Pumpkins ‘alla Fiorentina.’
Take twelve very young pumpkins (about one and a half inches long), cut them in half, and put them in cold water. Have a sauce-pan ready with four quarts of salted water. When boiling put in the pumpkins. When they are cooked put them again into cold water. Just before serving place them in a sauce-pan with four ounces of butter, heat for three minutes, then add two tablespoonfuls of veal broth, two of cream, and a squeeze of lemon. Heat again and serve.
Pumpkins ‘Fritti.’
Take young pumpkins (about the size of your two fists), peel them, cut them in half, and take out seeds and pulp. Cut them into thin strips (one and a half or two inches long, and as wide as your finger), and put them into a dish with salt for some hours. Then squeeze out the water with your hands, and throw them into flour, taking care to separate and cover each strip with flour, shake the superfluous flour off them in a sieve, and put them into a frying-pan with plenty of boiling lard or oil. Serve at once.
Pumpkin Pudding (Bodino).
Cook (but not too much) two and a half pounds of pumpkin with two ounces of butter, a little pepper, allspice, and salt, and pass through a sieve, adding some crumb of bread soaked in milk or cream, some powdered cinnamon, several pounded bitter almonds, a handful of grated bread, and three yolks of eggs. Mix thoroughly and put it into a well-buttered shape with thin slices of buttered bread arranged round the inside, and cook with a fire above and below until thoroughly browned. Serve up hot.
Pumpkins ‘Ripiene.’ No. 1.
Cut six young and small pumpkins (about two and a half inches long) in two, and take out the pulp. Meanwhile mince fine the breast of a fowl (or any tender white meat you have over from the day before), one slice of tongue, and one of ham; put them into a sauce-pan with three tablespoonfuls of veal broth, the yolk of an egg, a pinch of salt, and one of pepper; parboil; therewith fill the pumpkins. Butter a sauté-pan, lay the stuffed pumpkins in, and cook with fire above and below, occasionally adding some broth. Serve as soon as cooked.