Recipe Source: Martino of Como. The Art of Cooking. Luigi Ballerini, Ed. Jeremy Parzen, trans. University of California Press, Berkeley, 2005 p. 134
About a year and a half ago I posted a recipe for a pomegranate sauce from page 134 of the Parzen translation of Martino's Art of Cooking. In that post I pointed out that there is no pomegranate sauce recipe on that page. That is not entirely truthful. There is no recipe listed as a pomegranate sauce. The recipe labeled as "Good Sauce," immediately above "Lemon Sauce" (which was the basis for the pomegranate sauce I posted previously) is a pomegranate sauce. I decided to make that sauce on Martino Day a couple of weeks ago and I don't mind telling you how much I enjoyed it.
You knew that I would, though. I love pomegranate in all its forms. One of the things that first drew me to Persian food was its frequent use of the pomegranate. This recipe does actually remind me of some of the recipes I've seen in other medieval cookbooks from the Middle East, so I suspect that it owes something to that part of the world. At any rate, I didn't make any changes. I used an unsweetened pomegranate juice and raw sugar. I kind of insisted on serving it with red meat - lamb, I believe, because our local grocery was having an unbelievable price on bone-in leg of lamb that day - but in hindsight it would be just as good on poultry. It would also be phenomenal on duck. I'm pretty sure that I could have found a less expensive pomegranate juice had I shopped elsewhere but I did not have time to comparison shop that day.
A Good Sauce (serves about 10; approx. $1.07/serving)
2 jars (approx. 16 ounces each) unsweetened pomegranate juice
6 ounces raw sugar
1/2 ounce ground cinnamon
Equipment:
- Saucepan
- Combine all of the ingredients in the saucepan.
- Bring to a simmer over low heat.
- Stir until all of the sugar is dissolved.
- Simmer "a long time" (Martino's words, not mine.) The sauce should be reduced at least somewhat, maybe a little thickened, and certainly very fragrant.
- Serve hot. It is perfectly acceptable to make this ahead of time and reheat it; I did.
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