Flatbread and Chickpea Soup - Ancient Roman Recipes
Welcome to our kitchen.
Today we prepare a chickpeasoup served with a fried flatbread.
We start with the ingredients.
We need leeks, olive oil, white wine, chickpeas,cumin.
And for the bread durum wheat flour.
First, we soak the chickpeas in water overnight.
We grind the cumin in the mortar.
This week, we prepare something different,putting together a recipe from different sources,
starting from a poem written by the Latinpoet Horace in the 1st century BCE.
He describes a dish of chickpeas, leeks, and lagana.
Lagana are a type of flatbread that we’llprepare and explain later.
He doesn’t tell us how the chickpeas are cooked, so we chose a chickpea recipe from De Re Coquinaria,
the cookbook conventionallyattributed to Apicius.
We cut the leeks.
To complete Horace’s meal, we add the leeksto the recipe of De Re Coquinaria.
We don't know with certainty the exact periodin which this cookbook was written,
but Horace describes in detail both the high-end cooking as well as the rustic food of his time,
and they are clearly similar to the cuisine describedin Apicius' cookbook.
We chose this recipe because its simplicity
corresponds to the ideal of moderation and poverty Horace praises in this text,
in which he exalts his simple life in contrast with the excess of the richest people.
For this reason, the plate Horace briefly describes is probably very similar to De Re Coquinaria's recipe.
In any case, the author of the cookbook remembers in another recipe
that chickpeas are usually seasoned in a very simple way.
We cook the chickpeas in salted water witholive oil, a bit of white wine, and cumin.
After about 10 minutes we add the leeks.
The type of wine used in the recipe is calledmerum in Latin.
Merum refers to high quality aged wine, not a specific wine.
Several varieties of grapes were used to produce merum.
When Horace writes about merum, he refersto Falernian wine,
Martial, for example, believes that it is worth to be served by Jupiter's cup-bearer, Ganymede.
Merum is a term used to mean unmixed wine:
according to Martial, even the best honey ruins the flavor of the divine Falernian.
We suggest choosing an excellent white wineto enhance the simple flavors of this plate.
Meanwhile, we knead the flour with a pinchof salt and warm water.
Laganum is an ancient Greek fried flatbreadwidely used in ancient Rome.
In the cookbook conventionally attributedto Apicius,
we find it used to prepare a complex plate with fish and meat alternated to layers of lagana,
in a similar way as we prepare today lasagna, but the sheets of pasta are fried instead of boiled.
Lagana continue to be prepared also duringthe Middle Ages, when beside the fried lagana
appear the boiled ones which are often servedwith grated cheese and spices.
This version is the origin of modern-day lasagna.
You find the link to the recipe to preparemedieval lasagna in the description below.
A recipe of lagana and chickpeas, called lagane e ceci in Italian, is still prepared today in some regions of southern Italy.
In this case, the lagana are boiled instead of fried.
The origin of the modern version is probably medieval.
In the medieval sources, lagana or lasagna are generic terms for kinds of pasta
whose shape may change from little squares to tagliatelle or pappardelle, fried or boiled in broth.
The various versions of the modern recipe call for lagana directly cooked in the broth of the chickpeas,
in a similar way as we have seen in the ancient Roman pasta recipe that you find linked in the description below.
We divide the dough into small pieces.
Then, we roll the dough into small circles.
We suggest to adjust the size to the dimensions of your pan, you must be able to turn the lagana easily while they fry.
We don't have ancient Roman sources for the recipe of laganum,
but we find it described in Athenaeus' Deipnosophists as a kind of light bread,
whereas Hesychius, a 5th century Greek grammarian, describes its preparation:
it is made with durum wheat flour, kneaded and shaped in a circular form, then fried in olive oil.
More complex is the preparation of artolaganon,which means literally laganon bread,
shaped in the same way but prepared with the additionof other ingredients, leavened, and cooked in the oven.
You find the recipe of artolaganon in thedescription below.
Now we pour in a pan the olive oil.
The oil must be about 1 or 2 fingers deep.
There’s no need for more oil because thelagana will float on the oil anyway while they fry.
We fry the lagana for about 30 seconds then we turn them and fry the other side for about 20 seconds.
We serve the chickpea soup with the laganaaside and break the lagana into the soup when we eat it,
in the same way lagana are usedin another passage of the Deipnosophists.
Surely, Horace would pair this dish with Falernianwine, unmixed with water or honey,
whereas the perfect secundae mensae to finish sucha simple meal would be raisins, nuts, or figs,
described by the author in another poem.
This delicious soup is the perfect way toexperience a common meal in ancient Rome,
in which the taste is enhanced by the simplicityand the use of a few, well-chosen ingredients.
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Today we prepare an ancient Roman chickpea soup served with a fried flatbread. The perfect way to experience a common meal in ancient Rome, in which the taste is enhanced by the simplicity and the use of a few, well-chosen ingredients. Ingredients: durum wheat flour chickpeas leeks olive oil white wine cumin salt Ancient Greek Bread - Artolaganon https://youtu.be/Z9yGquUy2Ak Ancient Roman Pasta and Meatballs https://youtu.be/xlDSUttS3-o Medieval Lasagna https://youtu.be/0lliwjiJ4ww For more info about this recipe check out our blog: http://historicalitaliancooking.home.blog/english/recipes/ancient-roman-flatbread-and-chickpea-soup/ If you liked the music on this video check our music and art channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/LiliumAeris __ Music by Lilium Aeris Andrea Tuffanelli - tympanum Serena Fiandro - flute First Delfic Hymn - Athenaeus 128 BCE #ancientromanrecipe #ancientbread #lagana