MANICHAEAN
05-28-2018, 11:34 PM
Italian Cuisine.
Talk to an Italian anywhere in the world and I have the view they have three things they can relate to immediately: football, the wine in their region and the local dishes they grew up on. I would like to address one aspect of the latter today, namely the diversity of their range of cooking. This in itself I is not surprising, as it has its roots going back to the 4th century BC. Italian cuisine has in fact its initial foundation in the ingredients of Etruscan, Greek and ancient Roman cuisines.
I started researching this and found that the first generally attributed Italian food writer was Achestratus, a Greek Sicilian from Syracuse. In the 4th century BC he wrote a poem in which he said that flavors should not be masked with spices or herbs, so people can enjoy the authentic taste of dishes. He was also a big fan of fish. So at first from a culinary point of view, things were relatively simple in Italian cuisine. All this simplicity was put to an end when the Roman Empire arrived eager to party like there was no tomorrow and always searching for new culinary adventures. De re conquinaria (Roman cookbook) was published in the 1st century CE and included 470 recipes, where the spices and herbs, unwanted by the first food writer, dominated the recipes.
Anyway I digress. What I wanted to get onto was that when enjoyably researching this subject I found that there were many dishes / ingredients that I did not have a clue on. Ok, we all know that Italian food revolves around pasta, pizza and olive oil, but see if you recognize any of the following:
• Agnolotti.
• Corzetti.
• Pansoti.
• Cappelletti.
• Garganelli.
• Tortelli alla lastra.
• Strozzapretti.
• Squacquerone.
• Tortellini.
• Rapini.
• Castelmagno.
• Agnolotti.
• Cavalo Nero.
• Ribollita.
• Pasta all’matriciana.
• Pasta arrabbiata.
• Coda alla vaccinara.
• Carciofi alla giudia.
• Carne alla pizzaiola.
• Struffoli.
• Caviale dei poveri.
• Friselle.
• Arancini.
• Pasta alla Norma.
Talk to an Italian anywhere in the world and I have the view they have three things they can relate to immediately: football, the wine in their region and the local dishes they grew up on. I would like to address one aspect of the latter today, namely the diversity of their range of cooking. This in itself I is not surprising, as it has its roots going back to the 4th century BC. Italian cuisine has in fact its initial foundation in the ingredients of Etruscan, Greek and ancient Roman cuisines.
I started researching this and found that the first generally attributed Italian food writer was Achestratus, a Greek Sicilian from Syracuse. In the 4th century BC he wrote a poem in which he said that flavors should not be masked with spices or herbs, so people can enjoy the authentic taste of dishes. He was also a big fan of fish. So at first from a culinary point of view, things were relatively simple in Italian cuisine. All this simplicity was put to an end when the Roman Empire arrived eager to party like there was no tomorrow and always searching for new culinary adventures. De re conquinaria (Roman cookbook) was published in the 1st century CE and included 470 recipes, where the spices and herbs, unwanted by the first food writer, dominated the recipes.
Anyway I digress. What I wanted to get onto was that when enjoyably researching this subject I found that there were many dishes / ingredients that I did not have a clue on. Ok, we all know that Italian food revolves around pasta, pizza and olive oil, but see if you recognize any of the following:
• Agnolotti.
• Corzetti.
• Pansoti.
• Cappelletti.
• Garganelli.
• Tortelli alla lastra.
• Strozzapretti.
• Squacquerone.
• Tortellini.
• Rapini.
• Castelmagno.
• Agnolotti.
• Cavalo Nero.
• Ribollita.
• Pasta all’matriciana.
• Pasta arrabbiata.
• Coda alla vaccinara.
• Carciofi alla giudia.
• Carne alla pizzaiola.
• Struffoli.
• Caviale dei poveri.
• Friselle.
• Arancini.
• Pasta alla Norma.