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What is Italian Cooking?

What is Italian Cooking? Many non-Italians identify Italian cooking with a few of its most popular dishes, like pizza and spaghetti. People often express the opinion that all Italian cooking is pretty much alike. However, those who travel through Italy notice differences in eating habits between cities,...

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Strawberry Risotto served in 5 minutes

Posted by admin | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on 26-06-2011

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Strawberry
Risotto !

 

 

The first time I discovered Strawberry
Risotto on a menu was about 20 years ago in a restaurant in Verona. Strawberry
Risotto? It sounded really odd but I am adventurous with food. I like to taste
(almost) everything at least once. When the waiter proposed it, he didn’t have
to work a lot at convincing me.

I remember it took a while to get my
risotto to the table. If you order risotto in Northern Italy do not expect it to
be served in 5 minutes. They take risotto seriously there and it takes whatever
time it takes: Just be patient or order something else. While you wait for the
risotto to be served, you can enjoy some light appetizer and drink some
sparkling Prosecco wine. And by the way, there is no such a thing as dipping oil
in the restaurants in Italy. After several minutes we were served a large dish
of red risotto. It was just wonderful! If you never tasted Strawberry Risotto
you will be amazed. At the end of the dinner I asked for the recipe to a very
courteous chef, and of course he (courteously) refused.

I had to come up
with my own recipe, and that was not a difficult problem to solve. Risotto
making is pretty standard. The only change I made from traditional risotto, in
this time of lean cuisine, I used extra-virgin olive oil instead of butter.
Please feel free to substitute olive oil for butter and add more parmigiano
cheese to my recipe if you like. But please don’t use cream! The creaminess of
the risotto comes from the starch of the Italian rice. I used Arborio rice, the
simplest rice to cook and maintain ‘al dente’. You can use Carnaroli rice for
more body, or Vialone rice for a more ‘all’onda’ creamy consistency.

In
my recipe I like to add the strawberries in two batches, the fist at the
beginning, finely chopped, will dissolve while cooking the risotto. The second
batch in larger chunks, added almost at the end, will give consistency and
sweetness. Remember that, contrary to common belief, risotto doesn’t have to be
stirred continuously for 20 minutes. If the risotto is stirred too much the rice
skin will be broken and the risotto will result very starchy. I like to add half
of the broth at the beginning and stir occasionally. Then, when the liquid is
absorbed, add the rest a ladle at the time to control the consistency of the
risotto.

I have been making strawberry risotto for many years and every
time I am asked the same question: “You are making a sweet risotto?”. Strawberry
risotto is not sweet! Depending on the ripeness of the fruit, it will have a
wonderful fruity-sour-sweet tang. Prepare Strawberry risotto in spring and
summer when the strawberries are at their best, dig in, and
enjoy.

Strawberry Risotto

see also http://www.annamariavolpi.com/risotto_with_strawberries.html

4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion finely
chopped
1-1/2 cups (300 gr) Arborio rice
1/4 cup (60 cc) cognac
1-1/2
lb (600 gr) strawberries (half finely chopped, half halved, reserve a few
strawberries for decoration)
5 cups (approx 1 liter) chicken broth, warm to a
simmer in a small saucepan
salt and pepper
4 oz (120 gr) freshly grated
Parmigiano Reggiano cheese

Place the olive oil in a sauté pan
on medium heat. When the oil is hot add the onion and sauté until the onion is
translucent. Add rice.

Stir until the rice is fully coated for
about 2 minutes. Add the cognac. Let the cognac evaporate.

Stir in the chopped strawberries.

Add about half of the broth. Keep
the rice to a simmer and stir occasionally to prevent the rice from sticking to
the pan.

When the broth is absorbed
…

… stir in the halved
strawberries.

Add a ladle of broth and stir slowly
keeping the rice at a “pasty” consistency.  Add the broth a little at the time
to control the consistency of the risotto.

Taste the risotto. When the
risotto is al dente, in about 22 to 25 minutes, cooked but still firm to the
bite, add the parmigiano cheese and stir vigorously for a minute.

Let the risotto rest for about 2 minutes
before transferring to a serving dish. Decorate with the reserved strawberries
and serve hot.

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What is Italian Cooking?

Posted by admin | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on 26-06-2011

0

What is
Italian Cooking?

Many non-Italians identify
Italian cooking with a few of its most popular dishes, like pizza and spaghetti.
People often express the opinion that all Italian cooking is pretty much alike.
However, those who travel through Italy notice differences in eating habits
between cities, even cities only a few miles apart. Not only does each region
have its own style, but each community and each valley has a different way of
cooking as well.

 

Every town has a distinctive way of
making sausage, special kinds of cheese and wine, and a local type of bread. If
you ask people, even in the same area, how to make pasta sauce, they will all
have different answers. Variations in the omnipresent pasta are another example
of this multiplicity: soft egg noodles in the north, hard-boiled spaghetti
in the south, with every conceivable variation in size and shape. Perhaps no
other country in the world has a cooking style so finely fragmented into
different divisions. So why is Risotto typical of Milan? Why did Tortellini
originate in Bologna? And why is Pizza so popular in Naples?

 

This is so for the same reason that
Italy has only one unifying Italian language, yet hundreds of different spoken
dialects. Italy is a country of great variety, and cooking is just another
aspect of the diversity of Italian culture.

This diversity stems largely
from peasant heritage and geographical differences. Italy is a peninsula
separated from the rest of the continent by the highest chain of mountains in
Europe. In addition, a long spine of mountains runs down north to south through
this narrow country. These geographic features create a myriad of environments
with noticeable variations: fertile valleys, mountains covered with forests,
cool foothills, naked rocks, Mediterranean coastlines, and arid plains. A great
variety of different climates have also created innumerable unique geographical
and historical areas.

But geographical
fragmentation alone will not explain how the same country produced all of the
rich, fat, baroque food of Bologna, based on butter, parmigiano, and meat; the
light, tasty, spicy cooking of Naples, mainly based on olive oil, mozzarella,
and seafood; the cuisine of Rome, rich in produce from the surrounding
countryside; and the food of Sicily, full of North African
influences.

The explanation is hidden in
the past; the multitudes of Italian cooking result from its history. Divided for
a long time into many duchies, princedoms, kingdoms, and states—often hostile to
one another—political unification in Italy did not occur until 1861. Many
populations in the past three thousand years have occupied Italian territory,
and most of them contributed their own traditions. And the original people, the
Etruscans and Greeks, left influences still felt today.

 

The Romans politically controlled
the territory about two thousand years ago, integrated Greek civilization, and
created an empire that laid the foundations of Western civilization. They
imported all kinds of foods from all over the known world. Roman ships carried
essential foods, such as wheat and wine, as well as a variety of spices from as
far away as China, to satisfy the Romans’ appetite for exotic ingredients. Roman
cooking habits fascinated and influenced generations in the centuries that
followed. The fall of the Roman Empire was caused by unstoppable waves of
invading people—barbarians who came from as far away as Tibet. They pillaged and
destroyed, but they also brought with them new cooking customs. It took
centuries before some order was restored and medieval peoples could begin to
rebuild something that could be called a cuisine.

Medieval BanquetA Roman Banquet in a
Triclinium. During much of the dinner, each guest
leaned on his left elbow, leaving the right arm free. As three men lay on the
same couch, the head of one man was near the bosom of the man lying behind him.
The rule was that the number of guests should be no less than that of the Graces
(3), nor exceed that of the Muses (9).

 

During medieval times, the absence
of a powerful central authority allowed the creation of many fiercely
independent cities. These Comuni, from the Alps to the border of the Kingdom of Naples,
progressed faster than the other European towns of
the time in wealth and in artistic and intellectual achievements. The cities of
northern Italy developed mostly through trade in valuable merchandise, such as
spices and fabric, with northern Europe and the East. A rich cuisine developed,
offering great diversity from one town to another.

 

After the decline of the city
states, the territory of northern Italy was partially occupied from time to time
by France or Austria, which left additional culinary influences in the
Northeast. The richness of the cities of northern Italy is reflected in
particular in the creation of a “culture” of fresh pasta. While dry macaroni was
an item of mass production, fresh pasta associated with eggs, cheese, sugar,
cream, and other expensive items was a luxury item. Even though fresh pasta
became diffused throughout the peninsula and outside the borders of Italy, it is
in northern Italy that we find the most spectacular recipes. It is no
coincidence that many consider Bologna the gastronomic capital of
Italy.

Tuscany represents a
phenomenon by itself in Italian history. Starting in the thirteenth century, the
city of Florence in particular became rich during the evolution of the banking
system. The De Medicis, a family of merchants and bankers, would become patrons
of the arts and would accelerate the movement that became known as the
Renaissance. It was the birth of a new way of viewing human beings as in conrol
of their own destinies. New social rules were created here and exported all over
Europe, which was on the verge of great transformation due to the discoveries of
the age of exploration. The Renaissance initiated a great revolution in the
arts, also reflected in spectacular and extravagant new ways of cooking.

 

While the north would see the
creation of many small independent political entities, the south of Italy
remained mostly unified for a long time. Separated from the great trading routes
with northern Europe, the south suffered greater poverty and isolation. The
people of southern Italy made the best of what they had. But it is here, in
southern Italy, that spectacular dishes like spaghetti and pizza originated.
Born as the poor people’s way of cooking, these dishes were exported by groups
of Italian emigrants and disseminated outside their regions of origin, making
them extremely popular everywhere. Dry pasta is the greatest contribution from
southern Italy.

Dry macaroni is suitable for storing, trading, and
transporting. The invention of the bronze press industrialized the manufacturing
of pasta, making macaroni affordable. Present in Sicily since Arab occupation,
macaroni became extremely popular in Naples in the 1700s. It is from there that
dry pasta started its journey conquering the world. Sicilian history is
fascinating for all the different people that occupied the island during
different times. The greatest influence was left by the Muslim occupation that
lasted for two centuries. Muslims contributed greatly to Western cuisine with a
variety of foods, including rice, spinach, alcohol, oranges, lemons, apricots,
sugar, and more. In Sicily, their influence is still greatly felt
today.

 

Pizza seller in the streets of
Naples, engraving, early 1800s. The tradition of
preparing and selling all kinds of pizzas in the streets remains well alive
today in the small lanes of downtown Naples. Pizza and calzoni, panzerotti, and
pizzelle fritte are delicious when eaten warm—prepared right on the spot—in the
hundreds of small shops. As with fast foods, they can be either a snack or a
full meal.

 

Local traditions result from long
complex historical developments and strongly influence local habits. Distinctive
cultural and social differences remain present throughout Italy, although today
mass marketing tends to cause a leveling of long-established values. In a
country so diverse, it is impossible to define an “Italian” cooking style, but
traditional food is still at the core of the cultural identity of each region,
and Italians react with attachment to their own identity when confronted with
the tendency toward flattening their culture.
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Hello world!

Posted by admin | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on 15-06-2011

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Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

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