In North American or northern European settings, those who observe Easter will feast with friends and family on the evening of Easter Sunday, following a long Lenten fast. And this is generally when the festivities and Easter contemplations end. Not in Italy, however. On Easter Monday, it’s as if they have chosen to celebrate the resurrection of Christ one more time, breaking out Cuddura di Pasqua yet again after the dawn of this new day.
Have you ever had an experience when you were out for dinner and a dish was served that, when it hit your palate, sent you reeling on a sensory roller-coaster back to a time and place in your life that was associated with someone that you loved dearly? I have, but I never expected it to happen to me within the sphere of my research. After all, ancient Roman food has nothing to do with my Swedish grandmother and her Ukrainian friends, right?… Wrong.
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!
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!
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!
Taste the Mediterranean Triad with this 2,500-year-old ancient Graeco-Roman recipe for a kneaded rissole of spelt-dough and boiled beans, fried crackly and gold in boiling oil and served with a homemade red wine oenogarum.
Il Savillum incontra la Kalitsounia in questa antica ricetta di 2,500 anni fa per una sontuosa torta al formaggio di capra e al miele degna di un banchetto… o di uno spuntino di mezzanotte dopo una turbolenta partita a kottabos!
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!
“On a balmy, starlit night more than 40 people are seated at a table that runs the length of the inner courtyard of Castello di Potentino, a medieval castle in southern Tuscany. Through openings in the wall you can glimpse the slopes of Monte Amiata. The mountain was sacred to […]
This event has been cancelled due to the Coronavirus pandemic and associated health and safety precautions and travel restrictions. “On a balmy, starlit night more than 40 people are seated at a table that runs the length of the inner courtyard of Castello di Potentino, a medieval castle in southern […]
Join food archaeologist, Farrell Monaco for a 5-day live-in edible archaeology master class at the palatial Castello di Potentino, a medieval castle hidden in a valley in the Tuscan countryside, as we explore the food history and archaeology of Etruria, Magna Graecia, and Rome from 800 BC to the Imperial Roman Era (AD 476). May 31- June 6, 2020 – Monte Amiata (Tuscany), Italy.
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!
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 Economist, Esquire Magazine, SAPIENS Magazine, Verve Magazine, Saveur Magazine and Milk Street. In November of 2020, Farrell co-produced, wrote and presented a video on the history of the date palm fruit with The Getty Museum (Los Angeles, USA).
