Many of you are familiar with All Saints Day, celebrated the day after Halloween, on November 1st. Some theories point to what may have been the precursor to that day, the festival of Lemuria, which was celebrated in May every year in Ancient Rome. On Lemuria, one would give offerings to the dead, in the hopes that they would come come back to haunt their families and friends. One of the traditional offerings were black beans. As described in Thought Catalog:
As readers of this blog already know, the novel I'm currently writing is about yet another cook, Bartolomeo Scappi, who was a Renaissance chef to several cardinals and Popes. The BBC has a great special called Carluccio & The Renaissance Cookbook which aired a few years back. You can check it out here though.
Fascinating! Looks like I'll have to go to Dumenza at some point to check out the Scappi menu at that restaurant! In the meantime, I'll definitely be trying that risotto and the mushroom tart!