JULY 2020 JULY l DELLA N. 328 Civiltà Tavola ACCADEMIA ITALIANA DELLA CUCINA

INTERNATIONAL

EDITION

ACCADEMIA ITALIANA DELLA CUCINA ISTITUZIONE CULTURALE DELLA REPUBBLICA ITALIANA FONDATA NEL 1953 DA ORIO VERGANI

www.accademia1953.it CIVILTÀ DELLA TAVOLA CIVILTÀ 2020 N. 328, JULY Table of contents Civiltà DELLATavola ACCADEMIA ITALIANA DELLA CUCINA

INTERNATIONAL EDITION

July 2020 / n. 328 Focus of the President Editor in chief Paolo Petroni 2 The Academy’s convivial Copy Editor gatherings are back Silvia De Lorenzo (Paolo Petroni)

Layout Simona Mongiu L’ACCADEMIA ITALIANA DELLA CUCINA Translator è stata fondata nel 1953 da Orio Vergani Antonia Fraser Fujinaga e da Luigi Bertett, Dino Buzzati Traverso, Cesare Chiodi, Giannino Citterio, Ernesto Donà This issue includes articles by dalle Rose, Michele Guido Franci, Gianni Mazzocchi Omar Balducci, Bastoni, Arnoldo Mondadori, Attilio Nava, Morello Pecchioli, Arturo Orvieto, Severino Pagani, Aldo Passante, Paolo Petroni. Gian Luigi Ponti, Giò Ponti, Dino Villani, Adriana Zuddas. Edoardo Visconti di Modrone, con Massimo Alberini e Vincenzo Buonassisi.

Photo credits l l Adobe Stock. Territories Tourism Folklore vvv 3 The unsuspected virtues Publisher of prickly pears Accademia Italiana della Cucina (Adriana Zuddas) Via Napo Torriani 31 - 20124 Milano Tel. 02 66987018 - Fax 02 66987008 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] www.accademia1953.it

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Monthly Magazine Reg. n. 4049 - 29-5-1956 Tribunale di Milano

Cuisine l Products l Food Technology

Sweet and fragrant 5 (Morello Pecchioli)

Regulations regarding personal data protection

The Italian Academy of Cuisine, in its capacity as data controller, hereby informs its members that On the cover: Graphic elaboration of a detail of Still their personal data are handled with respect for Life: (1913-1914) by Umberto Boccioni. the principles of integrity, lawfulness and tran- sparency as well as protection of privacy and Niedersachsisches Landesmuseum, Hannover members’ rights, to implement the management of the member-association relationship as deline- ated by the Association’s Statute and By-laws, and Paper in the kitchen for any related purposes where applicable. The 7 and in the modern restaurant processing is carried out by authorised parties, in paper and computerised form, in compliance (Omar Balducci) with the provisions of the aforementioned EU regulations and current national legislation. To view all the information provided under EU regu- lations, and in particular to learn what members’ rights are, please visit the Association’s website.

Rivista associata all’Unione Stampa Periodica Italiana Focus of the President The Academy’s convivial gatherings are back by Paolo Petroni President of the Accademia

Despite often absurd restrictions, the Delegations have enthusiastically resumed their activities.

e had predicted that the previous number of Civiltà della Tavola would be the first and last without the W section on the Academy’s activities. With this July edition, we are immensely happy to reinstate the full format thanks to the numerous convivial gatherings vinegar, salt and pepper sachets instead. Buffets? Absolutely held by our Delegations during June, the moment the not! Or rather, yes, but with pre-made portions, or served by restrictions allowed it. We already have word of many planned the staff. Masks are mandatory upon leaving the table, but summer initiatives. Amid a deluge of widely varying news not those with a little virus-liberating exhalation valve. Not to about contagion in Italy and worldwide, we apprehensively mention the list of customers to be kept for 14 days! observe screaming headlines, disquisitions on hot spots, and morbid forecasts of a second wave, though the statements of virologists, epidemiologists and immunologists leave us We need a clear strategy unsure as to whether they fear or desire it (at least it would to solve real and concrete problems let them continue droning on TV and in the papers).

We crave tourists. Spend your holidays in Italy! It’s pleasant Restaurants remain shackled by limits and safe - unfortunately, however, between quarantines and which are absurd to say the least bans, the 2020 tourist season is lost. Covid manifestly remains a problem, and the virus, while we await cures and vaccines, is obviously still around, though reduced. However, to face Enlightening examples of folly include the recent advice which the economic fallout which is inevitable in September, we allows carnal congress, but for no longer than 15 minutes! Or need a clear strategy to solve real and concrete problems: the permission of grandparents to be with their grandchildren, helping tourism and restaurants through less absurd rules but a metre apart, without holding or kissing them! Yet they and reduced bureaucracy. Substantial solutions - not just can request the ‘grandparents’ bonus’ (emergency baby- electric scooter subsidies! sitting subsidy). “Oh, please!” as the comedian Totò might say. Meanwhile, people flock to the seaside while restaurants remain theoretically shackled by limits which are absurd to say President Paolo Petroni, the President’s Council, the least. Coats (in cold climates!) must be stored separately lest they infect each other. Exit and entry routes and paths the Secretariat in Milan to tables must be clearly marked. If a metre’s distance is and the Editorial Office in Rome impossible, plexiglas separators are necessary (hence warmly wish all Academicians, restaurant patrons are now boxed into incubators), and as for menus - verboten! Only on mobiles, or billboards, or single- in Italy and abroad, a pleasant summer holiday. use paper. Excellent extra-virgin olive oil? Not a chance! Oil,

Page 2 Territories l Tourism l Folklore The unsuspected virtues of prickly pears

by Adriana Zuddas Cagliari Academician

The FAO considers them rickly pears stand as imposing and At flowering time, children would search sturdy sentinels arrayed alongside for the plant’s pistil, seeking the pollen a food of the future: Proads, perched half-way up hills or and a delicate juice contained therein austerely watching over fields as if to say: which was as sweet as honey - while they are suitable “You shall not pass”. Then they reveal their taking care to avoid provoking the bee- for arid climates, sweet side when they festoon themselves tles, hornets or bees which might be first with flowers and later, displaying the already ensconced there. are distinctively pride of a fecund mother, with fruits flavoured and provide possessing an archaic, unusual taste: the intensely green ones to enjoy imme- Picking pears prickle-free valuable health diately after carefully removing their peel with its fine, insidious, invisible thorns, benefits. and the riper flame-coloured ones which Prickly pears are harvested before the Sardinian women’s ancient lore has long sun reaches its zenith, beginning in transformed into jam, liqueur, syrup or late August, using an implement called dried morsels. sa cannuga. This is a long cane of which

Page 3 one end is grasped while the other is by ancient Sardinian traditions, a hom- quartered into four ‘petals’ held open age to Sardinian women’s proud and like a hand using a cork wedged be- elegant bearing and their mysterious, tween them, and shaped into a rough timeless faces. cone with twine wound around the rig- Prickly pears are now sadly being ‘de- id cane ‘flower’. The fruits are detached forested’ because well-meaning but and rolled in the grass to remove most ill-informed landowners think they can of their pliable but menacing thorns; protect them with nets and stakes, un- they are then arranged, in large num- intentionally blighting the landscape. bers, for transport in a basket called su European and regional policies have cadinu, made of woven reeds and sur- also regrettably favoured metal fences mounted by a stiff arched handle. The and even industrial prickly pear culti- ployment while conferring a new dig- stronger women may pile the fruits into vation. Facilities for processing the nity and respect upon prickly pears, as a circle of cloth fastened with raffia and abundant fruit, which now rots on the has happened with myrtle. balanced on their heads like a crown, ground, would greatly reduce unem- Adriana Zuddas carrying them away like proud queens of the field. Prickly pears are peeled with a knife, sun-dried for a few days on racks en- twined with aromatic sprigs, halved or thickly sliced, and placed in the residu- al heat of the oven after baking bread. Somewhat flattened, they are placed in earthenware containers or in straw (is cofineddus) similarly to figs. Rare indeed, unlike its grape counterpart, is the con- centrated prickly pear must called sa saba de figumorisca: the fragrance of the cooking fruit, blending with orange peels or cinnamon, pervades the home, the senses, and the heart.

The FAO has declared that prickly pears will save humanity

The FAO has declared that prickly pears will save humanity, also recommending SA SABA DE FIGUMORISCA their ‘artificial’ cultivation, of which I per- (ancient recipe for prickly pear must) sonally disapprove because of the asso- ciated serious maintenance problems. Ingredients: 5 kg of prickly pears; dried orange peel (or cinnamon). It would be wiser to make the most of what we already have! Preparation: peel ripe, whole prickly pears, crush them with your hands and Another misconception is the plant’s place them in a copper pot (su caddaxiu) resting on a wrought-iron tripod (su impenetrability, however useful as a trebini) over the hearth fire. Stir this with a wooden spoon; once it boils, let it barrier against unwanted visitors. But cool and sift it through undyed linen or cotton. Set the now seedless liquid on this dense thicket harbours varied life, the fire again, adding cinnamon or a curl of dried orange peel, reducing it to pushing upwards towards the sunlight: the required consistency. Cool, pour into sterilised containers and seal with from asparagus to a profusion of white cork stoppers; store away from light. This preparation can keep for several flowers. The prickly pear even creates years. while shedding its old, spent leaves: an It is used for making ‘must and bread’ (su pan e saba) and in preparing sweets. apparently useless material fashioned into beautiful, soft figurines inspired

Page 4 Cuisine l Products l Food Technology Sweet and fragrant melon

by Morello Pecchioli Honorary Academician for Verona

An ideal summer food, and calorically almost negligible. They Veronese (Verona plains) where a melon are rich in vitamins A and C and anti-ox- festival has been held for over 40 years. when paired idant carotenes, and contain potassium, melo, as the melon is taxonom- which reliably reduces blood pressure. ically designated, probably originated in with prosciutto it forms Melon is delicious in fruit salad with port Africa. In Egypt it was already grown in a classic duo revered (and just as good with sweet Recioto the 5th century BC. In antiquity, wine), as an ice cream or sorbet, or as a were small and presumably less sweet; by all. digestive: meloncello now rivals limoncel- they were eaten in salads, with pepper lo in popularity. and vinegar. The most common melon varieties in Italy are Cantalupo (a hamlet near Rome, Geographically widespread, whence the name ‘’), retato melons often originate (‘reticulated’ melon), the smooth and in small villages elongated invernale (‘winter’ melon), and viadanese (from Viadana near Mantova). The zatta melon, also called rospa (‘toad’) Melons thrive over a huge territory, but because of its warty skin, is unfortunate- ‘Formula 1’ melons originate from small ly disappearing. Its excellence earned it rancesco Sforza, mercenary com- villages, just as the Ferrari was born in the sobriquet ‘melon of popes’. Pope mander and first duke of Milan Maranello. Celebrated melons come Paul II particularly loved it; some blame F (1401-1466), was crazy for mel- from Casteldidone (Cremona), Sermide, his death in 1471, aged only 54, on a sur- ons: “choosing a good horse, taking a Viadana and Sabbioneta, near Manto- feit of melons. But the gastronomer and good wife and buying a good melon va. Another melon superstar comes papal biographer Bartolomeo Sacchi, are the hardest things to do”. François from Erbè, a small town in the Basso known as Platina, expressed the suspicion de Malherbe, a French poet whose life straddled the 16th and 17th centuries and a gentleman-in-waiting to king Henry IV of France, condensed the beauty and goodness of existence into two verses: “There are only two beautiful things in the world: women and roses; and only two choice morsels: women and melons”. The elegant, refined French aesthete and gour- met and the rough, belligerent Italian warrior agreed on melons and women - like many pleasure-loving sophisticates, after all, who seek emotions and sensory delights through beauty and good food. Melons are useful during the warm sea- son because they replenish moisture lost through sweat and can be eaten at any time of day. They are over 90% water

Page 5 stewed beef? Why cheese with pears rather than, say, strawberries? Among these famed, mysterious pairs, other mi- nor, though no less noteworthy, examples include salad with hard-boiled eggs, ar- tichokes with coratella (offal stew, only in Rome and environs), and polenta with roast game birds”.

Different ways to serve a platter of prosciutto and melon that the ‘two goodly melons’ on which who leapt off his bed or sofa, descending In her La cucina della felicità (Cooking for the pope had gorged the day before his to the garden bearing a small knife to the joy of it), Sister Germana, the cele- death had perhaps been poisoned. partake of the delightful fruit. brated cookbook author and nun, sug- The zatta melon has, for centuries, been Then there are Their Majesties, melon gests ham arranged on a serving dish reputed among the finest Cocumis melo and prosciutto, monarchs of the sum- with little cubes of melon (chilled at for its especially sweet flavour, intense mer table, sovereigns of the sunny sea- least for two hours in the fridge) on each and satisfying fragrance, and soft flesh. son, dietary overlords of torrid climes. slice, then sprinkled with pepper. An- Familiar and appreciated in Italian Re- Chill the melon in the fridge for about other cook, a layperson given to contem- naissance courts (a basket of zatte ap- an hour, unite it with prosciutto and they plation, recommends a garnish of corn pears in The Fruit Seller by the 16th-cen- will sing: “we’re the world’s tastiest pair”. salad sprigs. Thyme and mint we find tury painter Vincenzo Campi), at a certain As inseparable as Laurel and Hardy, overly harsh towards the prosciutto, but point in its, and our, food history, it was Chip’n’Dale or a pair of lovebirds, pro- some adore them. Very trendy and con- marginalised. It is hardly a beauty, to be sciutto and melon have each sometimes venient are prosciutto and melon kebabs sure. Its ‘warts’ bring to mind the lumpy cut a dashing figure alongside other co- served with aperitifs outdoors, with buf- pumpkin called zucca barucca, and it has stars (prosciutto and figs, prosciutto and fets, or in bars on a tray during happy an ill-defined, uninviting hue. Yet, if we avocado, melon and speck, melon and hour, constructed thus: a melon ball, were to discard all delicious but ugly swordfishcarpaccio or duck breast...) but then a cube of Langhirano ham, an- foods, we should also reject oysters, Pra- were inevitably reunited, exemplifying other ball, another cube and so forth. If to biscuits (known in the Anglosphere as the Unity of Opposites posited by Her- you prefer colours and flavours to food ‘biscotti’), the cardo gobbo (‘hunched aclitus 2,500 years ago: one being sweet geometry, skewer a melon wedge, a cardoon’) of Nizza Monferrato, octopus and the other salty, they are drawn fan-pleated slice of Parma ham (or San and gorgonzola. And surely nobody can together. The philosopher contemplat- Daniele or Montagnana) and a sliver of claim that Nutella spread on bread is ed a secret principle underlying the kiwi. Melon, ham, kiwi. Wedge, fan, sliv- beauteous to behold. structure of the world, but for us, a gold- er: a skewer of refreshing simplicity. en rule of gastrosophy will suffice. Prosciutto and melon aren’t limited to We don’t know who first paired the cured appetisers and aperitifs. Ugo Tognazzi, How to select a good melon? meat and the cucurbitaceous fruit. Some as gifted in the kitchen as on stage, rec- attribute the combination to ancient ommended wedding them on an altar Greece (was Heraclitus the instigator?); of delectable risotto. Particularly delicious How can we select a good melon? Some others hypothesise a mediaeval origin was his recipe for Vialone nano rice with weigh it in their hands; others palpate, when melon was popularly thought in- Mantova melon and raw Parma ham, sniff, judge rind colour or swear that they jurious to health but rendered more di- with which he impressed his guests. It’s can distinguish male from female melons. gestible by ham. Idle theories, we suspect. easy to make. Use the ingredients for a In their Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Love, Achille Campanile, the journalist and risotto alla parmigiana (vegetable stock, Nizza and Morbelli tell of a sultan who playwright whose pen delivered such onion, extra-virgin olive oil, a knob of stationed two slaves day and night in his razor-sharp wit, maintained: “Prosciutto butter, and parmigiano reggiano) and, vegetable garden, to monitor the ripen- and melon are among those awe-inspir- three quarters of the way through cook- ing of melons. He wanted to eat them ing international binaries which all revere ing, add the prosciutto and melon, previ- only when ideally ripe. When a melon without seeking to unravel their mystery. ously marinated in port or rum. was perfect, the slaves alerted the sultan, Why melon with prosciutto and not Morello Pecchioli

Page 6 Cuisine l Products l Food Technology Paper in the kitchen and in the modern restaurant

by Omar Balducci Budapest Academician

An indispensable hat paper do we mean, and trace it to the Latin charta, others to the how important is it for cuisine Greek χαράσσω (charassō) meaning ‘carve’ tool in kitchens W and restaurants? or ‘sculpt’. Instead, the word for ‘paper’ in When speaking of paper, we often gen- English and several other languages - around the world. eralise, including vastly different mate- Hungarian (papir), German (papier), Span- rials within this category, ranging from ish (papel) French (papier), etc - indicates printer paper to the classic, familiar pa- an almost certain derivation from the per hankies. However, intrinsic features papyrus on which the Ancient Egyptians like softness, resilience and absorbency wrote from 3,000 BC. pertain to the paper known as ‘tissue’, and we shall describe its use in cooking and modern restaurants. How much harder would daily Paper is hygroscopic, that is, capable of life be without kitchen paper? swiftly absorbing moisture from the sur- rounding environment. It is simply a sheet of raw materials, primarily of plant origin, How much harder would our daily life felted together and dried. The Italian word be without kitchen paper? Yet it only carta has uncertain origins; many linguists appeared in Europe very recently, af-

Page 7 ter the Second World War, indeed intro- duced by American troops. For the pres- ent purposes we shall only deal with its use in the hospitality industry. Kitchen paper is currently indispensa- ble in kitchens around the world: it is used in food preparation, for drying implements with greater hygiene since it is not re-used, and for absorbing food liquids, whether vegetable or animal (from meat and fish). Various technolo- gies produce kitchen rolls with different characteristics according to intended whether economic, environmental or the enzymatic activity of micro-organ- use. A unique and innovative method aesthetic. Besides being cheaper than isms. This is different from solubility, produces the particularly strong and cloth but not qualitatively inferior, paper namely a substance’s ability to dissolve absorbent air-laid paper (ordinary pa- napkins are clearly more hygienic, as at a certain temperature and within a per is manufactured using water and they are not re-used, so they carry few- given time (toilet paper, for instance, dis- then dried). Air-laid paper shares the er bacteria than items used many times, solves quickly to avoid unpleasant block- texture and resilience of cloth, can be despite washing. ages, unlike the napkins currently under re-used at least 9 times and can absorb discussion). up to 7 times its weight in moisture. Table arrangement is a manifest ‘signature’ Paper is clearly not limited to cooking, Paper products, importantly, of a restaurant, revealing much about its but has expanded into additional res- are biodegradable food and the service. Hence restaurateurs taurant uses, including table setting should select with care, without dismiss- and arrangement. ing the option of paper napkins, which, An increasing number of restaurants are In times when, finally, we seem to have besides potentially contributing to style now replacing their cloth napkins with developed an increased ecological aware- and ambiance, are associated with clean- paper ones: a valid and more hygienic ness, we should note a fundamental liness in the minds of diners who are dis- alternative. Restaurateurs, of course, characteristic of paper products: they are comfited or even embarrassed by obsta- choose napkins according to their pref- biodegradable; that is, they will break cles to hygiene during a meal. erence, which reveals their priorities, down into simpler substances through Omar Balducci

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