I tried an authentic Roman recipe

[Ediacara]

It turned out well, I think.

From De Re Coquinaria, apparently the earliest cookbook still (partially) intact. The website was translated from Latin to German, and then from German to English by a native German speaker, so my recipe below has been corrected to standard English.

ALITER DULCIA

Ingredients:
------------
250g pistachios and almonds
100g pine nuts
3-4 tblsp honey
1 tsp minced rue (I don't have access to this, I used orange peel instead, which supposedly tastes like rue)
50ml Passum (thick, wine sweetened with honey, figs and dates)
50ml milk
2 eggs
honey to drip on afterward
a small amount of ground pepper

Instructions:
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Mix nuts, pine nuts, honey, rue, and Passum with milk and eggs; place in a spring-form pan and cook in the oven at 350 until the nuts brown. Serve topped with honey and sprinkle with pepper.

I thought it would turn out to be like a custard with nuts in it, but it's actually almost 100% nuts, and the "custard" part is entirely dominated by the dates, figs, and honey. It's very, very, very good. The pepper I thought was odd on a desert, but it's actually not detectable. I really enjoy how sweet it is, but how the sweetness is entirely derived from fruit and honey, and not sugar.

[Floogeldy]

1. You must be a culinary enthusiatist.

:)

[Ediacara]

2. Maybe

I enjoy cooking for sure, and I am curious about Roman food. My family is Italian, and I grew up on loads of Italian food, but the thing is, most classically Italian ingredients are not native to Italy, or the old world for that matter (tomatoes and peppers being the biggies). I became curious what they ate in Italy before then, and came across this translated cookbook on the 'net. A lot of the recipes seem extremely strange, but interesting. This desert I made seemed almost Middle Eastern in flavor. It was a nice departure from ice cream :-)

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

3. What the hell is RUE? Will you RUE the day you ever ate that stuff?

[Random_Australian]

4. oh, that's a bad joke, but not as bad as

Donald Rumsfeld is giving the President his daily briefing. He concludes by saying: "Yesterday, three Brazilian soldiers were killed."

"OH NO!" the President exclaims. "That's terrible!"

His staff sits stunned at this display of emotion, nervously watching as the President sits, head in hands.

Finally, the President looks up and asks, "How many is a brazillion?"

[Ediacara]

5. It's an herb, sort of

Aparently in the same family as oranges, its leaves are supposedly very sour, and resemble citrus peel. Aparently it went out of style as a cooking agent because it smells horribly. I went to the local co-op to see if this was available, but it wasn't, so instead I scraped an orange.

More info on Rue is here and here.

[Gormy Cuss]

9. It stinks. I use it to deter cats from digging in my vegetable beds.

It's a very pretty gray green leaved plant but brush up against it and you will smell it right away. It's not so bad outside but it would be rather intense in the kitchen. Cats despise the smell and won't walk within a foot of it.

[Ediacara]

10. Good to know!

Maybe I'll stick some on my fridge door to keep the cat from poking his head in (and us physically removing him) every time we open the door.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

6. Hey don't be saying anything bad about ice cream, now!

[Ediacara]

7. I love ice cream!

But ice cream is a sometimes food :-) I also love tufuti, which is fake ice cream made from tofu, and is actually, dare I say it, much better tasting than normal ice cream.

[marzipanni]

8. If you are not vegetarian I have a good Tuscan pork recipe

supposedly like roast pork seved at a council in Firenze in1430.

[Solon]

11. Cool, thanks for the link too...

I saved the webpage so I can try the recipe later.