Today I am baking a "Lucca Ring Cake". The recipe dates back to 1483, and is a simple yeast cake with raisins and aniseed.
As a prior student of Renaissance History and daily life, it filled me with excitement to think I am cooking something that Lucrezia Tournabuoni may have eaten (I assume she didn't cook it herself, what with the slaves back then...).
It reminded me of the study tour I did in Tuscany six years ago where we ate at a restaurant in Siena with medieval recipes... The original gnocchi recipe involved cheese rather than potato.
But Lucca especially is a fascinating city. With one of the still standing full city walls that wrap around the city in a ring, and the Piazza Anfiteatro - an oval shaped public square, this city can seem a quaint and like a near medieval disney land for tourists seeking the sights, smells and general experience of an Italian town. However, Lucca rivalled Florence for power, and wars were fought from the walls with Siena and Florence. However, after the 1300s it was passed around between the Genoese, Florentines, Pisans and Veronese like a venereal disease.
I once met twins at a school who were in Kindergarten - their names were Siena (female) and Lucca (male), I wonder if the parents knew how much fighting occured between them.
But back to the Lucca Ring Cake, it is currently happily doughy and resting under a tea towel.
Daisy
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