Young pumpkins
Flour
Lard for frying

"Take young pumpkins (about the size of your two fists), peel them, cut them in half, and take out seeds and pulp. Cut them into thin strips (one and a half or two inches long, and as wide as your finger), and put them into a dish with salt for some hours. Then squeeze out the water with your hands, and throw them into flour, talking care to separate and cover each strip with flour, shake the superfluous flour off them in a sieve, and put them into a frying-pan with plenty of boiling lard or oil. Serve at once."

This recipe was taken from "Leaves from our Tuscan Kitchen or, How to Cook Vegetables" by Ann Janet Ross. The book was published by JM Dent & Co. in 1900 (London). For the complete cookbook see www.archive.org. For a variety of recipes from this cookbook see Italy Revisited/ XXX Cookbooks in the Public Domain.... Photo: Mary Melfi.

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