A shallow earthenware dish of coarse bright green herb and white cheese paste with a pool of olive oil on top, a stone mortar and pestle beside it with a few mint and parsley leaves. — Moretum, green herbs pounded with salted cheese, under olive oil.

Moretum, Herb and Cheese Spread (Columella)

Name: Moretum
Prep time: 20 min
Total time: 20 min
Cuisine: Ancient Roman
Ingredients: 1 small bunch flat-leaf parsley, leaves only (about 20 g); 1 small bunch cilantro, leaves only (about 20 g); 15 g mint leaves; 1 tsp fresh savory or thyme leaves; 2 green onions, thinly sliced; 2 leaves romaine lettuce, shredded; 1 handful arugula (about 20 g); 3 small rue leaves (optional); 200 g feta; 1 tbsp white wine vinegar; 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper; 3 tbsp olive oil

Jump to recipe

Moretum, a herb and cheese spread after Columella: mint, coriander, parsley, green onion, lettuce and arugula pounded with salted fresh cheese, dressed with peppered vinegar and olive oil.

By The Forgotten MenuPublished Oct 27, 2026

Recipe makes: About 300 g, 6 servings
Prep: 20 min
Total: 20 min

Pound or chop the herbs just before serving; the green darkens within a few hours.

Jump to recipe Read the story

Moretum, green herbs pounded with salted cheese, under olive oil.

The story behind the recipe

Moretum was a Roman name for almost any pounded mix of herbs and cheese, made many ways, as the footnote to its 1745 English translation says. Columella, who farmed and wrote in the first century AD, gives a whole chapter of versions in the twelfth book of his farm manual. This one is the first and simplest: green herbs and salted fresh cheese pounded in a mortar, with peppered vinegar mixed in and oil poured over.

A mortar full of greens

The herbs are the kitchen garden’s: savory, mint, rue, coriander, parsley, leek or green onion, lettuce and rocket, green thyme or catmint, and pennyroyal. Columella’s translator of 1745 calls it “a Sallet of easy and quick Digestion,” and adds a footnote that moretum “may signify any kind of hash” and was “diversified according to every one’s fancy.” His later versions add walnuts, toasted sesame, pine nuts or almonds, or use dried herbs when the green ones are out of season.

Columella wrote about two centuries after Cato. He is here for the spread, which Cato doesn’t give, and for his regard for the older man: Columella, Harrison notes, says Cato was the one “who taught Agriculture to speak Latin.”

Making it today

We leave out the pennyroyal, which is toxic in quantity, and make the rue optional: it is bitter and strong, and should be left out if you are pregnant. Feta stands in for the salted new cheese, and cilantro is the coriander leaf. Arugula is the rocket. A mortar gives the Roman texture, a coarse green paste; a food processor, pulsed, is quicker.

Spread it on Libum, Cheese Bread (Cato). The farm’s other recipes are in What Did a Roman Farmhouse Bake?

Put into a mortar savory, mint, rue, coriander, parsley, the sective leek, or, if you have none, a green onion, the leaves of lettuce and of rocket, green thyme, or cat-mint, as also green penny-royal, and salted new-cheese; bruise all these equally together, and mix a little peppered vinegar with them: when you have made up all this mixture together, in a small dish, pour oil upon it.

L. Junius Moderatus ColumellaOf Husbandry (London: A. Millar, 1745), book 12, chapter 57, p. 569

Read the full story

Ingredients

For about 300 g, 6 servings. Quantities are shown as written.

Quantities as written here, for about 300 g, 6 servings.

Small bunch flat-leaf parsley, leaves only1Author measures: about 20 g.
Small bunch cilantro, leaves only1Author measures: about 20 g.
Mint leaves15 g
Fresh savory or thyme leaves1 tsp
Green onions, thinly sliced2
Leaves romaine lettuce, shredded2
Handful arugula1Author measures: about 20 g.
Small rue leaves (optional)3
Feta200 g
White wine vinegar1 tbsp
Freshly ground black pepper1/2 tsp
Olive oil3 tbsp

Ingredients as written here

1 small bunch flat-leaf parsley, leaves only (about 20 g)
1 small bunch cilantro, leaves only (about 20 g)
15 g mint leaves
1 tsp fresh savory or thyme leaves
2 green onions, thinly sliced
2 leaves romaine lettuce, shredded
1 handful arugula (about 20 g)
3 small rue leaves (optional)
200 g feta
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
3 tbsp olive oil

Equipment

Large mortar and pestle, or a food processor
Small serving dish

Instructions

Put the parsley, cilantro, mint, savory, green onions, lettuce, arugula and rue, if using, in the mortar, a handful at a time, and pound them to a coarse paste. In a food processor, pulse them until finely chopped.
Crumble in the feta and pound or pulse until the cheese and greens are evenly mixed but still a little rough.
Stir the pepper into the vinegar and mix it into the paste.
Spread the moretum in the serving dish, pour the olive oil over the top, and serve.

Nutrition

150calories per serving

Recipe makes: About 300 g, 6 servings
Servings: 6

Estimated per serving from USDA FoodData Central values for feta, olive oil, parsley, cilantro, mint, green onion, lettuce and arugula.

Recipe notes

When adjusting quantities

Columella gives no amounts. Keep roughly equal weights of greens and cheese.

Notes

Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the servings.

For Columella’s second version, pound a small handful of walnuts with the greens. Keep leftovers covered in the refrigerator and eat them the next day; the herbs darken quickly.

Scaling changes the ingredients only; pan sizes and cooking times need their own judgment. To adapt this recipe further, try the recipe tool at TuneMyRecipe (opens in a new tab), our sister site.