Lentils
Water
A spoonful of butter
Minced parsley
Celery
Carrot
A little onion
Three ounces of butter
A ladleful of good stock
Salt and pepper

"Boil the lentils in water with spoonful of butter, then rub them through a sieve. Put some minced parsley, celery, carrot, and a very little onion on the fire with two or three ounces of butter; when brown, pour in a ladleful of good stock. Strain, flavour the lentils with it, adding salt and pepper to taste. The puree should be pretty stiff."

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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