Judging by the evidence of recipes and carbonized shopping lists from Pompeii, everyday Roman food would have been simple and nutritious. Some recipes may not be to modern tastes. But several other everyday Roman dishes have survived to the present day.

Staple Roman Foods

Grain. Traditionally spelt was the cornerstone of the Roman diet. Known to the Romans as far, it had multiple uses. As flour (farina), it could be baked into bread (panis). Alternatively, it could be made into puls, a kind of porridge that was one of the oldest traditional Roman dishes. Spelt flour was also used to thicken sauces or to form the basis of sweet dishes.

The agricultural texts of Cato and Columella are full of recipes for other types of grain. Millet, wheat and barley were all staples of the rural diet — either boiled and eaten plainly or flavoured with cheese, honey, eggs or milk. These porridges remained popular well into the empire with those of simple culinary tastes as well as the poor, who would have relied upon such economical dishes for survival.

Vegetables and Pulses.

Rome was well supplied with produce from the purpose-built market gardens that sprang up on the city’s outskirts. Evidence indicates that favourite household vegetables included lentils, chickpeas, beans, onions, leeks, celery, turnips, onions, garlic, carrots and parsnips. 

But there were also more exotic additions on sale in the city’s markets where imported foodstuffs such as dates were affordable and readily available.

Pulses formed the basis of many dishes because they were available and versatile. They could be ground to form flour; for instance, lomentum was one version made from broad beans. Pulses were also served in salads with herbs and cheese, or in stews and soups. They also made excellent snack foods. For example, chickpeas were often soaked, then oven-roasted and salted, to be eaten like peanuts.

Cheese, like vegetables, was readily available and commonly used, either preserved or eaten as fresh curds. Curd cheese was often mixed with herbs or sweetened with honey and nuts. Preserved cheese was pickled in brine or vinegar, salted or smoked.

Garum and Other Condiments

Olive oil and wine were the most frequently served condiments for food. Wine was boiled down to form sapa, which formed the basis of the many sauces served on the side with Roman meals. Herbs and spices were regularly added to these sauces, as well as fruit and honey, lending dishes a strong sweet and sour flavour.

Garum is probably the most infamous of the Roman condiments and was the ancient version of tomato ketchup. Also known as liquamen, garum came in different grades of quality and was manufactured commercially by fermenting mackerel and other fish in huge vats. Such was its popularity, it was transported all over the Roman Empire. 

Garum, however, was not an ingredient in everyday recipes; here, salt was more commonly used. It does feature, however, in the recipes of Apicius’s elaborate dinner party cookbook, which suggests it was a more expensive elite condiment.

Meat Eating and the Romans

Despite literary descriptions of grand Roman dinners, the everyday Roman diet included very little meat or fish, which most people could only afford to eat once a week. It was common for even modest dinner party menus to have at least one main meat dish; however, it was considered vulgarly ostentatious to serve meat with every course, as Petronius’s Trimalchio did at his famous dinner.

Popular meats included pork, lamb, game and beef, as well as chicken and goose. Dormice and wild birds such as thrushes and figpeckers were also eaten as delicacies.

The entire animal was used. While whole roast suckling pigs were served at feasts, so were thriftier dishes of offal in sauce. Sausages were also popular.

Fish was rare and therefore costly, except for those living in coastal regions. But despite its proximity to the sea, Rome did not have a ready supply. Fish stock available in the city’s markets was commonly sold live from huge tanks, where eels, anchovies, sardines and mullet were all popular choices.

Surviving Roman Recipes

Many Roman ingredients and dishes bear little resemblance to modern Italian cuisine. Some, however, could form the basis of current Italian favourites:

·      Laganon was the ancient version of pasta, made from wheat flour mixed into a dough with water. Unlike modern pasta, it was fried and not boiled and used to scoop up the vegetable sauce usually served with it.

·      Ancient Pesto. Columella describes a sauce made of ground pine nuts, hazelnuts or almonds mixed with oil, peppered vinegar and cheese, with thyme, oregano or savoury.

Resources

Faas, P, 2003, Around the Roman Table. Macmillan

Grant, M, 1999, Roman Cookery. Serif: London

Hooper, W D & Ash, H B, (Trans) Cato and Varro on Agriculture. Loeb Classical Library

Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella, On Agriculture. Loeb Classical Library

Matyszak, P, 2007, Ancient Rome on Five Denarii a Day. Thames & Hudson

Sullivan, J P, The Satyricon of Petronius. Penguin Books