Italy

Tracta and Pisam Vitellianam (Vitellian Beans with Farro Rusks)
Ancient Recipes, Edible Archaeology, Italy, The Life of Food, Vegetarian

Tracta et Fabam Vitellianam (Vitellian Beans with Farro Rusks)

Salvete Amici! Non semper erit aestas….It will not always be summer. Alas, winter is coming…. just like it always does. And just like that we’ll put the bathing suits and flip-flops away for another year and get out our woolens and fire-wood instead. But that’s okay! Because good things come […]

Ancient Recipes, Edible Archaeology, Italy, The Life of Food, Vegan, Vegetarian

Baking Bread with the Romans: Part II – Panis Quadratus

**This article and the ongoing research has been updated further here: Baking Bread with the Romans: Part III – The Panis Strikes Back  and here: The Panis Quadratus – The Key Ingredients: Pompeii Bread with Poppy Seed, Fennel and Parsley ** Friends, Romans, Baking Enthusiasts: Lend me your ears! …. Who […]

Ancient Recipes, Edible Archaeology, Greece, Italy, The Life of Food, Vegan, Vegetarian

Baking Bread with the Romans: Part I – Pliny the Elder’s Leaven

Give us this day our daily bread — and a good bread starter is what we need to make it. But what’s a bread starter, you say? A bread starter, pasta madre, or levain, is what we have used to make bread for millenia long before active dry (instant granulated) baker’s […]

Ancient Recipes, Edible Archaeology, Italy, The Life of Food, Travel & Tourism, Vegetarian

Tasting Pompeii – Sensory Archaeology and Caupona

This summer I had the privilege of working on the Pompeii Food & Drink Project (PFaDP) for its final field season. For those who are not familiar with the project, Dr. Betty-Jo Mayeske and a team of archaeologists and historians have been painstakingly working at Pompeii (Pompei, Italy) for 17 […]

Torta di Farro 1
Cucina Povera, Italy, The Old-School Kitchen, Vegetarian

Ricotta and Farro Tart – Torta di Ricotta e Farro

Last summer was one of the greatest summers that I’ve ever spent in Rome. I had the pleasure of working at an archaeological site, Monte Testaccio, in Testaccio, excavating and cataloguing thousands of amphorae potsherds with ArchaeoSpain and CEIPAC (University of Barcelona).  More importantly, however, I had the pleasure of working […]

Cheese, Italy, Limone Sfusato, The Old-School Kitchen, Travel & Tourism, Vegetarian

A Week in Ravello – Antonio Carluccio’s Lemon and Ricotta Tart

The culinary use of lemons is often limited to garnishes, desserts or liqueurs. But this citrus fruit can do so much more than simply flavour water and liquor and it was eating and cooking in Ravello, Italy, that taught me this. The Amalfi Coast isn’t just home to beaches, sun […]