vegetables, and handled them with greater refinement, in part to make the meatless diet of Lent and other Catholic fasts more interesting Frances first great culinary writer, Pierre Franỗois de La Varenne, chef to Henri IV, included meatless recipes for peas, turnips, lettuce, spinach, cucumbers, cabbage (five ways), chicory, celery, carrots, cardoons, and beets, as well as ordinary dishes of artichokes, asparagus, mushrooms, and cauliflower And the recipes leave a major role for the vegetables’ own flavors Similarly, the Englishman John Evelyn wrote a book-length disquisition on salads, once again firmly based on the lettuces, and emphasized the importance of balance Plant Ingredients in Rome and Medieval Europe A Roman Sauce for Shellfish Cumin Sauce, for Shellfish: Pepper, lovage, parsley, mint, aromatic leaf [e.g., bay], malabathrum [a Middle Eastern leaf], plenty of cumin, honey, vinegar, liquamen [a fermented fish paste similar to our anchovy paste] — from Apicius, first few centuries CE Medieval Sauces, French (Taillevent, ca 1375) and English (The Forme of Cury , ca 1390) Sauce Cameline, for Meats: France: Ginger, mace, cinnamon, cloves, grain of paradise, pepper, vinegar, bread [to thicken] England: Ginger, cloves, cinnamon, currants, nuts, vinegar, bread crusts Verde Sauce: France: Parsley, ginger, vinegar, bread England: Parsley, ginger, vinegar, bread, mint, garlic, thyme, sage, cinnamon, pepper, saffron, salt, wine ... plenty of cumin, honey, vinegar, liquamen [a fermented fish paste similar to our anchovy paste] — from Apicius, first few centuries CE Medieval Sauces, French (Taillevent, ca 1375) and English (The Forme of Cury ,... 1375) and English (The Forme of Cury , ca 1390) Sauce Cameline, for Meats: France: Ginger, mace, cinnamon, cloves, grain of paradise, pepper, vinegar, bread [to thicken] England: Ginger, cloves, cinnamon, currants, nuts, vinegar, bread crusts... Verde Sauce: France: Parsley, ginger, vinegar, bread England: Parsley, ginger, vinegar, bread, mint, garlic, thyme, sage, cinnamon, pepper, saffron, salt, wine