Title page to the 1530 Platina

Continuing a month of fritters with Martino di Como’s Sage Fritters:

Simply, sage leaves dredged in a mixture of flour, eggs, sugar, cinnamon, and saffron. Due to a combination of viscosity problems and the unforeseen characteristics of fritter batter/sage leaf adhesion, the results look more like bug fritters than sage fritters. Trying to rectify the problem with more flour only confused the issue.

It’s possible that, unlike other fritters that need flour added until they approach solidity, these need to be more like pancake batter (or beer batter/tempura). In either case, what you see here are almost precisely in between these two – sort of a sticky unworkable mess. They cook up great though, once you get past the bug thing, and the flavor is surprising and curiously ancient – a great example of a forgotten flavor combination that definitely gets some neurons firing as your brain tries to sort it out.

Salvia fritters

In Latin sage is Salvia officinalis but Platina just calls it salvia – nowadays the only thing we typically call salvia is the psychoactive plant Salvia divinorum. So if you’re making these at home, be sure to get the correct salvia – or just try it both ways and let me know!