Lean Tartlet

Translation of a 16th century Italian Recipe.

From Christoforo di Messisbugo, Banchetti composizioni di vivande e apparecchio generale (Lucio Spineda, Venice, 1610)

p68r A fare Tortelletti magri d'altra sorte per piatti dieci. (To make another sort of lean tartlet for ten plates.)

Take four ounces of washed dates, cut small, and of raisins half a pound without seeds, cut lengthwise, and washed dried raisins a pound, and make these boil together in white wine, for a quarter of an hour, then take it out, and put it in a vessel adding a pound of crushed pine nuts, and half a pound of sugar, and an ounce of cinnamon, and a quarter of pepper, and incorporate all these together, making thy puff pastry, and tartlets, and following the rest as is said above.