Tosca — Opera Feasts

Sara Bernhardt - La Tosca — **Sara Bernhardt** - *La Tosca*

Tosca by Giacomo Puccini (1900) is based on a play by Victorien Sardou La Tosca. It was first performed on 24 November 1887 at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin in Paris, with Sarah Bernhardt in the title role.

The opera is set in Rome on the 17th of June, 1800, three days after the battle of Marengo. The news of the victory of Napoleon has not yet reached Rome where many are hoping for his defeat. In fact, false news arrives in the 1st act that he has been vanquished.

Food plays a part in this opera in both Act I and Act II. In Act I Cavaradossi, who is painting a picture of the Madonna in the Church of Sant'Andrea della Valle, has been left a basket of food to eat while he paints. In the Sardou play it contains a bottle of wine, with two gold goblets, some bread, a cold chicken, a napkin and some figs. In the article, Food to Accompany the Opera:
Dining with Tosca, that Lynne Rossetto Kasper wrote for PBS, she speculates on what could be in the basket.

“Probably this lunch was not very different from what is eaten in Rome today. It would have had a loaf of bread - probably white, as Cavaradossi was a nobleman (peasants ate dark bread, the well-to-do ate white); a local sheep cheese, like the Cacio di Roma or Sini Fulvi Pastore that we can find today. No doubt there would have been a farm-cured salami and a jug of wine - possibly a white from Orvieto.”

Lynne Rossetto Kasper is the author of a wonderful cookbook, The Splendid Table: 500 Years of Eating in Northern Italy It has many wonderful historical recipes that I have often cooked for special occasions, and I am sure I will refer to it in later blogs.

Cacio de Roma is an Italian semi-soft cheese made using sheep's milk, produced in the countryside of Rome, Italy. The word Cacio, meaning cheese, is used in most of the parts of Italy. This cheese in the form of a small round is referred as Caciotta, while in the rest of Italy it is known as formaggio. The cheese is aged for about one month, during which it develops a tangy flavor and creamy texture. It is the classic table cheese with the aroma of a young sheep's milk and can be enjoyed as a snack, eat with salad, pizza, pasta.

The basket of food ends up with Angelotti, a former consul of the short-lived Roman Republic recently overthrown by the Pope. He has escaped from papal prison and Cavaradossi, who is sympathetic to the Republic, gives him the food to eat as they both leaveto hide from Baron Scarpia, the chief of police.

At the beginning of Act II of Tosca, the evil Baron Scarpia is eating his supper in a room in the Castel Sant'Angelo lit only by two candles

He listens to the music below his window, waiting for the cantata, to be sung by Tosca, to start. In the Sardou play a butler is serving Scarpia soup. This could be his only dish for dinner or merely the first course. He is constantly interrupted, first by Spoletto telling him of the capture of Cavaradossi and then after the Cantata when they bring in Tosca. After torturing Cavaradossi and getting Tosca to find out the where Angelotti is hiding, he returns to his dinner saying to Tosca, “La povera mia cena fu interrotta” or “My poor dinner was interrupted” indicating that he is not finished and there may be more. and a candelabra on his table.

“La povera mia cena fu interrotta” - From near the end of Act II, after the torture scene, before Vissi d'arte. "Salvatelo?...Io, voi" Including the whole "Quanto...Il prezzo" bit and Scarpia's great "Gia mi dicon venal...gia me struggea" aria.

Lynne Rossetto Kasper speculates:

“As the police chief of Rome, he would have eaten in the style of Roman nobility. Since it was evening, his dinner was a lighter version of the main meal of the day eaten at mid-afternoon.

As today, food was status for people like Scarpia. His dinner earlier in the day would probably have begun with a tray of artfully arranged small appetizers like prosciutto wrapped in colorful marzipan, savory tartlets of nuts and greens, and small fritters of sweetbreads or, perhaps, oysters. A soup would follow this course - possibly a capon broth with tiny ravioli floating in it, their filling consisting of breast of capon, cheese, cinnamon, nutmeg, marrow, and herbs. Then there would be either a roasted whole fish stuffed with truffles or, perhaps, hare cooked in a pungent sweet/sour sauce of black pepper, sugar, vinegar, nuts, fruits, and red wine. Once this dish was removed, the servants would present a large silver platter with a whole baby lamb roasted and turned on a spit over an open fire until glazed to a mahogany brown. The tender meat would have been laced with strips of prosciutto and basted with wine and herbs. For dessert, Scarpia probably had trays of tiny cookies and fanciful marzipan and, perhaps, an elaborate molded frozen dessert layering cake and iced cream.”

Sitting down again to eat he offers Tosca a Spanish wine. This could have been a Rioja, but more likely a Sherry which travelled better. possibly a fino. Rossetto Kaspar thinks the wine ‘referred to might have been a sweet one - possibly a dark golden and rich Oloroso Sherry.”

Using Rossetto Kaspar as a starting place I start on the premise that soup was the first course. For the second course there would have been hare, and then leftover lamb from the earlier meal. Looking for original sources that might have been available to cooks in 1800 I discovered several cookbooks unfortunately not in translation. It was an interesting time as the food we think of as Italian was not yet really available. Italy was a group of smaller states governed by the Spain, France and Austria. The creation of modern Italy, Risorgimento, was not yet to occur till the later part of the 19th century. The process began in 1815 with the Congress of Vienna and was completed in 1871 when Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy. But in the 18th century what nobility ate was much influenced by the French as we saw in Austria under Maria Theresa.

In the "Piedmontese chef perfected in Paris" published originally in 1766 but reprinted frequently later on and would have been available to a cook in 1800, the anonymous author describes a dinner for 15 of the time. This would be a meal for the nobility and might represent some dishes that Scarpia could have been eating.

First service
- A piece of ox placed in the middle of the table
- Two soups
  - Watermelon granita
  - A meat with sauce of green peas
- Four hors d'oeuvre
  - Fricasseed rams feet
  - Noisette of veal cooked in paper
  - Small pies
  - Melon
Second service
- Boiled leg of mutton
- Veal in cream sauce
- Duck with peas
- Two pigeons with fine herbs
- Two chickens with white onions
- Rabbits fillets with watermelons
Third Service
- Roast Turkey
- Roast Chicken
- 4 roast Partridges
- 6 roast pigeons included
- Herb salads
Fourth Service
- Apricot tartelette
- Boiled eggs
- Vine leaves fritters
- Small biscuit timbale
- Small fava beans
- Artichokes in butter sauce
Fifth service
- Plate of raw fruits for the medium
- Compotes
  - Prune
  - Pear
  - Verjuice - a sour juice obtained from crab apples, unripe grapes, or other fruit, used in cooking
Ice cream, etc.
- Green walnut ice cream
- Cream cheese
- Donuts

Here are recipes for some of the dishes that I found from the period that Rossetto Kaspar suggested as well as some that are indicated to be Roman in origin.

The first group is from a cookbook, Il Cuoco galante - “The Gallant Cook,” by Vincenzo Corrado who was born in Oria on 18 January 1736, Naples, Corrado was the first person to write about “The Mediterranean Cuisine.” In doing so he compiled Italian recipes and solidified what we now know as Italian Food. Prior to his writing this book, Italians were highly influenced by French food. He introduced tomatoes, potatoes, coffee and chocolate to Italian cuisine which were then practically unknown. I will include his tomato sauce in the recipes.

As a teenager, Corrado became a page at the court of Don Michele Imperiali, Prince of Modena and Francavilla Fontana, Marquis of Oria and Gentleman of the chamber of SM the King of the two Sicilies, who led him to Naples where he lived for several years.

Later, when he was just an adult, he joined the Congregation of the Celestine Fathers in the convent of Oria but after the year of novitiate, was called to the Neapolitan residence of San Piero in Maiella, where he specialized in mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, natural sciences and culinary art. He never became a priest and at the age of 38, he settled in Naples.There the Prince of Francavilla gave him the job of "Chief of the Bocca Services" (he who was in charge of supervising the kitchen and the preparation of the food and the organization of the banquets) of Palazzo Cellamare, located on the Mortelle hill, facing the Gulf of Naples.

Alla Pitagorica - To the Pythagorean - Click to see the recipes.

This is the recipe by Corrado for a pasta dish similar to the the soup that Lynne Rossetto Kasper thinks Scarpia would be eating. “a capon broth with tiny ravioli floating in it, their filling consisting of breast of capon, cheese, cinnamon, nutmeg, marrow, and herbs.” Here however the tiny pasta is cooked in broth but then baked in the oven. I will also present a more modern recipe of the same pasta, but then baked in a crust to form an elegant raised pie.

Lepre per entree, alle scaglone - Hare with Shallot Sauce - Click to see the recipes.

A simple preparation for hare. Corrado mentions shallot sauce but doesn’t give the recipe. I found a recipe in “ The Professed Cook; Or, the Modern Art of Cookery, Pastry and Confectionary” a cookbook from 1769, of “French as well as English Cookery” which was originally translated from the French cookbook “Les Soupers de la Coeur”

Arrosto al sapor di rosmarino - roast Goat or Lamb seasoned with rosemary - Click to see the recipes.

Corrado also had a recipe for a whole kid or baby lamb with rosemary but I have chosen one for only a quarter of the lamb as it is probably more practical in a home kitchen.

Miscellaneous recipes from Corrado and other chefs from the period

Culi di pomodoro (Corrado) - Click to see the recipes.
I include this as Corrado was the first to publish a recipe for Tomato Sauce as the tomato was not yet really part of Italian cooking. He uses it to sauce meats and he has a very nice recipe for tripe in tomato sauce, which to this day is a Roman specialty.
Salsa di pomodori (Vicenzo Agnoletti - La Nuova Cucina Economica, 1803) - Click to see the recipes.
Here is another version of tomato sauce from a cookbook published just a little later than Corrado’s but from a Roman cook.
- Vincenzo Agnoletti, born in Rome around 1780, was initiated into the profession by his father, head of the Doria Pamphili family for thirty years. He learned the art of cooking from Italian and French cooks, and traveled Europe as cook for twenty years.
  His first recipe book, "The new economic kitchen" published in Rome in 1803, is a voluminous treatise in four volumes that lists in alphabetical order: foods, preparations, recipes of origin and nature so different, to make it difficult to find a way of homogeneous and characterized cooking. In this composite encyclopedic dictionary, Agnoletti unfolds all his knowledge of cooking practice, making recipes of different nationalities coexist (presenting a sort of international cuisine), with the poorest gastronomy of all the Italian regions. In his recipes, the use of tomatoes and potatoes is rather frequent, while the pasta-based dishes are relatively few, and in the Roman cuisine he indicates pappardelle, artichokes and donuts.
Cappelletti in brodo di capone (The Food Dictator - July 23, 2017) - Click to see the recipes.
This is a modern recipe for the soup that Rossetto Kaspar suggested Scarpia would be eating.