What a Roman ate depended very much on their social class. The rich and powerful had access to a wide range of ingredients that they used to prepare delicious meals.
We also know they ate in excess, enjoying luxurious banquets with abundant wine. Men would lie down while eating to improve digestion.
For the average Roman, things were a bit more mundane. Their diet consisted of lots of grains, legumes, vegetables and relatively little meat.
By looking at the records of Roman food ingredients we can construct a ‘top five’, which, in descending order, are black pepper, honey, barley, olives and coriander.
Apart from the importance of barley and olives in the context of calories, we can see in this list the importance of giving food flavour.
An unusual speciality for our modern palates was dormouse. The small animal was specially fattened and then stuffed with pork.
The best-known recipe book from this period is the so-called Apicius, also called De re culinaria or De re coquinaria.
It isn’t known exactly when the book was written, but here is a quick recipe from the it that’s easy to prepare at home: homemade cake or dulcia domestica.
The ingredients are simple: fresh or dried dates, coarsely ground walnuts or pine nuts, a pinch of salt, honey and, if you prefer, a dash of red wine to dilute.
The procedure involves first removing the stones from the dates and then stuffing them with the ground walnuts or pine nuts.
Then salt the stuffed dates before stewing them in honey, adding sweetened red wine if desired.
The dates should be cooked on low for 5-10 minutes, until they fall apart.
Buon appetito!
