Roman Globi: Honey-and-Cheese Fritters from the Empire's Kitchen
Among the oldest written recipes in the Western world is one for a simple, irresistible treat: little balls of fresh cheese and flour, fried golden and rolled in honey. The Romans called them globi, and they were the doughnuts of the ancient world — crisp, soft, sweet, and utterly moreish. Recorded over two thousand years ago, globi are proof that the human love of fried dough and honey is very old indeed.
The Oldest Roman Cookbook
Globi come down to us from Cato the Elder, the stern Roman statesman whose De Agri Cultura ("On Agriculture"), written in the 2nd century BCE, is the oldest surviving work of Latin prose. Amid advice on farming, slaves, and estate management, Cato tucked in a handful of recipes — among them globi, libum, and other cheese-based treats. That these instructions survive at all, from so early, makes globi one of the most ancient documented recipes we can still cook today.
What Are Globi?
Globi (the name means "globes" or "balls") are essentially fried cheese-and-flour fritters, coated in honey. Cato's recipe is disarmingly simple: mix fresh soft cheese with flour, form the mixture into small balls, fry them in hot fat, and then coat them in honey and sprinkle them with poppy seeds. The result is crisp outside, soft and cheesy within, and glistening with sweetness — a treat that needs no improvement across two millennia.
The Ingredients
The beauty of globi lies in how few things they require. You need a fresh, soft cheese (something like ricotta is ideal), flour — Cato's Romans would have used emmer or spelt — honey for coating, poppy seeds to finish, and fat or lard for frying. Every one of these was a staple of the Roman larder, which is exactly why globi were an accessible pleasure rather than an elite indulgence: sweet, satisfying, and made from what was already on hand.
How They Were Made
Cato's method is direct. The cheese and flour are worked together into a soft dough, which is divided and rolled into small balls. These are fried in hot fat until golden and puffed, then, while still warm, rolled in warmed honey so the coating clings, and dusted with poppy seeds. The technique — fry, then bathe in honey — is the same one behind fried sweets across the Mediterranean and Middle East to this day.
Cheese in the Roman Sweet Kitchen
Globi belong to a family of Roman cheese-based sweets, reflecting how central fresh cheese was to Roman cooking. Its mild richness made it a natural partner for honey, and it appears again and again in Roman treats. Far from being only a savoury ingredient, cheese was the Roman baker's friend, lending body and tenderness to sweets in a way that can surprise modern cooks used to keeping cheese and dessert apart.
Cousins at the Roman Table
Globi had close relatives. Libum was a cheese cake or bread, often offered to the household gods; savillum was a sweet cheese custard sweetened with honey; encytum was a piped, fried dough soaked in honey; and dulcia domestica were dates stuffed with nuts and cooked in honey. Together these formed a repertoire of homey Roman sweets, most of them built on the same trio of cheese or dough, honey, and frying or baking.
Honey, the Roman Sweetener
Since Rome had no sugar, honey was the sweetener of the ancient world, and it did the sweet work in globi and their cousins. Prized, versatile, and produced across the empire, honey sweetened foods and drinks, preserved fruit, and glazed pastries. The honey coating on a globus was thus the natural, everyday way to make a treat sweet — and its floral depth gives these fritters a character that plain sugar syrup cannot match.
Where Sweets Fit in a Roman Meal
Formal Roman dining ended with the mensae secundae, the "second tables" or dessert course, when fruit, nuts, and sweet dishes were served. Treats like globi could grace this course, appear as snacks, or feature at festivals and celebrations. Sweets were not an everyday indulgence for most Romans so much as a pleasure tied to feasts, offerings, and special occasions — which made a plate of honeyed globi all the more welcome.
Fried Dough Across the Ages
Globi sit near the head of one of the world's most enduring food lineages: fried dough bathed in honey or syrup. Their descendants and cousins are everywhere — Italian zeppole and struffoli, Greek loukoumades, Middle Eastern luqaimat, and, more distantly, the doughnut itself. The globus shows that this beloved formula — fry a little dough, drench it in something sweet — was already perfected in the ancient world and has never gone out of style.
Offerings and Festivals
Like many Roman sweets, cheese-and-honey treats had a place in religious and festive life. Cakes such as libum were made as offerings to the gods and the household spirits, and sweet foods marked celebrations and holidays. Whether or not globi themselves were formally offered, they belonged to a food culture in which the sweet, the sacred, and the celebratory were closely linked, and a honeyed treat could be both a pleasure and a small act of devotion.
Variations to Try
Part of the charm of globi is how easily they invite experiment, much as their many descendants do. While Cato specifies honey and poppy seeds, you can finish them with sesame seeds in place of (or alongside) the poppy, or bathe them in defrutum or sapa — the dark, reduced grape-must syrups the Romans loved — instead of honey, for a fruitier sweetness. A little grated lemon or orange zest in the dough, though not strictly Roman, plays beautifully against the cheese.
The dough itself is forgiving: adjust the ratio of cheese to flour for a softer or firmer fritter, and take care to fry gently so the centres cook before the outsides brown too far. For a savoury turn closer to some other Roman cheese dishes, you might reduce the honey and add herbs and a little garum-style seasoning, though the sweet, honeyed version is the classic. However you vary them, the essential pleasure stays the same — warm, tender, cheesy fritters glistening with something sweet.
A Genuinely Ancient Recipe
What makes globi special is not complexity but antiquity and authenticity. Here is a specific, cookable recipe, written down by a named Roman more than two thousand years ago, that yields something genuinely delicious by any modern standard. Few dishes offer such a direct, unbroken line to the ancient table — no guesswork about vanished ingredients, just cheese, flour, honey, and a hot pan, exactly as Cato described.
Making Globi Today
To make globi, mix fresh ricotta (well-drained) with enough flour to form a soft, workable dough, roll it into small balls, and fry them gently in oil or lard until golden and cooked through. While warm, roll them in honey — warmed slightly so it coats easily — and sprinkle with poppy seeds. Serve them warm. Light, sweet, and cheesy, they are a crowd-pleaser at any table, and a delicious, effortless way to taste a recipe straight from the dawn of written cookery.
Source note
This article is based on Cato the Elder's De Agri Cultura and on food historians' study of Roman sweets. Cato's recipe, like all ancient ones, gives little detail on quantities or timings, so modern versions involve interpretation; ingredient substitutions (such as ricotta for Roman fresh cheese) aim for faithful results rather than exact replication.
Frequently asked questions
What are Roman globi?
Globi were fried cheese-and-flour fritters coated in honey — little balls of fresh cheese mixed with flour, fried in fat, then rolled in warm honey and sprinkled with poppy seeds. They were, in effect, the doughnuts of the ancient world.
Who recorded the recipe for globi?
Cato the Elder, in his 2nd-century-BCE farming manual De Agri Cultura — the oldest surviving work of Latin prose — which tucks in globi among a handful of cheese-based recipes, making it one of the oldest documented recipes we can still cook.
How do you make globi today?
Mix well-drained fresh ricotta with enough flour to form a soft dough, roll into small balls and fry gently in oil or lard until golden; while warm, roll them in slightly warmed honey and sprinkle with poppy or sesame seeds. Serve warm.
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