Urbancic and last year’s Jackman scholars-in-residence enjoyed the Health Biscotti they made, using the list of ingredients in Pratesi’s notebooks.
Published: June 22, 2017
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Looking for the elixir of life? You might want to try this biscotti recipe.
While reminiscing on the work she was doing last summer with the inaugural group of Jackman scholars-in-residence, Anne Urbancic remembered a recipe found in the private notebooks of the Tuscan writer Mario Pratesi. Urbancic, who has studied Pratesi extensively, says that the twenty-odd notebooks containing private notes were donated to the Victoria College Special Collections.
One notebook is dated to the beginning of the First World War. “There are no other recipes in his notebooks or letters. It's quite out of context. No title. No instructions. Just the ingredients listed on the inside cover of the notebook in his loopy loose handwriting,” says Urbancic. The group decided to look for answers, and found a comparable old Italian recipe for ‘Health Biscotti’.
While Urbancic suggests that Pratesi was likely looking to make a baked good that was sugar-free given the price of sugar during wartime, eating the biscotti – or so the website suggests – has the added benefit of letting you lead a life as long as Methuselah, who at 969 years old was the longest living figure in the Hebrew Bible.
“Studying food history also points to our personal relationship to our bodies, our environment, and the cultures each one of us belongs to. While students explore food as a multifaceted discipline, they also learn so much about themselves,” says Urbancic.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR HEALTH BISCOTTI
15g baking soda
15g cream of tartar
1kg flour
3 eggs
100g butter
1 glass of milk
grated lemon peel
Left: Urbancic and her students enjoy a delicuious break from their studies.