Crostini with cheese The Italian cuisine is one of my favourites. So, here is another recipe from Italy’s rich culinary past! I have made these small toasts many times, and each time my guests were pleasantly surprised by the simplicity and delicious taste of these crostini. The flavour is unexpected for modern palates: cheese, sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon,…
Italy
Roman apricots
A summer starter Straight to the recipe The classical Roman kitchen consisted of much more than spectacular and pretentious dishes with exotic ingredients. On the contrary, a true Roman appreciated simple food with vegetables and fruit, like the recipe of this page, Roman apricots. This dish was not a dessert, but was served during the first course of the meal, the gustatio….
Omelette with quail and asparagus
Patina, a Roman dish This is a recipe from Antiquity.It is from the cookbook that inspired me in naming my website Coquinaria. It is called De Re Coquinaria, although it is better known as Apicius. More about his cookbook can be read at the recipe for Roman mussels. And another recipe for Roman patina (vegetarian) can be found…
Roman sourdough bread
The Romans knew several kinds of bread. Mostly these breads were made with sourdough. The meal that was used was wheat, spelt, barley or rice. Even ground pulses were used. In the second century before Christ bread started to displace pulses as basic food. Bread was eaten every day, at every meal. This explains the…
Vanilla ice cream
This is a very rich ice cream, with sugar, fat and cholesterol. So, why would you want to make it? Because it is simply delicious! The secret for enjoying this ice cream is self-control. Do not make it all the time (just occasionallly), and eat small portions. Governments and manufacturers are wrong in thinking the…
Tortelli in brodo
Straight to the recipe An Italian recipe from the sixteenth century This is a real classic from the Italian kitchen: stuffed pasta in broth. The sixteenth century recipe prescribes the use of meat broth. If you replace this by a good vegetable broth, the result is a very tasty vegetarian dish. It is best not…
Mussels in antiquity
Straight to the recipe As the Romans liked to eat them The months around Thanksgiving and Christmas are filled with good wining and dining. Give yourself a break from stuffed turkeys and roasted gammon, and have some humble shellfish. The mussel has been eaten ever since the stone age. The historical recipe on this page…
Roman tuna
Straight to the recipe Great with stewed cucumber Every year around the first day of May there is a Romeinenweek or ‘Week of the Romans’ in the Netherlands, when Roman heritage is put in the spotlight with festivals, events and activities. This year I was there on April 29 at a recently discovered Roman army marching…
Sixteenth-century pasta dough
Straight to the recipe Two recipes from the Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi Let’s all say it once more, loud and clear: “Marco Polo did NOT bring pasta to Italy from China!” Dried pasta was already eaten in Europe before the good man returned from his travels in 1295. According to some, pasta was already known to the…
Purée from broad beans
Straight to the recipe This recipe for broad beans is taken from the sixteenth-century cookbook Opera by Italian Bartolomeo Scappi (see bibliography). more on Scappi and his book: Tortelli in brodo and Broccoli in de Opera). In the Libro Terzo (Book III, with recipes for Lent and fish days) of this cookbook is the following recipe for minestre (a first course, thick soup or pottage)…
Aubergines for cardinals
Straight to the recipe One year ago I published a Dutch recipe for stuffed aubergines from the 1970s. This historical recipe is also for stuffed aubergines, but older; it was published 450 years ago. The cardinals were the intended public that Bartolomeo Scappi, author of the cookbook that the recipe originates from, cooked for. More…
Imperial cucumber
Straight to the recipe Great with Roman tuna Pliny the Elder (23 – 79 AD) describes in his encyclopedia Naturalis historia everything that live and exists on Earth. Originally there were 102 volumes, but unfortunately only 37 have survived. These 37 volumes include the ones on animals and plants, so we can still read what Pliny had to…
Aubergines in aubergine sauce
This recipe for aubergines (eggplants) with aubergine sauce was chosen because of the possible connection with an Arab recipe with aubergines. It is from an Italian cookbook from the end of the fifteenth century that has been published by Terence Scully as The Neapolitan recipe collection. ‘Cuoco Napoletano’ (see bibliography). The Southern part of Italy has been…
Roman broccoli
A recipe for broccoli from De re coquinaria, a Roman cookbook with recipes from the 1st to 4th centuries. If a vegetable like broccoli already existed, it was probably something that looked like Brassica rapa var. Cymosa, also known as Cima di rapa or rapini (broccoli raab): thin stalks with leaves and small flowerbuds. Where I live (the Netherlands), Cima di…