Ancient Cassoulet (Conchiclam Apicianam - Peas in the Pod Apician Style)

Note: In ancient Rome, legumes were limited to dried peas, sweet peas, lupines, lentils, chickpeas and fava beans. The Romans knew several varieties of chickpea, such as venus, ram, and punic. They were either cooked down into a broth or roasted as a snack. The Roman gourmet Apicius gives several recipes for chickpeas. Cannellini beans, used for French cassoulet, would not be period.

Conchic[u]la à la Apicius (one of several ancestors of a cassoulet)

Conchiclam Apicianam: accipies Cumanam mundam, ubi coques pisam. Cui mittis Lucanicas concisas, esiciola porcina, pulpas petasonis. Teres piper, ligusticum, origanum, anethum, cepam siccam, coriandrum viridem, suffundis liquamen [garum], vino et liquamine temperabis. Mittis in Cumanam, cui adicies oleum, pungis ubique, ut combibat oleum. Igni lento coques ita ut ferveat et inferes. (V, iv, 2)

Take a clean Cumaean pot [earthenware from Cumae] in which you cook the [dried] peas. Into this add Lucanian sausage, cut up; little pork meatballs; and pieces of pork shoulder. Pound [in a mortar] pepper, lovage, oregano, dill, dried onion, green coriander and moisten with liquamen [oriental fish sauce, for saltiness]; blend with wine and liquamen. Put this in the Cumaean pot, to which you add [olive] oil and prick [the seasoned meats and peas] all over so that the oil is absorbed. Cook over a low fire that it may simmer, and serve.

ED. NOTE: The dried whole peas, or beans, should be soaked overnight before cooking; in other dishes of this chapter the peas are first cooked with leeks, coriander [cilantro], and mallow flowers. Elsewhere Apicius gives a recipe for preparing Lucanian sausage in which the minced meat is seasoned with pepper, cumin, savory, rue, parsley, bay leaves, and garum [oriental fish sauce such as nuoc mam etc.], plus "condiments"; the latter justifying the use of preserved duck, comparable to certain French cassoulets; finally whole peppercorns, pine nuts, and bits of fat are added before the meat is packed into intestines and hung to smoke. It is possible to use Italian sausage like that from Abruzzi, or even Chinese sausages. Bake in a slow oven.