The World That Was

Hello and Welcome to The World That Was! Today, I'll be making a simple bread-based soup - referred to as juscellum by Apicius! It's a lot like Tuscan "aquacotta" soup, which is prepared in a similar way - though today it often includes tomatoes, which would not have been available in antiquity. Ingredients 1 onion 1 carrot 1 stick celery 3 cloves garlic thyme 2 slices bread (torn or grated) 2 eggs 750ml chicken stock olive oil salt pepper Method 1 - Chop Ingredients To begin with, we need to chop and dice an onion. You don't need to worry about being too careful here, as they'll soften up considerably while its cooking. Peel and dice a carrot or two - carrots and parsnips were considered to be the same vegetable to the Greeks and Romans, so either one works well here! Finally, deal with some celery by slicing it thinly. 2 - Sautee and Cook Toss a bit of olive oil into a pot, and place this over a medium heat. When it's shimmering, toss in your onions, car...

Hello and Welcome to The World That Was! Today, I'll be making an Etruscan dish - which is preserved through Roman cuisine through to modernity! The simple testaroli - a rudimentary ancestor to the pasta that we know and love today! In any case, let's now take a look at The World That Was! Follow along with my YouTube video, above! Ingredients 1/2 cup plain flour 1/2 cup wholemeal flour 1 cup water pesto Method 1 - Prepare the Batter To begin with, we need to make the batter. To do this, toss a half a cup of plain white flour into a bowl, along with some wholemeal flour. Mix in an equal amount of water, to form a thin slurry. 2 - Oil the Pan and Make the testaroli When the batter is ready, pour a ladleful into a pan that's been oiled with olive oil. Spread this into a very thin layer, by tilting the pan around. Cook the thin layer of batter for a minute or two over a high heat, or until the edges start to firm up. Don't cook it all the way through! Flip it over and let ...

Hello and Welcome to The World That Was! Today, I'll be making a bronze-age basil sauce - much like modern pesto! The origins of this recipe are pretty vague - contemporary accounts place it in "the North of Italy" - so we can guess this refers to an Etruscan recipe (as it was preserved as "moretum" in early Roman cuisine. While it's unknown if cheese was included in the original dish, the Romans would have included a hard cheese in their moretum. In any case, lets now take a look at The World That Was! Follow along with my YouTube video, above! Ingredients 100g Basil leaves 150ml or  1/2 cup Olive Oil 50g or 1/3 cup Pine Nuts 2-4 garlic cloves Method 1 - Prepare the Pine Nuts To begin with, we need to dry-toast our pine nuts. Toss 50g or a third of a cup of pine nuts into a frying pan, and place this over medium-high heat. Stir them around so they cook evenly, and turn a lovely golden colour. It's not known if this was done in antiquity, but it brings o...

Hello and Welcome to The World That Was! Today, I'll be taking a look at an Etruscan onion soup. It's the ancestor to a renaissance dish, "carabaccia" , from the same region as Etruscan society (Tuscany), so it shares similar taste profiles that have been transmitted through the populations of Tuscany for centuries! In any case, lets now take a look at The World That Was! Follow along with my YouTube video above! Ingredients 500g onions (preferably red) 100g almonds (crushed) honey salt pepper 500ml water (or stock of your choice) Method 1 - Prepare the Onions To begin with, we need to peel and chop our onions. I'm using red onions here, because they're similar to the kind of onion found in Tuscany today, but really any onion works here. Cut each onion in half, and slice these halves into very thin pieces. Make sure they're all roughly the same size.  2 - Cook the Onions When you're done dealing with your onions, pour some olive oil into a large pot. T...

Hello and Welcome to The World That Was!  Today, we're going to look at a recipe from the Etruscans - a pre-Roman civilisation found in Italy in the Bronze Age! This is a simple mushroom and barley soup, which is based on a similar dish from the early Roman republic, recorded by Cato the Elder in his De Agri Cultura  from around 160 BC! In any case, let's take a look at The World That Was. Follow along with my YouTube video above! Ingredients 1 onion 1 carrot 1 parsnip 1 stick celery 2 garlic cloves 250g Portobello mushrooms (or mushrooms of your choice) 750ml / 3 cups water (or stock) 1 cup barley olive oil butter Method 1 - Cook Mushrooms Depending on what mushrooms you used, you may have to remove the gills of them, like you can see me doing in the video. Some mushrooms can be eaten with next to no preparation, so check which ones you're using. Then, toss some butter into a pot, and put it over medium-high heat until it melts. Toss your mushrooms into the pot and sprink...