WHY DO ITALIANS EAT SO WELL?
Italian food history IS the history of Italy.
Like I wrote on the homepage of this site, Italy and italian people are not always just having food in their minds, despite what one may think.
This is not a coincidence. Since the beginning of the last millennium, the Cities throughout Italy have grabbed the products from the countryside to develop a rich gastronomic tradition and leave us accounts of a profound italian food history.
The name with which friselle are also know in Apulia is Pane dei Crociati (Crusaders' bread) as it was certainly used to equip the christian expeditions in their long travellings.
My recommendation to you, if you're willing to discover the traditional, genuine history of italian food, is not just to walk through the woods and the hills in Tuscany, but to walk through the many cities of the italian peninsula, smelling and tasting their specialties and listening to the stories about them and the people who created and still maintain them alive.
This is a demonstration that italian gastronomy has nothing to envy to the one of other Countries.
But, why do Italians eat so well?
Truth is, Italy has become a model to imitate in the way ingredients are to be prepared, cooked and then consumed in company.
This site is a tribute to the italian civilisation of the table and not the blunt account of what italians put on their tables.This civilt della tavola is a produce of italian history and it is a history of divisions and violence, other that beauty and creativity.All the elements that you will find in all the pages of this site.
The rest of the dough, though, was reserved for the production of the friselle, which allowed for longer bread-making periods.
I woud say that italian food history combines elements of the italian alimentation history and of the italian gastronomy. But do not let my word fool you: this journey is going to be certainly a pleasure. Discovering means also uncover savors and tastes not known before.The deeper we will go together into the italian gastronomy, the more variety an richness comes to the surface.
This image has deeply contributed to the prominence that Italy has gained in the panorama of the worldwide gastronomy.
But, is this the reality?
Thinking about all the different typical food products that invade the italian tables, it's easy to think that just everything there derives from skillful hands of people that from father to son, from generation to generation, follow the discipline that their great-grand-father used according to the farmers' and countryside traditions of the territory and of the italian food history.
Even though cook books (or, rather, writings) can be traced back to ancient times, it can be said that they remained more a sporadic attempt at extolling the virtues of the man and his skills, rather than an observation and description of the preparation methods and indications on utilisation of the different ingredients.
Characteristic is also the surface, rough where it Is cut after the first baking, smooth where it is remaining form the original manual shaping of the dough.
It is not a chance that gastronomic literature found so many and so noticeable exponents in Italy: the economic development, civil, technical, humanistic and artistic advancement of the many Comuni (Commons), was not having any equal at the time (possibly not only in Europe).
Italian history and italian food history has long been marked by the lifestyle of the rural masses: especially in the northern and central regions, the mezzadra (sharecropping) partially preserved farmers from hunger and the hard and grueling fatigues that represented the standard way of living of the rural masses throughout Italy, up to the 1960's.
For these very reasons, it is really difficult to see how this farmers' reality might have contributed to the creation of many of the so called poor dishes in the italian food history, that really nothing poor have in them!
Think about the typical crostini di fegato toscani (tuscan crostini with liver) or the bistecca alla fiorentina (florentine steak): these dishes are far from being poor, and the rural masses could only dream of such delicacies!
Nobility and the upper classes in general, were in contact with each other, in the various courts in Europe and exchanged people, arts, trends and tastes. Reading recipes from one of those book might seem, to a modern reader, like the exaltation of spices, or like their used was so common that people from near the Renaissance times would have put cinnamon, or cloves or pepper in their drinking water. Nothing could be more misleading and incorrect!
The two so obtained pieces, the lower one, with flat bottom, and the top, with the curved surface, are oven-baked for a second time (bis-cotto, twice-cooked) to eliminate the residual humidity.
This fashion for spices was in a large part due to the desire to touch, feel, possess the exotic, whatever it was. Courts in medieval Italy (and across Europe) were resting on the everlasting battles to be recognised as the most rich, noticeable and extraordinary.
This sauce has been one of the main ingredients of the farmers' diet throughout the past millennium and its recipe, thankfully, is only traceable in the memory: that sauce means hunger.
This is the food that we have enjoyed for ages and continue to savor as we carry on the traditions of our past.
A history of italian food that only covered what farmers used to eat in the countryside would risk to sound a bit monotonous and awkward, to the modern passionate: long chapters on vegetarian soups and breads prepared from lower quality ingredients would be present and this is not what I want to give you here.
Like I wrote on the homepage of this site, Italy and italian people are not always just having food in their minds, despite what one may think.
This is not a coincidence. Since the beginning of the last millennium, the Cities throughout Italy have grabbed the products from the countryside to develop a rich gastronomic tradition and leave us accounts of a profound italian food history.
The name with which friselle are also know in Apulia is Pane dei Crociati (Crusaders' bread) as it was certainly used to equip the christian expeditions in their long travellings.
My recommendation to you, if you're willing to discover the traditional, genuine history of italian food, is not just to walk through the woods and the hills in Tuscany, but to walk through the many cities of the italian peninsula, smelling and tasting their specialties and listening to the stories about them and the people who created and still maintain them alive.
This is a demonstration that italian gastronomy has nothing to envy to the one of other Countries.
But, why do Italians eat so well?
Truth is, Italy has become a model to imitate in the way ingredients are to be prepared, cooked and then consumed in company.
This site is a tribute to the italian civilisation of the table and not the blunt account of what italians put on their tables.This civilt della tavola is a produce of italian history and it is a history of divisions and violence, other that beauty and creativity.All the elements that you will find in all the pages of this site.
The rest of the dough, though, was reserved for the production of the friselle, which allowed for longer bread-making periods.
I woud say that italian food history combines elements of the italian alimentation history and of the italian gastronomy. But do not let my word fool you: this journey is going to be certainly a pleasure. Discovering means also uncover savors and tastes not known before.The deeper we will go together into the italian gastronomy, the more variety an richness comes to the surface.
This image has deeply contributed to the prominence that Italy has gained in the panorama of the worldwide gastronomy.
But, is this the reality?
Thinking about all the different typical food products that invade the italian tables, it's easy to think that just everything there derives from skillful hands of people that from father to son, from generation to generation, follow the discipline that their great-grand-father used according to the farmers' and countryside traditions of the territory and of the italian food history.
Even though cook books (or, rather, writings) can be traced back to ancient times, it can be said that they remained more a sporadic attempt at extolling the virtues of the man and his skills, rather than an observation and description of the preparation methods and indications on utilisation of the different ingredients.
Characteristic is also the surface, rough where it Is cut after the first baking, smooth where it is remaining form the original manual shaping of the dough.
It is not a chance that gastronomic literature found so many and so noticeable exponents in Italy: the economic development, civil, technical, humanistic and artistic advancement of the many Comuni (Commons), was not having any equal at the time (possibly not only in Europe).
Italian history and italian food history has long been marked by the lifestyle of the rural masses: especially in the northern and central regions, the mezzadra (sharecropping) partially preserved farmers from hunger and the hard and grueling fatigues that represented the standard way of living of the rural masses throughout Italy, up to the 1960's.
For these very reasons, it is really difficult to see how this farmers' reality might have contributed to the creation of many of the so called poor dishes in the italian food history, that really nothing poor have in them!
Think about the typical crostini di fegato toscani (tuscan crostini with liver) or the bistecca alla fiorentina (florentine steak): these dishes are far from being poor, and the rural masses could only dream of such delicacies!
Nobility and the upper classes in general, were in contact with each other, in the various courts in Europe and exchanged people, arts, trends and tastes. Reading recipes from one of those book might seem, to a modern reader, like the exaltation of spices, or like their used was so common that people from near the Renaissance times would have put cinnamon, or cloves or pepper in their drinking water. Nothing could be more misleading and incorrect!
The two so obtained pieces, the lower one, with flat bottom, and the top, with the curved surface, are oven-baked for a second time (bis-cotto, twice-cooked) to eliminate the residual humidity.
This fashion for spices was in a large part due to the desire to touch, feel, possess the exotic, whatever it was. Courts in medieval Italy (and across Europe) were resting on the everlasting battles to be recognised as the most rich, noticeable and extraordinary.
This sauce has been one of the main ingredients of the farmers' diet throughout the past millennium and its recipe, thankfully, is only traceable in the memory: that sauce means hunger.
This is the food that we have enjoyed for ages and continue to savor as we carry on the traditions of our past.
A history of italian food that only covered what farmers used to eat in the countryside would risk to sound a bit monotonous and awkward, to the modern passionate: long chapters on vegetarian soups and breads prepared from lower quality ingredients would be present and this is not what I want to give you here.
About the Author:
Many of you are probably researching about Italian food traditions. You can find some of the best information that you are looking for about these traditions on the Internet.
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