if you were a recipe?

Caterina de' Medici - François Clouet, 1555

If you were a recipe, what would you be?


I came across this question while reading a blog by Emiko Davies - a Japanese-Australian food photographer, cook, writer, artist and all around amazing woman who is married to a Tuscan sommelier. She is the perfect example of a neo-Florentine woman, the kind of expat who lives in this city.  


If you were a recipe, what would you be? So this simple question really struck me, especially since in the past year, I've become a bit obsessive about cooking; it's like therapy. I've been delving into cookbooks and cooking blogs, rediscovering old family recipes (like great-grandma Fales's rice pudding) and inventing my own, poaching eggs (thank you Julia Child), rolling out pasta, pickling, preserving... The one thing I do especially well is dessert. American desserts. Huguenot torte. Lemon meringue pie. Apple pie with a lattice top. I make something almost once a week, and usually give 3/4 of it away at dinners or to co-workers (because if not, Alberto and I wouldn't fit into our trousers). I think my therapeutic cooking helps me stay connected to the U.S.


And so I present my answer to this oh-so existential question: If I were a recipe, I'd be PUMPKIN PIE!


My favorite vegetable, that can go either sweet or salty, is highly adaptable. It's both classically American - almost always associated with Thanksgiving dinners - and was a favorite of Caterina de' Medici (1519-1589) (Florentine native and queen of France - an expat you could say). The smell of baking pumpkin pie brings me back to 132 Kiehners Road, two night before Thanksgiving, when my mother and I would put ourselves to the task of baking at least three pies for the upcoming feast. Strangely, when I eat pumpkin pie as a midnight snack (hey, it happens to the best of us), it always gives me intense, psychedelic night mares. Blame it on the nutmeg I guess. 
So here is the recipe from Pellegrino Artusi's 1891 cookbook - the bible of Italian cookery. 
Buon appetito!


Torta di Zucca Gialla (Butternut Pumpkin Pie)
- 1 kg. pumpkin or squash
- 100 g. peeled almonds, finely ground
- 100 g. raw sugar (brown sugar is good too)
- 30 g. butter
- 500 ml milk
- 3 small eggs, beaten 
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- pinch of salt

Remove the seeds and skin of the pumpkin and grate the pumpkin flesh into a large bowl. Drain the pumpkin to remove its liquid until it is reduced to just 300 grams. You can do this by wrapping it in a dish towel, as Artusi instructs, or over a colander, squeezing every now and then to help it along.

Cook the pumpkin in the milk for about 25-30 minutes or until it is soft. Drain off excess milk.

Pulverize the almonds (if they are not already ground finely) and sugar together in a food processor or – Artusi’s way – in a mortar and pestle. In a separate bowl, add this to the pumpkin, along with the butter, salt and cinnamon and combine. When the mixture has cooled enough, add the beaten eggs.

Pour the mixture into a greased and floured) cake tin so that the cake is no higher than an inch or two thick.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C for 45 minutes or until golden on top and set. For Renaissance flare, sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of rosewater. 

Eat with great satisfaction (and save some for midnight snack).