Insalate Romane

Mention Roman cuisine and most people think of lark's tongues, door mice, and all sorts of other strange and exotic things liberally seasoned with garum, a fermented fish paste -- this is, after all, the impression that filters through from the descriptions of the feasts in the Satyricon and the accounts of the historians and commentators of the time. However, there are some problems with this picture. First, these accounts were written in the Late Republic and Imperial periods, many by people who heartily disapproved of the ruling classes of the time and considered them debauched power hungry fops. While many certainly were (especially by modern American standards), only the most self-indulgent enjoyed fantastic meals all of the time -- Lucullus, the Roman general who introduced the cherry tree to Western Europe, may have told his cook that a solitary meal was very important -- "today Lucullus dines with Lucullus" -- but he was Lucullus. And he lived two thousand years ago.

Modern Roman cuisine is one of the simplest and most direct in the Peninsula -- wholesome antipasti, quick, simple pasta sauces, light lively meat dishes, lots of greens and vegetables, and simple desserts. Part of the reason for this is cultural: Though the aristocracy enjoyed elaborate French cuisine, the general populace was unable to afford the recipes and made do with what they had. Since the rich soils and mild climate combine to yield superb produce, people likely saw little reason to cover the flavors with elaborate techniques. Take salads, for example, summer mainstays that are refreshing, light, and easy to digest even in the hottest weather. "If we ignore all the more-or-less artificial modern concoctions proposed by the International Style of cuisine, some of which even contain... salad," writes Ada Boni in La Cucina Romana," in Rome things are tremendously simple. Roman salads fall into two categories, raw and cooked. The second includes all the dishes that are termed all'agro."

All'Agro means served with a sour sauce:

These are greens that are blanched or boiled, drained, let cool, and seasoned with salt, pepper, olive oil and lemon juice (or quite rarely vinegar).

Among the vegetables of choice are: chicory, string beans, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, broccoli rabe and wild asparagus.

Speaking of asparagus, here's another way to season them (once they're cooked): put a few tablespoons of olive oil in a bowl, add to it the juice of a lemon and a pinch of salt, and lightly whip the mixture to emulsify it somewhat. Prepared this way the sauce will be better amalgamated and tastier.
(After Ada Boni)

A couple other preparazioni all'agro she suggests:

Bean salad: Soak and boil your beans, drain them, and season them with olive oil, salt, pepper, vinegar and freshly minced parsley. There also go quite well with boiled meat.

Potato Salad: Peel and boil (or steam) your potatoes until they are fork-tender, cut them into fairly thin slices, and season them with olive oil, vinegar, salt, pepper and parsley. Serve cold.

Beet & Potato Salad: Cook equal quantities of potatoes and beets, peel them, and slice them thinly. Season the mixture with salt, pepper, olive oil, vinegar, and parsley or basil. Serve cold.

The raw salads, are, as you might expect, a mix of salad greens (lettuce, arugola, endive, and so on) tossed together. Almost everything that goes into the salad is green; one rarely encounters carrots, peppers, cheese and other things in a traditional Roman salad. What you will occasionally find is thinly sliced hard-boiled egg, or ripe white grapes.

This doesn't mean that there isn't tomato salad. Quite the contrary, to make a perfect Roman tomato salad take a number of flavorful sun-ripened tomatoes, core them, and chop them up. Add to them one or two cloves of garlic (crushed if you just want the aroma, and minced if you want to eat it too), olive oil, salt, pepper, and minced parsley or basil. With fresh bread to mop up the drippings, this is fit for royalty.

So is the Insalata Caprese, named after the Island of Capri, home of the Emperor Tiberio:
Take several tomatoes, wash them core them, seed them, and slice them. Take a slightly lesser volume of fresh mozzarella and slice it somewhat thinner than you sliced the tomatoes. Mix the two, dust with freshly shredded basil leaves (leave a few whole to act as garnish), season with extravirgin olive oil, salt and pepper to taste, and serve.

Here's a final salad that's in a class by itself:

"A most rustic preparation that has almost vanished," writes Ada Boni," is onion with sardines: it's anything but refined and requires a determined stomach. Slice abundant onions, lay them out on a plate, and add to them salted sardines that you have beheaded, split, and boned. Sardines are sold by delicatessens and come preserved in barrels, like anchovies. The only difference when anchovies are used instead is that their heads are left on, and therefore Romans call them Alici co' lermo, helmeted anchovies. You should season this dish with olive oil, oil, vinegar, a pinch of salt and abundant pepper."

Despite Ada Boni's assertion that the dish has vanished I have encountered it in simple fish restaurants, albeit with much less onion than she suggests. It works very well as an antipasto.

A printer-friendly version of all this
Other things from Ada Boni

And finally, here's a recipe for puntarelle, a Roman chicory salad with a hearty garlicky sauce.

Got more sites / recipes to suggest? Let me know!
Basic Italian Recipes

Buon Appetito!
Kyle Phillips

Subscribe to the Newsletter
Name	Email

Previous Features

Photo mine.