Giancarlo Fre Music and food in Emilia-Romagna Original title: Cucina all’Opera. Musica e cibo in Emilia-Romagna © 2013 Regione Emilia-Romagna: Assessorato all’Agricoltura, Istituto per i beni artistici culturali e naturali. Organisation: Isabella Fabbri, Luciana Finessi Photos: Fabrizio Dell’Aquila (Diateca Agricoltura), Andrea Scardova, Riccardo Vlahov (Archivio fotografico IBC) Other photographic references: Archivio Parrocchia di San Giovanni Battista, Fusignano; Casa della Musica, Parma; Museo-Casa Barezzi, Busseto; Museo Casa natale Arturo Toscanini, Parma; Museo dell’Agricoltura e del Mondo Rurale, San Martino in Rio; Museo Internazionale e Biblioteca della Musica, Bologna; Museo Pietro Mascagni, Bagnara di Romagna Layout: Monica Chili Cover: elaboration of a drawing by the Author, representing Arturo Toscanini, Giuseppe Verdi and a score Communication: Valeria Cicala, Carlo Tovoli Print: Centro Stampa Regione Emilia-Romagna Acknowledgements: Learco Andalò, Maria Berardi, Vilma Del Bosco, Giovanni Serpe, and Pier Giacomo Sola kindly supplied books, documents and suggestions as the book was being written. Without the determination of Isabella Fabbri and Rosaria Campioni it would have not been completed. The translator wishes to thank Tony and Jean Curwen for their thorough revision, Anna Chiara Marchignoli for her guidance in the intricacies of Bolognese dialect, Zita Zanardi for bibliographic control and Antonio Tolo of Casa Artusi for document delivery. Second edition, 2015 © Regione Emilia-Romagna: Assessorato all’Agricoltura, Istituto per i beni artistici culturali e naturali. All rights reserved. Giancarlo Fre Music and food in Emilia-Romagna Translated by Margherita Spinazzola iancarlo Fre (1952-2013) was an architect, an amateur cookery expert G and a man full of curiosity. As an architect he was the author of important restoration projects and publications in that field. His passion for cookery and the arts brought him to write for periodicals, both printed and on-line, and to launch his own blog “Il Gastronomo Educato”. An observant traveller with an amazing sense of humour, he understood the beauty of life and conveyed its taste and flavour to other people. First and foremost he passionately loved Margherita and Maddalena, who are left with thousands of pages of his recipes, researches, drawings, watercolours and travel diaries. Contents Forewords Simona Caselli Regional Minister for Agriculture, Hunting and Fishing 2 Rosaria Campioni Former Soprintendente per i beni librari e documentari 3 The recipes of Melodrama 5 MUSIC IN THE KITCHEN, THE KITCHEN IN MUSIC 7 GIOACHINO ROSSINI 11 GIUSEPPE VERDI 26 PIETRO MASCAGNI 37 ARTURO TOSCANINI 47 Music and cookery in the 17th and 18th centuries 59 GIROLAMO FRESCOBALDI 61 ARCANGELO CORELLI 73 En route in Emilia-Romagna 77 WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART 79 VINCENZO BELLINI 85 RICHARD WAGNER 87 GIACOMO PUCCINI 93 Dining with the great performers 95 LUCIANO PAVAROTTI 97 MARIA CALLAS 105 FIVE RECIPES FOR FIVE LADIES 111 Table of Recipes 116 Bibliographical references 118 1 his book, first published in 2013 to mark the of wonderful products and kindled the taste T bicentenary of the birth of Giuseppe Verdi, for good food and the pleasure of its sharing so and now reprinted for Expo 2015, takes the typical of the temperament and character of reader on a journey through the Emilia-Romagna Emilia-Romagna’s inhabitants. of music and gastronomy, a combination that strongly identifies the inhabitants of this land. This culture has certainly inspired our great It may seem an unusual and perhaps odd way to compatriot Pellegrino Artusi, author of The travel through a land, its history, and its culture. Science of Cooking and the Art of Eating Well, the But anyone visiting Emilia-Romagna will rapidly most famous and most read book on Italian realize that, in our region, the musical tradition cuisine. It was also clearly present in the life of and the reputation of a cuisine, which a few Giuseppe Verdi who, during the 1st census of the months ago Forbes magazine called the best in Kingdom of Italy, declared himself a “farmer”. the world, are still among the main drivers of And, as the reader will discover browsing this the development of the regional economy, and book’s recipes and anecdotes about the various represent the core elements of a quality of life characters, it also marked the lives of many that is universally recognized. other musicians: born in our land – such as Toscanini, Corelli, Frescobaldi or Pavarotti –, or Behind a great cuisine there are excellent who lived here for a long time – such as Rossini products and skilled producers, and therefore a and Mascagni –, or who just visited, like Mozart, great agriculture. Today, Emilia-Romagna is the Wagner, Maria Callas, Puccini. European region that boasts the highest number of PDOs and PGIs products, as many as 41, Wishing you a pleasant reading and a great many of which are at the core of the recipes in journey through our history, our cuisine and this book. It is an achievement stemming from our culture, we look forward to welcoming you an ancient culture, and from the love for a land in Emilia-Romagna to enjoy such riches together cultivated for centuries, that gave us a tradition with us. SIMONA CASELLI Regional Minister for Agriculture, Hunting and Fishing 2 pera and cookery fly Italian colours Rossini (born in Pesaro but growing up in Lugo), O over the world; our region, boasting the Giuseppe Verdi and into the 20th century with names of Giuseppe Verdi and Pellegrino Artusi, Pietro Mascagni (from Livorno, but tightly is well placed to represent and support both bound to Romagna for his lifelong relationship artistic expressions. The investigation of the with Anna Lolli) and Arturo Toscanini. relationship between music and food was born The tale of Rossini’s eventful life made it during the celebrations of Verdi’s bicentenary, as possible for the author to delve into the chefs a successful cooperation between the Regional and those French recipe books that promptly Department for Agriculture and the Institute issued many preparations à la Rossini, which for Cultural Heritage of the Emilia-Romagna often include ingredients such as truffles and Region; it was carried out, with passion and foie gras, as favoured by Rossini. With Giuseppe competence, by an architect, Giancarlo Fre, who Verdi, cookery changed its tune and got closer draws an enjoyable presentation intersecting to the local produce and countryside, stretching the lives and works of the composers and between Parma and Milan: the stars are risotto protagonists of the stage with selected recipes. and spalla di San Secondo, that the Maestro used to The musicians and performers’ frequent travels send as a gift with careful cooking instructions. – from Ferrara-born Girolamo Frescobaldi One only needs to visit his home at Roncole di to Modena-born Luciano Pavarotti – were a Busseto, and above all his Villa at Sant’Agata, to great opportunity to meet around a table, be fascinated by Emilia countryside. appreciating and exchanging different tastes, If a lot of music by Verdi was understood flavours and traditions – often accompanied by by people along the peninsula as a unifying funny anecdotes. Cookery – even the traditional stimulus for the country, the first edition of type – does not refrain from comparing itself Pellegrino Artusi’s handbook saw the light of with that born elsewhere, eventually creating day in Florence in 1891, to become the guiding tasty variants that become established as the light of Italian cookery, written in a language no time goes by. The book is not a chronological longer copied from French. Many recipes of the history of music and cookery, but a work that present book are drawn from La scienza in cucina gently unwinds in four movements, the first one e l’arte di mangiar bene (Science in the Kitchen and focussing on the golden age melodrama: the 19th the Art of Eating Well), that from the 13th edition – century with protagonists such as Gioachino issued in 1909 – onwards presented 790 recipes. 3 I do not want to summarise the brilliant enthusiasm for the people and their tastes, narration of this book, concluded by a gallant for those places and habits which encourage nod to five ladies (also known for their links to readers to listen afresh to and go to the opera Rossini, Verdi and Mascagni), but I wish to stress and the theatre, to visit the homes of musicians that some topics touched by our “gastronomo and Taste Museums and explore the musical educato” (as he called himself in the title of collections of research libraries and cultural his blog) who could not – sadly – revise the institutes. final version of his work, bear witness to an ROSARIA CAMPIONI Former Soprintendente per i beni librari e documentari Regione Emilia-Romagna Translator’s note It is important to recognise that the 70-odd recipes that complement these pages are historic and illustrative of the culture of Emilia-Romagna: it may be possible to use most of them as they stand, but some truly historical ones – either by Pellegrino Artusi or by the musicians – have not been adapted for everyday use in the 21st century, and take no account of modern cooking methods and equipment. Accordingly, where they refer to ingredients which may be uncommon or even totally unavailable in some places, no alternatives have been suggested. If readers are moved to experiment with some of these recipes for themselves as the author and the translator have done, then that is an added bonus, and I truly hope that they will prove rewarding. Both metric and imperial measures are used in recipes quoted from English-language cookery books, otherwise the metric system is used. A few terms which may perhaps be unclear or unfamiliar are explained in the footnotes. M.S.