The Stewpot Recipe Gallery

28. Ova Farcta

Platina, De Honesta Voluptate (On Right Pleasure), 1465

Make fresh eggs hard by cooking for a long time.  Then, when the shells are removed, cut the eggs through the middle so that the white is not damaged.  When the yolks are removed, pound part with raisins and good cheese, some fresh and some aged.  Reserve part to color the mixture, and also add a little finely cut parsley, marjoram, and mint.  Some put in two or more egg whites with spices.  When the whites of the eggs have been stuffed with this mixture and closed, fry them over a slow fire in oil ... This has more harm than good in it.

Ingredients:

1 dozen eggs
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
2 tablespoons cream
8 saffron threads, crushed
1/4 teaspoon herbes de provence (or a mixture of dried sweet herbs)
1/8 teaspoon cumin
1/8 teaspoon salt
pinch black pepper

Preparation Steps

Hard boil the eggs for ten minutes; allow to cool, then peel.  Cut the eggs in half, longways, and remove the yolks, setting the whites aside.  Place the yolks in a medium mixing bowl and mash well (a pastry blender works well for this).  Blend in the ricotta cheese, cream, and spices, mixing until smooth and creamy.  If the mixture is crumbly, add a little more cream.  Stuff the egg yolk mixture back into the egg halves.  Garnish with a little dried parsley.

Number of Servings

24

Serving Size

1 stuffed egg half

Redaction Notes

I decided that ricotta was a good choice for a "fresh cheese", since it is a soft cheese that was known and used in period.  I added the extra cream because the mixture was dry; my assumption is that homemade ricotta might be slightly more moist than the commercial kind.  I omitted the raisins and aged cheese, mostly because this was a last-minute addition to the menu and I didn't have those ingredients on hand.  Since the filling tasted a little bland with just the herbs, salt, and pepper, I decided to add a little cumin, since the original says that spices may be added.  I also omitted the step of frying the eggs over a slow fire.

A tip for serving these at an event:  Boil the eggs and make the filling the night before.  Then store the egg white halves and the filling separately, putting the filling into a ziplock bag.  When it comes time to serve the eggs, lay the egg white halves out on your serving tray, then snip off a corner of the ziplock bag and use it like a pastry bag to pipe the filling into the egg white halves.

For a decadent touch, I like to put a pinch of caviar on a few of the eggs, but that is not documented in any period sources.

Date Of Redaction

October, 2001