Search

Home > Sangre Celestial > Ancient Roman recipes come to life in the modern kitchen
Podcast: Sangre Celestial
Episode:

Ancient Roman recipes come to life in the modern kitchen
Category: Arts
Duration: 00:00:00
Publish Date: 2025-08-22 19:00:00
Description: Travel in Italy often and you'll inevitably start seeing ancient Rome alive all around you. This is particularly true when it comes to what’s on your plate. But there is often a disconnect between ancient recipe sources and the reality of modern eating. Independent scholar and food historian Sally Grainger has degrees in archeology and ancient history. She is also a cook with a keen sense of curiosity. She bridges the gap between ancient Roman recipes and the contemporary kitchen with her book Roman Recipes for Modern Cooks . Two ancient Roman women hold up a chicken salad. Illustration by Joana Avilez. She opens the book by explaining that Roman recipes are hiding in plain sight everywhere in the Mediterranean. "So many of the dishes that we eat when we go abroad — the kofta, the tagine, the cassoulet, the salsa verde, the pesto — all these dishes are there in the ancient texts. They are ill-formed, embryonic, you might say, but they're there," Sally says. Explaining how the Roman empire spread cuisine throughout various lands, she says, "Romans are very good at conquering people but they didn't have very many good ideas. They were really not a cultural race. They were a military race. They got their culture from Greece, and they got their food from Greece. So the first cookery books to be written formally by cooks were from Greece, and those Greek cooks came to Rome. Sometimes they were forced to come to Rome as slaves but many also followed freely. And this cuisine spread around the Mediterranean as the Romans spread it with their military conquest." "Roman Recipes for Modern Cooks" by Sally Grainger. Photo courtesy of Apartamento Publishing S.L. As part of her research, Sally recreated a Roman kitchen in her backyard, using Herculaneum as a template. There's a platform made of masonry with an arch underneath where she stores her wood. On top, there is a slightly raised edge all the way around. Inside, it's got a sealed, hard surface. To one side of the platform is a beehive oven that she fills with wood. When the oven is hot enough, she pulls out the embers, puts meat or my bread in the oven, and cooks it. "It challenges the way that you handle the ingredient. It challenges your thinking about temperature and time. It completely transformed the way I thought about the recipe," Sally says. Illustration by Joana Avilez. Stone Fruits in Cumin Sauce Serves 4 We needed some fruit desserts to accompany the cakes and puddings made with cheese. This one is so simple yet, as always with Roman food, surprising. Does the idea of a dessert with cumin and fish sauce seem strange? It is odd, but it also works immensely well. The original recipe uses peaches, but you can try any stone fruit. The secret is to use newly ripe fruit and gently poach it so that it holds its shape, and you can arrange the pieces around a cheesecake. The cumin sauce referred to is not described, but I have been able to develop one from other recipes. I like to use a Falanghina or other Italian Vesuvian white here, as a dryer wine is fundamental to the sauce. I recommend a little experiment. After you have made the sauce but before you add the fish sauce, taste it and gauge the sweetness. Then add the fish sauce and taste again and you will be amazed. This can be served as a stand-alone dessert when paired with a little mascarpone or fresh ricotta, or serve the fruit with the Cheesecake from pg. 116 or Warm Roman Cheesecake Pudding from pg. 110. Ingredients 500g newly ripe stone fruits (plums, peaches, apricots) 300ml white wine, a dry Italian such as Falanghina A few whole peppercorns 1 small, level tsp of whole cumin seeds 1 bay leaf 2 tbsp of honey 2 tbsp of saba 60ml dessert wine 1–2 tsp of cornflour 1 tbsp of fish sauce Black pepper Instructions Cut the fruit in half and remove the stone, then cut into wedges of either four or eight pieces. Place the wine, crushed peppercorns, cumin seeds, bay leaf, and honey in a small frying pan and gently poach the fruit in batches, making sure they do not overcook (roughly 5–6 minutes, making sure not to let them lose their shape). Lift the fruit out with a slotted spoon and set aside. Bring to a gentle boil and reduce by one third. Add the saba and dessert wine. Taste and gauge sweet/acid/fruit balance. Thicken with 1–2 tsp of cornflour so that the sauce coats the fruit. Add the fish sauce and taste again. Arrange on a plate in an arch of fruit wedges and coat with the sauce. Sprinkle with ground pepper.
Total Play: 0

Users also like

10+ Episodes
Bienvenido a .. 80+     6
10+ Episodes
Perdón por .. 300+     10+
200+ Episodes
La Parroquia 1K+     20+