A Rainbow of Bruschetta- Post #2

In class Thursday we talked about the regionality of food in Italy. Although this isn't an entirely foreign concept, in the US food in the south is very different from food in the north-east because of availability of ingredients and cultural differences, regionality takes on almost a new meaning in Italy. Not only are there vast differences in north and south, even within provinces and areas quite close to each other flavor profiles can be incredibly different. Maybe it was because regionality was on my mind, but when JFRC went to Umbria this weekend I noticed how different bruschetta was at all the various places we ate at and the differences between bruschetta in Rome and Umbria. Our first stop during the weekend trip was to a farm where we were instantly greeted with bruschetta, a piece of bread with olive oil from the farm we visited. It was delicious but very different from my notions of what bruschetta is, I've always thought that it was bread with either a paste or mixture on it. Later at the farm when we sat down to lunch our antipasto was an assortment of bruschetta. One had chopped hard boiled egg on it, another had Fagioli beans (fresh from the farm we were at), and the final two had a bell pepper spread and a tomato spread on them.

Again my idea of bruschetta evolved after this meal, two had a paste-like spread on them but I hadn't realized that just egg or Fagioli beans on bread could be considered bruschetta. All of them were absolutely delicious and I loved how simple they were. None of them were heavily seasoned or 'messed' with, they were all very straight forward which allowed the natural flavor of the ingredients to shine through. The Fagioli bean bruschetta was incredibly fresh and I enjoyed the earthy flavor the beans brought, it contrasted nicely with the acidity of the pepper and tomato bruschetta. I found it interesting what constituted as bruschetta even in one place from just olive oil on bread to the four provided to us at lunch.
The next day we were given free time in Spoleto for dinner, a group of my friends and I explored and found a small restaurant to stop in. Truffles and mushrooms are considered a specialty in Spoleto so for my antipasto I decided to have their truffle and mushroom bruschetta which was served with a few slices of  prosciutto.

I personally love the flavor of both mushrooms and truffles, I am a huge fan of earthy flavors in food, but I had never had the two combined. I absolutely loved the combination, the two flavors played off each other very well and combined nicely, one not overpowering the other. The saltiness of the prosciutto worked wonderfully with the bruschetta, cutting through the earthiness of the mushroom and truffle mixture. 

On the final day of our weekend, we stopped at a small restaurant near Todi. Here our antipasto was crostini instead of bruschetta. We were served crostini con crema di funghi e di ruccola, which they had translated as bread with mushroom cream and rocket cream. One was indeed mushroom and the other was the rocket cream which was pureed arugula. I thought the word for arugula was ruccola, so perhaps a translation error occurred or that could what the restaurant calls purred arugula. 

 Here again, Italian food had me slightly confused. These 'crostini' were nearly identical to what we had been served at the farm on the first day just with different toppings. They were small slices of bread with toppings if anything the bruschetta I had eaten in Spoleto was the odd one out because of its size. Perhaps Spoleto and Todi differ in what they consider bruschetta or crostini because of regional differences.

Honestly, the readings were ever present in my mind this weekend while we were in Umbria, because what I had read was coming to life through the food. Especially the' Delizia' reading about Palermo and the discussion of how 'Italian food does not exist.' I enjoyed how the author explained that that statement was an overgeneralization because lots of areas share food. You can get bruschetta in almost every region of Italy however, there will be differences in preparation and toppings based on where you are. In addition, the ground rules laid out in the 'Sauces & Shapes' reading  were incredibly insightful into Italian cuisine. The rules about the use of the best ingredients and not obsessing over the quality of ingredients came to the forefront this weekend. All of the dishes I was served this weekend were simple but delicious, it wasn't about using the highest quality but about using what was available and local. At the farm, no part of our meal was incredibly intricate or fancy, but it was delicious all the same because of the fresh, farm to table method of the food. Since everything was so fresh, the food simply tasted better. This fresh, 'use what you have available' mindset was also reflected in the 'Sauces & Shapes' reading when the author talked about how Italian housewives took inspiration from anything and everything they had available to them. In the US where we use lots of imported and processed foods in our meals, here in Italy markets seem farm more abundent and making food from scratch seems more common. The food here is left far less untouched than in the US where we tend to season and manipulate everything. To me it creates simple food that is just, if not more delicious than what I'm used to in the US.

Ciao for now!

Veni. Vidi. Mangia