VATICAN CITY – Cato’s Cheese Bread (libum)

Last recipe for the countries of Europe! So, Vatican City is a very small place, but it still registers as a sovereign state. Luckily, despite being a small place, there is a recipe hailing from ancient Roman. It is often call the world’s first cheesecake – Libum

• Recipe chosen for Cato’s Cheese Bread
• Cooking method: Oven

Rating:

• Faithfulness to recipe: Yes.
• Met expectations? Wasn’t sure what to expect from a bread heavy with cheese, but it was quite tasty.
• Would cook again? Probably not. I’d rather feta cheese in a salad then use it up in a sweet bread. 
• The taste test rated on a score of 5: 3. It was okay.

Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 cup feta cheese, drained, crumbled and packed
• 1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 egg, beaten
• 6 bay leaves
• 2 tbsp honey (optional) – I did use the honey.

Method

There are also some pictures of the process here.

1. Preheat your oven to 200C degrees. Put the cheese in a mixing bowl or food processor and mash well until it you get a smooth paste. There should be no lumps in the mixture. Add the flour and blend well, using your fingers if necessary.
2. Add the egg and mix. The dough will be sticky.
3. Divide the dough into two parts (you will need to flour them a little in order to do this). Flatten until they are about a half inch thick. Put the bay leaves on a greased cookie sheet and then place the two pieces of bread over the leaves.
4. Bake for about 25 to 30 minutes or until golden.
5. Drizzle the honey over the top.
6. Let cool and remove the bay leaves before eating.