Patina Versatilis

Patina Versatilis is a traditional Ancient Roman recipe for a classic dish of an omelette containing toasted pine nuts and nuts flavoured with honey, pepper, fish sauce and caroenum.

Also see the article on What is Patina? and a similar recipe, Patina versatilis vice dulcis (Apicius, 136, 4.2.16)

Aliter patina versatilis: nucleos, nuces fractas, torres eas et teres cum melle, pipere, liquamine, lacte et ovis. olei modicum.
(from Apicius' De Re Coquinaria) IV, ii, 2; 143

4.2.2 Another Patina, omelette style: roast pine nuts and broken nuts and pound them with honey, pepper, liquamen, milk and eggs; add a little oil.
(from Apicius, Grocock & Grainger)

129, 4.2.2 Another Dish, which can be Turned over [A Nut Custard]

Aliter patina versatilis The dish, called turn-over, is thus made:​1 crush very fine walnuts and hazelnuts,​ toast them and crush with honey, mix in pepper, broth, milk and eggs and a little oil.​

Patina Versatilis – Ancient Roman Frittata with Nuts
from https://historicalitaliancooking.home.blog/

Original text
Aliter patina versatilis: nucleos, nuces fractas; torres eas et teres cum melle, pipere, liquamine, lacte et ovis. Olei modicum.

Translation
Another patina upside-down: pine nuts and broken walnuts, toasted. Pound them with honey, pepper, garum, milk, and eggs, with a bit of oil.

In the 4th book of De Re Coquinaria, we find a series of dishes called patinae prepared with various ingredients (for example, rustic herbs or peaches) that seem to have little in common, except for the use of the same tool, the patina, a kind of pan or plate. Some patinae are clearly similar to a frittata or omelet, like the one we are preparing today, others do not contain eggs. In this case, this patina is called versatilis, which alludes to the fact that it is served upside-down. The recipe, on the other hand, is just a list of ingredients, which include milk and eggs.

There are no directions about how many eggs we have to use. For this information, we referred to other recipes in the same book, in which the author uses six or eight eggs, adjusting the quantities to the size of our pan.

This dish allows many possible combinations of the ingredients: you may prepare a frittata with a lot of nuts (but we recommend avoiding an excessive quantity to prevent the patina from breaking), adding more honey and just a bit of garum to balance the flavors, or change this ratio and use more garum than honey; another possibility is to make a spicy patina with a lot of pepper.

In our preparation, we opted for balanced flavors, with a small quantity of garum and honey, a pinch of pepper, 10 walnuts, and about 10 grams of pine nuts, in addition to two tablespoons of milk.

This kind of dish, probably, was meant to be served as an appetizer in an ancient banquet, being a plate based on eggs, but would make an excellent main plate for a simpler Roman meal.

If you prefer, substitute garum with a pinch of salt, ancient muria or colatura di alici, or a South-East Asian fish sauce, prepared in the same way as some kinds of garum. However, for this kind of preparation, a bit of fish sauce or salt pair better with the other ingredients than colatura di alici.

5 eggs
pine nuts
walnuts
milk
honey
black pepper
garum
olive oil

Toast the walnuts, shelled and broken, for a couple of minutes. Grind the pepper in the mortar, adding the walnuts and pine nuts. Beat the eggs with a bit of milk, then add a little olive oil, garum, and honey and the mixture of pepper and nuts.

Warm a bit of olive oil in a pan and pour the mixture, cooking it at low heat until it thickens.

Serve the patina hot, turned upside-down.