Why Italians Love to Talk About Food (36 page)

By Andrei Bourtsev

 

for artichokes
alla romana
, strip the tough outer leaves;

for
giudia
-style artichokes, pry open the leaves and flatten the artichoke with a stone;

bind together the asparagus;

toss the pasta in a pan over a vigorous flame;

salt eggplants and let them sit, so they will lose their bitterness;

bash live octopus;

let meat hang until it ages;

blanch and peel tomatoes, then prepare the julienne;

chop pine nuts;

soak prickly pears;

rinse dried cod, changing the water often;

dry salad greens in a special spin-dryer;

cut
puntarelle
(young, tender shoots of catalogna chickory) into thin strips, using the appropriate device;

stud onion with cloves;

bone fish and prepare
baffe
, or fillets (fish halves without head and bones);

“wall up” bass in a sarcophagus of salt;

remove seeds of cucumbers and tomatoes one by one;

peel citrus fruit thoroughly, removing even the thin skin covering each section;

crush basil in a mortar;

mince garlic with a double-handled, crescent-shaped chopping knife;

prepare “zests”: little strips of lemon or orange rind (eliminating the white part, that is, the bitter part, of the rind), and scald them in hot water to bring out the strong flavor;

cut a sprig of parsley with scissors;

cut soft cheese with a wire;

extract the ink from cuttlefish;

lard meat to facilitate its cooking, inserting small strips of fatback using special needles;

remove eyes from octopus;

fillet sole;

prepare bouquet garni for stock, later discarding it;

boil garlic in milk to remove its strong odor;

be able to distinguish between “marbled” meat (where the fat is infiltrated in the connective muscle tissue), “mottled meat” (where the fat is infiltrated in the primary muscle tissue), and “veined meat” (where the fat is infiltrated in the smaller muscle tissue), and know how to cook each of these three types;

fry garlic in olive oil to prepare a condiment in which the scent of garlic will be present, but not the garlic itself;

prepare slivers of Parmesan;

grate nutmeg;

wrap melon in slices of prosciutto;

wrap prosciutto in slices of beef to make
saltimbocca
;

grind black pepper into grains in a wooden pepper mill;

reduce meat or fish stock to preserve it and later use it to flavor foods;

decant red wine from the bottle into a carafe to oxygenate it;

remove the tendons from chilled veal spleen;

soak salt cod in milk;

make curls of butter;

“barding”: cover meat, fish, poultry, and game with layers of salt pork to protect them from excessive heat during cooking; for example, bard quail with bacon before cooking;

remove a squid's beak;

trim the sharp tips of an artichoke;

apply a “chimney,” a rolled cardboard tube placed in the center of certain preparations (meat en croute or pâté), to allow the steam inside to escape while cooking in the oven;

stuff squash blossoms with meat and cheese;

cut truffles into thin slices using a truffle-slicer, a special utensil equipped with a micrometric screw to obtain slices of infinitesimal measure;

braise
in civet
(onion): a method that provides for the final binding with the animal's blood and chopped liver;

cook
in salmì
: a method suitable for hares, roe deer, and doves, similar to
in civet
, but without the addition of blood and liver;

peel peppers;

truss a bird: tie the legs and wings of a bird to its body with kitchen twine so that it does not get misshapen during cooking;

shape polenta in a cloth;

score meat and fish: make small cuts in them in order to facilitate cooking and the absorption of aromas and spices;

boil broth by placing it on only one part of the burner, so the foam will accumulate on one side of the surface and be easier to remove in one step;

cook in a bain-marie, that is, in a saucepan set in a larger pot containing water (the method appears to have been introduced by alchemists, whose science was widespread in the sixteenth century);

“drown” fish: soak it in a small amount of strongly flavored liquid (court bouillon
or wine, or “crazy water” highly seasoned with hot pepper), which should be scalding but not boiling, never exceeding 80 degrees C;

collect the juice from a roast in a special dripping pan for future use in gravies;

prepare the
concassé
(coarsely chopped mix) of fresh tomato, by cutting an X in tomatoes that have been blanched for a few moments, then drained and peeled; the tomatoes are then divided into four sections and cut into regular cubes of half a centimeter per side;

marinate fish in salt, sugar, and spices for two days;

prepare a mirepoix, that is, the flavoring mix composed of diced celery, carrot, and onion;

prepare the
brunoise
: vegetable cubes approximately two centimeters per side (these can be frozen);

pour mineral water in the meatball mixture to make them softer;

cook risotto
all'onda
: the consistency is excellent, neither too liquid nor too firm, when the risotto forms a “wave” as the pot is moved;

prepare “foundations” or stocks, natural substitutes for the bouillon cubes that are now omnipresent even though they are not considered very nutritious;

crogiolare
(bask or laze comfortably): cook a food over a slow fire, with a little liquid, for a long time;

clarify broth by adding a beaten egg white, or (according to ancient recipes) some caviar;

shape flour into a well; after forming a small volcano of flour, pour eggs, salt, and water into the crater;

nappare
(from
nappa
, cloth): cover a preparation with a sauce;

prepare a roux, browning flour lightly in butter in a frying pan; it is used to thicken sauces;

prepare zucchini blossoms for frying: after picking the flowers in the morning when they are still open and firm, remove the pistil and the bitter center part and flatten them so that the tips of the flower are not creased and furrowed;

taste pasta to determine if it's cooked al dente;

“flush” or “purge” entrails or bones in cold running water, to remove impurities and various bloody adhesions;

boil lobsters and shellfish in seawater;

thicken sauces by adding potato flour, cornstarch, butter, cream, egg yolks, or puréed vegetables;

prepare seasonings for sauces ahead of time to obtain a homemade flavor additive
without the monosodium glutamate that abounds in ready-made bouillon cubes; made from coarse salt, meat, carrot, onion, and celery, which are first ground in a mixer, then scalded to let the water evaporate, then again ground in a mixer, then warmed in a frying pan, and finally, when they are by this time dried, ground up a third time and heated . . .

 

And on and on and on, dozens of other methods, the listing of which would require too much space and energy in order to do justice.

All these methods, recommended by Italian gourmets and by the manuals, are conceivable and morally acceptable, on the whole, and periodically implemented by the author herself . . . with the obvious exception of bashing the octopus.

The memory of the people who lived in the Marches in antiquity, the Piceni, has been preserved in a number of toponyms (Ascoli Piceno, Potenza Picena, Acquaviva Picena). The Piceni (from the Latin
picus
, woodpecker), like the other Italic peoples, were in their time subjugated and assimilated by the ancient Romans. In the early Middle Ages the Holy Roman Empire began (or ended) here. The name of the region derives from the fact that in the Middle Ages the Marches were known as border zones, governed by marquises (
marchesi
). The marquisates of Camerino, Fermo, and Ancona were part of the region of the Marches in the tenth century.

Since medieval times, the inhabitants of the Marches have had the reputation of being skilled artisans and craftsmen. Their style of work is not the reproduction of established models, not the diligent reconstruction of old métiers practiced by the trade guilds, but is aimed at perfection, development, progress. The Marches are Italy's Japan. From the shipyards of Ancona the world's largest cargo ships are launched. Household items, electrical appliances, footwear, clothing, mopeds, furniture, and musical instruments are manufactured in the cooperatives of the Marches, supplying all of Italy and half of the nation's export. Among the musical instruments are accordions: the best ones are made right in the Marches, in Castelfidardo. Assembly and finishing of the accordions may be done in other regions, but the internal mechanism must absolutely come from the factory in Castelfidardo.

By Andrei Bourtsev

Here, everyone is constantly studying. The university campus of Urbino practically coincides, as in Oxford, with the area of the city center. Forty colleges are located within the piazzas and Renaissance quads, while the very modern Casa dello Studente (student center) is carved into the side of the mountain. This combination of youth and antiquity gives the effect of an ideal city, in the spirit of that moral and artistic perfection found in the painting
La città ideale
(The ideal city) housed in Urbino's Ducal Palace, and attributed by some scholars to the architect Luciano Laurana, who with Gentile da Fabriano, Bramante, and Raphael created Urbino's beauty.

Complexity, creativity, and an unconditional love of effort also characterize the cuisine of this region. Tradition prescribes that the cooks of the Marches diligently
process all food elements, sparing neither time nor energy. Here everything that can be stuffed is stuffed, from wild boars to tiny olives. Here large pasta cylinders, cannelloni, are filled with asparagus and prosciutto (typical of some other regions as well, however). Calamari is stuffed with ground veal. Food is cooked for a long time and in an elaborate way, with smoked pancetta found even in the murexes (
Murex brandaris
), the gastropods from which royal purple dye is extracted.
Olive ascolane
(Ascoli-style olives), produced here and sold throughout Italy, are stuffed with meat and prosciutto instead of a nut: the mixture is made with herbs, egg, Parmesan, nutmeg, and cinnamon. After the filling is inserted, the olive is dipped in flour, egg, and breadcrumbs, left to cool in the refrigerator, then fried in plenty of olive oil for a minute to a minute and a half.