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Minutal Terentinum (Terentine Ragout)
Minutal Terentinum (Terentine Ragout) is a traditional Ancient Roman recipe for a classic dish of meat forcemeat balls and leeks cooked a spiced sauce with meat stock, liquamen, wine and passum that's thickened with crumbled pastry. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Ancient Roman version of: Terentine Ragout (Minutal Terentinum).
prep time
20 minutes
cook time
20 minutes
Total Time:
40 minutes
Serves:
4
Rating: 
Tags : Pork RecipesBeef RecipesVegetable RecipesAncient Roman Recipes
Original Recipe
Minutal Terentinum: concides in caccabum albamen de porris minutatim, adicies oleum, liquamen, cocturam, isiciola valde minuta et sic temperas ut tenerum sit. isicium Terentinum facies: inter isicia confectionem invenies. ius tale facies: piper, ligusticum, origanum, fricabis, suffundes liquamen, ius de suo sibi, vino et passo temperabis. mittes caccabum. cum ferbuerit, tractam confringes, obligas. piper aspergis et inferes.
Translation
Terentine Ragout: Into a deep pan put finely-chopped white of leeks, add olive oil, liquamen, wine and stock and very small forcemeat balls, and blend until they are soft. Make
isicia Terentina: the recipe for which will be found among the methods to prepare
isicia. Then prepare the sauce by pounding [in a mortar] pepper, lovage, oregano; moisten with liquamen, and some of the above broth, mix in wine and passum. Put into a saucepan. When it boils, crumble pastry [into the ragout] to thicken. Season with pepper and serve.
The isicia referred to in this recipe had me confused. It's almost a decade since I first looked at and translated this recipe. After re-reading Apicius and reading other Greco-Roman sources I now believe that isicia are Greek-derived pasta sheets. In the De Re Coquinaria, we find two types of pasta-like dough sheets: lagana and tractae. Lagana are originally Greek and used for layered patinae, in a similar way as lasagne are prepared since the Middle Ages.
We find scarce information about the tractae in various passages of this cookbook: we know, for example, that they are dried (in a few cases, Apicius specifies it; usually, he writes to break the tractae) and that at least one kind of tracta has a little circular shape (the word he uses is orbiculi). There is no description about the way to prepare the dough, but in Cato’s De Agri Cultura we find a recipe: tracta is simply a dough sheet made kneading flour with water, exactly the same method we use still today to prepare pasta. Cato describes two different kinds of tractae that were used to prepare placenta (this being a new recipe that I have just added to my collection). Conventional pasta is boiled, but until the late middle ages pasta was fried. So I assume that the isicia are circular sheets of pasta that were fried and used as the base for this dish. As a result of this culinary detective work I've added a recipe for isicia, which I'm linking to from this recipe.
Modern Redaction
Ingredients:
20 small beef or pork forcemeat balls
60ml olive oil
4 leeks (white parts only), sliced
120ml reduced beef stock
240ml strong
vegetable stock
For the Sauce:
1/2 tsp freshly-ground
black pepper
1/4 tsp
lovage seeds (or celery seeds)
1/2 tsp dried
oregano, crumbled
2 tbsp
liquamen or Thai fish sauce
60ml red wine
60ml
passum
60ml meatball stock
4 tbsp crumbled pastry
Method:
Prepare the meatballs according to your favourite recipe then shape into small balls. Heat olive oil in a pan, add the meatballs and fry until browned all over before adding the leeks, reduced stock and vegetable stock. Bring to a simmer and cook, uncovered, for about 20 minutes, or until the meatballs are cooked through.
In the meantime prepare the sauce. Pound together the black pepper, lovage (or celery) seeds and oregano in a mortar then work in the liquamen and wine. Combine with the passum then pour into the pan with the meatballs and leeks. Bring to a simmer, stir in the pastry crumbs and cook until thickened before serving.
Find more recipes from Apicius' De Re Coquinaria along with information on Apicius and his cookbook, all part of this site's Ancient Roman recipes collection.
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