Servizio di credenza (fine confectionery from the buffet)
Marzipan with Almonds and Rose Water
RemedyReconstruction🍯facile30 min (+ drying)
A fine paste of ground almonds and sugar, bound with rose water, shaped into small lozenges or figures and lightly browned. Sweet, fragrant, considered at the time a comfort as much as a treat.
Why this dish? Leonardo, frugal and vegetarian, enjoyed almond sweets, which were then considered strengthening and good for digestion. Marzipan, a paste of almonds and sugar perfumed with rose water, was both a prestige confection and a comforting remedy — a snack Leonardo could take to his workshop.
For those who work late and neglect to eat — my failing, I admit — nothing beats a piece of marzipan. Pound sweet almonds, marry them with sugar, perfume with a little rose water, and shape as the hand pleases: lozenges, stars, or even little figures. Physicians say it comforts heart and mind; I especially like that it fits in a pocket and requires no creature's death.
Ingredients
- •Sweet almonds — a good measure (base)
- •Fine sugar — almost as much as almonds (sweetness and binder)
- •Rose water — a few drops (signature fragrance)
How it was made : Marzipan, inherited from Arab-Mediterranean cuisine and spread by Venice and Sicily, was a luxury food (sugar was expensive). Both apothecaries and cooks prepared it: it was believed to have strengthening and digestive virtues, on the border between confectionery and remedy. It was often molded into ornamental shapes for festivities.
Sources : Maestro Martino, Libro de arte coquinaria, 15th century · Platina (Bartolomeo Sacchi), De honesta voluptate et valetudine, 1474