Conchiclam Apicianam
(Concicla à la Apicius)

Origin: Roman      Period: Traditional

Original Recipe

Conchiclam Apicianam (from Apicius' De Re Coquinaria V,4,2)

Conchiclam Apicianam: accipies Cumanam mundam, ubi coques pisam, cui mittis Lucanicas concisas, isiciola porcina, pulpas, petasonem. teres piper, ligusticum, origanum, anethum, cepam siccam, coriandrum viride, suffundis liquamen, vino et liquamine temperabis. mittis in Cumanam, cui adicies oleum, pungis ubique, ut combibat oleum. igni lento coques ita ut ferveat et inferes.

Translation

Concicla à la Apicius: Take a clean earthenware pot to cook the peas. Add chopped Lucanian sausages, small pork patties and shoulder meat. Grind pepper, lovage, oregano, dill, dried onion and fresh coriander; moisten with liquamen and mix with liquamen and wine. Pu this in the pot, add oil, and puncture [the meat] all over so that it absorbs the oil. Cover over a low fire and serve.

Ingredients:

2kg fresh peas in their pods
200g pork shoulder
200g Lucanian sausages (or other mild smoked sausage)
400g minced pork
1 egg
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp lovage
1 tsp dried oregano, crumbled
1 tsp dried dill
1 tsp dried onion
1 tsp ground coriander seeds
1 tbsp liquamen (fish sauce (Nam Pla))
250ml wine
salt and black pepper, to taste

Method:

Shell the peas, parboil for about 5 minutes in salted water and set aside. Reserve the water and use to boil the pork shoulder for about 40 minutes, or until tender. Allow the meat to cool then cube. Slice the sausages.

Lightly season the minced pork, combine with the egg then shape into small balls or patties. Fry these until nicely browned and cooked through then set aside.

Combine all the remaining ingredients (except the oil) in a bowl to form a sauce. Palace the pieces of meat in an eartherware casserole or tagine (in latin this is a cumanam ie made of Cumaean clay) then pour the sauce over the top and add 2 tbsp olive oil. Cover and allow to simmer gently until the meat is almost done (about 35 minutes). About 5 minutes before the end of this time stir-in the peas.

Season to taste, add a few generous twists of black pepper and serve.

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