The European cookbook for American homes (from Italy, Spain, Portugal and France)

7 tablespoons powdered sugar 2 tablespoons Marsala wine Juice 3 lemons 1 quart cream Mix sugar, lemon juice and wine in a bowl. Add cream, beating in a little at a time. Whip until mixture is quite thick. It will take about 30 minutes. Lay a muslin cloth over a hair sieve and pour in cream. Let stand 12 hours and drain; then turn out and garnish with flowers. This dessert combines deliciously with a wine dinner. WINES (Vinos) OF WINES Non in solo pane vivit homo (Man does not live by bread alone) This ancient saying is especially suited to the Italians, for they lead the world in the quantity of wine drunk with meals. The French, of course, pay more attention to vintage and quality and though on occasion they do serve champagne in half gallon magnums and full gallon Jeroboams, these are nothing in size, compared to the demijohns, nay carboys, of Italian Chianti that hold five and ten gallons apiece. Such giant bottles are used at parties and even then there's not enough to go around. In winedrinking, as in everything else, the French are thrifty and serve un quart (1/4 litre, approximately 54 Pint) with the table d'hote, but the Italians are world-record spendthrifts of red ink. In the famed red-wine section of Tuscany, where a lunch of wine, cheese and bread is usually taken right in the wine shop itself, the festive straw-covered bottle is as big and round as a bowling ball and holds about three quarts, which is just twelve times as much as the customary tumbler-full of France. The Tuscany measure is called a fiasco and one is allotted to each individual, although he needn't drink it all, for after the finger bowl is served, the cameriere (waiter) removes the bottle, accurately gauges the amount consumed and charges accordingly. This fiasco, whose name has nothing to do with "failure" as we use it, is an oddity among bottles, because it has neither cork nor stopper of any kind. It is sealed air tight by a small quantity of olive oil floated in on top and when the wine is required for drinking this is blotted up with absorbent waste or neatly tossed out of the neck. Before cork came to Italy from Spain a piece of tow dipped in oil was the original stopper. This ancient duchy of Tuscany includes the romantic old towns of Florence and Siena, celebrated down the centuries for climate and vineyards that combine to produce the great Chiantis and Ruflnas. Its other red wines are Artiminio, Carmignana, Montalbano, Monte Pulciano, Montalcino and Monte Argentario. The red muscat wine of Aleatico is the sweetest of the lot, it is more purple than red and therefore called nero, (black). Jvlonte Pulciano is the best known produce of Aleatico, but it has serious rivals in Monte Catini, Val de Rievole and Ponte a Moriano. The wines of this whole province usually appear with the entree and are drunk straight through the meal. The two outstanding whites of Tuscany are Elba and Pomino, and the famed Est, Est, Est is grown nearby. There used to be a greenish vintage, too, Verdea of Arcetri, near Florence, which was the favorite beverage of Frederick the Great.