Pining for Pasta?

What a week! And the drama threatens to continue as the big bad guy is asking the little guys to sign an indemnity form absolving them from everything. A release from liability form that cannot be overturned for any reason, ever. I think we will seek legal advice, but it makes me ill to be even considering it. Why can’t people just be honest and reasonable?

In other news, the question in our house this week has been: what did the Roman soldiers eat when they were garrisoned in Britain? This came about as were eating a delicious Italian- style dinner of pesto pasta, salad, and garlic bread, with a crisp, dry, white wine. I think the question was voiced because we might imagine that the Roman soldiers suffered while eating a restrictive and boring diet in Britannia.

But there are a number of things to be considered when answering this question. First, the “Roman” troops were not just men from Rome. They were also gathered from the tribes of Europe (in other words, they were mercenaries) and what they ate “back at home” was probably not very different from what the British Celts ate.

The Celts cultivated grains like wheat, barley, and oats, which were crushed coarsely to a kind of porridge, and ground finely to make flour. They gathered sorrel, and other greens from the woods and meadows. They grew a few root vegetables like turnips, parsnips, and onions, and they cultivated peas and beans. (Note: some sources say that onions, peas, and beans were imported from Europe. If so, it was early in the occupation so that they would have been considered British by the time that Aethelreda and her people were around.) The Celts also ate berries, nuts, and fungi. As far as meat was concerned, they ate pigs and sheep, ducks and hens, and a variety of wild animals such as birds, deer, wild boar, fish, and seafood.

On the whole it doesn’t sound too bad, does it? I can imagine a delicious meal of roasted boar, served with a side of stewed wild apples, boiled greens, and good crusty bread with butter. I don’t think they served desserts as such, but an accompanying blackberry pie sweetened with honey and drizzled with fresh cream from the house cow would be perfect, in my eyes!

The second thing to remember is that back in the country we now call Italy the locals were not much better off than the rest of Europe as far as food variety went. Significantly there were no tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, or zucchini, which are foods that we may think of as quintessentially Italian. Those foods all came from the New World and were not introduced to Europe until the sixteenth century. So, all those delicious red gravies from Southern Italy are relatively modern!

But the four hundred years of Roman occupation did change the menus of the local British. The troops imported wine, olive oil, figs, grapes, mint, rosemary, garlic, and other vegetables such as carrots and asparagus. People like Blaedswith and her husband, who collaborated with the Romans, would have regularly enjoyed gifts of wine and oil from their patrons on their dinner tables.

Tonight, I’m reheating some tasty gnocchi in a creamy sauce that I had last night in a local restaurant and couldn’t finish. I’ll make a salad and have some bread and wine, and I’ll think of Paulos as I eat it.  Salve!