[Sca-cooks] Roman Cuisine Served at Pompeii

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Forwarded from another list:

-----------------------------

Archaeologists in Pompeii give visitors a taste of ancient Roman cuisine

                           By ARIEL DAVID
                     Associated Press Writer

    ROME (AP) _ Sauces made from fermented fish entrails. A
quiche-like pastry shell filled with laurel leaves and
ricotta cheese. For dessert, peaches with aromatic cumin
and honey.
    Those tastes may not be for everyone's palate, but the
specialties of ancient Pompeii are being revived for a
month at the site of the ruins in a research project
intended to give new insights into how the Romans lived.
    Pompeii's busiest restaurant was buried with the rest of
the prosperous city when Mount Vesuvius erupted in A.D. 79.
The eruption killed thousands of people, but a 20-foot- (6
meter-) deep cocoon of volcanic ash kept the city almost
intact, providing precious information on domestic life in
the ancient world.
    Starting Thursday, visitors will do more than stroll
around the restaurant's tables and gaze at the kitchen
tools that have stayed where the inhabitants left them when
they were surprised by the eruption.
    Researchers have tried to bring back to life the city's
food chain by replanting, in the restaurant's garden and in
other open spaces throughout the city's ruins, the fruits
and vegetables that were part of the Roman diet _ figs and
olives, plums and grapes, as well as broom, bramble, poppy
and mallow.
    Kits with the ingredients will be sold to visitors in the
area around the restaurant with instructions on how to cook
their own Roman specialties. Although there will be no
cooking on the site, visitors will be directed to a local
restaurant where some of the specialties will be offered.
    «We wanted to learn what the inhabitants of Pompeii
ate,» said Anna Maria Ciarallo, a biologist who heads the
project for Pompeii's archaeological office. «But we
wanted a side of the project to appeal directly to the
public as well.»
    Some may keep away from «garum,» a pungent sauce used
for flavoring and obtained by fermenting fish entrails, but
Ciarallo said that many Roman dishes closely resembled
modern cuisine.
    The recipe to make prosciutto ham has remained unchanged,
while «savillum,» the favorite dessert of many Romans,
was a baked cream similar to today's custard, Ciarallo
said.
    Pompeii's rich were known to feast on such exotic dishes
as swallow's tongue and parrot meat, but the project is
presenting more everyday fare, Ciarallo said.
    The restaurant was located between the gymnasium, the
amphitheater and one of the city's gates and mostly catered
to middle-class merchants and travelers, Ciarallo said.
    Its six benches were probably always filled with hungry
customers passing through the busy neighborhood, she said.
The guests would recline on one side on the benches, as
eating customs demanded at the time, to chat, play dice _
one of the Romans' favorite pastimes _ and partake of the
dishes served out of large pots. The quiche-like «libum»
is made with bread, laurel leaves and cheese resembling
today's ricotta.
    «It was a sweet and sour cuisine, which blended the sharp
tastes of vinegar and spices with the sugars of honey and
figs,» Ciarallo said. Cereals and beans were the staples
of the Roman diet, together with fish, cheese and limited
quantities of eggs and meat.
    «The main differences were between the social classes,»
she said.
    Slaves were kept on a high-energy diet of bread,
dried-fruits and low quality cheese and wine. The upper
classes enjoyed the same foods available to the middle
class, but the quantities were larger, the ingredients
finer, and the banquets were lavish presentations.
    The project will shut down on June 26 because of lack of
funds _ a perennial problem that keeps parts of the huge
Pompeii site often closed to the public.
________________________________________________________________________

                     With BC-EU-GEN--Taste of Pompeii

                               By The Associated Press

    Below are some recipes prepared in ancient Pompeii:

    Peaches with Cumin, can be an appetizer or a dessert.
    _ Peel and chop up some firm peaches
    _ Cover peaches in a cumin sauce made with ground pepper,
parsley, mint leaves, cumin, honey, vinegar and a dash of
garum, which is a fish sauce made from fish entrails steeped
in brine. A modern-day version of garum, «colatura di alici»
or anchovy juice, is still produced on the Amalfi coast.

    Celery Dessert:
    _ Chop celery, roast the pieces in an oven.
    _ Serve with honey and ground pepper.

    Pork with Dried Figs and Cheese Side Dish.
    _ Boil a fresh pork shoulder with dried figs and bay leaves.
    _ Carve off the rind, cover in pastry and bake in a hot oven.
    _ For side dish, mix different types of herbs into fresh
ricotta-like cheese, add some olive oil and serve with
sesame seeds or hazelnuts.