Early Evidence for the Culinary Use of Squash Flowers in Italy

A famous painting entitled The Fruit Seller (Fruittivendola) painted in 1580 by Vincenzo Campi located in the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan, depicts an elegant lady vender with a lapful of peaches holding a bunch of black grapes presiding over more than a dozen different fruits and vegetables for sale (Fig. 1), including several cucurbits. A large yellow, oblate, ribbed pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo L. subsp. pepo Pumpkin Group) supports a plate of apricots. A basket with a handle, filled to overflowing, contains a number of black-green, warted, spherical to oblate, deeply furrowed, orange-fleshed cantaloupes (Cucumis melo L. subsp. melo Cantalupensis Group). On the far right at the edge of the painting is a box shared by small red pears (‘Moscatelle’) and flower buds of C. pepo. Except for the pink roses clearly distributed for decorative purposes, among fava beans in a large woven basket in the right foreground, there is no doubt that all of the items on display were intended for culinary purposes. The squash flower buds are clustered and stacked together and to the right appears to be some young, tender foliage, suggesting that these too must have been intended as kitchen items.