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A period dish

Herb Pottage

A green pottage of young herbs, leeks, and peas, thickened with bread and finished with butter.

Serves 6

In spring, when the larder was thin and the garden was not yet bearing, a pottage of young herbs kept the household fed. It was thickened with bread and brightened with butter, and it tasted of the season.

Ingredients

Produce

  • 4 cup spinach
  • 1 bunch parsley

Dairy & Eggs

  • 2 tbsp butter

Bakery

  • 1 slice bread

Pantry / Durable

  • 4 cup broth

Other

  • 2 cup sorrel
  • 2 leeks
  • 1 cup peas

Method

  1. Wash a generous mixture of spinach, sorrel, parsley, and leeks and chop them roughly.

  2. Simmer them in broth or water with shelled peas until everything is tender.

  3. Crumble in a slice of bread and stir until the pottage thickens.

  4. Season with salt and pepper and a knob of butter.

  5. Serve hot, with more bread and a little grated cheese if you have it.

Served at

A solitary supper at Frombork · Frombork, Royal Prussia

An evening at Bellosguardo · Florence, Italy