Candies and comfits to ones pleasure
There will be the appropriate type of wines for each servizio, of course; bowls with rose water to clean your hands; candelabri, pounds and pounds of the best scented wax, whatever decoration the time of the year may call for... You think this excessive? What are you, some bone-gnawing little Franciscan?
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Fine. If you absolutely have to scale it down, here's a pedestrian version, a light lunch, if you will. Should your maestro be interested in recipes for these dishes, I'm sure we'll find a way to lend ours to you for a day or two, although these people are known to be ornery and most reluctant to share their secrets.
Primo Servizio da la credenza
Crostato con cacio grasso et butiro (Bread toasts with cheese and butter) Gambari con aceto (Shrimp with vinegar) Crostatini di aglio (Small tarts with a garlic cheese filling) Mostaccioli alla Milanese (Aniseed biscotti) Olive di piu sorte (Olives of many kinds, green and black) Ove ripiene (Stuffed eggsfeast)
Secondo Servizio da la credenza
Prosciutto cotto in vino, tagliata, servitto freddo (Ham cooked in wine and spices, served cold and sliced) Insalata di verdure misto (Mixed green salad) Mostardo amabile (Sweet mustard sauce) Insalata di fagioli freschi (Fresh green bean salad) Pane di latte et zuccuro (Twisted bread of milk and sugar) Uve fresche (Fresh grapes) Tortelletti d’herba alla Lombarda (Herb tortellini in the Lombard style)
Terzo Servizio da la cucina
Lombo di boue arrostito (Rib roast of beef (loin) roasted with spices) Cipolle arrostito con il rosto (Onions roasted in the drippings from the beef) Minestre di riso (Risotto) Zucche intiere piene (Pumpkin stuffed with pork and chicken and roasted) Minestre di cavalfiore (Dish of cauliflower) Sapore d'uva spina (Gooseberry sauce) Agliata con noce (Garlic walnut sauce)
Quarto Servizio da la credenza
Tarte di pere marzapinate (Marzipan and pear pie) Capi di latte (Panna cotta - a cooked set dish of cream) Fettoline di cacio (Slices of provolone cheese) and other sweet dishes
A finire
Stecchi profumati (Perfumed toothpicks) Canditi et confectioni a beneplacito (Candies and confections in abundance - almonds, peaches, lemon peel, ginger, fennel).