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Pisces Scorpiones Rapulatos (Scorpion Fish with Turnips in Saffron Sauce)

Pisces Scorpiones Rapulatos (Scorpion Fish with Turnips in Saffron Sauce) is a traditional Ancient Roman recipe for a fish fried and then baked with salt, cumin seeds and dill before being served with a sauce made of white wine vinegar and fish sauce. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Ancient Roman version of: Pisces Scorpiones Rapulatos.

prep time

20 minutes

cook time

60 minutes

Total Time:

80 minutes

Serves:

6

Rating:

Tags : Sauce RecipesSpice RecipesVegetable RecipesAncient Roman Recipes

Original Recipe

Though often attributed to Apicius this recipe is actually derived from the fifth century 'The Excerpts from Apicius by Vinidarius the Illustrious Man'. Vinidarius was the compiler of a small collection of cooking recipes, preserved in a single 8th century uncial manuscript, claiming to be excerpts from the recipes of Apicius. In fact, though the Apician manuscript and Vinidarius' writings are stylistically similar there is actually very little overlap between them. Today, Vinidarius' work is generally presented as an appendix to Apicius. In fact the recipe below can be derived by combining three Apician recipes together and represents a late evolution of Apician techniques.

Pisces Scorpiones Rapulatos (from Vinidarius' ApiciExcerpta AVinodario viroillustri)

Pisces Scorpiones Rapulatos: Coquis in liquamen et oleo et cum mediaverit coctura, tolles. rapas elixas madidas et minutissime concisas manibus depressabis, ut humorem non habeant, et cum pisce obligas, et bulliat cum oleo abunde. et, iam bullivit, teres cuminum, lauri bacam dimidiam, addes propter colorem crocum. amulabis de oryza propter spissitudinem. superfundes et tunc inferes. addes modicum acetum.

Translation

Scorpion Fish with Turnips: Cook the fish in broth and oil, retire when half done: soak boiled turnips, chop very fine and squeeze them in your hands so that they have no more moisture in them; then combine them with the fish and let them simmer with plenty of oil: and while this cooks, crush cumin, half of that amount of laurel berries, and, because of the colour, add saffron; bind with rice flour to give it the right consistency. Add a dash of vinegar and serve.

Modern Redaction

The main fish mentioned here is the Mediterranean red scorpion fish, which we know from villa excavations that the Romans and Greeks ate.

Ingredients:

6 whole herring or mackerel, gutted (or 4 cod fillets)
4 turnips
grated almonds or pine nuts
2 tbsp olive oil
100ml white wine
150ml water
20g butter
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp laurel (bay) berries (or juniper berries)
300ml white wine
1 tbsp honey
Pinch of saffron
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp cornflour

Method:

First peel the turnips and boil until soft. Pour off the excess water and mash them with butter. Spread this mash on a serving plate.

Fillet the fish and poach them lightly in a mix of white wine, water and olive oil (should take about 15 minutes). Remove them from the stock and place on top of the mashed turnips. Reserve the stock to make the saffron sauce.

To make the saffron sauce grind together the cumin and laurel (or juniper) berries in a pestle and mortar. Combine this with the white wine, honey, about 60ml of the fish stock and the olive oil. Bring to the boil and turn down the heat. Add the cornflour and whisk in to mix. Simmer for 25 minutes to thicken, add a pinch of saffron for colour and pour over the fish.

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.