910 Geography - Italy - Italian Cooking
Table of Contents
1. Overview
As everyone will tell you, Italian cooking evolved by region, by city or town, by neghborhood, and by family. In essence it is the food of poor people making an artistic meal experience out of whatever can be grown or caught in a rough dry mountainous country and its surrounding seas.
But in each case, make it (or at least declare it) something exquisite. Some of that is marketing, but some is due to Italians making a virtue of poverty-driven reliance on localvore/organic/sustainable farming. They thereby avoided the excesses of industrailzed farming (e.g., plant varieties selected for processing rather than nutirtion or taste), and were ready with "slow food" when the world needed it.
That includes:
- Hunting:
- At sea, pretty much any fish, shellfish, cephalopod, etc is fair
game. Since small fish are more numerous and easier to catch, there
is quite a lot use of "bait fish" (e.g., anchovies) -- but Italians
declare to be exquisite.
- On land, small game birds and rabbits can be hunted. Notably,
italians are often Olympic champions in small-game-derived shotgun
sports (skeet and trap). Make a virtue of necessity.
- At sea, pretty much any fish, shellfish, cephalopod, etc is fair
game. Since small fish are more numerous and easier to catch, there
is quite a lot use of "bait fish" (e.g., anchovies) -- but Italians
declare to be exquisite.
- Gathering:
- If a small plant is hardy enough to grow on Italian soil, it
probably has evolved some aromatic bug repellant chemicals, and thus
can be used as a spice. These can be planted deliberately or
gathered, but in either case, they are attuned to the geography and
climate. E.g., garlic, onion, basil, parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, capers.
- Collect mushrooms, pinenuts, acorns, hazelnuts, and any wild
fruits you can find.
- If a small plant is hardy enough to grow on Italian soil, it
probably has evolved some aromatic bug repellant chemicals, and thus
can be used as a spice. These can be planted deliberately or
gathered, but in either case, they are attuned to the geography and
climate. E.g., garlic, onion, basil, parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, capers.
- Cultivated Plants:
- Olives grow in dry rocky soil. Oil squeezed from olives can be
perserved longer than the raw olives. So olive oil is a major source
of fats.
- Lemons grow in dry rocky soil. Excellent Vitamin C source, and
adds a new taste to any dish.
- Grapevines grow in dry rocky soil, but the fruit goes bad quickly.
However, grapes can be fermented to wine and kept in that form for
years -- and the alcohol kills the bugs in the water.
- Wheat and its many forms as pasta, bread, and pastries.
- Tomatos, potatos, and corn came from the Americas, but are easy
to grow in Italy. There are of course claims for special varieties
only obtainable in specific regions. Result is America importing
recipes for italian tomato sauce and cornmeal polenta.
- Olives grow in dry rocky soil. Oil squeezed from olives can be
perserved longer than the raw olives. So olive oil is a major source
of fats.
- Cultivated Animals:
- Chickens are easy to raise on dry rocky soil. They are more
productive as egg-layers than as meat, so eggs become a key protein
source. With a special cachet for "day fresh".
- Pigs are easy to raise (relative to other mammals), and provide
meat. But with no refridgeration, need to preserve by drying (smoked
and unsmoked)
- Sheep are easy to raise in rough country (in fact they can
denude ecosystems, leading to desertification). Raised for wool. The
adults are not much used for meat due to taste, but the young (lambs)
are tender and tasty.
- Cows and Water Buffalo require good pasture land, mostly in
northern italy. They are more productive for milk than meat. But
milk spoils so need to preserve by making cheese. And of course every
valley or homestead claims to have to most exquisite cheeses.
- Chickens are easy to raise on dry rocky soil. They are more
productive as egg-layers than as meat, so eggs become a key protein
source. With a special cachet for "day fresh".
2. Cookbooks
Given regional differences and a pass-it-down-the-family tradition, it takes a big step to invent the idea of an italian cookbook. The honor goes to Artusi:
artusi1891. Pellegrino Artusi. "La scienza in cucina e l'arte di mangiar bene", 1891.Martha Baca and Stephen Sartarelli, english trans. "Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well", 1997
Reprinted University of Toronto Press, 2014. ISBN 0-8020-86578-8.
The idea and the format were followed by a national effort:
The problem in both cases is the style -- literary, full of interesting historical and cultural insights... but hard to find the directions for a given dish. You might be referred to another recipe elsewhere for the details of a crucial step. Hard to get a sense of what every italian cook already knows from his/her childhood.
So cookbooks with a more methodical approach (usable by non-italians) became available. Hazen "Essentials" is considered the best for this -- and is the one I use most.
However, it doesn't have much on bread. For that I have Caldesi "Italian Cooking Course":
Any book store or online outlet can provide dozens more, but these get you in the game.
3. Recipes
Once you have read the books and watched the youtube toturials, you have to do it. My basic rule is you need do something 10 times before you "get it". I'm there with a few recipes -- others are in work.
Since the cookbooks are aimed at large multi-generational familes, the recipes say "serves 6 to 8". But for a retired couple, with excess calories already, we have to cut recipes down dramatically.
These are the ones that work for me. Written in LibreWriter ODF so I can readily print out, tape to the cabinet door, and follow along with hands caked in olive oil, garlic and flour.
Creator: Harry George
Updated/Created: 2019-11-14