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 ...