 The San Gimignano Saffron DOP
Photo © WAPPY AL
Saffron cultivation has been documented since the 13th century
in the area of San Gimignano. As early as 1200 the quality of
this Tuscan town’s saffron earned it such renown that it was
exported to other Italian cities, like Pisa and Genoa, but also
to Oriental and African markets, like Alexandria, Tunis,
Damietta, Acre, Tripoli and Aleppo.
The wealth that this trade created allowed San Gimignano’s most
powerful families to build the city’s tall stone towers, which
are the unique architectural feature of its skyline.
Saffron was used as a tool of diplomacy by city authorities, In
1241, for instance, San Gimignano sent 25 pounds of saffron as a
gift to Frederick II, then head of the Holy Roman Empire, who
had set up an encampment near the city.
Facts show that from the beginning of its cultivation, saffron
was used in cooking and also for dyeing cloth, as a medicine and
as a pigment in paint. The spice is mentioned in numerous
contracts, financial documents, and in the body of municipal
laws exisiting from the period of the Middle Ages.
Saffron had so many uses and applications that it was also a
form of currency, and it was subject to strict regulation of
weight and quality. Physicians and chemists were responsible for
the maintenance, calibration and correct operation of the scales
used to weigh this precious spice. Descendents of those experts
still live in San Gimignano and, because the word "weight"
translated to Italian is peso, they bear family names
like Pesalgruoghi or Pesalgruoci.
Recipes
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ALLA MILANESE
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