Aliter Dulcia (Another Kind of Dessert) is a traditional Ancient Roman recipe for a steamed dough dessert made of nuts, pine nuts and honey. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Ancient Roman version of Aliter Dulcia.
Aliter dulcia: piper, nucleos, mel, rutam et passum teres, cum lacte [et] tracta coques. coagulum coque cum modicis ovis. perfusum melle, aspersum inferes.
Translation
Crush pepper, nuts, honey, rue, and raisin wine with milk, and cook the mixture with few eggs well worked in, cover with honey, sprinkle with crushed nuts, etc and serve.
Ingredients:
250g coarsely-ground nuts (or pine kernels)
100g coarsely-ground pine kernels
3–4 tbsp honey
1 tbsp finely-minced rue
50ml passum
50ml milk
2 eggs
Honey to drizzle
ground black pepper
Method:
Mix together the pine kernels, nuts, honey, rue and Passum with the milk and eggs to form a dough then season with pepper. Meanwhile, pre-heat a steamer and place the dough on a buttered heat-proof dish and place in the steamer. Cook for about 20 minutes then take out, drizzle with honey and a sprinkling of freshly-ground pepper.