First Asparagus Recipe
The First Asparagus Recipe written by the Roman Apicius in his famous book “Ars Magirica – On the Art of Cooking”.
Ars Magirica – which is he name of the first European book on cooking, was compiled by the master of this trade: Marcus Gavius Apicius. Even though historians might not agree on everything about Apicius, his recipes are widely considered as pieces of art. The millionaire and gourmet run a cooking school and chartered ships in order to see for himself whether the Libya coast boasted really as much crayfish as he had been told. Being truly the extravagant master cook he was, he took his life after he had lost all his possessions.
The Recipe:
“Patina de asparagis frigida” – Asparagus casserole à la Apicius
Ingredients for 4 persons:
• 2 kg of asparagus
• 4 quails or 4 pieces of chicken breast
• 6 eggs
• 1 tbs. of wine
• 1 tbs. of liquor wine
• 2 tbs. of fish sauce (garum)
• a sufficient amount of pepper
• 80 ml oil
Preparation:
Instead of quails, the Roman original recipe choose warblers.
Prepare the quails and put them in water until half-cooked. Cook the asparagus, remove the liquid and strain it through a sieve. Mix the eggs with some of the fish sauce and stir it under the mash.
Grind the pepper in a mortar, mix it with the wine, liquor wine, the rest of the fish sauce and oil, pour everything into a pot and bring it to boil.
Put the asparagus mash into a casserole dish, place the quails on top of it and pour the sauce over. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Season with pepper and serve.
The dish can also be served cold.