I have egg on my face and it was not due to a cooking accident. 

As I was reading my December 8 article in the newspaper, I shocked myself.  I could not believe my oversight.  One would think I was drunk or never took Romen history in college. 

I stated that Christ was born during the reign of Tiberius and crucified during the reign of Augustus.  That is totally absurd.  Christ was born during the reign of Augustus and crucified during the reign of Claudius.  I cannot believe I made such an obvious mistake.  I apologize.

I was not planning on covering ancient Roman cooking.  But since I started out with Roman history, I might as well.  Besides, you might find it fun.

In many respects, the foods prepared by ancient Romans were basic, and to an extent, bland.  That is true of the poor hard-working Roman.  However, the elite rich had it much better.  They could afford expensive food items and hold elaborate banquets.  Seasonings, such as salt, was expensive.  Now days, salt is relatively cheap.  But in ancient Rome, it was not.  You have heard the phrase “He is not worth his salt.”  In ancient Rome, soldiers and others could be paid with salt.  Salt was expensive, and thus, used often as payment.  The Latin word “salary” refers to salt.  Another misnomer is the idea that Romans commonly had feasts and gorged themselves with food.  To over-indulge was shameful and regarded as “un-Roman”.  Their statues give you a good idea of their physic.

The Romans love nature and sought after sensual pleasures.  Therefore, it was in their nature to desire scrumptious foods.  Some of the delicacies were such things as bull’s testicles and sow’s utters.  Sorry if I made anyone sick.  However, history is what it is and cannot be changed.  I tell it as it is.

Most people are familiar with lasagna.  Patina contidiana (Latin for daily dish) is the original lasagna or at least the dish from which lasagna evolved.  It originated at least two millennia ago.  Although tomato sauce is used in lasagna today, none was used by ancient Romans.  The simple fact of the matter is that it did not exist in Rome.  It did not appear until after Cortes invaded Mexico.  Tomatoes were found only in the Americas and brought over to Europe in the 16^th Century along with the potato, tobacco, and other goodies.

The original recipe did not use tomatoes as explained above.  It also did not use pasta.  In place of a wide ribbon of pasta, it used flat bread called lagana.  Like lasagna, it was layered.  The layers consisted of meats, fish, and cheeses as the primary ingredients.  Seasonings and a few other items were included.

This information came from a cookbook (scroll) written in about the first century A.D.  The scroll’s name is “De Re Conquinaria”.  It is astounding to me that any such cookbook survived for two thousand years.

We will continue with Italy.