Me ‘Sacred Com Mad Cove: A History of Fod Fears Madeleine Fai trassted by Jody Gading Molecular Gastronomy: Exploring the Sconce of Fave, Her This tasted by MB DeBevoie Food ls Calar, Massimo Montana, wanted by Abert Sonnene [ition Mysteries Revealing the Scene of Cooking, Her This tasted by Jody lading Hoge Hominy Soul oo from Aric to America, Frederick Dooghass Opie Gastoplis Food an New Yor City, eed by Annie Hauck-Leion and Tae Sloce of he Oven, Hervé This rans by Jody Glaing Pomodora! A History of he Tomato aly, David Gentcor (Chase, Pears snd Hisary va Provr, Maso Montana andated by Beth ‘Archer Brombert, ‘nar, tanated by Beth Archer Brombert "The Sere Facil Life of Fd: Fm Condes Masks to Sapermarts, Kara Newman ‘Drinking Hasty fon Turning Pots the Making of American Beverges ‘Adee Sith ITALIAN IDENTITY in the Vitchen. Food end he che MASSIMO MONTANARI columbia University Pross Now York(Copyright © 2010 Gis Latere & Fig Al rights reserved. Published by rangement with Marco Vigevan Agezia eterna “aslation copyright ©2015 Colanders ress ‘Alig reered ‘Library of Congress Catling in- Publication Data hhh Fudd then by Maso Montane ‘translated by Beth Archer Brombert fy Mess CONTENTS ‘Translators Preface vii Preface: Italy and Italians xv Before There Was an Italy There Wasa Europe 1 Italy Isa Network of Cities 5 “Models of Cooking Between Unified and Varied 1 Popular Culture and Culture of the Elite 19 People and Products That Travel 27 Preservation and Renewal of Alimentary Identities 33 ity and Tradition 59 ‘The Invention of Regional Cooking 65 Epilogue: In Search of Home Cooking 73 Related Readings 85 Index 97dishes that kept peasants from starving ‘What emerges from this slender volume is the very weighty notion that “identity... isnot inscribed inthe genes ofa people ‘or in the ancient history of their origin, but is constructed his- torically through the day to-day dynamic exchanges between individuals, experiences, and different cultures” After more ‘than a half century of living eating, and cooking in Italy, I can personally atest to Montanaris conclusions. Beth Archer Brombert 449966060600000000004 PREFACE Ghat ond Graton “Gly made, now let us make Italians” Massimo dAzeglio! is reputed to have said once the country was unified in 1861. ‘This statement could have been reversed: Italians finally ‘made Italy. More than anything it was a question of numbers and proportions, Peasant masses had always lived (and would have continued to live) within locally circumscribed areas: ‘Whereas upper classes of society—aristocrats and bourgeois— had lived for centuries in an “Italian” dimension that went beyond the political and administrative confines of the many states dotting the peninsula and the islands. Ths isto say that for some, at least, Italy had existed for some time. It was the * Massimo dAzeglio (178-1866), distinguished writer and statesman, receded Camillo Cavour as prime minister to Victor Emmanuel, king, ‘of Piedmont Sardinia, TN. © amplified reworking ofthe esay Modell aimentarie Adentitaitaliama, which appeared in La cultura italiana, under the gen- ‘eral editorship of LL. Cavalli Sfrea, UTET, Torin 2009, vol. VI, Ciba, ioc, esta, moda, edited by C. Petrini and U. Vel, pp. 73-89.Italy of a way of life, of daily practices, of mental attitudes: the Italy of culture, which identifies a country more accurately than, political unity. mentary and psronomic madly dave ITALIAN = of collective identities—were an integral part of this culture, It is on these that we will focus our attention in order IDENTITY 10 verify how the presence of a common sensibility, of shared styles and tastes, allow us to speak of a “land called Italy” as : far back as the Middle Ages, when Italy was yet to come or to fn the Yitchenn™ be imagined but when Italians already existed. For that is how Food, and the qo” they felt and characterized themselves with absolute certainty and without any ambiguity. . Jacques Le Goff observed that “the political and mental re- alities ofthe alan Middle Ages are the ltalians, far more than Italy? The same can be said about the modern period up to 1861 \999004400060000006004 BEFORE THERE (co a ITALY THERE (jos co EUROPE tle within the broader European koine that had developed dur- ing the early Middle Ages, thanks to the encounter of Romans and “barbarians? as the Romans disdainfully called them. This encounter, preceded by a period of brutal conflict, determined the circulation, and the integration, of various cultural models, ‘creating a new reality that to some degree married the tradi- tions and lifestyles of Mediterranean populations with those ‘of the Continent, thereby moving the center from the western ‘Mediterranean to Europe. The conflictlencounter between Ro- ‘mans and barbarians was echoed by the contrast between their alimentary values: the culture of bread, wine, and oil (symbols cof Roman agricultural civilization) became mixed in with the ccalture of meat and milk, lard and butter (symbols of “barbar- ian” civilization, associated more with forest life than with ag-‘tigulture), The prestige of the Roman model, which favored the ability to domesticate and transform nature, had to come to terms with the importance attributed by the barbarian victors {6 the consumption of meat and animal products. Out of this ‘emerged a new model of production, termed “agro-forest-pas- toral” by historians, in which bread and grains were on equ h meat and dairy products, a symbiosis simultane= 1d mental from which the historical wealth of derived, 1on was accelerated by the spread of Chris- tianity, which imposed models of common behavior on the peoples of Europe. On the one hand, it conferred singular pres- tige on the traditional symbols of Mediterranean civilization— bread, wine, oil—that became cult emblems and instruments, of the new religion (bread and wine for the celebration of the Eucharist, ol for the administration of the sacraments). On the gical calendar that marked the passage of time, diff the days and periods of “fat” (when meat could be eaten or was even encouraged to mark holidays) from the days and periods of “lean’ (when meat had to be replaced by vegetables or at most dairy products eggs, fish). In this way the coexistence of all products, all fats, all condiments, on all the tables of Chris- tian Europe was assured. “The convergence of these political, economic, and religious factors generated a relatively homogencous culture that we 2 Before are as cn al are Ua Gap of common traditions, ways Italy, various peoples (first the invaded the peninsula along with other, smaller groups) super- imposed themselves on the preexistent “Roman” population, itself composed of a multitude of origins held together by their shared Roman culture. For a while the historical record made it possible to distinguish with a degree of clarity between the individual ethnic groups later, only traces remained, primarily linguistic. What stands out clearly are the exchanges—social, cultural, in addition to biological—that give birth to anew re- ality. Little by little, out of this mixture of peoples, the Italians were born, Gefore or Uso on ly Thre Uso Gp 24440000400000000000046 ITALY Goo NETWORK of CITIES laly conatucted its own cultural (and political) identity by means of what we would call today “networking” Whereas igland, later Spain) political entities, rela cumbersome presence of the Papacy 1 peninsula—this did not happen inA key factor emerges from this mechanism regarding cul- tural transmission and diffusion: the network of cities, more powerful in Italy than elsewhere, and with very specific char- as seats of religious and political power. At the beginning of the eleventh century the municipal phenomenon exploded in, domination over the economic and alimentary resourc countryside. ‘Toward the end of the Middle Ages, from the fourteenth century on, the signorie, the nobility, inherited this municipal phenomenon, modifying the political orientation (to the point of creating family dynasties) but confirming and reinforcing 6 1 aly eo Teor of ioe the territorial character ofthe municipal government. Beyond the considerable differences between various social and po- political horizon of municipal power. altered situation was the model ofthe city that governs the ter * ‘Administration, as well as artists and intellectuals, merchants, cooks for important families, makers of street food. Ideas: ac- quired knowledge, experiences, mental attitudes. Merchan- dise: the products made by artisans and the farm products that heads oftheir regional states were simultaneously centripetal and centrifugal. Cen- ripetal because they directed most of the county's resources to urban markets, with the age-old practice of protect ely fo = lero of ies‘markets especially in the case of delicacies, which were com- mercially desirable ‘As ofthe thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, various cities Emilia and Lombardy, for example, tied their names toa par- ticular cheese, known as parmigiano, piacentino, or lodigiano, according to the local variety. These prestigious cheeses, pro- ‘duced in the farms around Parma, Piacenza and Lodi, reached distant places thanks to the markets in those cities. The use of this type of cheese as a condiment for pasta, along with butter and a bit of “sweet spice” (primarily cinnamon), became virtu- ally obligatory on the tables of those who could afford it from ‘one end of the peninsula to the other. Inthe particular case of the denomination parmigiano, the association with the city is even more explicit than would appear at first. For inthe local vernacular still today, parmigiano refers to anything (people or things) related to the city, whereas parmense indicates inhabit- ants ofthe county. The mechanism is therefore clear: the coun- tryside produces; the city (which controls the rural economy through the property of the citizenry) directs the produce to the urban market and gives it the denomination of its own identity (parmigiano, piacentino, and so on); the urban market The thick sausages ofthe region, served ho, often with lentil, spe: cially on New Years Day. Popular Care ae Cae of the Di 23= Its therefore not surprising that the gastronomic prestige sai to have exported the refinements of I to the other side of the Alps, making it the model for the evolu- tion of French cuisine inthe seventeenth century. Its enduring success later on would have been assured and maintained by the political and cultural hegemony imposed on all of Europe by the monarchy of Paris. The “legend of Catherine” arriv- ing in France with her cooks and recipes (including those of Scappi) is based on truth. nly iw pas itina proper histori cal perspective. Ee the artifices of medieval and Renaissance court cooks. From this perspective itis precisely the Italian model that was re- jected as the expression of an obsolete culture. What did come from Italy, perhaps even thanks to Catherine’ initiative, was » the uncommon and special attention given by modern French cooking to vegetables. Moreover, interest in Italian culture was hardly a novelty: already in the fourteenth century it had enjoyed great popularity in Europe through the numerous re- prints and translations into French and German of the treatise 24 | Popular ise end Ca of he De “On virtuous pleasure and good health” (De honesta voluptate ct valetudine) by the humanist Platina, based, for the section ‘on food, on the cookbook of Maestro Martino, What interests, in no other European country. ‘A dlue to understanding this phenomenon is, once again, the singular relationship in Italy between city and country. The ‘deal locus for economic, cultural, and social exchanges, the city by its nature was a perfect breeding ground for hybridiza- tion and contamination, Popular and elite cultures confronted ‘one another there every day, imitating each other and blending, ‘together in turn, The cooks who worked at court or for great familie, in some cases of noble origin but more often com- rmoners, were perhaps central figures in this mechanism, yet to be explored. The peasant, ideologically despised by the city, dweller, was nonetheless often encountered in the day-to-day reality ofthe market or domestic service. Itis evident the centuries represented and transmitted a culture in which everyone could recognize fragments of his own identity. Ifthe splendors of Renaissance courts have remained still today the source of pride for entire communities, it is not merely as a Popnow cd Cal ff Che 28tourist attraction but also because that tradition represents an important part of the collective memory and, however much adapted, contains the cultures of the entire society. The com- ‘munity recognizes itself in that tradition because, over the cen- tries it actively contributed to creating it. 444400000004000600006 PEOPLE «nd PRODUCTS THAT TRAVEL (he natwork of economic and cultural relations that bind local ‘movement of products, and thus their consumption in regions other than those of production, or by the movement of those who are called today consumers, for touristic reasons or more generally to become familiar with the territory. A good exam- ple, albeit literary and virtual, can be found in the “gastronor- ic voyage in Italy” proposed by the Milanese scholar Ortensio Lando in 1548 in his whimsical Commentario dell pia notable mostruose cose d'Italia e altri luoghi (mastruose here meaning “admirable? from the Latin)’ Through his invented character, an improbable Aramaic touring Italy, Lando emphasizes the and other places.