Why Italians Love to Talk About Food (31 page)

 

In 1953 a certain eccentric gentleman by the name of Corrado Tedeschi proclaimed the birth of the National Florentine Steak Party (mentioned in “Slow Food”). It was a regularly established political party, whose sole ideal principle was to fight for “450 grams of steak per capita assured to the people.”
¹²
This is how Article 4 of its charter read: “It is time to end restrictions.” “To be truly such, a beefsteak must weigh at least 450 grams. If it weighs a kilo, so much the better. But no less than 450 grams, because otherwise it becomes a cutlet and then my party would no longer be the Beefsteak Party.”
¹³

That year the party obtained 1,201 votes in the district of Milan, 347 votes in Florence, and several votes in Verona. As slogans, the party's founders selected the jingles “Better a steak today than an empire tomorrow” and “A pension and a cup of hot chocolate for all Italians indiscriminately.” Tedeschi proposed reducing the electoral campaign to a ceremonial lottery with dinner and dancing. Once in government, he intended to establish the Institute of State Buffoons and abolish all taxes. A Miss Beefsteak would be selected under the aegis of the party.

 

Given these tastes, it is not surprising that Tuscany absolutely elevated ancient traditional methods of farming and cattle breeding. Formerly, in Goethe's time, this “archaeological” approach to farming seemed bizarre:

 

The peasants plough deep furrows but still in the old-fashioned manner. Their plough has no wheels and the share is not movable. Hunched behind his oxen, the peasant pushes his plough into the earth to break it up. They plough up to five times a year and use only a little light manure which they scatter with their hands. At sowing time,
they heap up small, narrow ridges with deep furrows between them in which the rain water can run off. The wheat grows on the top of the ridges, so that they can walk up and down the furrows when they weed. In a region where there is a danger of too much rain, this method would be very sensible, but why they do it in this wonderful climate, I cannot understand. I saw them doing this near Arezzo. It would be difficult to find cleaner fields anywhere; one cannot see the smallest clod of earth; the soil is as clean as if it had been sifted. Wheat seems to find here all the conditions most favourable to its growth, and does very well.
¹⁴

 

A vast body of scientific literature exists on the breeding of Maremma cattle. But even Zeri lamb is the result of a particular art of breeding: it is not easy to obtain lamb (or spring lamb) and mutton that responds to all the quality requirements demanded by Tuscans. It should be noted that pecorino (sheep's milk cheese) does not exist in the region of Zeri: all the milk in that area, in fact, serves to nourish the lambs. Milk lambs and rams are oven-roasted in an earthenware pan.

In the Mediterranean scrub of the Maremma, near Grosseto, where the Etruscans lived in ancient times, the inhabitants' favorite specialty (as we learn from recipe books) is stewed pheasant in
acquacotta
. Despite its name, there is no water to be found in the dish. The pot is full of tomatoes and roasted mushrooms, drizzled with eggs beaten with Parmesan, each strictly separated from the other by a layer of bread. This rare dish goes back directly to Etruscan times. Boned pigeons, covered with rosemary and served with a side of white beans “from Purgatory” (the same as beans in a flask,
fagioli nella fiasca
), have the same origin. The third Etruscan recipe that has survived until today is porcini mushroom caps wrapped in grape leaves and grilled over the coals.

Many kinds of mushrooms, not just porcini, are eaten here. In what were once Etruscan lands, chanterelles, morels, miter mushrooms, and honey mushrooms grow in the span of a year. In San Miniato, in November and December, expert searchers go on a hunt for white truffles, worthy of competing with those of Alba. A consortium has even been established to protect this typical product of the region.

Tuscany has a long coastline, part of it rocky and exposed to storms, part of it sheltered by the Argentario Peninsula, which forms a placid lagoon. On the exposed, rocky section of the coast stands the well-known port of Livorno, which was a kind of Italian New York between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. In the imagination of many travelers, this city was a symbol of terrestrial paradise. Evgeny Baratynsky, in
the 1844 poem “The Ship,” anticipated the approach to that astounding place with trepidation:

 

Tomorrow I will see Livorno's towers,
tomorrow I will see Elysium on earth!

 

When the city was governed by the Medici, they most likely intended to create an ideal city there, a free port, a forerunner of how many perceive the United States today. There is a manuscript, which it is possible to consult in Florence, called Legge Livornina (Livornine law), signed by the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Ferdinand de' Medici, on July 30, 1591. It invited “Levantines, Ponentines, Spaniards, Portuguese, Greeks, Germans, Italians, Turks, Moors, Armenians, Persians and those of other States . . . to reside and to frequent and to trade in our delightful city of Pisa, and the port and slipway of Livorno.”
¹⁵

The city became populated with energetic people. Adventurers, former criminals, and individuals with a past to hide were accepted into the community. Moreover, great tolerance was shown, both ethnic and religious. For example, Jews were allowed to hire maids (though not wet nurses) and workers of the Christian faith. Naturally, a large Jewish community was established and prospered in Livorno, as sizeable as Rome's and Venice's (see “Jews”).

Livorno was the only city in Italy that had not formed a ghetto for Jews. The port on the Tyrrhenian Sea became a coveted destination, not only for Sephardics chased out of Spain in 1492, but also for Jews from other large Italian cities, where they had lived for more than a hundred years (a thousand, in the case of Rome).

The city of Livorno grew at a rapid pace. The sciences were developed there. From the jetty of Livorno, Galileo studied the celestial vault with the help of a telescope that he had invented. The arts and medicine flourished, and banks were born. Ships from hostile states and nations, which in other circumstances would have destroyed one another, rocked peacefully side by side in the port. Pirates, weary of their stressful occupation, conducted talks with city authorities to turn over their treasures and ships to the city's coffers, in exchange for the right to Livornese citizenship. The city also established a large mercantile center in Tunisia for the acquisition of wheat, coral, and ostrich feathers. Through this financial channel, among other things, money was recycled and ransoms paid to pirates for hostages they had captured.

Thriving communities were formed around the Dutch, Armenian, and Greek churches. The cuisine of Livorno, naturally, reflected the variety of this bubbling cauldron. Thanks to the Livornese Jewish community, or more exactly thanks to those members who after a temporary transfer were “repatriated” from Muslim Tunisia, Italian cooking was enriched by what was perceived as a new incarnation of the manna of the Old Testament: African couscous. Pellegrino Artusi wrote in his authoritative book (recipe 46):

 

Couscous is a dish of Arab origin, which the descendants of Moses and Jacob, in their peregrinations, have carried around the world. But who knows how many and what kind of modifications it has undergone in its travels. Nowadays it is used as a first course by the Jews of Italy, two of whom were kind enough to let me taste it and see how it is done.
¹⁶

 

Ariel Toaff, from a family of Roman rabbis and an authoritative historian of Italian Hebraism, confirms in his book
Mangiare alla giudia: la cucina ebraica in Italia dal Rinascimento all'età moderna
(Eating
alla giudia
: Jewish cooking in Italy from the Renaissance to the modern age) that this dish entered Italy through the Livornese Jewish community. From Toaff's monograph we also learn that couscous requires prayer during its preparation. Spiritual energy (for the Muslims,
baraka
) is contained in this food: while mixing it with the fingers and kneading the tiny balls of couscous, sacred formulas must be murmured.

The semolina is placed in the
mafaradda
, a large soup tureen with flared sides, and sprinkled with salted water. Microscopic balls are then formed from this mass, using a rotary motion of the fingers. The grains of couscous must be left on a cloth to dry for several hours. Then they are put in the
cuscusera
, a special colander or strainer, placed over a large pot (
marga
) of boiling water, covered with a cloth, and left to absorb the steam. The
cuscusera
must be left over the steam for not less than three quarters of an hour. Then, placed back in the
mafaradda
, the couscous is left to stand for ten to fifteen minutes.

This is how the couscous itself—that is, the semolina base—is prepared. But there is also a technique for preparing the sauces. These can be of mutton, lamb, chicken, or beef with
harissa
(a purée of hot red pepper). In addition, there are vegetables and spices: zucchini, carrots, favas, white beans, onions, tomatoes, turmeric; and, of course, olive oil is added. Cooks with a creative approach (God help us) add various
other ingredients to the couscous and sauces depending on their imagination, for example, chocolate, pistachios, or cinnamon.

Between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Livorno was the land of social protest and rebellion, a stronghold of the Italian anarchist movement.
Cappuccino alla livornese
, Livorno-style cappuccino, is a classic recipe turned upside down: the milk foam is found not on top of the coffee, but underneath, at the bottom of the cup. In 1964, there was talk of pranks
alla livornese
, when three “authentic” sculptures of Amedeo Modigliani were found on the bottom of Livorno's Fosso Reale (a ditch of the Medici canals); they later turned out to be fakes, sculpted by three merry students following a drinking binge. The three stone heads made sparks fly among the world's art experts; it took a great deal of effort to convince elated connoisseurs, critics, art historians, and Paris art dealers that it was only a practical joke. Inspired by the caper, a Università degli Stupidi (University of Fools) was instituted in Livorno, where seventeen years after the memorable event the trio of brilliant student pranksters were presented with an honorary degree.

The one-of-a-kind, indescribable, and incomprehensible
cacciucco
was invented in Livorno. This is the name of a fish soup that is part of the same family as the French bouillabaisse, the Greek
kakavia
, the Spanish
zarzuela
, and the Portuguese
calderada
. The name comes from the Turkish
küçük
, which means “not much.” It is a dish composed of leftovers and scraps of fish. Livorno's commerce has rested on the fish trade for centuries. And while the expensive seafoods—bass, lobster, and mullet—were destined for sale, the remains of their processing and the smaller fish went to the fishermen themselves, and ended up in the fish soup with slices of stale Tuscan bread. The bread's blandness sets off the marvelous flavor of the fish leftovers, as well as the taste of the pungent Tuscan sauces. Tradition requires that the soup contain at least as many varieties of fish as the number of c's found in the word
cacciucco
.
Cacciucco
cannot be prepared without scorpion fish, which is distinguished, according to William Black's expression, for its “Yeatsian terrible beauty.”
¹⁷
As to its beauty, however, not all opinions agree, and in some regions the designation
scorfano
(scorpion fish) is conferred on people, both men and women, who are truly ugly.

This fish is covered with venomous dorsal spines and sports a big, lumpy head. Livornese fish soup is served in a deep soup plate over slices of Tuscan bread, and contains small fish, little pieces of giant squid, calamari, spotted dogfish, mullet, mantis shrimp, and large mussels. Also found in the soup are cuttlefish, octopus, conger, smooth dogfish, and gurnard, along with whole cloves of garlic. The entire mixture is
topped with a tomato and onion sauce and cooked over a low flame, with the addition of hot red pepper.

Another specialty of Livorno is Livornese-style mullet. The mullet, for this recipe, must be large ones, and they are cooked with garlic and tomato sauce. Since ancient times, the city has exported its typical products (Leghorn hens from Livorno are known throughout the world) and imported ideas. As a result, the local cuisine assimilated couscous and extraordinary desserts from the Arabs and from the Jews. Traces of Spanish influence are present, too, as evidenced by the presence of paella, a yellow rice dish with saffron and prawns.

Sauces do not dominate Tuscan gastronomy, but if a sauce is made on the northern coast (north of Livorno) it will be composed of just olive oil and black pepper, while on the southern coast (around Livorno) tomatoes are also acceptable. Red pepper is characteristic of the Adriatic coast and is not used much on the Tyrrhenian coast. The tomatoless, northern part of the Tyrrhenian coast is Versilia: there “white” dishes are cooked (even the Viareggio-style
cacciucco
is called “white”). Around Livorno, however, tomatoes adorn any dish (Livorno did not take long to establish lasting, stable commercial contacts with the New World).

In the lagoonal region of the Tuscan coast, that is, in the area of Argentario and Orbetello, lagoon fish abound: eel, bass, gray mullet, and gilthead. Like everything else in Tuscany, they are roasted on the grill or over coals. Less often, these fish go into making spaghetti sauce
all'ammiraglia
(flagship-style). Pasta in Tuscany is not particularly adored, yet on the coast people eat
cappelletti
(pasta shaped like little hats) stuffed with bass. Truly unusual is the local custom of eating preserved fish as a snack, instead of sandwiches or fruit. Eel (
scavecciato
in dialect), for example, is fried, sprinkled with bread crumbs, seasoned with oil, vinegar, garlic, and mint, and eaten cold. Eels are also smoked and known as
sfumato
(smoked eel). Tuna is also eaten as an afternoon snack (the dorsal part,
tonnina
).