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Catillus Ornatus (Seasoned Fritters)

Catillus Ornatus (Seasoned Fritters) is a reconstructed traditional Ancient Greco-Roman recipe for fried pasta like dish of a lettuce, flour and wine dough. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Ancient Roman version of: Seasoned Fritters (Catillus Ornatus).

prep time

20 minutes

cook time

20 minutes

Total Time:

40 minutes

Makes:

10

Rating:

Tags : Vegetarian RecipesAncient Roman Recipes

Original Recipe

Athenaeus Deipnosophists Book IV.57.

Ῥωμαίοις οὕτως γίγνεται· θρίδακας πλύνας ξέσον καὶ ἐμβαλὼν οἶνον εἰς θυίαν τρῖβε τὰς θρίδακας, εἶτα τὸν χυλὸν ἐκπιέσας σελίγνιον συμφύρασον αὐτῷ καὶ συμπεσεῖν ἐάσας μετ᾿ ὀλίγον τρῖψον εὐτόνως, προσβαλὼν ὀλίγον στέατος χοιρείου καὶ πέπερι, καὶ πάλιν τρίψας ἕλκυσον λάγανον καὶ λειάνας ἐκτεμὼν κατάτεμνε καὶ ἕψε εἰς ἔλαιον fθερμότατον εἰς ἠθμὸν

English Translation

What the Romans call a katillos ornatos is made as follows: Wash and grate lettuce; put some wine in a mortar, and mash the lettuce;335 then squeeze out the liquid and work fine flour into it. Let it settle for a little while, then knead it vigorously. Add a bit of pork-fat and pepper; knead it again; stretch it out into a thin sheet; smooth it; trim it; cut it into small sections; put the pieces in a colander; and deep-fry them in olive oil that is as hot as possible.

Modern Redaction

This is another ancestor of pasta, similar to the lagana described previously; a modern descendant called aruk khass which hails from Iraq consists of lettuce, onions, parsley, flour, eggs, cumin and pepper. It makes an excellent accompaniment to vegetable purées. Ancient lettuces were more flavourful than many supermarket varieties, so I would suggest using cos lettuce as a minimum but as a preference use endive or a blend of endive and lettuce for a 'greener' flavour.

Ingredients:

1 head lettuce or large endive
150ml red wine
2 tbsp olive oil
300g spelt flour
freshly-ground black pepper, to taste
Olive oil for frying

Method:

Chop the lettuce then combine in a mortar or blender with the wine and 2 tbsp olive oil and reduce to a pulp.

Scrape the lettuce pulp into a bowl then work in the spelt flour until you have a soft dough. Season this with plenty of freshly-ground black pepper.

Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and pat it down as thin as possible (flip every now and again to coat in flour and prevent sticking). The dough should not need to be rolled with a rolling pin.

Now use a pastry cutter to make the individual fritters; this gives a neater and more
appetising appearance to the fritters than the strips mentioned in the original text (I elected to use rectangular cutters to maintain the suggestion of lasagne).

Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat and when hot use to fry the fritters,
turning once so they are brown on both sides. Drain the fritters on kitchen
paper when cooked. Add more olive oil to top up the levels as each batch is fried.

Grind a generous amount of pepper over the fritters before serving. You can serve as an accompaniment or as a snack with a dipping sauce.