Pisa

An Apician Roman split pea purée finished with leek, fresh coriander, lovage, and garum, in the manner of De Re Coquinaria

Origin: Ancient Rome

From the journey of Pea.

The dried pea was a staple of the Roman world from the legionary's marching ration to the patrician's table, and the first-century recipe collection that has come down to us under the name of Apicius, De Re Coquinaria, devotes a whole sequence of recipes to it under the heading pisa or pisam. Rome had inherited both the pea and its name from the Greek world: Greek píson became Latin pisum, the word that would father almost every European name for the plant. The Roman cook treated the dried pea as a canvas for the bright, salty, herbaceous flavours that define Roman cooking: the cooked peas were brought to a soft purée and then lifted with leek, fresh coriander, the celery-like herb lovage, and above all garum, the fermented fish sauce that was the Roman equivalent of soy sauce, salty and deeply savoury. The Apician pea recipes range from the elaborate (the famous pisam Vitellianam, layered with brains, sausages, and sweetbreads into a moulded dish for a banquet) to the plain and practical. The version reconstructed here is one of the simpler, more usable ones: split peas cooked down and seasoned in the Roman manner, a dish that would have been recognisable to a Roman of the early Empire and which sits at the head of a long European lineage running through medieval pease pottage and Renaissance risi e bisi all the way to the petits pois of Versailles. Reconstructing Roman food is always partly conjecture, since the texts give few quantities, but the flavour logic is clear and the result is genuinely good: a savoury, herb-flecked pea purée, sharpened with a little wine and honey and finished with good oil and pepper.

Ingredients

Peas

  • 350 g yellow split peas, rinsed
  • 1.2 l water or light stock

Seasoning

  • 1 piece leek, white part only, finely sliced
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped
  • 1 tsp fresh or dried lovage, chopped (or celery leaf as a substitute)
  • 1 tbsp garum or colatura di alici (fish sauce), to taste
  • 60 ml white wine
  • 1 tsp honey
  • 0.5 tsp freshly ground black pepper, plus more to finish
  • 0.25 tsp ground cumin

Method

  1. Put the rinsed split peas in a pot with the water or stock. Bring to a boil, skim, then lower the heat and simmer, partly covered, for 45 to 55 minutes until completely soft. Beat with a spoon to a coarse purée, loosening with hot water to a thick, spoonable consistency.
  2. In a separate pan, warm the olive oil over a medium heat and soften the sliced leek gently for 6 to 8 minutes without browning.
  3. Add the white wine to the leeks and let it bubble for a minute. Stir in the cumin, lovage, and half the coriander, then tip in the pea purée.
  4. Season with the garum and the honey, add the black pepper, and simmer gently together for 5 to 10 minutes, stirring, until the flavours marry into a glossy, savoury purée. Taste and add more garum if it needs salt and savour.
  5. Spoon into a shallow dish, scatter with the remaining fresh coriander, drizzle with a little more olive oil, and grind over fresh pepper. Serve warm.

Notes

This is a working reconstruction of an Apician pea dish; the original texts give flavourings rather than precise quantities, so season to taste. If you cannot find garum, the modern Italian colatura di alici (anchovy sauce) is its direct descendant and an excellent substitute; failing that, a little anchovy paste or light soy. Lovage is the authentic herb but celery leaf is a fair stand-in.

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Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
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