The Italian tradition myth
"To be born into the Italian realm is to be part of a lifetime feast - an existence punctuated by the best produce of the season prepared with love and passion. This is a world away from the nuclear family and the lone cook labouring away in the kitchen - it's warm, welcoming and loud. Three and sometimes four generations gather together, the women laughing as they go about creating magic in the kitchen, the men often tending wood-fired ovens outside." Maeve O'Mara
So begins Maeve O'Mara and Guy Grossi's Italian Food Safari. And I have to say it's probably a pretty definitive expression of what we all think about the Italians and their attitude to food. Countless cookbooks, travel books, novels and memoirs not to mention television programs promote the same image. But is it true, or is it a romantic view that is no longer relevant?
And is the same true for Italy and for Australian Italy? Indeed Is it a kind of tradition that is unique to Italians?
I have been to Italy four times now I think, each time staying a few days in Rome and then spreading out into various different parts of Italy where we stayed with friends and family in small villages of varying degrees of remoteness. And I confess that on the whole the legend of la cucina Italian was brought to life. Pizzerias were full to bursting with huge tables with every generation represented.
The pizzas were huge and the charcuterie abundant and home made. The charcuterie dish on the left was presented to us as a welcome with drinks to our house in Abruzzo - the various cold meats having been made by the husband (the local mayor) of the lady who brought it.
The breakfasts we were offered in the various b&bs we stayed in were similarly lavish - and again, home-made. The restaurants were almost unanimously providers of tasty regional food. The supermarkets - well the majority of them, were of modest size and somewhat homely and higgledy-piggledy. The freshness and beauty of the vegetables on sale in the markets - not to mention the wonderful cheese - was just as people say. The tomatoes in Puglia were to die for, and I cannot believe that I took no photographs of them. So, at least superficially, from a tourist point of view, you would have to say that the reality lived up to the legend.
And look at this. In a fish restaurant in Puglia we looked out of our window to see this lady - she might have been the chef, or just an assistant, I don't know which. She was washing the fish in the sea I think. Maybe not super healthy - who knows - but still wonderfully authentic in an Italian foodie way. I mean why would you wash it in the sea anyway? To get the salty, briny taste perhaps.
All of those cookbooks and cooking programs repeat the mantra of family, family, family all the time - big families gathering together over wonderful home-made food prepared by nonna - or occasionally mamma. And certainly family seems to be a thing - at least amongst the Italian diaspora. Just go to Melbourne airport arrivals when a plane from Italy comes in - the area is absolutely brimming over with huge groups greeting people coming off the plane.
"Rituals dominate Italian culinary life - events that bring families and communities together. In late summer it's the bottling of the season's ripest tomatoes; in winter it's preserving every part of a pig as sausages, prosciutto and salami." Maeve O'Mara Italian Food Safari.
But don't other peoples do this too?
The English also are big preservers of seasonal produce - marmalade, jams, and pickles. You could also wax lyrical about seasonal things like apple and blackberry pie, gooseberry fool, or local produce such as cheddar cheese, roast beef and yorkshire pudding and pork pies. But again -people don't. And I suppose the English don't get together in such large groups to preserve things. But they do get together in family groups. They also cook home-made stuff, much of it of excellent quality. But English food does not have the same cachet as Italian. People like to mock English food.
All of those people in those cooking shows and books, out in the beautiful countryside of Italy, making and eating wonderful cheese, salami, pasta, ham, pizza and so on have been hand-picked. These are probably people who make top of the line regional stuff. They are not random people plucked from here there and everywhere. So I always wonder whether 'ordinary' people cook and eat like this. Although I do confess that my own personal experience of Italy has always thrown up some local artisan making something wonderful.
There are signs that ordinary people, particularly in the cities don't do this anymore. There are indeed signs that the Mediterranean peoples do not actually eat a Mediterranean diet. Italy now has the 'honour' of having the second highest obesity rate amongst young boys in the world - (36%) and above the Americans.
"Obesity has increased dramatically in recent years among young Italians. According to the European Association for the Study of Obesity, the adult obesity rate is among the lowest in Europe (about 10 percent of the population), but childhood overweight and obesity rates are among the highest in the world." Julia Belluz - Vox
Why? Larger portions and much higher consumption of sugar and fat - a much more 'western' diet of junk food and drink.
"Between the 1960s and early 2000s, the daily calorie intake in Italy increased by 30 percent. And many of those calories, according to the report, are coming from foods that are "too fat, too salty and too sweet." UN Food and Agriculture Organisation
Somewhere in my past television viewing or reading of cookbooks I also saw that many young Italians do not actually know how to cook those dishes prepared by their nonnas. The nonnas are dying and even some of the mammas do not know how to cook those traditional foods. So all power to the celebrity chefs and cooks who promulgate that knowledge. For the food is worth celebrating.
Here are just a couple of mouth-watering looking pasta dishes from Italian Food Safari. On the left Pappardelle con fungi di bosco from Aron Michielli and on the right Ravioli di patate e ricotta con speck e cavolo nero from Andrew Cibej. I suspect that both of these cooks are actually Australian. Both of the recipes are pretty easy.
One website pointed out that the Italians stick to their own food, because, until recently, they have not had huge waves of immigrants bring in new food cultures. Indeed it is they who have spread their culture around the world. And so - here in Australia the traditions are fiercely celebrated and continued - like Tomato Day - when everyone makes passata. Even Maeve O'Mara acknowledges this.
"Intriguingly, many Italian Australian families say their families back home have stopped tomato day as it's so much work, but in Australia it's still going strong."
So maybe true Italian tradition can only be found where the Italians have made new homes. Whether these traditions are still going strong back in Italy in the homes of ordinary Italians almost doesn't matter if the myth is perpetuated and encouraged around the world, and we can buy beautiful cookbooks like this one with luscious dishes to try.
