ALITER PATINA DE ASPARAGIS (Asparagus Patina)

(Apic. 4, 2, 6) Ingredients:

• 1 lb. asparagus
• 1/4 cup wine (rose or vernaccia)
• 1 small onion
• 2 or 3 medium eggs
• Peppercorns
• Lovage
• Coriander
• Savory to taste
• Olive oil
• Liquamen

Instructions:
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Make a puree of asparagus and 1/4 cup of wine, reserving some tips foor a garnish. Bray in a clean mortar the pepper and herbs (quantity your call; half the fun of Roman cookery is the continual tasting and estimating of cumulative effect). Grate the onion or put through a food mill. Add with the spices to the puree and mix in a mixture of reduced sweet wine and liquamen, plus a bit of oil, enough to moisten the puree but not to turn it soupy. Put all of the mixture into a greased oven-proof, shallow dish; garnish with reserved asparagus. Beat eggs as for scrambling and pour over the puree when it is thoroughly heated in a 325F oven, pushing it to make uneven pools to receive the eggs; continue to bake until eggs are set, sprinkle with freshly ground pepper and serve.

 

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This temple was built after the earthquake of 62 A.D. as a place of worship for the cult of the Emperor and has a facade projecting slightly further out than the building of Eumachia. A central door leads into a space in front of the inner sanctuary which is bounded on the front side by four columns. Inside these, a staircase on either side led up to a podium on which stood the cella containing the cult statue. Behind the sacellum were three rooms used for the officiators both of this temple and of the adjacent Temple of the Lares which could be reached via a communicating doorway. A marble altar with bas-relief sculptures can be seen in the centre of the sanctuary. ... continue

(Apic. 6, 2, 1) Ingredients:

• 1 large duck
• 1 l water
• bunch of dill
• Olive oil (or 50 g butter)
• Liquamen (or, in this case, duck stock)
• 2 sprigs of oregano finely chopped
• bunch of coriander
• 100 ml defritum (or red wine boiled)
• large pinch of black peppercorns
• large pinch of lovage (or celery seed)
• large pinch of cumin
• large pinch of coriander seeds
• 1 laser root (or garlic)
• Sprig of rue (or rosemary)
• Caroenum (wine reduced of 1/3 plus honey)
• Honey ... continue

Love was a common topic of conversation in Pompeii. Feelings, passions, poetic love, sex, homosexuality, prostitution and so forth were all part of daily life and not a source of prejudice. The concept of “obscenity” seems to have been unknown. Love and sex were considered earthly practices of a man’s life that were encouraged by the benevolence of Venus. The thousands of examples of graffiti found on the town’s walls are unequivocal proof of what the people of Pompeii thought about love and sex.