Tavola Mediterranea

Bread

Ancient Recipes, Bread, Classes and Retreats, Edible Archaeology, The Old-School Kitchen

The Old School Kitchen: For Leaven’s Sake – June 26/July 4

June 15, 2021 by Farrell Monaco 2 comments

As featured in this month’s issue of National Geographic! Join award-winning culinary archaeologist, Farrell Monaco, for a two-part sensory journey into the world of Roman leavened breads and bread starters. Let’s cook it old school!

Farrell Monaco National Geographic Roman Bread Experimental Archaeology

Ancient Recipes, Bread, Experimental Archaeology, Italy, Pompeii

Re-creating 2,000-year-old bread found in Pompeii, post-Vesuvius

May 5, 2021 by Farrell Monaco 2 comments

In A.D. 79 the eruption of Mount Vesuvius buried the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum in ash and pumice, and carbonized many of their organic contents—including the bread in Pompeii’s bakeries. Farrell Monaco, a culinary archaeologist, researched one popular bread’s history and has re-created the recipe.

Pharmakos Barley Cakes with Cheese and Figs | Tavola Mediterranea

Ancient Recipes, Articoli in Italiano, Bread, Edible Archaeology, Greece, Italy

Pane degli Dei: Una Ricetta per Tortine Pharmakos all’Orzo con Formaggio e Fichi

April 17, 2021 by Farrell Monaco 2 comments

Una pestilenza sta prendendo la nostra terra. Gli dei sono incazzati. È tempo di prendere in mano questa situazione con un antico sacrificio greco. Vattene, pestilenza, vattene!

Pliny the Elder's Chickling Vetch Sourdough Bread Starter | Tavola Mediterranea

Ancient Recipes, Bread, Edible Archaeology, Italy, Vegan, Vegetarian

Baking with the Romans: A Recipe for Pliny the Elder’s Chickling Vetch Sourdough Bread Starter

August 30, 2020 by Farrell Monaco 27 comments

Yup. You read that right. It’s a recipe for an ancient Roman sourdough bread starter made from legumes!

Ancient Recipes, Bread, Edible Archaeology, Greece, Italy

Bread for the Gods: An Ancient Greek Recipe for Pharmakos Barley Cakes with Cheese and Figs

July 24, 2020 by Farrell Monaco 8 comments

A pestilence is sweeping our land. The gods are pissed. It’s time to take this situation into our own hands with an ancient Greek sacrifice. Be gone, pestilence, be gone!

Baking with the Greeks: Demeter's Daughter

Ancient Recipes, Artículos en Español, Bread, Edible Archaeology, Greece, Uncategorized

Horneando con los griegos: La hija de Deméter

June 13, 2020 by Farrell Monaco 1 comment

Explora una de las muchas formas y simbologías relacionadas con el pan griego antiguo con ‘La hija de Deméter’: una receta para una barra de pan de 2.000 años de antigüedad que se asemeja a un trirreme griego. ¡Velocidad de ataqueeeee!

Ancient Recipes, Articoli in Italiano, Bread, Edible Archaeology, Greece

Infornando coi Greci: La Figlia di Demetra

May 8, 2020 by Farrell Monaco 0 comments

Esplora una delle molte forme e simbologie che coinvolgono il pane greco antico con “La Figlia di Demetra”: una ricetta per una pagnotta di 2000 anni fa che è stata modellata per assomigliare a un trireme greco. Velocità di speronamento!

Ancient Recipes, Bread, Edible Archaeology, Greece, Uncategorized

Baking with the Greeks: Demeter’s Daughter

September 12, 2019 by Farrell Monaco 13 comments

Explore one of the many forms and symbologies involving ancient Greek bread with ‘Demeter’s Daughter’: a recipe for a 2,000-year-old loaf of bread that was shaped to resemble a Greek trireme. Ramming speed!

Ancient Recipes, Bread, Edible Archaeology, Italy

The Panis Quadratus – The Key Ingredients: Pompeii Bread with Poppy Seed, Fennel and Parsley

August 30, 2019 by Farrell Monaco 23 comments

Relinquish the ‘relish’, the wine, and the olive oil with this flavour-packed, aromatic 2,000-year-old Roman recipe for a naturally-leavened whole-grain panis quadratus loaf that incorporates poppy seeds, fennel and parsley.

Taralli Pugliesi Recipe | Tavola Mediterranea

Ancient Recipes, Bread, Edible Archaeology, Greece, Puglia, Vegan, Vegetarian

Bread for the Gods: An Ancient Recipe for Taralli Pugliesi

August 9, 2019 by Farrell Monaco 8 comments

Hey good looking! Whatcha got cooking? How’s about cooking up ancient bread with me?… There has been a particular theme that has consistently presented itself during my research this summer, and it’s called ‘continuity’. In archaeology, continuity is a term used to connote the unbroken or consistent existence, operation, or […]

Prosphoro: Greek Orthodox Eucharistic Bread

Ancient Recipes, Bread, Edible Archaeology, Greece, The Old-School Kitchen, Uncategorized, Vegan, Vegetarian

Baking with the Greeks: A Recipe for Prosphora

May 4, 2019 by Farrell Monaco 14 comments

Hey, good looking! Whatcha got cooking? So… I took a break this week from preparing for this summer’s presentations and cooking workshops in Italy to get back into the kitchen where I could indulge in what I call ‘procrastibaking‘. This sometimes happens when I have a writing deadline or lot […]

Panis Quadratus | Panis Siligineus Recipe

Ancient Recipes, Bread, Edible Archaeology, Italy

Baking Bread with the Romans: Part III – The Panis Quadratus Strikes Back

June 14, 2018 by Farrell Monaco 47 comments

Join Roman bread archaeologist, Farrell Monaco, as she delves deeper into the specifics, the ingredients, the techniques and the tools that made Panis Quadratus the most iconic bread made in the Ancient Roman Mediterranean. Archaeology is delicious!

Photo by Gianluca Cecere

About the author:

Farrell Monaco is an award-winning Classical archaeologist and food-writer whose research centers on food, food preparation, and bread in the Roman Mediterranean. She writes regularly on the role of food and food preparation in Roman daily life on her site, Tavola Mediterranea, and publishes in both English and Italian. Farrell has also written exclusively for Atlas Obscura and BBC Travel. Her work has been featured prominently by National Geographic, Popular Science, The Atlantic, the BBC, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Economist, Esquire Magazine, SAPIENS Magazine, Saveur Magazine and Milk Street.

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• Archaeologist. Baker. Bread-Nerd.
• Writer @atlasobscura @bbc_travel
• Winner @saveurmag
• Founder @tavolamediterranea
• Partner @goldbelly
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My heart. My heart. 💔 Glen’s music has lived in my heart and my brain for many, many decades. It was the background music for the adventures and late nights of our entire crew of Irish and Canadian friends during the 2000s. From Vancouver to Cork, seeing The Frames live and bumping into him in a restaurant, exchanging smiles, in Dublin a few years back… was like magic. All of it, pure magic. And now my heart is utterly smashed at the news that he’s gone. This is a terrible, terrible loss. For Ireland and for the world. 😭

#GlenHansard #ThankYou #GoWithGod ...

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Jul 25

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From the BBC:

A new fresco depicting an Italian flatbread has been discovered at Pompeii. Culinary archaeologist Farrell Monaco explains why it’s not a pizza.

Read more via link in bio or here: https://tavolamediterranea.com/2023/07/04/adoreum-the-newly-discovered-flatbread-fresco-of-pompeii/

#Pompeii #Cake #religion #archaeology #Food

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Jul 24

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From: Atlas Obscura

To recreate a meal that comes close to what may have been served in a Pompeian popina, one can begin by looking at the archaeological remains found inside. This includes the imagery in the frescoes painted on the service counter and the contents of the amphorae and the dolia. One dolium contained the bones of duck, swine, goat, and fish, as well as shells from land snails. The duck bones in particular correspond to the fresco of two mallards painted on the front of the counter, perhaps as a pictorial menu for the illiterate majority at the time.

Read more via link in bio or here: https://tavolamediterranea.com/2021/03/17/reconstructing-the-menu-of-a-pub-in-ancient-pompeii/

#Pompeii #Food #FastFood #Recipe #Archaeology ...

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Jul 23

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As someone who cares deeply about bringing the ancient world to the public responsibly, I was genuinely happy to see scholars @caitie_barrett and Steven Tuck as part of the scholarly backbone of the new @natgeo @disneyplus @hulu miniseries ‘Pompeii: Out of Time.’ They (and the other experts featured) provided the kind of thoughtful, evidence-based scholarship that genuinely elevates historical storytelling. It’s encouraging to see such a strong academic backbone behind this beautifully realized and moving documentary series. Don’t miss it! And if you’d like to read more about Steven Tuck’s Pompeii survivor study, look for his book online: Escape From Pompeii 🙌

#pompeii #archaeology #hulu #natgeo #disneyplus ...

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Jul 23

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From BBC World’s Table: Arculata: The bread that survived Pompeii

‘A discovery of a carbonised bread-ring leaves us with many unanswered questions, but one culinary archaeologist has traced its roots and recreated its recipe.’

Read more via the link in bio 👆or here: https://tavolamediterranea.com/2026/07/22/arculata-the-bread-that-survived-pompeii/

#pompeii #bread #archaeology #food #recipe

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Jul 23

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Jul 13

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I’ve been craving these ever since May!! During The Old School Kitchen – Culinaria Pompeiana, Jack and Sam took on the challenge of making lucanicae, the aromatic sausages that quickly became a favourite around our table. Their version was outstanding! Richly seasoned, beautifully balanced, and every bit as memorable as the other dishes we made.

Lucanicae take their name from Lucania, the ancient region of southern Italy (roughly modern Basilicata), whose communities were deeply influenced by the neighbouring Greek cities of Magna Graecia. According to Varro, the Romans learned to make these distinctive sausages from the Lucanians, likely through Lucanian soldiers serving in the Roman army. Their popularity endured for centuries: Cicero mentions lucanicae in his letters, Martial includes them among the delicacies of the Roman table, and Apicius preserves a recipe for them, demonstrating that this regional specialty had become firmly established in Roman cuisine.

Our batch was seasoned with pepper, cumin, savory, parsley, pine nuts, peppercorns, garum, and juniper berries (in lieu of laurel berries). The aroma alone transported us back two thousand years.

Many modern Italian sausages still bear the name luganega, luganighe, or lucanica, preserving a culinary tradition that has endured from antiquity to the present day.

Bravo, Jack and Sam! You’ve left me with a lasting craving. I think it’s time to make another batch! 😋

#sausages #Rome #archaeology #food #masterclass ...

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Jul 12

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Tea cozies on = England in! 😃 I think we’re on to something here! Join us! 🫖 ☕️ 🇬🇧

#fifaworldcup2026 #worldcup #england #teacozy

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Bread

The Old School Kitchen: For Leaven’s Sake – June 26/July 4

Re-creating 2,000-year-old bread found in Pompeii, post-Vesuvius

Pane degli Dei: Una Ricetta per Tortine Pharmakos all’Orzo con Formaggio e Fichi

Baking with the Romans: A Recipe for Pliny the Elder’s Chickling Vetch Sourdough Bread Starter

Bread for the Gods: An Ancient Greek Recipe for Pharmakos Barley Cakes with Cheese and Figs

Horneando con los griegos: La hija de Deméter

Infornando coi Greci: La Figlia di Demetra

Baking with the Greeks: Demeter’s Daughter

The Panis Quadratus – The Key Ingredients: Pompeii Bread with Poppy Seed, Fennel and Parsley

Bread for the Gods: An Ancient Recipe for Taralli Pugliesi

Baking with the Greeks: A Recipe for Prosphora

Baking Bread with the Romans: Part III – The Panis Quadratus Strikes Back

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Winner of the Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies (UK) ‘Master’s Dissertation Prize’ (2024)

2021 Winner of Vaughan Prize for Community Engagement with Outreach (University of Leicester)

2019 Winner of the John Wacher Dissertation Prize in Roman Studies (University of Leicester)

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Contact Us

Winner of the Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies (UK) ‘Master’s Dissertation Prize’ (2024)

2021 Winner of Vaughan Prize for Community Engagement with Outreach (University of Leicester)

2019 Winner of the John Wacher Dissertation Prize in Roman Studies (University of Leicester)