The Roman Mysteries - Flavia's Recipes

Flavia's Favourite Recipes

Since our cook Gusto tragically died shopping for leeks in the market, my old nursemaid Alma prepares our meals. But sometimes she has one of her headaches and then I have to cook. Eggs aren't my favourite food, but they're easy to prepare and Pater loves them, so when he's had a busy day in the forum or down on the docks I make him this sweet omelette.

Pine-nut and Honey Omelette

You'll need:

Six hen or goose eggs (fresh from the market)
Honey
Pine-nuts
Almonds
Fish sauce
Goat's milk or cow's milk
Black peppercorns
Ground rock salt

First here's a tip Alma gave me to tell if your eggs are fresh.
Put them in a bowl of water. If they sink they are fresh.
If they float, throw them out!

Put a cast iron pan on hot coals and pour a little olive oil in the bottom. While it's heating up, make the omelette.

Take two spoonfuls of pine-nuts and grind them in your mortar with a pestle. (If you don’t have a mortar and pestle you can pound them in a bowl with a smooth stone.)

Then add two spoonfuls of almonds and grind them, too.Add some black peppercorns and grind them together with the pine nuts and almonds.

Now add a spoonful each of honey, goat's milk and fish sauce. Beat six fresh hen or goose eggs and mix it all together. Add a pinch of salt and cook in a cast iron pan over hot coals. Turn it once so that it is golden brown.

If you are one of those people who wants to know exactly how long to cook it, you can count to one hundred slowly and then it should be done!

Serve with a green salad, black olives and warm flat bread.

(This recipe is from the fourth scroll of Apicius.)

My favourite meal when the weather is hot is a big salad. I get all sorts of seasonal leaves from the graveyard outside the city walls and add either cold shredded chicken or cubes of salty white goat's cheese. Then I toss it with my special dressing and sprinkle pine-nuts and sunflower seeds on top.Delicious!

Green Salad and Dressing

For the salad get lots of seasonal leaves
from the market or fields:
lettuce
celery
rocket
parsley
fennel
apple mint

Doctor Mordecai says you should rinse these leaves
in salty water because it removes any dust and small
insects on them.Then shake them dry and tear them
into a big wooden bowl.
Add
cubes of salty white goat's cheese and black olives
or
Shredded cold roast chicken and slices of cucumber

For the dressing you will need:
olive oil
sour wine
fish sauce
dill weed
honey
ground black peppercorns
ground rock salt

In a small jug with a stopper mix equal parts olive oil and sour wine. Then add a dash of fish sauce and a spoonful of honey. Sprinkle in some dill weed, salt and pepper. Shake the jar vigorously (make sure you put the stopper in first) and pour over the salad. Then toss the salad and sprinkle sunflower seeds or pine-nuts on top. Ecce! A delicious filling meal! And Doctor Mordecai tells me that lots of the ingredients are good for you!

(This recipe was from Gusto's grandmother)

Jonathan loves honey and sesame cakes but there's no way I could cook them as well as his sister Miriam does. So I discovered this easy way to make a honey and sesame sweets. They only take a few minutes and they taste almost as good as sesame and honey cakes....

Honey and Sesame Balls

Grind sesame seeds in a mortar, with a little chestnut flour. Then add honey until it binds the sesame seeds. Roll the sticky mixture into balls the size of a chestnut and dust with chestnut flour. If you like, you can add ground pistachio nuts at the beginning.

Jonathan's Recipes

Nubia's Recipes

Lupus's Recipes