P+P recipe III: Libum, The Ancient Roman Cheesecake
It’s rare to find ancient Roman recipes that don’t involve an exploding peacock with a gold-plated child inside so when you do, you bookmark. The Romans actually had some pretty good everyday recipes that are super simple to make and, if you’re a food history dweeb like me, lend a bit of that time travel novelty.
That said, these aren’t your Cheesecake Factory deal. They’re denser than your typical cheesecake but so pretty and unique, and taste great with coffee. Also, per my usual quarantine nod, they’ll keep for awhile in the fridge and on the altar (see below).
INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 oz wheat flour (all-purpose flour works too)
10 oz ricotta cheese (you can also use mascarpone or cream cheese, just make sure it’s softened)
1 large egg
4 Bay leaves
For sweetened libum: add sugar to the cheese, egg, and flour before baking and/or drizzle with honey, agave, or berry syrup
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 375ºF
Beat the cheese and egg together, then slowly add the flour. Divide the dough into 4 pieces, shape into rolls, and score the tops with a knife. Place on a parchment-lined baking tray with a bay leaf underneath each cake. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the tops are lightly browned. Can also be garnished with shaved almonds or pine nuts.
Yields 4
NOTES: Just to reiterate the whole density thing: these do be dense. You may have to tinker a bit with the ingredients/measurements to get the desired consistency.
Libum cakes were a staple of the ancient world, prepared as ritual food and left as offerings on household shrines called larariums. As sugar was rare (and mostly prescribed medicinally), the cakes would be eaten plain or sweetened up with a drizzle of honey. I recently made the mistake of adding honey directly to my mix and yeah, not recommended — I would definitely suggest either doing the drizzle or adding sugar to the mix before baking.
