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Tractae (Pastry Sheets)
Tractae (Pastry Sheets) is a traditional Ancient Roman recipe for from Cato's De Agri Cultura for a basic dried pastry sheet employed as a thickener. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Ancient Roman version of: Pastry Sheets (Tractae).
prep time
15 minutes
cook time
480 minutes
Total Time:
495 minutes
Serves:
8
Rating: 
Tags : Vegan RecipesBaking RecipesAncient Roman Recipes
Original Recipe
Tractae are described by Cato as the sheets for making Placenta
. Apicius mentions them frequently in the De Re Coquinaria, but there is no recipe for making them. It seems likely that they were frequently used dried dried (in a few cases, Apicius specifies it; usually, he writes to break the tractae). In the recipe:
PULTES TRACTOGALATAE. Lactis sextarium et aquae modicum mittes in caccabo novo et lento igni ferveat. tres orbiculos tractae siccas et confringis et partibus in lac summittis. ne uratur, aquam miscendo agitabis. cum cocta fuerit, ut est, super ignem, mittis melle. Ex musteis cum lacte similiter facies, salem et oleum minus mittis.
Tractae are specified as orbiculos 'little circles'
So, based on Cato tractae were sheets made from a blend of flour and water made by kneading together, sometimes with the addition of salt. They were often used dried and some forms of little circles. It looks like we are talking about a proto-pasta here.
How its used is more uncertain. If it was broken up and used to add to a sauce, was it broken into small pieces and used as a thickener? Might it be broken up and used as we would use pasta today? Basically a bulking agent...
Unless they were used in making cakes it looks like tractae were pastry sheets that were dried, broken into pieces and used as a thickener. If they were to be cooked and added to a meal then they were fried rather than boiled.
The Romans did not have pasta and did not boil their pasta-like pastries. If they were to cook them, they fried them. So you might well have found fried tractae as part of a meal. But you would not have found boiled tractae served in the same way as modern pasta.
Indeed, the practice of boiling pasta to cook it only emerges in the late middle ages. Prior to that pasta or pasta-like sheets were always fried. So here is a recipe for Roman tractae served as a fried snack (it's surprisingly good!).
Ingredients:
300g white wheat flour
water
sea salt
Method:
Add water to the flour little by little until the mixture comes together as a dough. Turn out onto a floured work surface and knead until smooth and elastic (add a little more water and flour as needed) (at least 15 minutes).
Divide the dough into 16 pieces then roll out/stretch into roughly circular sheets, making these as thin as you can.
Drape the sheets over a rolling pin then set aside to dry over night (as you would pasta). Store in an air-tight tin.
If you need a thickener for a sauce crumble a piece of the sheet and add to your stew.
If you wish to cook the tractae, heat lard or olive oil in a wok or deep pan. When the oil is hot drop in a tracta (fresh or dried). Cook for about 1 minute then flip over and cook on the other side. Fry until crisp and golden brown.
Season and serve.
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