Sautéed Frogs’ Legs

This is the recipe for the frogs so beloved of Pope Pius IV. They are sauteed with parsley and garlic, or plainly fried and served with agresto (tart grape juice) thickened with egg yolks. Frogs are still a speciality of Pius IV’s native Lombardy, where they live in the flooded rice fields of the Po valley.

Remove the head with its big mouth, and cut off the feet up to the first joint, and leave to soak in cold water, changing the water in the course of eight hours, so that t