Cepa et porrum

Name: Cepa et porrum
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 50 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Roman Empire
Ingredients: 4 medium onions, peeled and quartered; 4 stalks leeks, white and light green parts, cut into 5cm lengths; 150 ml dry white wine (Apicius calls for defrutum, reduced grape must, but dry white wine is the closest substitute); 80 ml good olive oil; 2 tbsp red wine vinegar (ancient 'acetum'); 1 tsp ground cumin; 0.5 tsp ground coriander; 0.5 tsp ground black pepper; 0.25 tsp ground celery seed (or lovage, ancient 'ligusticum'); 1 tsp honey; 1 tsp garum or fish sauce (the ancient condiment, closest modern substitute); 0.5 tsp salt (if not using fish sauce)

A Roman table preparation from the kitchen of Apicius: onions and leeks slow-cooked in wine, oil, and cumin until tender and sweet: the ancient world's most recorded vegetable preparation, unchanged for two thousand years

Origin: Roman Empire

From the journey of Onion.

Apicius, De Re Coquinaria, is the only surviving complete Roman cookbook, compiled in the 4th or 5th century CE from earlier sources attributed to the legendary gourmand Marcus Gavius Apicius (1st century CE). It devotes extensive attention to alliums: onion (cepa), leek (porrum), and garlic (allium) appear in more recipes than any other vegetable. The preparation 'aliter porros et cepa' (another way with leeks and onion) is a characteristic Roman allium dish: the vegetables are blanched to remove harshness, then cooked slowly in oil with wine, cumin, and coriander until completely tender. Roman cooking's use of wine as a cooking liquid rather than merely a table beverage, and its characteristic combination of cumin and coriander with alliums, can be directly traced through Arab cooking of the medieval period to the spice profiles of modern Levantine and North African cooking: a living line from the Roman kitchen to the present day.

Ingredients

Alliums

4 medium onions, peeled and quartered
4 stalks leeks, white and light green parts, cut into 5cm lengths

Liquid

150 ml dry white wine (Apicius calls for defrutum, reduced grape must, but dry white wine is the closest substitute)

Fat

80 ml good olive oil

Acid

2 tbsp red wine vinegar (ancient 'acetum')

Spices

1 tsp ground cumin
0.5 tsp ground coriander
0.5 tsp ground black pepper
0.25 tsp ground celery seed (or lovage, ancient 'ligusticum')

Sweetening

1 tsp honey

Seasoning

1 tsp garum or fish sauce (the ancient condiment, closest modern substitute)
0.5 tsp salt (if not using fish sauce)

Method

Blanch the onion quarters and leek pieces in boiling salted water for 3 minutes. Drain. This step removes the raw harshness; standard Roman practice for alliums.
Heat the olive oil in a wide pan. Add the blanched onions and leeks. Cook over medium heat for 5 minutes until beginning to colour.
Add the wine, vinegar, cumin, coriander, pepper, and celery seed. Stir. Bring to a simmer.
Add the honey and fish sauce (or salt). Reduce heat to low. Cover and cook for 20 minutes until the alliums are completely tender and the sauce has reduced to a glossy coating.
Serve warm as a side dish, or cooled at room temperature as part of a spread with bread, olives, and cheese; as a Roman appetiser table (gustatio) would have been served.

Notes

Apicius's recipe collection reveals a Roman kitchen that was far more sophisticated than popular imagination suggests; complex spice combinations, multiple cooking stages, careful balancing of sweet, sour, and savoury. The garum (fermented fish sauce) that appears in virtually every Apicius recipe was produced industrially across the Roman empire; amphorae of garum have been found from Britain to North Africa. The modern Italian condiment colatura di alici (anchovy drippings) is a direct descendant of garum and gives the most accurate flavour. The Roman combination of alliums with cumin, wine, and vinegar is the direct ancestor of the Arabic sharba and Persian khoresh traditions; Roman and Persian cooking influenced each other extensively through the centuries of contact along the Silk Road.

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Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control