Not everyone knows that Leonardo da Vinci liked to put down everything in writing. He left us thousands of pages full of notes, drawings, ideas, projects, and records of his daily life. So we’ve also inherited shopping lists, scrawled in his own hand or by his apprentices, which show what he ate every day. It’s as if we can still see his young assistants returning from the market with baskets full of flour, eggs, tons of salad, mushrooms, meat, fish (eel being one of his favorites, which he also depicted in The Last Supper), game and fruit. We couldn’t resist. After choosing some of the most common ingredients on Leonardo’s lists and referencing the recipes of Maestro Martino (the 15th-century court cook of Duke Francesco Sforza, who with his book De arte coquinaria marked the transition from medieval cuisine to Renaissance cuisine), we prepared some meals the way Leonard would have made at home. This is an invitation to a special dinner hosted by the greatest genius of the Renaissance. We can sit at his daily dinner table together with the students to whom he gladly showed how to sketch a face or finish a detail between mouthfuls. Leonardo also wrote down a recipe for a special drink with roses. Although while dining he certainly didn’t disdain a good wine. Some of the wine was made in a vineyard in Milan that Ludovico il Moro had given Leonardo as a token of his esteem, and according to scholars it was Malvasia di Candia.
Leonardo's recipes
This dish was never missing on Leonardo’s table: this simple stracciatella cheese (which the Lombards called “married bread crumbs” because they were well-matched with cheese and eggs) is embellished by saffron, which lights up its color according to Renaissance tradition.
Zanzarelli in beef broth
Difficulty: Easy
Time: 20 minutes
4 se rvings: 4 cups beef broth ,½ cup grated Grana Padano DOP, 2/3 cup bread crumbs, 4 eggs, Nutmeg, 1 packet saffron, salt pepper
Bring the broth to a boil, and then add the packet of saffron. Mix the eggs with the cheese and bread crumbs, form small balls with them and drop them into the broth, stirring. Cook until they begin to harden; these are the zanzarelli. Distribute the broth with zanzarelli into bowls, add salt and pepper, complete with some freshly grated nutmeg and serve.
In addition to food, Leonardo used eggs as a “binder” for his colors while painting. But artists like Leonardo also liked them because of their perfect shape. Here they’re served in a sauce of cooked must, which was a common ingredient in the Renaissance, giving many dishes sweet and slightly sour notes.
Stuffed eggs
Difficulty: Medium
Time: 35 minutes
Vegetarian d
ish
4 s
ervings: 3 oz. fresh cheese, such as robiola,
2 ½ tbsp. balsamic vinegar
, 2 tbsp. raisins,
1 ½ tbsp. cooked must
, 1/4 cup grated Grana Padano DOP, 10 eggs, fresh ginger
, ground saffron,
parsley
, mint, ground cinnamon,
cloves
, flour,
marjoram,
vegetable oil,
salt
, pepper
For the eggs: Hard boil all the eggs, peel them, cut them in half lengthwise and remove the yolks. Soak the raisins in warm water, squeeze out any excess water and coarsely chop them. Dissolve half a packet of saffron in 2 tablespoons warm water. Chop a tuft of parsley, the leaves of 2 sprigs of marjoram and 5-6 mint leaves. Mash 6 boiled yolks and mix them with the robiola, most of the raisins, the grated cheese, saffron, a pinch of salt, some ground pepper, the chopped herbs and 1 chopped hard-boiled egg white. Fill 12 hard-boiled egg white halves with the egg yolk mixture; pass them in flour and fry them in plenty of boiling vegetable oil for 20-30 seconds.
For the sauce: Mash the 4 other boiled yolks and mix them with the remaining raisins, balsamic vinegar, cooked must, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 crushed clove, a piece of sliced fresh ginger and 2-3 tablespoons of water. Filter the sauce and reduce it on the stove for a few minutes. Complete to taste with saffron. Serve the eggs accompanied with the sauce, allowing your guests to add as much as they like.
Veal roulades
Difficulty: Easy
Time: 30 minutes
4 s ervings: 12 slices of veal rump, 4 oz. sliced lard , wild fennel , parsley , marjoram, butter , fennel seed, radishes, salt , pepper
Beat the lard with a knife, mixing it with 6 tablespoons of chopped wild fennel, 1-2 tablespoons chopped parsley and 1-2 tablespoons of chopped marjoram, 1 teaspoon of crushed fennel seeds, a pinch of salt and freshly ground pepper. Spread the mixture on the slices of veal, fold the long edges inward and roll the slices up to form roulades. Close them with toothpicks. Melt a pat of butter in a pan and cook the rolls for 4-5 minutes, turning them so they brown evenly. Season with salt. Remove the toothpicks and serve, accompanying them with radishes sliced into wedges.
The maestro liked vegetables (the recipe offered here came from Platina, a humanist gourmet and Leonardo’s contemporary), suggesting that perhaps he was a vegetarian before its moment of popularity. There was certainly also meat at his table such as these roulades, perhaps not for him but for his workshop assistants.
Leonardo da Vinci Salad
Difficulty: Easy
Time: 20 minutes
Vegetarian and gluten-free recipe
4 s ervings: 3 ½ oz., 1 head lettuce, 3 oz. crescione (soft cheese) 1 ½ oz. dandelion , 1 ½ oz. arugula, 1 ½ oz. borage, 1 ½ oz. spigarello cabbage , 1 oz. wild red radicchio , mint , wild fennel , parsley, chervil , extra-virgin olive oil, vinegar, salt
Clean the vegetables, gradually immersing them in cold water. Drain and pat dry. Mix them with the leaves from a bunch of mint, a sprig of parsley and one of chervil; add 1 tablespoon chopped fresh wild fennel. Season with salt, oil and vinegar and garnish as you like with pomegranate seeds.
Acquarosa (Rose Water)
Difficulty: Easy
Time: 10 minutes + 3 hours at rest
Vegetarian and gluten-free
dish
4-6 s
ervings: 1/3 cup sugar,
2 lemons,
dried edible rose buds,
rose water
, 90% alcohol
Mix 4 cups of water in a jug along with the sugar, lemon juice, 4 tablespoons of rose buds, 2 tablespoons of rose water and 1 cup of the alcohol. Cover and let stand in a dark and cool place for at least 3 hours. Filter and serve.
The only recipe written by Leonardo is a sweet, exotic drink made with rose petals that gave it a lovely color. Sugar was precious and rare and was sold by apothecaries as tablets mostly conical in shape. Loose sugar was called “Cyprus powder.”