Novel Food #13: carrots with cumin sauce
[cliccare il link per andare alla ricetta in italiano]
Some time ago, during a visit to one of my favorite bookstores, Dark Carnival in Berkeley, I bought The King's Gambit by John Maddox Roberts (1990). The novel is the first of the SPQR series, 13 (so far) mysteries set in ancient Rome whose protagonist is Decius Caecilius Metellus the Younger. [SPQR means Senatus Populusque Romanus (the Senate and the Roman people) — I like the way this person explains it.]
Reading the book was like revisiting knowledge I had acquired when studying Roman history and art history, and Latin language and literature, but with a different perspective. The novel is written in first person, so reading it was like paying a special visit to ancient Rome. For people who are not familiar with ancient Rome or need to refresh their memory (as I sometimes do), there is a very useful glossary at the end of the book, which explains relevant elements of Roman life and political organization.
The plot intrigued me and the presence of well-known historical characters, like Julius Caesar (Giulio Cesare) and Cicero (Cicerone), made it particularly interesting. The narrative includes descriptions of daily activities, like going to the baths, and also of meals:
Sergius's "bite of lunch" consisted of a banquet that would have done the Senate proud at the reception of a new ambassador. There were pickled peacocks' tongues and sows' udders stuffed with Libyan mice, deep-fried. There were lampreys, oysters, truffles and other rare, exotic delicacies in endless profusion.
Reproducing such a lunch would not be easy and to be honest not a single item listed appeals to me. I could easily get local oysters, but I must confess that I don't like them.
I enjoyed the reading so much that the next time I passed the bookstore, I went in and asked for SPQR II, The Catiline Conspiracy. That episode of Roman history is seared in the memory of Italian students of Latin, because they all had to read parts of Cicero's famous Orationes in Catilinam (speeches against Catiline). Cicero was consul at the time of the conspiracy.
In The Catiline Conspiracy, there is a description of a triumph, the public celebration of a general's military achievements, in this case of Lucullus (Lucullo):
The great event of the season was the triumph of Lucullus. He had returned to Italy almost four years earlier and had petitioned the senate for permission to celebrate a triumph.
The celebration ends with a huge party in which food plays an important role.
Lucullus had always been noted for his taste for luxury, but this was the first of the banquets for which he became even more famed than for his victories. These were noted not only for the excellence of the food, but for their theatrical effects. The first platter set before me and the diners near me, for instance, consisted of hard-boiled and baked eggs of many species of birds in a framework of pastry, ascending tier upon tier, forming a model of the great Pharos lighthouse at Alexandria. Perfumed oil burned in a bowl at its crest.
The succeeding dishes continued the nautical theme. A trireme sailed by rowed by roast suckling pigs, which slaves dressed as sailors transferred to the table. Roast fowl were brought, with their feathers replaced so that they appeared to be alive, but they had been cunningly joined to the bodies and tails of mullets, so that they looked like mythical, hybrid sea creatures.
Lest we starve between these imaginative servings, the tables were heaped with more prosaic eatables: breads, cheeses, nuts, olives, tiny grilled sausages and so forth. All of this was washed down with excellent wines, any one of which would have been the showpiece of an ordinary banquet.
I enjoyed the second book as well, and often forgot that I knew the ending from history. I am planning to read SPQR III soon. I really like to imagine Rome as it was then (I century BCE), with locations and buildings I know from art history and from visits to the Eternal City.
Though the novels did not prompt me to look for pickled peacock's tongues, or to create hybrid sea creatures, they motivated me to do something I had had in mind for a while: try a recipe from those days. We have some sources, the most famous of which is Apicius. First I actually tried making libum, whose recipe is in Cato's De Agricultura. I made it twice, according to the recipe at the bottom of this page, using my homemade ricotta, and half spelt and half whole-wheat flour. I was not impressed with the result: it was edible, but nothing to write on the blog about, so I went back to the drawing board.
I got interested in this recipe for carrots with cumin sauce for two main reasons: I had never prepared a side dish with just cooked carrots, and I have a big plant of lovage (if you have never seen lovage, there is a photo in this post; the photo below shows a sprig, together with some parsley flowers and some of my lovely sweet pea flowers). The fact that bunches of freshly picked carrots are available at the farmers' market sealed the deal.
You can read the original recipe on this page: section XXIX of the first chapter includes two versions of cuminatum for shellfish. Then, section XXI of chapter III says that carrots or parsnips can be dressed with the same cuminatum previously described (see numbers 39 and 40 for a translation).
After looking around further, I found a more detailed recipe for the same dish and decided to use that to guide my experiments. I eliminated the honey from the ingredient list, because our carrots are plenty sweet. I used anchovies1 melted in warm oil instead of Roman garum as recommended in the recipe (Vietnamese fish sauce nuoc nam being another alternative and the modern garum recipe on this page being yet another).
I used fresh mint instead of dried, because I have plenty of it in my herb garden (together with lovage and parsley), and I did not use salt, since the anchovies are quite salty. I reduced the amount of cumin. I know, this is supposed to be a cumin sauce, but I didn't want cumin to overpower the other ingredients. And in any case, the original recipe has no quantities, so I felt I could adjust all of them according to my taste.
I made the recipe three times, playing a bit with the details, including using some parsnips (pastinache) together with carrots (top photo). The result was a very interesting dish, which includes many flavors, all detectable. It is not a Wow! dish, but one that subtly captures your attention and invites your palate to explore its complex landscape: before you know it, you are reaching out for a second helping.
Printer-friendly version of briciole's recipe for carote con salsina al cumino
Ingredients:
- 1 lb fresh carrots, possibly of different colors; you can also substitute one or two carrots with parsnips of the same size
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh lovage leaves (levistico)
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley leaves (prezzemolo)
- 3-4 small leaves of fresh mint (menta), finely chopped (I used orange mint)
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin (toast seeds and grind them right before using)
- freshly ground black pepper
- a dash of ground cinnamon (cannella)
- 2 teaspoons olive oil of good quality
- 2 anchovy fillets preserved in oil (filetti di alici sott'olio)
- 1/2 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
Scrub carrots, scrape off skin with a knife, rinse, then steam until tender to taste. Let cool, then slice into rounds (1/8-1/4 inch thick) and place in a serving bowl or dish.
Pile up on cutting board the herbs, cumin and cinnamon. Turn the pepper mill a couple of times over the small pile, then with a blade, mince more finely and mix at the same time.
Warm up olive oil in a ramekin and add anchovy fillets cut into small pieces. Stir until anchovies are melted. Add balsamic vinegar and stir. Add the minced herbs and spices and stir well: this is the salsina al cumino.
Pour sauce over carrots and toss. Serve.
Feel free to adjust the quantity of the various ingredients to please your palate. In particular, you may want to try increasing the amount of cumin. I may do so in the future: for now, though, I am enjoying the dish as described above. If you get carrots or various colors, the result is quite pleasant for the eyes.
This, as you can imagine, is my contribution to the 13th edition of Novel Food, the literary/culinary event that Lisa of Champaign Taste and I have started some time ago (this time I am hosting solo as Lisa is taking a break from blogging).
This post contains the roundup of the event.
I am also sending this post to Tin Can Recipes, a monthly event that will run until the end of this year. The organizers are Ale, Fra, Sere and Paola of Il Giardino degli Aromi and Brii of Briggis recept och ideer and Briiblog in English. The rules for participating are detailed on this page.
This post contains the roundup of the event.
Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:
or launch the carote con salsina al cumino audio file [mp3].
[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]
1 The can of anchovies in the photo is for information only: it is not an advertisement. I do not have a business relationship with the product's company.
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I due libri che mi hanno ispirato a cercare ricette della Roma antica non sono disponibili in italiano. Sono i primi due volumi di una serie intitolata SPQR dello scrittore americano John Maddox Roberts. I romanzi sono interessanti perché fanno vedere Roma e vicende storiche che conosco dalla scuola.
In entrambi i romanzi ci sono diversi riferimenti a cene e al cibo che viene servito. In particolare, nel secondo volume (intitolato La congiura di Catilina) c'è la descrizione del banchetto che segue il trionfo di Lucullo. I piatti descritti sono un po' troppo elaborati e alcuni sinceramente non molto allettanti, però la lettura mi ha stimolato a fare delle ricerche. La mia attenzione si è fissata su una ricetta tratta da Apicio.
Potete leggere l'originale su questa pagina: la sezione XXIX del primo capitolo comprende due versioni del cuminatum. La sezione XXI del capitolo III (dedicato alle verdure) dice che si possono condire carote o pastinache con il cuminatum descritto in precedenza.
Dopo ulteriori ricerche, ho trovato una ricetta con maggiori dettagli ed è questa che ho usato come guida per i miei esperimenti. Ho eliminato il miele perché le nostre carote sono dolci abbastanza. Ho usato alici sciolte nell'olio caldo al posto del garum, come raccomandato nella ricetta. Ho usato menta fresca invece che secca, perché ne ho in quantità nel mio orticello, insieme a levistico e prezzemolo. Se non avete mai visto il levistico, in quest post potete vedere una foto della mia pianta. La foto qui sotto mostra un rametto di levistico, dei fiori di prezzemolo (una delle mie piante sta fiorendo) e alcuni fiori di pisello odoroso per una nota di colore1.
Non ho aggiunto sale, poiché le alici sono alquanto salate. E ho ridotto la quantità di cumino: mi rendo conto che questa è una salsina al cumino, ma non volevo che la spezia la facesse da padrona in termini di sapore. In ogni caso, la ricetta originale non specifica alcuna quantità e quindi mi sono sentita libera di adattarla ai miei gusti.
Ho preparato la ricetta tre volte, giocando un po' con i dettagli. Il risultato è un contorno molto interessante, nel quale i vari sapori sono tutti individuabili. Non è un piatto che stupisce al primo assaggio, ma uno che cattura l'attenzione e invita il palato ad esplorare la sua complessità. Senza accorgersene, si allungano le mani per servirsi un'altra porzione.
Ingredienti:
- mezzo chilo di carote fresche, possibilmente di vari colori; potete sostituire una o due carote con pastinache delle stesse dimensioni
- 2 cucchiai (30 ml) di foglie di levistico fresco a pezzetti (prima tagliate e poi misurate)
- 2 cucchiai (30 ml) di foglie di prezzemolo fresco a pezzetti (prima tagliate e poi misurate)
- 3-4 foglioline di menta fresca a pezzetti
- 1/2 cucchiaino (2.5 ml) di cumino (tostare i semi, ridurli in polvere e poi misurare)
- pepe macinato fresco: 2-3 giri di macinapepe
- un pochino di cannella in polvere
- 2 cucchiaini di olio di oliva
- 2 filetti di alici sott'olio
- 1/2 cucchiaio (7.5 ml) di aceto balsamico
Lavare bene le carote, raschiare la pellicina con un coltello, sciacquare e poi cuocere al vapore. Far raffreddare, poi tagliare a rondelle spesse 3-6 mmand e mettere su un piatto da portata.
Ammucchiare erbe aromatiche, cumino, pepe e cannella sul tagliere. Con un coltello, tagliare finemente e mescolare allo stesso tempo.
Scaldare l'olio in una ciotolina e aggiungere i filetti di alici tagliati a pezzetti. Mescolare fino a quando le alici si sciolgono. Aggiungere l'aceto balsamico e mescolare. Aggiungere il battuto di erbe aromatiche e spezie e mescolare bene: questa è la salsina al cumino. Versare sulle carote e mescolare. Servire.
Adattate le dosi dei vari ingredienti al vostro gusto. In particolare, potete provare ad aumentare la quantità di cumono. Magari in futuro lo farò anch'io, ma per ora mi gusto il contorno così come l'ho descritto. Se trovate carote di vari colori il risultato è piacevole anche agli occhi.
Questo è il mio contributo alla 13ma edizione di Novel Food, evento letterario/culinario che Lisa di Champaign Taste ed io abbiamo creato un po' di tempo fa, come potete vedere sulla pagina della collezione delle edizioni precedenti. Stavolta ospito l'evento da sola dal momento che Lisa si è presa un po' di vacanza dal blog.
Questo post contiene il riepilogo dell'evento.
Contribuisco anche questo mese all'evento Tin Can Recipes dedicato alla celebrazione dei 200 anni del cibo in scatola. L'organizzazione dell'evento è di Ale, Fra, Sere e Paola del blog Il Giardino degli Aromi e di Brii che scrive Briggis recept och ideer e Briiblog in English. Le regole per partecipare le trovate su questa pagina.
Questo post contiene il riepilogo dell'evento.
1 La scatoletta di alici sott'olio nella foto è solo a titolo informativo: non è una pubblicità. Non ho alcun rapporto commerciale con l'azienda produttrice.
