This December I will offer two redaction challenges to be presented at Myrkfaelinn Yule later this month — one savory and one sweet.

This comes from Book V of The Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi (1570). This Italian-based cook left us over 1,000 of recipes fit for a pope’s table. I simplified this slightly as it referred to other recipes in the Opera.

60. To prepare a crostata or pie with fresh peas.

Get tender, fresh, shelled peas in their season. It is optional whether you bring them to a boil in a fat broth; however, if they are tender there is no need to. Have a tourte pan ready with its layers of pastry and its twist around it, and put the peas into it mixed with fresh provatura and a dry cheese, grated, and beaten mint, marjoram and parsley, with a few lumps of butter in it, Sprinkled with the spices and sugar that were listed in the preceding recipe*; to that add egg yolks beaten with verjuice.

Cover the pan over with a rather thick sheet of dough with a few strips of flaky pastry on it. Bake it in an oven or braise it. Serve it hot with sugar on it. Instead of grated cheese you can use the stuffing of fine saveloy or sausage.

You can do fresh, tender beans the same way, having first brought them to a boil in salted water. And you can also put them into a pie prepared en croûte.

*Sugar, pepper, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg