Why Italians Love to Talk About Food (45 page)

The character of the inhabitants of Abruzzo is suspicious, severe. People here are
superstitious. It is strange, but historically accurate, that the approval of certain projects, including urban planning, was subject to a secret concordance expressed by magic numbers, surprising at times, such as ninety-nine. The capital of the region, L'Aquila (eagle), was established in the thirteenth century based on a plan personally designed by Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen (or of Swabia). Emperor Frederick (1194–1250) was a patron of the sciences and philosophy, hosting French troubadours, German minnesingers, and Arab alchemists at his court. He was a painter and scientist himself, and spoke six languages, including Arabic and Greek. In his territories, religious tolerance toward Christians, Muslims, and Jews was imposed by law. He founded the University of Naples, where, according to his program, students in Europe for the first time began to study algebra and use Arabic numerals. Frederick was interested in esoteric doctrines, and assimilated notions of alchemy from the Arabs. The construction of the city of L'Aquila was completed only after Frederick's death, with funds collected from the proprietors of the ninety-nine castles surrounding the site.

The city was formally inaugurated in 1254, but by 1259 it had already been destroyed by order of Manfred, Frederick's illegitimate son, so that it would not go to his enemy, Charles of Anjou, who was about to conquer it. But the enemy (that is, Charles with his army) took possession of the ruins and the city was rebuilt according to the original plan, in which the magic number of ninety-nine was repeated. The city's main fountain consists of ninety-nine statues, representing the city's founding fathers. Water spurts from the open mouth of every founder. The city's main bell tower, in the Palazzo del Buongoverno, strikes ninety-nine times each evening. And there are ninety-nine churches in the city.

 

In Pescara, at the shrine of the Madonna dei Sette Dolori (Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows, pierced by seven swords), processions are held in which young girls carry lit candles, protecting the flame from the sea winds. Numerology, in these areas, is distinctive: often the number seven is encountered in sacred contexts, though just as often the number thirteen has a “magical” value.

At Campobasso, on Corpus Christi day, a grand procession, the Sfilata dei Misteri (Mysteries Pageant), is organized: the crowd carries wooden platforms (
macchine
, or stages) on their shoulders, thirteen in all, on which sacred performances of themes from the Holy Scriptures and the lives of the saints take place. At Toro, near Campobasso,
on March 19, St. Joseph's Day (a day of mercy for the poor), the
sagra
of the Banquet for the Needy is held. According to the rules of the feast, the attendees are served thirteen courses. In the village of Rivisondoli, a living
presepio
(crèche) is arranged at Christmas; there, too, sacred representations are put on, with hundreds of participants and thousands of spectators.

The traditions of Abruzzo have been described by ethnographers and ethnologists numerous times, in the past as well:

 

“Come, you drunkards, from the four corners of the wind. The land of plenty is open. You can drink wine without paying. But hurry, it won't last long. You can head for Avezzano, Sulmona, Bugnara, Raiano, Pratola Peligna . . .” As the Corpus Christi procession winds around, fountains of wine often spout in the middle of a piazza or in front of makeshift altars in the streets. The liquid is poured into a funnel from a third or fourth floor of the house, passing through special ducts of tin or cane, and comes out airy and lively, as if by magic, in the shape of a spiral or plume. Then whoever wants to drink, drinks . . . The same ceremony is performed in Raiano on the Feast of St. John.
¹

 

In Fossalto, on the first day of May, Maggio Grasso (Fat May) takes place: the crowd pours water over a man wrapped in branches and leaves (the
pagliara
), invoking the harvest with shouts of
“Rascia, Maje!”
(“Abundance, May!”). In the same period, other fertility-evoking rites associated with snakes are performed (mythical correspondence: the serpent, as a phallus, penetrates the earth's depths), or even rituals related to reminiscences of propitiatory sacrifices. At Cocullo, near L'Aquila, on the first Thursday of May, the procession of the
serpari
occurs in honor of St. Dominic of Foligno. Four sturdy parishioners carry on their shoulders a statue of the martyr, draped with live snakes. Behind the statue come young girls: each one carries on her head a basket containing five braided loaves of bread that will be offered to the snakes. Auspices about the future are drawn based on the behavior of the snakes upon seeing the loaves.

Just as the customs are exotic and the appearance of the celebrants is exotic, so, too, are the shapes and names of the region's pastas. In Molise and Abruzzo
maccheroni alla chitarra
, guitar-style macaroni, is produced, cut on a special apparatus that is aptly called a “guitar,” which is built roughly like a musical instrument: a frame on which metal wires are stretched. It seems there are only two craftsmen left in the world who still make “guitars” for pasta. One of them, Gabriel Colasante, lives near Pescara, in the village of Sambuceto.

By pressing the pasta through the spaces between the wires with a rolling pin, square-cut strands are obtained. Artisans play this machine like a musical instrument, reaching a level of great virtuosity. The appearance of the pasta depends on how tautly the wires are stretched on the frame. With the wires somewhat slack, or placed on a diagonal, and using additional devices, you will get
maccheroni al rintrocilo
(made with the help of a toothed wooden rolling pin, the
rintrocilo
) or
della ceppa
(rolled around a stick, called a
ceppa
). Both the strings and the accessories are manufactured in bronze, in accordance with traditional technology. The cut pasta is left to air dry for fifty to sixty hours. Only then will it behave properly during cooking. Only then will its surface be rough enough to retain the sauces. And in Abruzzo these sauces can be so fragrant that it would be a crime to use the wrong pasta, which the sauce would not adhere to, allowing part of the wonderful flavor to be lost along the way.

Abruzzese cooks enjoy great success partly because they are able to prepare dishes correctly, and partly because they are unsurpassed masters in the use of spices, such as saffron, a typical product of the region. Saffron is collected from the stigmas of
Crocus sativus
. To produce a kilogram of the product, it takes two hundred thousand flowers and five hundred hours of work. Crocuses bloom in October and their flowering only lasts two weeks. One can therefore imagine the number of seasonal workers who are called upon for the saffron harvest during this brief but intense period.

The cultivation of saffron requires a lot of work, but it is also the most picturesque in the world. The inside of the flower's corolla is red, the petals are purple, the pistils yellow. In India and China, saffron has always been used both to prepare foods and to dye fabrics. And as we have already mentioned, the beauty of this spice suggested the legendary tale about the origin of risotto Milanese: a distracted artist who was painting the stained-glass windows of the cathedral in the sixteenth century is said to have dropped his paintbrush in the rice.

Of course it is just a tale. It is not difficult to date the appearance of saffron in Milanese cuisine: undoubtedly it was brought there by the Spaniards, who for years used it to flavor foods, having learned to do so from the Arabs. La Mancha is a region of Spain famous not only for the “Knight of the Rueful Countenance” but also for the cultivation of saffron. The Spaniards ruled in Milan from 1535 to 1706; hence saffron, too, must have found a place in Milanese recipes at the beginning of this period. And the legend of the stained-glass window painter dates the event to 1527: in short, roughly the same period.

The cultivation of saffron was introduced in Abruzzo long before Milanese cooking made it its own. Like many other important agricultural innovations in Italy, saffron
spread thanks to the work of selection in monasteries (see “Pilgrims”). The monks had always been willing to experiment with new and promising crops. From the annals of the Dominican monastery of Gran Sasso, it appears that
Crocus sativus
was brought from Spain by the Dominican monk Domenico Cantucci around 1300. Cantucci was an inquisitor, and it is likely that his arrival caused the prior some agitation; but in the long run, his visit turned out to be incredibly propitious for the monastery. At Gran Sasso, Dominicans still cultivate saffron today. The cost of the finished product is as high as ten thousand euros per kilogram (more than the white truffles of Alba!).

In central Italy, saffron was already considered hard currency in the thirteenth century. In 1228, when the commune of San Gimignano repaid creditors who had financed the military operation for the conquest of the Castello della Nera, the debt was settled in cash and saffron.
²

Not always, and not by everyone, were the merits of saffron considered indisputable. Goethe, for example, was of a different opinion: “A chicken boiled with rice is certainly not to be despised, but an immoderate use of saffron made it as yellow as it was inedible.”
³
Alexandre Dumas, in
Le grand dictionnaire de cuisine
, considered saffron a downright dangerous substance: “The scent of saffron is extremely penetrating; it can cause violent headaches and even lead to death.”
⁴
Still, saffron is irreplaceable in Italian cuisine. In Sardinia it is added to bread, in Abruzzo to guitar-style pasta (L'Aquila), rabbit, and sole. Without saffron the Sicilian cheese Piacentino di Enna could not be produced: its wooden molds are sprinkled with saffron so that the rind will be yellow. In recent times in Italy there have even been those who make saffron ice cream. In all eras, saffron has been used both as a dye and as a medicine. By gilding meat and rice with saffron, cooks in the Middle Ages improved both the appearance and the nutrition of the dish. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, L'Aquila sold saffron to Milan, Spain, and Marseilles. The precious pistils were one of the most sought-after items, since without this spice, neither risotto Milanese nor Spanish paella could be prepared. Knowing this, authorities have always tried to tax its sale. Saffron has not been expensive only in the twenty-first century: judging from a document that has come down to us, in the fifteenth century five hundred grams of saffron cost as much as a horse.

In general, the Abruzzese know how to add the right amount of spices to their dishes to get an aromatic, spicy taste without overdoing the aromas. It is popularly said that the taste receptors of Abruzzese cooks pick up more nuances of flavor than
those of the average Italian. This reputation causes candidates from Abruzzo to be in high demand when selecting restaurant staff and appointing expert tasters. It is known that the Val di Sangro (in the province of Chieti) has given the world an entire constellation of distinguished chefs, working in the kitchens of great restaurants, hotels, and ocean liners. Many of them are emigrants or descendants of emigrants. Abruzzo was a depressed area up until the 1980s. The farmers of Abruzzo constituted almost half of those who were forced to leave Italy. In 1984 the situation began to improve: the L'Aquila–Rome highway was built, industry gradually began to develop, and the need to emigrate lessened. But as long as emigration was substantial, many Abruzzese found work as cooks in Switzerland and Germany, at the court of the emperor of Japan, and at the White House. An Abruzzese cook is a real treasure, distinguished by an almost religious devotion to his profession and by a particular gift (refinement plus originality) in measuring out the ingredients. Abruzzo belongs neither to the north or south of Italy nor, come to think of it, to the east or west. It is a unique region, a special case. Since its ingredients are modest, culinary salvation lies in the introduction of spices; it is therefore necessary for local chefs to develop subtle flair and culinary intelligence.