Mother's Day with the Medici

Cositutti - A Travel and Lifestyle Resource For All Fine Things Italian

May 2009

Benvenuti to Cositutti

Miei Amici

Celebrate Mother's Day with a Medici feast for a taste of the Italian Renaissance. Follow the traditions of the Renaissance tables of the Medici who introduced the concept of the well laid table to the people of Florence.

Dinner with the Medici would be served in several courses and include roasted meats of game or fowl like capon, pigeon or peacock. Pine nuts and raisins were common in Italian Renaissance cooking and were used in both sweet and savory dishes. Tarts, custards and puddings made with cherries sweetened with wine were popular. There would be no tomatoes, peppers, kidney beans, turkey or potatoes! These ingredients native to the Americas were not yet known in Europe.

The Medici's epicurean tastes were transferred to France when Catherine de' Medici wed King Henry II, bringing with her Italian cooks,recipes and the fork! Her influence reputedly reformed the antique style of French medieval cooking and gave rise to the science and art of cooking practiced today.

Click here for a brief history of the fork.

At theTable

Bring the glory of the Renaissance to your Mother's Day table with Croxette Pasta a medallion shaped pasta hand stamped for noble families who displayed their coat of arms for status even at the dinner table!

Serve lightly sauced with basil pesto

or make a pignoli (pine nut) pesto using

3/4 cup pine nuts
1/2 clove of garlic
a little DeMedci Extra Virgin Olive Oil
some milk
marjoram

Mix all ingredients in a blender until a loose paste is formed. Then add 1/2 c of softened butter and stir well. Warm sauce gently before pouring over warm pasta (if it's too thick add a little more milk).

Vin Santo Cupcakes

A Tuscan treasure, Vin Santo is an amber colored Italian dessert wine typically served after a meal with not-too-sweet desserts, like a nutty-flavored torta. Traditionally served with biscotti di Prato or cantucci from Siena, Vin Santo has a unique taste and texture that is meditative. After all the name Vin Santo means "wine of the saints".

I used a portion of my precious bottle of a 1999 Capezzana Vin Santo di Carmignano Riserva to make a mini-torta (Italian cupcake) for Mother's Day. The grapes used to make this Vin Santo come from Tenuta di Capezzna, an estate farm NW of Florence with vineyards located on the grounds of a Medici villa. The Vin Santo from Capezzana is highly sought after and considered to be among the best of its class. Selected white grapes are dried on cane mats for three months and then subjected to multiple fermentations in chestnut barrels.

You can see how special this "holy wine" is but what makes it more special to me was the warm hospitality of the Contini Bonacossi family at Tenuta di Capezzana . At the time of our visit the Vin Santo had already been bottled but we were able to visit the cellars and vinsantaie - where the grapes are hung to dry. We then joined the family in the dining room of their villa. Beatrice, the owner, had a wonderful meal prepared for us, fit for a Medici and as the afternoon passed away we tasting three of their signature wines and discussed . . . All Fine Things Italian! Bella Toscana!

Tenuta di Capezzana is the site of one of the cooking schools included in the lifestyle itineraries for A Taste of Cositutti in Italy
Capezzana Vin Santo di Carmignano Riserva is limited in production - a 2000 Vintage is available at Wine ZAP.com
You can find estate bottled Tenuta di Capezzana and other exceptional Extra Virgin Olive Oils at CosituttiMarketPlace.