Citron, fava beans, granita, food from Sicily and blancmange?

http://www.bestofsicily.com


So I'm writing a chapter and doing research about what Bia and Ysabella would be doing in the kitchen and what kind of "stuff" would they be preserving and preparing from Leo's estate?  Check out this link above because it gives a lot of fascinating information on fava beans, citron (do you know what citron is?), blood oranges, pistachios and almonds - lots of the food known not only to Greeks and Romans, but some, like sugar cane, lemons, oranges and advanced irrigation methods, were brought to Sicily by the Arabs.  So when you're in Sicily and cooling off with a fabulous lemon granite, say a silent prayer of thanks to the Arab culture.


And one more thing perusing medieval recipes - did you know that almond milk was a staple in most medieval kitchens?  Yes, that blanc mange which I have to confess, I had to look up because I had visions of jiggly icky gelatinous pudding, and found to my relief that it wasn't.  In the medieval world, at least in Sicily, it's often more of a spiced, almond and ginger flavored rice kind of dish (as best I can make out) and all four recipes I found had a common ingredient of rosewater.  I'll have to add some rose water to my pudding some time ...

La Cucina Italiana - food is history and culture - and books!

So this morning I'm reading Walking in Sicily by Gillian Price.  Being a historian of Sicily, albeit in the 13th century, I'm still interested in all things Sicilian.  She talked about gelato and then one of my favorite Sicilian drinks - granite.   She gives some history along the way, includes lots of maps (a must in my opinion!) and talks about one of my favorite food-culture-history books about Sicily - Mary Simeti's On Persephone's Island.


So I'm inviting readers of this blog to talk about their favorite books on the food, history, culture of not only Sicily but Italy - who wrote your favorite books and why are they your favorites?


By the way, a good friend of mine and professor is going to visit Puglia in a few weeks.  Doing some Norman history and possibly even going to Mt. Gargano - lucky dog!