Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Aussie View: Italians Two Great Passions: Football & Food

The ANNOTICO Report

 

According this Aussie author, there are two things that incite the greatest passion in Italians: Football (Soccer) and Food.

Every region and small town has its own football team and regional dish, no matter how modest.

 

[I respectfully disagree. I find Italians are Passionate about almost EVERYTHING !!!! :) :) ]   In Italy I once asked an Elderly Italian gentleman for Directions, and his Gesticulations were SO Mesmerizing, that I thought I had just witnessed the final scene to a great Opera.!!!

Made in Italy

Courier Mail – Australia


Natascha Mirosch 

June 26, 2007

THERE are two things in life that incite the greatest passion in Italians: football (soccer) and food.

Every region and small town has its own football team and regional dish, no matter how modest. Some are the subject of controversy over ownership but most Italians acknowledge that the best beef comes from the famous chiana cattle in Tuscany, as a T-bone steak, brushed with olive oil and rosemary and cooked over an open flame; that there is no better pizza than that found in it's birthplace, Naples; and the best, saffron-tinted risotto alla Milanese comes, naturally, from Milan.

One reason for such rich regional diversity is Italy's late unification. Until 1861, the different regions were not only autonomous with their own dialects (often still in use today), but they also produced their own cuisine based on ingredients grown or sourced locally. Climate and geography played a large part in creating difference, often isolating regions from even their closest neighbours.

"The flatlands, coastline, the Dolomites and pre-Alps are concentrated in a land that can fit almost seven times into Queensland. (But) Until trucks and transport started delivering limoncello to the north or parmesan in the south, these products were known only in the region of origin," says Mirko Grillini, chef and cookbook writer.

"For example, balsamic vinegar was always a specialty of Modena/Reggio Emilia. In Bologna (40km away) balsamic vinegar was never used."

In the mountainous north where the pastures could support dairy herds, cream, butter and cheese were used in cooking, while in the south, olive groves could be relied upon to fruit in a much poorer earth. Proximity to Austria, France and Switzerland mean the northerners' culinary influences were more middle European, while in the south, the Arabic, Greek and Spanish influences predominated.

The northern part of Italy was wealthier, too, its citizens able to afford to grow and eat polenta and rice, dried salamis and prosciutto, and rich meaty ragus. The south eked out a harder living, relying on staples such as pasta, bread and vegetables for survival.

Today regional Italian cuisine is still based on tradition and geography. "Traditionally people ate what the land was offering. Still today, you can offer to an Italian (born in Italy) a gourmet dish with whatever here we may think is 'in' and he would turn it down for a simple, down-to-earth, peasant dish," Grillini says.

While it's one of the world's most popular cuisines, Italian food has been sadly debased overseas. We more often than not submerge our pasta in sauce, overload pizza with toppings, some of which have never even made acquaintance with Italy.

"Adding a few ingredients and creating your own style of lasagne or bolognaise sauce can be a magnificent exercise, but whatever the result, it will never be a lasagne or bolognaise again.

"Traditional food that has been the same for hundreds of years is losing identity because the people who started changing things did not call the revised dishes with an appropriate name. Why else would we be seeing menus with carbonara made with cream  the ultimate offence to this beautiful Roman dish?" Grillini says. (Carbonara traditionally is made with eggs, smoked pigs cheek, pecorino and parmigiano and black pepper.)

His own city, Bologna, hasn't escaped, either. Traditionally home of plentiful and rich food, earning it the nickname "Bologna il grasso" (Bologna the fat), it is home to the ragu we have adopted and adapted for the eponymous "spag bol" that appears on 'Italian' menus all over the country. While we blithely throw all kinds of ingredients into it: dried herbs, garlic, mushrooms and vegetables, according to Grillini, the traditional ragu from Bologna is made one of two ways.

"Both start with a soffritto, a mix of finely diced celery, carrot and onion, cooked down, then for one, you add minced chicken livers and pancetta, a splash of wine and some tomato passata. In the old days it was made with horse meat because it was the most lean, but now it is made with mince for convenience. You simmer for 2-3 hours," he says.

"With the other, there is no red wine or chicken livers and you add milk, which gives it a smooth and delicate taste."

As much as the citizens of Bologna would be offended by some of the dishes we pass off as their regional sauce, so our interpretation of pizza would probably make the average Neapolitan apoplectic.

Cordell Khoury, of Beccofino in Teneriffe, says that: "Real Italian pizza rarely has more than four toppings. It should never flop under the weight of them but stay crisp and not be soggy."

For pizza purists there are only two true pizzas, the original being the marinara. Despite its name, the marinara contained no seafood, rather it was so called because it was what the bakers served to fishermen returning home from sea. The true marinara has a topping of tomato, oregano, garlic, extra-virgin olive oil and basil.

The Margherita was the first pizza to have cheese. It was created in 1889, for the visit of King Umberto I and Queen Margherita of Savo, and was meant to evoke the Italian flag: green (basil leaves), white (mozzarella) and red (tomatoes). How this has transformed into the stuffed crust meatball-topped horrors of many takeaway pizza places is hard to comprehend.

It's not all bad, though. As more of us travel and start to appreciate the less-is-more, quality-over-quantity philosophy, we are wanting more authentic Italian, food like we had on holiday in Italy. This education means we are starting to learn what al dente means, how to coat our pasta in sauce rather than piling it up on top, the simple beauty of a fig wrapped in a piece of Parma ham, the slightly smoky crust of a good wood-fired pizza.

Sam Mura of Cosi Ristorante in Clayfield says that he has also noticed a change in our attitude to Italian food, and is hopeful about the growing interest in regional Italian food and desire to try the unfamiliar. "Before, whenever I put Sardinian dishes on the menu it was hard to sell, people were reluctant to try them. Now they are more educated, they are travelling more and understanding more about regionality and are willing to try."

Mura says he can't take his malloreddus, a typical Sardinian pasta dish with sausage sauce, off the menu now.

At Va Bene, at the Windsor Hotel, a strong contingent keeps chef Angelo Morvillo cooking the dishes handed down to him by his mother. "I think that over the last 10-15 years people are coming to know and understand more about Italian food and its complexities. I have special customers, regulars who ask for tripa (tripe) and other things they may have grown up with in Italy or had when travelling there."

We are also experimenting more at home, inspired by TV chefs, cookbooks and cooking classes and, as the world becomes smaller, the possibility of tasting true Italian products such as San Danielle prosciutto, truffles and fresh buffalo mozzarella. It's a sign of the times that we are willing to pay up to $60 for a bottle of 10-year-old balsamic or $80-plus per kilo for imported prosciutto di Parma. No longer do we automatically reach for the spaghetti, either, as we are familiarising ourselves with a whole catalogue of different shapes.

"When pasta was first introduced to Australia many years ago, there was basically spaghetti and macaroni. In the past 10 years or so, many different pastas have been introduced and there are many that now outsell spaghetti," says Rosa Sirianni of Sirianni's Fine Foods. "We stock orecchiette, trofie, fusili avellinesi and cavatelli as well as squid ink pasta."

While the public may be willing to experiment with traditional regional Italian, however, chefs such as Morvillo and Mura still struggle to reproduce the kind of dishes they grew up on. Climate, processing and tradition all play a part in recreating the true cuisine of their homeland.

"Porchetta is very famous in Sardinia," says Mura. "I tried to get it here, but it's impossible  they are very hard to find. You can't really compare piglet that you cook here with the pig you can get there."

Nor is it possible to get the same sort of soft fresh cheese that goes into the typical Sardinian pastries, he says.

The compromise dish which results is often termed "modern Italian", a sensitive reworking of classics that take the basis of Italian dishes but use our own fresh local ingredients.

Nicola Robertiello, from Dell' Ugo at New Farm, says: "Really, we have to adapt here because you can't get the ingredients and the Italians will say that if you change the recipe it automatically becomes modern Italian.

"It's also about presentation  you can keep it traditional but the look on the plate will be more modern."

Whether we chose to adopt or adapt  the ethos of Italian cuisine: keep it, simple, fresh, regional and seasonal is one that all modern foodies aspire to.

Festitalia 2007, a celebration of all things Italian is on at the RNA Showgrounds on July 1; www.festitalia.com. Go to couriermail.com.au for more on Italian regionality and authentic Italian recipes.

 

The ANNOTICO Reports Can be Viewed (and are Archived) on:

Italia USA: http://www.ItaliaUSA.com [Formerly Italy at St Louis] (7 years)

Italia Mia: http://www.ItaliaMia.com (3 years)

Annotico Email: annotico@earthlink.net