Stuffed (Layered) Peas with White Sauce
Origin: Rome, Italy
Source: Apicius, 400
Ingredients
- peas
- olive oil
- sow's paunch (abdomen)
- liquamen (Roman fermented fish sauce)
- headed leek (porrum capitatum)
- green coriander
- small square forcemeat balls (isicia)
- thrushes or small birds or chicken pieces
- brains
- Lucanian sausages (Lucanicae)
- ham (petaso)
- leeks
- pine nuts (nuclei)
- pepper, lovage, oregano, ginger (zingiber)
- caul (omentum)
- hard-boiled egg yolks
- white pepper
- honey
- white wine (vinum candidum)
Instructions
- Cook peas with oil; cook a sow's paunch in liquamen, headed leek, and green coriander.
- Prepare the fillings: square forcemeat balls; thrushes/small birds/chicken with nearly-cooked brains in light broth; roasted Lucanian sausages; boiled ham; boiled leeks; fried pine nuts.
- Make a binding sauce: grind pepper, lovage, oregano, ginger; add the paunch's juice and smooth.
- Line a turn-out mold with caul; oil it, sprinkle pine nuts, and build alternating layers of peas, ham, leeks, and sausages until full, ending with peas.
- Bake or cook over low heat until set; turn out onto a platter.
- For the white sauce (ius candidum): grind hard yolks with white pepper, pine nuts, honey, white wine, and a little liquamen; boil, then pour over the peas.