Moretum is an herb cheese spread that the Ancient Romans ate with bread. A typical moretum was made of herbs, fresh cheese, salt, oil and some vinegar. Optionally, different kinds of nuts could be added. The contents were crushed together in a mortar, hence the name.
Recipes
A recipe can be found in the poem of the same name in the Appendix Vergiliana. De re rustica, book XII of Columella contains further recipes for moretum. The variant with pine nuts is considered to be a precursor of pesto.
See also
Ancient Roman cuisine
List of cheese dishes
List of spreads
References
External links
Appendix Vergiliana in Latin
Columella at The Latin Library
Columella Books I–IV in English translation at LacusCurtius
Roman cuisine
Spreads (food) Cheese dishes Ancient dishes