Along with the extensive history, natural beauty and art of Italy, the country is famous for its food. Stanley Tucci made a popular CNN series touting the deliciousness of Italian cuisine in six regions of Italy ranging from north to south across the peninsula.(Searching for Italy: What’s on the Menu; CNN, premier 02\14\2021). When Terry first arrived in Italy to study medicine in the 1970’s he quickly came to appreciate the food, so different from the typical American dinners of meatloaf, fried chicken and Mac and cheese.
Oh wait. Mac and cheese was one of the earliest Italian dishes to become popular in the U S. A dish enjoyed by early Italian immigrants, it was cheap, relatively easy and filling, no doubt appealing to anyone on a budget for all those reasons. But it wasn’t until the mid-20th century that the spicier spaghetti, lasagna, ravioli and minestrone soup, became popular in America as people began to appreciate Italian dishes flavoured with garlic, oregano and basil. Today who hasn’t headed to a local Italian restaurant for a hearty meal? And, of course, there is America’s, and Italy’s, favorite quick meal-, pizza-easy to order from a local pizzeria and with one’s favorite toppings makes a hearty meal.
Were we thinking of feasting on Italian food when we decided to move to Italy? Not at all. But we have discovered dishes not well known in the U S which are common favourites in Italy. One I particularly enjoy is a Panzanella, a Tuscan salad incorporating stale bread mixed with tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and herbs such as basil or oregano. Actually a wide range of vegetables or herbs of your choice can be used along with olives, capers, pine nuts or feta cheese if that appeals. Any stale bread works well in this salad although ciabatta is the preferred choice. Traditional recipes call for toasting the diced bread but I usually skip the toasting since stale bread already provides its own crunchy texture. Dressed with good olive oil and balsamic vinegar it is usually served as a side dish in Italy, but is pretty substantial and for Terry and me serves as a main dish with feta added for protein.
Cacio e Pepe, an institution in Rome, is a regular dinner choice for us, both for its simplicity and its flavour. Traditionally served with spaghetti it is equally good with any pasta, which you can begin to cook while you prepare the simple sauce. For that, simply grind whole peppercorns in a mortar then add them to a sizzling clump of butter or olive oil for a few minutes. When both the pepper and pasta are ready, combine and top with grated parmesan or pecorino cheese. Both cheeses have a sharp flavour and complete the deliciousness of this easy dish.
As a first course, tortellini in broth can hardly be beat and like Cacio e Pepe is easy to make unless you choose to make the tortellini yourself, a challenge not meant for the inexperienced. My first meal at a Bolognese restaurant started with a cup of this wonderful dish and I have since learned to prepare a reasonable approximation at home. I do, of course, buy prepared tortellini but use homemade broth made from meat stock and supplemented by a couple of cubes of vegetable bouillon, a favorite flavour enhancer I use in any soup or stew.
For light eaters, tortellini in broth can provide the basis of a meal, but for Italians, food enthusiasts that they are, it serves only as the start of a two or three course feast. Typically an Italian meal starts with an Antipasto, or appetiser course, which may be the tortellini in broth but can include meats and cheeses … much heavier than the salad or light soup Americans choose to start their meal. The Primo follows with dishes of rice or pasta, perhaps the Cacio e Pepe mentioned above or the popular saffron infused Risotto (rice) Milanese. Naturally following the Primo comes the Secondo a hearty course featuring meat or fish. With so much food already consumed, the Dolce or dessert is likely to be a simple fruit cup, custard, or gelato. Gelato is, of course, one of Italy’s signature foods, somewhat lighter than ice cream and more flavourful. In Italy gelato is eaten not just as a dessert following a meal, but enjoyed as a snack at any hour of the day.
Intensity of flavour also characterises Italian vegetables, especially tomatoes. Perhaps it is the rich soil, the climate, or maybe greater reliance on local produce that hasn’t been picked unripe and shipped across many miles before reaching consumers. I remember the first time I tasted tomato soup at a local restaurant, the flavour literally singing in my mouth as my eyes flew open in surprise. Unfortunately that basic soup has, in my opinion, been corrupted by the traditional and popular Pappa al Pomodoro, or mush with tomato soup. Yes, mush, which is created by adding bread to the soup and smashing it into a gruel, perfect for the toothless but to me the ruination of a beautiful, flavourful soup.
Though I cook most of our meals at home, we do eat a meal out occasionally. In Anghiari the food on offer at restaurants leans to traditional pasta dishes including, though not limited to, ravioli, spaghetti, pizza, lasagna. All prepared well enough, but these foods have come to bore us. Even if cooking at home, one must rely on the choices available at supermarkets where pasta and various tomato products line the shelves, reflecting Italians’ preferred cuisine.
Probably surprising to anyone who hasn’t lived here, the bread we can find in America and virtually all meat is superior to their equivalents in Tuscany. Bread, the “staff of life,” in particular has been a disappointment during our Italian adventure. Tuscan bread is normally made without salt, for Tuscans disdain the salted variety, believing that the saltiness of meats and cheeses used with bread provide all the flavour needed. Beyond that a loaf of bread bought one day is inedible the next by which time it resembles a brick…. perhaps it is this quality that gave rise to Panzenella and Pappa al Pomodoro. But buns for hamburgers here are are at the bottom of Italy’s bread totem pole, disintegrating in your hands as you eat, trying to finish before the bun disappears altogether.
In Anghiari, although it is possible to get a dish made with boar or pigeon, widely appreciated Italian foods like Osso Bucco, Cotoletta (veal) al Milanese and Braciola are not featured on menus, though larger cities no doubt have them. And while folks living on the Mediterranean or Adriatic Seas can enjoy fish, it is simply not available here, even river or lake fish. Tuscan food, at least in Anghiari, is committed to the familiar.
Though I will no doubt prepare a few of our favourites such as Panzanella or Cacio e Pepe when back in the states, after several years of eating Italian we long for the variety of foods available in the states…Thai, Mexican, Chinese, Indian, Ethiopian and beyond. We have found here a Chinese restaurant in nearby Sansepolcro where we buy a meal if in the neighbourhood. Not bad, unless you think Chinese food should use rice noodles instead of spaghetti.
And, heresy though this may seem, the pizzas we have enjoyed in Hickory are to my mind, superior to those found in our immediate area. That may be only because I usually order a pepperoni pizza in the states, the one instance in which I actually eat sausage. Here, however, pepperoni refers to peppers, usually red, and there is no equivalent to pepperoni sausage. Having said that, pizzas here are imaginative often featuring vegetables such as arugula or radicchio…good but not as tasty as an American pepperoni pizza.
But what is the most serious lack vis a vis food and drink in Italy? For me, a dedicated drinker of orange juice to start the day, the poor quality of prepared orange juice in Italy was a disappointment. At any grocery store in America it is possible to buy a ‘not from concentrate’ bottle or carton of good orange juice, perhaps not as good as freshly squeezed, but a reasonable substitute and much easier. No prepared orange juice I have tried in Italy compares to what is on offer in America, which has led me to squeezing an orange or two for our morning juice. As I pull out and set up the juicer then search for oranges in the fridge, cut the oranges in half and get out the glasses, I am always impatient with this intrusion into my semi-somnolent state and wish for an immediate cup of coffee. Spremuta, freshly squeezed orange juice, is available in coffee bars here, but though usually a generous portion, it is expensive and hard to come by at 6:00 o.clock in the morning.
Now as the season for oranges is ebbing, the oranges are smaller and less flavorful and will soon disappear entirely until December or so when the famous Italian blood oranges arrive. We will depart Italy just as these oranges come on the market but the compensation back in the states will be pouring a glass of orange juice from a carton and drinking it as my coffee brews.
So while there are a variety of reasons for our return to the U S, we also look forward to enjoying culinary favourites there. I asked Terry which food he is most looking forward to back in Hickory and it was a Philly cheesesteak sandwich found at a local steakhouse. For me it is an order of cheese enchiladas, or perhaps any Mexican food. Or maybe barbecue, or Pad Thai or……………….
Bon Appetit to all wherever you are
Addendum
If Italy appeals to many foodies, our own experience in good eating topped out in the Balkans, specifically Serbia and Bosnia Herzegovina where we spent several months. If that comes as a surprise it is probably because you haven’t travelled there. Everything we ate in restaurants, whether Balkan specialities or adaptations of food from other countries, was delicious. One exception was a pizza we had in Novi Sad. We had enjoyed a very good fire baked pizza in Belgrade so Serbs do know how to make a good pizza, but in Novi Sad we simply chose the wrong restaurant and after one bite the catsup-laden pizza went into the dumpster.
Lurching towards Italy 