My Menu for an ancient Roman Dinner

Evening Meal , Cena

Appetizers, gustatio (eggs, shellfish, salad, herbs)

• Spiced Wine (Conditum Paradoxum)
• Soft-Boiled Eggs in Pine-Nut Sauce
• Columella’s Fresh Cheese and Herb Moretum
• Artolaganon – Ancient Greek Bread with Sourdough - to go with Moretum
• Olives, green and black, for snacking
• Roasted chickpeas, for snacking

Main Course, prima mensa (cooked vegetables, meat, wine)

One thing the Ancient Romans seem to like to do is mash up vegetables (Alexandrine squash), even fish (Sarda Ita Fit (Tuna) Marcus Gavius Apicius, “De Re Coquinaria” 9, 10, 2). Is this technique of cooking common and a continuation of the pulses and soups/stews they made, especially in earlier times - that this is the texture they associated with dishes? We also mash squash, make pates, etc.. They did not have forks so everything had to be eaten with a spoon or with the fingers.

• Wine?
• Minutal of Apricots (pork & apricot stew)
• Isicia omentata (Roman meatballs)
• Fish dish?
• Pulse?
• Vegetable?
• Bread: Mustacei (Must Rolls) - need to start the must yeast 4 days before make bread

Dessert, secunda mensa (sweet dishes, such as fruit or pastry, nuts)

• Mulsum (honey wine) or Passum (raisin wine)
• Libum (ancient Roman cheesecake soaked in honey)
• Honeyed Dates
• Fresh Fruit: grapes
• Dried Fruit: apricots
• Nuts: almonds, walnuts, and/or hazelnuts