An Extravagant Affair -Post #11

The Renaissance is a quintessential part of Italian history, it's impact can still be seen today. Although the Renaissance was important for art and culture in general, it also had an impact on food and the way food is eaten. Foods and dishes that still exist today started to develop in this era and Rome became the epicenter of Italian food according to Dickie. Dining in this era, for the elite at least, could be extremely extravagant. This can especially be seen in the banquet held for the wedding of Ercole d'Este.

Compared to modern banquets an extraordinary amount of food was served, this almost gluttony like serving simply isn't seen today. In addition, banquets today normally don't have eight courses with as many dishes in each course that were served at this wedding banquet. In modern times banquets are generally buffet style with all the courses and dishes lined up together or one dish for each course is served for each course. Finally, this banquet was extremely lavish not only in what is served and the amount served but certainly in the expense of the banquet. Modern banquets can be expensive but nowhere near the cost that this banquet must have reached. I would consider this banquet to be cosmopolitan, there are so many dishes served and seasoned and prepared in such a variety of ways that one gets a wide range of flavors and cooking traditions. Although I love protein in my diet, this feast takes it to the extreme, every course has multiple dishes with some animal or seafood in it. Although my math could be way off, I tried to estimate how many animals would be required for each dish, I estimate that about 21 animals and sea creatures would have been killed for each guest (and this was only for the first four courses out of eight!). The extravagance of this banquet doesn't quite fit my tastes, but Trimalchio probably would have felt a bit more comfortable. Trimalchio would have loved the extravagant nature of all the dishes with their use of exotic spices and by the variety of entertainment provided. However, he might have been put off by some of the dishes served, especially the seafood as seafood was something they didn't really consume during his time. He also may have been confused by everyone sitting at one table instead of people sitting at various levels based on social standing as they would have been arranged at his feast.

Though he is full of contradictions, Platina the Papal librarian, scholar, and writer, gives us a look into food and health in his book Respectable Pleasure and Good Health.  Though his book doesn't contain any recipes from the Renaissance it does give us a look into how Italians thought food related to health during this time. It came as no surprise to me that there was a return to Galenic theory and the need to balance the humors. Although some of Galen's theories about how to balance 'humors' and the 'humors' overall are slightly ridiculous I completely agree that food can impact one's metabolism and health. When I eat healthier, I feel healthier, when I eat too much dairy I can get congested and have more mucus in my body. Food and health have a direct relationship, though different than what Galen thought.

I found Grieco's description of the social value placed on foods during the Renaissance completely fascinating and a trend that continues even today. In the Renaissance, they had something called 'The Great Chain of Being where food was ranked according to nobility. The higher up the more noble the food, these foods were generally reserved for the upper class.Though we don't have an actual list like those in the Renaissance, there are still social connotations assigned to various foods today. For example, caviar isn't something people who are poor or with low social standing eat. This trend can sometimes be observed in restaurants today. Generally speaking, if the restaurant's prices are lower the quality and type of ingredients used are what many would consider 'lower-class.' Now this doesn't mean that the food will be of lower quality, I've been to many small restaurants here in Italy with amazing food and low prices and simple/basic ingredients. Sometimes extravagence isn't the answer with food.

Ciao for now!
Veni. Vidi. Mangia.

Cheese Me Up -Post #10

My love for cheese knows no bounds, it sounds dramatic but it's true. I love how many varieties, flavors, and textures there are in the cheese world; there is a cheese for every person's preferences. A major concern in the ancient world was finding ways to preserve or extend the life of various ingredients. With wheat, it was turning it into bread, with grapes turning them into wine, and with milk, it was turning it into cheese. Although the process of cheese making began in the Middle East, the process slowly made its way to other regions around the world. Firebaugh mentions how amazing it is to remember that all cheeses begin with one simple ingredient, milk. Cheese can be made from any sort of milk, typically milk from an animal but plant milks such as soy can also be used and are becoming more popular with the rise of alternative diets. It's interesting how different types of animals produce milk with unique flavor profiles and miles with different fat and protein contents so that the cheeses they produce can be incredibly diverse in flavor and texture. It's also interesting to note how animals diets can greatly impact the flavor profile of the cheese produced with it, with free-grazing animals' milk (and thus cheese) having much more variety in flavor than their grain-fed counterparts. I also didn't realize how intensive and diverse the cheese making process can be. Slight changes in the cheese making process completely changes the type of cheese you get. Back at home in the US my family has something we call 'cold night' where we eat various breads and crackers, cured meats, and lots of cheeses, in Italy cheese can be served in the same way as a primi.

Something surprising that people may not realize is that although Italians put cheese on their pasta, they put significantly less on than we do in the US and the cheese is often put on in the kitchen rather than at the table. Often there is no cheese provided at the table and if you ask for it you may get a shocked look and a harsh 'no' especially if your dish contains fish or is spicy as they don't want the cheese to disrupt these flavors. 

 I'll take cheese any way I can get it, whether as a primi, on top of pasta or stuffed into a tomato; cheese always has a place on my table. 

Ciao for now!

Veni. Vidi. Mangia.

Italians Stole the Tomato -Post #9

Tomatoes aren't native to Italy, I'll give you a minute to process. I know, I hear you saying 'But tomatoes are classic in Italian food, red pasta sauce is like...their thing!' But it's undeniably true, tomatoes aren't native to Italy, they came from the 'New World' in the 16th century and even then it took some time for them to be accepted into the Italian diet. Something considered a quintessential part of the Italian diet and 'Italianess' in general, is not actually Italian. I'm sorry I had to break the news to you, but someone had to. Tomatoes aren't the only thing the Italians have absorbed into their diet from abroad, though. 

Maize and the potato also made their way to Europe from the 'New World' and slowly but surely found a place in European diets, especially the diets of peasants. Both maize and the potato were considered lower class. This time period was plagued with famines and malnutrition in general, especially because diets became dependent on one ingredient. Maize and the potato both became popular eventually out of hunger but also because they were easy to grow and gave a high yield. Because of the rise of maize and the potato Italy gained two more 'classics,' polenta made from ground cornmeal and gnocchi made from potatoes (though gnocchi can be made from flour as well).

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http://www.taste.com.au/images/recipes/agt/2005/05/potato-gnocchi-2388_l.jpeg

 Although reluctant to include them in their diets at first, potatoes, maize, and especially tomatoes became an important part of the Italian diet, some even becoming classics!

Ciao for now!

Veni. Vidi. Mangia.

A Barbarian Diet for Me -Post #8

"You are what you eat," it's a common saying that's used when we are children to make us eat healthier. In a broader sense though what we eat does tell us who we are, or at least it tells about our culture. When the Roman Empire fell and the "barbarians" gained more power, eating habits changed in some ways and yet also retained a 'roman-ness' in others. Instead of the Mediterranean triad of grains, grapes, and olives, there was somewhat of a switch to meat, milk, and butter. However, as we talked about in class, you can't have church without grain, grapes, and olives so the Mediterranean triad didn't fall out of favor completely. Now I love Mediterranean food, but I'm Irish and Polish so I'm definitely a meat and potatoes kind of girl, so the barbarian diet doesn't sound too bad to me. Something that fascinated me about the reading was how important the 'barbarian' ways of foraging and hunting became popular as these were things the Romans once abhorred. Although there were some changes in diet in what exactly they ate, these changes added more diversity and thus more stability and nutrition to the peasant's diet. Not only was the food more nutritious but with a wider variety to pick from and with more ingredients to use the food probably started to be a little better (in a very, very small, baby step kind of way).

Montanari states that 'production and consumption of food were closely linked' in the middle ages and I find this particularly interesting especially considering the recent return to this way of life. In recent times there has been a push for eating as 'local' as you can, especially from your own garden. Self-sufficiency is slowly on the rise again, people are looking for a more artisanal product. I see this a lot in the US but even more so in Italy I see people eating fresh, local products and these products also featured in restaurants you go to. Using what you have fresh and available to us is a common theme that rings true even today in Italy. In Umbria, they are known for mushrooms and truffles. You know what was all over menus there? Truffle and mushrooms. 

Mushroom and Truffle bruschetta

Mushroom and Truffle pasta.

In Cinque Terre they are known for pesto and lemons, and you know what you find a lot of all over Cinque Terre? Pesto in all kinds of dishes and lemon everything (from candy to soap to some amazing limoncello).

Pizza we got from a small local place. He called it 'tricolor pizza' and it had fresh, local pesto on it.

Eating local tends to mean everything is fresh and delicious and if it's a local specialty, you know they're doing it right!

Ciao for now!
Veni. Vidi. Mangia. 

Lessons Well Learned - Post #7

It is fascinating to me how little is known about native Italian grapes, how so many remain unidentified, especially when you consider the fact that wine is a pretty big deal here in Italy. D'Agata speaks to the classification of grapes in his reading, classifications that I didn't even knew existed! Who knew that not only a grapes native, international or traditional, but that within those classifications are further sub-classifications. To many people, including myself, wine was just wine made from grapes and that's all I cared to know. But as D'Agata mentions, native grapes are much more than grapes, they represent culture. Recently I went to Cinque Terre and stayed in Riomaggiore. There I was able to have a wonderful wine tasting of four of their local wines. I was excited to have the wine tasting, as I was with a friend not in this class and was excited to teach her everything I had learned about proper wine tasting in class. We stoped at a small local place called Bar e Vini a Piè de Mà. It was right by the water which only added to the wonderful experience. 

At one point my friend asked me "How are you smelling green apple? I just don't understand, did they put green apple in it?" It was a boost to be able to tell her that we had learned that certain chemical molecules in the wine create smells we can recognize, like green apple or peach! That's why when you smell a wine you can smell various fruits, flowers and so on, its not that there's green apple in the wine but there are chemical compounds in the wine that produce a green apple smell. 

In all we tried four wines. The first was Costa De Sera from Cinque Terre in general, the second was La Polenza from Corniglia, the third was Tobiolo from Manarola and the fourth was La Torre (Albana di Campiglia) from Riomaggiore. 

With the wine we were given some of their fresh focaccia (a local classic in Cinque Terre) and some local olives (already pitted for us!). We also ordered a plate of mixed cured meats and a plate of cheese, pears and honey. Now I'm a huge fan of local honey, I think it tastes better and its better for your immune system, but this local honey was way better than the honey I get by me. It tasted like a flower field, now I know that sounds like an odd statement or even that it wouldn't exactly be a pleasant taste but I can get over how amazing this honey was. It tasted like that had just scraped it off some honey combs (in fact we had little chunks of comb in the honey so it's entirely possible they really had just gotten it) and you could tell it was local because it tasted like the local flora smelled.

One of my favorite things about wine tastings is that you get enough of the wine to enjoy it but not so much that you end up tipsy. At JFRC from the moment we get here we are told to be cautious about where and how much we drink. However I'm glad that I don't have to be concerned anymore with methanol being in my wine. The methanol crisis boggles my mind. How people could, in full knowledge of what they were doing, intentionally poison other human beings is beyond my understanding. However, in the 1980s that's what happened, methanol was intentionally added to some batches of wine just to increase the alcohol content. This caused a few deaths and blindness in the areas impacted and as Parasecoli mentioned, scared the wine market for years to come. It's something, because of all the rules and regulations, that is less of a concern today than in the past. Thankfully I can enjoy my wine while here in Italy and anywhere else I dare to go!

Ciao for now!
Veni. Vidi. Mangia.