Ancient Roman Food Recipes

Luckily many Roman food recipes have been preserved until today. In most other ancient cultures we have to use our imagination together with archeology to reconstruct their cuisine. Below you I have selected a few of their recipes. If you want to know more about Roman Food just click this link and you will come to my page about that. Note that the ancient Romans grew very little rice, had no tomatoes and did not make pasta - essential components in modern Italian cuisine.

Roman Food Recipes - Main Courses

Roman Hamburgers - Isicia Omentata
(serves 4)
- 100 ml red wine
- 1 tbsp honey
- 500 g minced meat
- 1 roll of white bread soaked in white wine
- 3 tbsp fish sauce
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
- 1/2 tsp pine nuts
First reduce 100 ml red wine to a third and add 1 tbsp of honey, heat to make a syrup (caroenum). Mix minced meat with the wine soaked bread, fish sauce, ground black pepper, the wine syrup and pine nuts. Make hamburgers and grill.

Grilled Tuna With Vinaigrette
(serves 4)
Vinaigrette:
- 3 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- 120 ml olive oil
- 4 finely chopped shalott onions
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
- 1 tsp lovage seeds
- 100 ml finely chopped fresh mint
Tuna:
- 800 g tuna fillet
- salt
- olive oil
Shake all the vinaigrette ingredients in a jar so they blend well. Put the tuna on the grill, brush with olive oil and sprinkle salt. When downsides has colour turn and brush the vinaigrette on the grilled sides, repeat when other side is done. Voilá!

Fried Veal - Vitellina Fricta
(Serves 6)
- 1 kg of diced veal
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 300 g raisins
- 200 ml white wine
- 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp honey
- 100 ml vegetable oil
- 100 ml fish sauce
- 100 ml fig syrup
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
- 1 tsp celery seeds
- 1 tsp cumin
- 2 tsp oregano
In a fryingpan, fry veal on medium heat in olive oil until done. In a saucepan mix all other ingredientes and boil together for a few minutes. Poor the sauce over the meat and let simmer for 10 minutes. Ready to serve.

Stuffed Kidneys
(Serves 4)
- 8 lamb kidneys
- 1 tbsp ground fennel seeds
- 2 tsp ground black pepper
- 50 ml chopped pine nuts
- 100 ml chopped fresh coriander
- 100 g sausage skins
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
Preheat oven to 190 °C. Split the skinned kidneys in half and remove fat and fibres. Put fennel seeds and black pepper in food processor together with pine nuts and coriander. In the centre of each kidney half, place an equal amount of paste - close them up by fitting a piece of soaked sausage skin. Cook the kidneys in a frying pan for approximately 10 minutes. Transfer to oven tray, pour fish sauce on top, cook until done, maybe 15 minutes. Remove sausage skins and slice. Serve with toast.

Roman Food Recipes - Desserts

Patina De Piris
(Serves 4)
- 750 g semi ripe pears
- 100 ml honey
- 300 ml red wine
- 50 ml raisins
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- 4 well beaten eggs
- 2 tsp ground black pepper
Preheat the oven to 190 °C. Peel and remove seeds from pears, then cook them in wine, raisins and honey until soft. Strain and mash the pears. Add fish sauce, olive oil, cumin and the beaten eggs. Pour the mix into a shallow greased form and bake for 20 minutes. Serve warm, not hot.