From Platina, De honesta voluptate et valetudine (Rome, c. 1474; recipe from 1520 Paris edition): Soak flour meal with eggs, sugar, cinnamon, and saffron, and blend. Put in whole leaves of sage, as broad as you want, and, when they have been coated, fry with liqmine or a little oil in a pan. This is nourishing and helps the nerves, even if it is slowly digested and induces blockages.
The dishes of Martino of Como have come down to us as part of the first printed cookbook, the influential and long-lived De honesta voluptate et valetudine (Of Honest Indulgence and Good Health, 1474). The author, Bartolomeo Sacchi, also known as Platina, acknowledges that his recipes come from Maestro Martino, cook to the Duke of Savoy. Martino must have been a leader of culinary style, and he likes fritters, savory extras on the side that lift a dish from the mundane to the memorable. His temptations include batter-coated elder flowers, sliced apples and parsnips, and these attractive little sage fritters, as well as more substantial offerings such as rice cakes, stuffed figs, and pounded almond paste shaped to resemble ravioli or turnovers, all sautéed for serving. In De honesta voluptate, Platina adds his own dietary comment that sage fritters are nourishing and help the nerves, although they can cause constipation.
