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Sumen (Sow's Belly)
Sumen (Sow's Belly) is a traditional Ancient Roman recipe for a classic dish of a pig's stomach that's boiled until tender, roasted to colour and served with a sauce flavoured with black pepper, lovage, stock, wine and passum. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Ancient Roman version of: Sow's Belly (Sumen).
prep time
20 minutes
cook time
270 minutes
Total Time:
290 minutes
Serves:
4
Rating: 
Tags : Sauce RecipesPork RecipesAncient Roman Recipes
Original Recipe
<Sumen:> Sumen elixas, de cannis surclas sale adspargis et in furnum mittis vel in craticulam. subassas. teres piper ligusticum, liquamen, mero et passo, amulo obligas et sumen perfundis.
Translation
[Sow's Belly:] Boil the belly then bind it together with reeds. Sprinkle with salt then put in the oven or on the gridiron. Roast it a little. Mix pepper, lovage, stock, wine and passum. Thicken with starch and pour over the sow's belly.
Modern Redaction
Ingredients:
For the Tripe:
1 pig's stomach, cleaned
4 onions, halved
200ml milk
water
For the Sauce:
1/2 tsp freshly-ground
black pepper
1/2 tsp
lovage seeds (or
celery seeds)
250ml stock
120ml white wine
4 tbsp
passum
2 tsp cornflour (wheat starch would originally have been used), to thicken
Method:
Wash and clean the pig's belly and remove any fat. Place in a pan with the onions and milk then pour in enough water to cover the tripe by at least 3cm. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer then cover the pan with a tight-fitting lid and cook slowly for 4 hours, or until the tripe is completely tender.
Drain the tripe and place in a roasting tin. Transfer to an oven pre-heated to 200°C and roast for 10 minutes then turn over and roast for a further 10 minutes.
In the meantime, combine the black pepper and lovage (or celery) seeds in a mortar. Grind together then moisten with a little stock and wine. Turn into a pan then add the remainder of the stock, white wine and passum. Bring to a boil then whisk the cornflour with 2 tbsp water to a smooth slurry. Whisk this mixture into the sauce, reduce to a simmer and cook, stirring frequently, until thickened.
When done, slice the sow's stomach and pour over the sauce. Serve immediately.
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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