Spinach soup called Vivarole
285. To prepare a thick soup popularly called vivarole.
Get ten eggs and beat them. Have a broth ready, made of butter, salt, water, pepper, cinnamon and saffron, and in it spinach, chard, mint and marjoram, all finely chopped up as for a tourte. When that broth has boiled a little while with the herbs, mix a little grated bread and cheese into the beaten eggs and pour that into the broth, giving it a stir with a spoon. When it comes to the surface, serve it hot.
Scappi, Bartolomeo, and Terence Scully. The Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi (1570): l’arte et prudenza d’un maestro cuoco. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008, p. 379.
FIRST REDACTION
SPINACH EGG DROP SOUP
2 cups beef bullion
1 TBS butter
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp pepper
1 bag baby spinach (9 oz) chopped small
2 TBS fresh mint, chopped and heaping
1 tsp chopped fresh marjoram
1 egg
1 tsp bread crumbs
1 tsp parmesan cheese
Bring the meat broth to a boil, add butter, cinnamon, and pepper. Add spinach and herbs and cover, at low heat for 5 minutes. Beat egg with bread crumbs and cheese. For one portion pour through a fork into soup.
NOTE: Interesting. The flavors of the mint and marjoram came out but not pepper or cinnamon. I would increase the pepper and cinnamon because it was a little bland. I was worried one egg per bowl would be too much but it was almost too little.
SECOND REDACTION
SPINACH SOUP WITH DUMPLINGS
1 pkg of chopped frozen spinach
6 cups of beef bullion
2 TBS of chopped mint
1 TBS of chopped marjoram
1 egg
1 heaping TBS of grated parmesan cheese, more if necessary
2 heaping TBS of grated plain bread crumbs, more if necessary
Bring the meat broth to a boil, add spinach and herbs. Heat through about 1 minute.
Have prepared a dough made of egg, bread crumbs, and cheese, very thick about the consistency of pancake batter. Drop rounded teaspoons of dough into the soup from the about the height of 12-18 inches so that they sink below the surface and cook, five to ten minutes until done. Serve.