My Life as a Farmer in Ancient Rome
Cato’s Roman Bread with Moretum was delicious. The bread was nice and soft, and the Moretum added a good flavor to the bread. The Moretum was cheesy and garlicky, two of my favorite “food flavors”. The best way to eat it was to cut the bread in half, slice it down the middle, spread the Moretum on each slice, and eat it taco style.
Ingredients:
-
- 500g Spelt flour
- 350ml Water
- A Pinch of Salt
- A Splash of Olive Oil
- 500g Spelt flour
- Preheat an oven to 356°F.
- Wash hands and wash a large bowl - we're being authentic here!
- Add the flour to the bowl along with the pinch of salt. Give it a bit of a mix to distribute salt.
- Pour a splash of olive oil into the bowl.
- Place on some grease-proof paper on a baking tray and place in the oven for 45 minutes. By this stage the bread should be lovely and crispy and golden on the outside. A good way to tell if it's ready on the inside is to tap the bottom of the loaf - if it's ready it will sound hollow. Because there is no yeast, the bread won't have risen much if at all.
- If you don’t eat all of the bread in one day, then do not put the bread in the refrigerator because the bread will become stale overnight.
Ingredients:
- 1 Clove of Garlic
- 1/2 of a Celery Stick (with its leaves)
- A Small Bunch of Flat-Leaf Parsley
- 1 tbsp of Coriander Seeds
- A Pinch of Salt
- 1/3 cup Romano cheese
- 1 tsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Peel the garlic, add to the mortar, and pound it.
To this paste, add the coriander seeds, parsley, and oil. I find that it is helpful to add the parsley in batches and break it down bit by bit rather than trying to do it all at once and making a mess. Test for flavor - if it is too garlicky, add more parsley. After I used to mortar and pestle, I used a blender to grind the remaining because the Romans had more powerful stones, so if you blend the paste it’ll come to a similar consistency.