Salsa de Bolets
Original:
S i vols fer salsa de bolets
perbullits e preiiiuts e soseiiguats ab oli, fe aytal salsa :* pren ceba,
juyvert, vinagre, especies e destempra ho ab vinagre e un poch d aygua ; fe
pecas d ells que 1s sosengues, ho n dona ab sosengua, e puys mit los en la s a
l ~ a o 1s dona cuyts
en brases ab sal e oli.
[El Llibre de Sent Soví, XVII, c1350]
Translation:
If you want
to make sauce of mushrooms that are boiled, pressed, and fried with oil, make
the sauce like this: take onion, parsley,
vinegar, and spices, and mix it with vinegar and a little water. Make pieces of the mushrooms, to fry, or
serve with a fried mixture, and then put them in the sauce, or serve them
grilled with salt and oil.
[El Llibre
de Sent Sovi/The Book of Sent Sovi, XVII, c1350, Trans: Robin Vogelzang, 2008]
Ingredients:
Mushrooms
Olive Oil
Onions
Parsley
Vinegar
Spices (Salt,
Pepper, Coriander)
Water
Redaction:
Slice and
boil Mushrooms. Remove Mushrooms from
water and press them to remove excess water.
Fry Mushrooms in Oil. Grind
Onion, Parsley, Vinegar, and Spices. Add
this mixture to the Mushrooms.
Notes:
“take . . . water: the onion, parsley, and spice, with a
little vinegar; have to be ground, as detailed in Llibre de potatges,
145; the resulting mixture is dissolved with vinegar – or wine, according to
the Llibre d’Aparellar (17) – and with a little water.”
“Or serve . . . oil: it
is possible that this recommendation indicates a different way to serve the
mushrooms, cooked on the grill and with salt and oil as condiments, and not
fried with the sauce described; in the same way, the recommendation made just
above (<<or serve with a fried mixture>>) surely suggests the
possibility, as an alternative to serving them with sauce, of adding the
mushrooms to a sofregit.”
[El Llibre de Sent Sovi/The Book of Sent Sovi, XVII, c1350, Trans: Robin Vogelzang, 2008]
Vogelzang compares the version of the recipe in Llibre de Sent Sovi with the version in Llibre d’Aparellar, which included the recipe borrowed from Llibre de Sent Sovi. Llibre d’Aparellar is an unfinished manuscript that contains 300+ recipes compiled in the late 14th Century.
[El Llibre de Sent Sovi/The Book of Sent Sovi, XVII, c1350, Trans: Robin Vogelzang, 2008]
Vogelzang compares the version of the recipe in Llibre de Sent Sovi with the version in Llibre d’Aparellar, which included the recipe borrowed from Llibre de Sent Sovi. Llibre d’Aparellar is an unfinished manuscript that contains 300+ recipes compiled in the late 14th Century.
The recipe calls for the Mushrooms to be boiled, then pressed to remove
the excess water. I put the Mushrooms in
a towel then pressed them between two Cutting Boards. I do not have a Mortar large enough for
grinding the Onion and Parsley mixture so I relied on a Blender. The recipe mentions to add a little water but I found that the
Onion and Parsley released a lot of water.
I ended up removing some of the excess water. The recipe was not specific on what spices to
use. Salt, Pepper, and Coriander gave a
pleasing flavor.
Bibliography:
El
Llibre de Sent Sovi/The Book of Sent Sovi, XVII, c1350, Trans: Robin Vogelzang,
2008
