Professor Butter Beard’s “Hadrian”
“Animula, vagula, blandula
Hospes comesque corporis
Quae nunc abibis in loca
Pallidula, rigida, nudula,
Nec, ut soles, dabis iocos...”
“Roving amiable little soul,
Body's companion and guest,
Now descending for parts
Colourless, unbending, and bare
Your usual distractions no more shall be there...”
- P. Aelius Hadrianus Imp. (composed shortly before his death)
I have always been attracted to unconventional pairings – in food, in art, in music, in history…. When it comes to flavor pairings, oddly enough, they usually evolve in my dreams, or on my daybreak hikes with Nellie, or while escape musing during work conference calls. My favorites have ranged from blueberries and lemongrass, rhubarb and cardamom, carrots and butterscotch, fresh sweet corn and bacon jam, and my personal favorite – dark chocolate and fresh chilies.
My best-loved stories, both historical and imagined, also center around unconventional pairings. Hamlet and Ophelia. King Henry VIII and Miss Anne of Cleves. Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings. María Eva Duarte and Juan Perón. Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. Sam and Frodo. Martha Stewart and Snoop Dog…. (Nope, just kidding! I’m never been drawn to their story!)
But recently, and almost every time I visit the Metropolitan Museum, I am swept into the unconventional love story of the Roman Emperor Hadrian and his favorite – the Bithynian beauty Antinous. To me, this is the highest profile Greek love affair ever: as ruler of the Roman Empire at its greatest, Hadrian was the most powerful man in the world, while the commoner Antinous, dying mysteriously after years in the public eye as his beloved, was made a god, an honor not even accorded by Zeus to his Ganymede and never given to any other Roman not of the imperial family.
Hadrian was born on January 24, 76 CE in present-day Spain, where his family had moved from their historic family home in Italy. His father was first-cousin to soon-to-be-emperor Trajan, and early on, Hadrian entered a career in politics and public service. At the age of twenty-five, with the encouragement of Trajan’s wife, Hadrian married Trajan’s beautiful and cultured grand-niece (and therefore, his own second cousin once removed) Vibia Sabina. Almost all historians agree the marriage was purely political for both and describe it as being an unhappy one. Meanwhile, in Claudiopolis (present day Bolu, Turkey), sometime around 111 CE, Antinous was born into a working class family. Virtually no solid facts are known about his childhood, but scholars believe it possible that Antinous was sent to Rome to be trained as a page to serve the emperor and gradually rose to the status of “Imperial favorite.”
Hadrian spent more than half of his reign traveling the empire, including Britannia where he famously ordered the construction of a great wall to separate the Roman territory from the unclaimed parts of the island. When he left Rome again in 127 CE, he took Antinous with him as a part of his personal retinue. They traveled through parts of Italy, North Africa, and even made their way to Athens for a time. Afterwards, they traveled to the Middle East, visiting Antioch, Judea, Syria, and Arabia. From there they headed to Egypt. It was there that Hadrian himself recorded that Antinous died by falling into the Nile. The death is viewed as highly suspicious particularly because in all the surviving documents there is not one place where the death is described as an accident.
The “Historia Augusta,” a late Roman collection of biographies written in Latin, offers the following account: “During a journey on the Nile he lost Antinous, his favorite, and for this youth he wept like a woman. Concerning this incident there are varying rumors; for some claim that he had devoted himself to death for Hadrian, and others – what both his beauty and Hadrian's sensuality suggest. But however, this may be, the Greeks deified him at Hadrian's request, and declared that oracles were given through his agency, but these, it is commonly asserted, were composed by Hadrian himself.”
What I see when I imagine these two moonbeams is a late afternoon picnic on a sumptuous boat as the sun sets over the shimmering river. The two of them lying back on their silk cushions and laughing at the various accounts of their relationship as they feast on fruit and cheese and toast the gods with smiles and wine. I honor their unconventional pairing with an unusual, but tantalizing just the same, custard tart combining the season’s first pears, fragrant Fontina cheese and roasted hazelnuts. Serve it while still warm for lunch with an arugula salad, or room temperature for dessert with a sweet wine and a lemon pepper biscotti. Take a chance and trust the unconventional.
Ruby Pear, Hazelnut and Fontina Tart
One 9” tart (inspired by Dorie Greenspan)
Hazelnut Tart Dough
1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup hazelnut flour (I use Bob’s Red Mill)
½ tsp kosher salt
8 Tbsp unsalted butter, very cold, either grated or cut into small dice
1 large egg
1 tsp very cold water
Filling:
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp honey
2 large eggs
2/3 cup heavy cream
½ tsp kosher salt and 3/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
¼ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 ½ cup shredded (or grated) fontina cheese
3 medium ruby-skinned pears
¼ cup hazelnuts (toasted, skinned and coarsely chopped)
1) In a food processor, combine the all-purpose flour, the hazelnut flour, and the salt. Pulse 4-5 times to combine. Add the diced (or grated) butter all at once, and pulse again until the mixture resembles coarse sand. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg and water with a fork and then add to the dry mix, pulsing until the mix gathers into a bowl. Remove the dough and roll into a 12-inch circle. Place the rolled dough into a tart pan with a removable bottom, press into place, leaving the overhang. Set on a parchment-lined sheet pan and chill for at least two hours.
2) Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Bake the tart shell (directly from the refrigerator) for 20-25 minutes, until the crust is set and beginning to brown. Remove the shell from the oven, trim the edges even with the top of the tart pan, and let cool for ten minutes.
3) Toast the hazelnut is a non-stick skillet until the skin darkens and crack. Remove from the heat, let cool, rub the nuts together to remove the skins and then coarsely chop.
4) In a small bowl, stir together the mustard and honey. In a larger bowl, whisk the eggs, add the cream and lightly whisk to combine. Add the salt, black pepper and nutmeg and whisk to combine. Stir in 1 cup of the shredded cheese and set aside.
5) Slice the pears in half, remove the core with a melon baller, then slice each half into 6-8 slices.
6) Spread the honey mustard evenly on the bottom of the tart shell
7) Pour 2/3 of the custard over the honey mustard. Arrange all the pear slices over the custard as desired (circles is easy). Top with the remaining custard and sprinkle the remaining ½ cup shredded fontina over the pears and filling. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes. Remove briefly and scatter the chopped hazelnuts over the top and return to the oven for another 15 minutes until the filled is puffed and starting to brown.
8) Let the tart cool on a wire rack for thirty minutes before removing the tart ring.
9) Serve warm, or room temperature, with an arugula salad.
