Detail from “The Feast in the House of Levi” (1573), Paolo Veronese—an evocative Renaissance banquet scene setting the tone for our reconstructed medieval Italian feast.

Fourteenth-Century Italian Feast

Name: Torta d’agli (Garlic Tart)
Yield: 1 tart (9-inch)
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 1 3/4 cups flour; 9 Tbsp butter/lard mix; Pinch of salt; Water, as needed; 5 heads garlic, peeled; 1/2 lb pork belly or bacon; 6 oz farmer’s cheese; 5 oz cream cheese; 3 eggs; Handful raisins (optional); Pinch saffron; 1/3 tsp each cloves, nutmeg, ginger; 1 tsp each cinnamon, pepper

On February 24, 2001, at the VA Medical Center, I cooked this feast for Ceilidh XIV. It was a reconstruction of a fourteenth-century Italian banquet, drawing from sources such as Redon, Sabban & Serventi (The Medieval Kitchen) and Scully (The Art of Cookery in the Middle Ages). While some of my original redactions have been lost to time, the surviving notes and recipes are preserved here, alongside new adaptations.

This hub collects the menu at a glance, with links to each individual dish. Each recipe page includes the original text, modern interpretation, substitutions (🥕 Dietary Suggestions), and cook’s notes for scaling to feasts.

Menu at a Glance

First Course

Second Course

Third Course

Dessert

🥕 Dietary Suggestions

Gluten-Free: Use GF pastry crusts and rice flour as thickeners.
Vegetarian: Replace pork lardons with olive oil; use vegetable broth; omit meat garnish in Cretonniee de pois.
Nut-Free: Substitute almond milk with dairy or seed milk where period-appropriate.

Sources

Primary: Redon, Sabban & Serventi, The Medieval Kitchen (1998); Scully, The Art of Cookery in the Middle Ages (1998).
Secondary: Additional folio references to be added as each recipe page is finalized.