Step 8
Once the shells have cooled, it’s time to prepare the toppings. You have a lot of freedom here!
For each flatbread: take 3 figs and mash them into a paste. Coat the centre platform of the shell with the paste. You may also want to add some ricotta into the fig paste or smooth a few small dollops over it.
Step 9
Cut up a few slices of soft fruit, such as apricot, dates or fig, and dress the top of the paste with the fruit slices. I suggest trying this with a reed-like implement, such as a split wooden skewer instead of a knife.
Step 10
Place 2 small quail eggs between the slices of fruit and garnish with a small apple or apricot.
Warm ⅛ cup of honey and drizzle it over the fruit allowing the trough of the flatbread-shell to fill halfway. Stop drizzling if the trough begins to overflow. Serve and enjoy!
Notes
It is unknown at what extraction rate the flour was processed to make the Pompeian Adoreum. Use a fine or bolted (bran content sieved out) product. If you cannot locate emmer flour, you may use spelt flour or fine whole or white common wheat flour.
If you do not have a starter, you can create a “sponge” by mixing equal parts flour and water with 1 tsp of commercial baker’s yeast. Stir and let it activate until it begins to rise. Use 35g (¼ cup) of this sponge as your starter.
Tasting and pairing notes
You may wish to pair this with some of the other items featured in the fresco such as red wine, chestnuts and citron. Another addition that isn’t indicated as a topping for nastos or adoreum, but would please the modern palette, would be some crumbled, aged cheese.
As you taste this Roman pastry, remember that it isn’t the same as a modern galette or Danish: it is a simple, rustic, Roman honey-cake topped with seasonal fruits. It is also an opportunity for all of us to explore the culinary practices of ancient Rome and the cultural heritage of Pompeii with our hands and our tastebuds. And what a wonderful experience it is to celebrate the recent discovery of this early form of pastry in this manner, even if we’re doing it from afar. It may not be pizza, but adoreum is quite literally a glory to behold, and a reminder that the breads and pastries we adore today have journeyed to our tables through millennia and from places that are often oceans away. And this time, from Pompeii.
(Farrell Monaco is a classical archaeologist, baker and writer. She is currently an honorary visiting fellow at The University of Leicester’s School of Archaeology and Ancient History. She is the 2019 winner of Best Special Interest Food Blog Award by Saveur Magazine and author of the forthcoming book: Panis: The Story of Bread in Ancient Rome.)
BBC.com’s World’s Table “smashes the kitchen ceiling” by changing the way the world thinks about food, through the past, present and future.
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