A dense, rustic barley flatbread, barely cooked, broken and topped with crushed black olives and fresh sheep's cheese. The meal of the Athenian people: nourishing, frugal, ready in an instant.

Why this dish? The *maza*, an unleavened barley flatbread, was the ordinary bread of modest Athenians — more common than wheat bread, reserved for festive days. Agnodice, who shared the frugal diet of Athenians and ran across the Agora from one patient to another, ate this quick flatbread, held in one hand with a few olives and a piece of cheese.

Listen to me, you who think a meal must be heavy to sustain the body. In the morning, when I had to run from house to house where women were waiting for me to give birth, I did not sit at a table: I kneaded barley flour with a little water and salt, flattened it on the hot stone, and carried it off with three olives and a piece of sheep's cheese. This is what keeps a physician on her feet from dawn to dusk — not the meat of the rich, but the honest barley of Attica.

How it was made : The *maza* was almost never leavened or cooked for long: first the barley was roasted (producing *alphita*), then mixed with water, milk, oil, or honey depending on means. Raw or barely seared, it was the staple of the lower classes, soldiers, and athletes, as opposed to *artos*, the leavened wheat bread baked in an oven.

The contemporary twist : Serve the *maza* as a modern meze, cut into wedges like a "barley pita," with a drizzle of new olive oil and a twist of black pepper — a delicious return to roots.

Agnodice · Charactorium