Mediterranean Secrets Summary Report of the LWG research SlowMed Food as a means of dialogue in Mediterranean Contexts Summary Introduction .................................................................................................... 3 How was the research organized? ................................................................. 4 Italy ................................................................................................................ 5 Egypt ........................................................................................................... 17 Palestine ...................................................................................................... 23 Lebanon ...................................................................................................... 34 Spain ........................................................................................................... 39 Portugal ....................................................................................................... 52 Introduction From July 2014 to March 2015, 6 local working groups (LWG) from Italy, Portugal, Spain, Egypt, Lebanon and Palestine carried out a baseline research about Mediterranean Diet. The research was included in the framework of the project „SlowMed – Food as a means of dialogue in the Mediterranean Context“, an ENPI CBC MED project whose aim is mainly to promote a creative and intercultural dialogue and to consolidate a Mediterranean cultural identity based on its culinary heritage. During the above mentioned months, the Local Working groups went around their regions in order to meet elderly people – last guardians of the Mediterranean Diet intangible heritage – and interview them to discover not only ancient recipes but also the information behind them. The aim was to collect not only notions on ingredients or well-known meals, but also traditions, celebrations and festivities behind the food itself, thus discovering the roots of the Med Basin society. This research activity has been uploaded on the website www.slowmed.eu together with different interviews to local producers, thus giving a complete overview of the Mediterranean context in which we live. Moreover, it has been the basis of the development of local and international activities of the project, spreading the Mediterranean intangible heritage in the local communities of each LWG, and of the final products of SlowMed project: - A Children Recipe Book , to convey the intangible heritage of the Mediterranean Diet to the new generations: • English: http://slowmed.eu/media/sm-book-web-en.pdf • Arabic: http://slowmed.eu/media/sm-book-web-ar.pdf • Italian: http://slowmed.eu/media/sm-book-web-it.pdf • Spanish: http://slowmed.eu/media/sm-book-web-es.pdf • Portuguese: http://slowmed.eu/media/sm-book-web-pt.pdf - A Final Documentary about Mediterranean Diet: • „Mediterranean Flavour: our essence and lifestyle“: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tuT3cUTwIk - 6 National Documentaries on Mediterranean Diet: • Italy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b07CyAkrgkA • Spain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ukTguYJQwA • Portugal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6QPjYQpvTQ • Egypt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wMP4H3j41A • Lebanon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYT1HK0UyVQ • Palestine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqDxUnxQ4j4 How was the research organized? The research reached 120 elderly people (20/country), interviewed according to common tools shared by the Local Working Groups: through these common tools, the researchers focused their attention on the following topics: - Personal Background of the people interviewed, in order to identify possible personal connection to the recipe. - The recipe : level of difficulty; preparation (time, tools, ingredients, procedure, tips). - Mediterranean Society, Traditions and information: the following questions were asked: 1) How did you learn this recipe? 2) Is there some memory/historical event connected to this recipe? 3) Personal reference to tradition transmitted by relatives (preparing together, sharing, eating together etc.)? - Mediterranean Society and Environment: 1) Any tradition this recipe is connected to? If yes, which one? Can you describe it? 2) Any Festivity this recipe is connected to? If yes, which one? Can you describe it? 3) Is your recipe connected to the territory you live in? Is it strictly linked to the specificity of the agricultural environment? 4)Season (season this food is linked to). Nutritional Value : List of the main ingredients , related nutritional property and connected benefits for the health . Finally, the following questions were asked in order to give a complete overview of the recorded recipe: 1) Is it suggested to eat this meal if you suffer from some disease? If yes, for which one? 2) What nutrition related illnesses or deficiencies are common in your area? Are there holistic or nutrition based remedies connected to these aliments? 3) What is the primary base with which your food is prepared? Is this a derivative of oil or another base? The following report is the summary of the main findings of this research. More detailed information connected to each recipe is available on the platform of SlowMed (http://slowmed.eu/browse-recipes/ ). Italy Place: Sicily Locations – map: Description of the natural environment of the places of the research: Sicily – one of the most famous island in the world - has the typical Mediterranean climate with mild and wet winters and hot, dry summers. The island is wellknown for the deforestation phenomenon, which started to take place since the Roman Empire, when the island was turned into an agricultural region. Nowadays, the lack of forest is a widespred problem in this Italian region, together with a more dried climate and rare rainfall. Regarding Sicily’s fauna, it is really rich and it serves as an important habitat for the survival of several species and subspecies, revealing an incredible biodiversity. Background of the people involved: For the italian collection of recipes, people between 54-84 years of age were interviewed. Among them there were a wide range of people interviewed: mothers and grandmothers, retired women, housewifes, doctors, teachers. There were both amateurs such as cooking enthusiasts, peasants but also professionals of the culinary sector, such as chefs and a countryside resort manager. List of the recipes collected: 1. Chickpea soup 2. Potato Doughnuts 3. Zucchini stew 4. Rice Doughnuts 5. "I Vergineddi" soup 6. Baked Pasta with Sardines 7. Slice of Bread with Sugar 8. Bread Pizza 9. Dromes 10. Past with sardines left in the sea 11. Sardine meatballs flavoured with mint 12. Pizza stuffed with broccoli 13. Stromboli Pasta 14. Eggs with fish 15. Vegetables Omelette 16. Cuccìa 17. Boiled Fava Beans 18. Sarde a beccafico 19. Panelle 20. Artichokes alla villanella Mediterranean Society, Traditions and Information: Taking into account all the interviews, it is highlighted in the majority of them that the secrets of the domestic culinary art are being handed down traditionally from a mother to her daughters. The memories from the childhood are captured in the tastes and flavours of the prepared meals and they are being lived again through the cooking processes. These memories are sensorial: smells, tastes, everlasting images of the attention on the cooking process, a ritual during which the main meals are prepared daily. By transmitting the culinary know-how, not only do the mothers inspire their passion for cooking to their children, but also they pass down their appreciation of genuine food, as well the beauty they see in sharing meals with their relatives. In this way, cooking is also a means for inclusion of the elderly. Apart from the intergenerational collaboration, there are also some intercultural influences. For example, the Dromes recipe of Palazzo Adriano reveals a link between the Albanian and the Sicilian culture, as well as Cuccìa - which is served during the ‘Cuccia Fest’ on 1 st August and is devoted to the Albanian community too (remembering when Albanians first arrived to Italy as immigrants, when they were eating mainly grains and later on they settled down as farmers). Though, not all recipes are passed down to large social groups such as the agora of Palazzo Adriano: some of them are only shared within the family unit. The local cuisine is also rather flexible and open, as Sicily has always been during its history: for example, one of the recipe that SLOWMED team has found – omelette with vegetables - has curry in it, which normally doesn’t belong to the traditional cuisine. The “cooking philosophy ” which is shared by all the recipes identified in Sicily is simple: it includes the use of poor ingredients that – combined in simple flavor entanglement – have an extraordinary result in unique tastes and flavours. In that way the Sicilian cuisine revives memories from the agrarian life. For example, the boiled fava beans identified in Campofiorito are a diachronic recipe that is based on one of the most necessary and essential foods that are brought to the family table directly from the earth. In order to be tasty and healthy you don’t need to be sophisticated: an example is the Slices of Bread with Sugar , which is an easy-to-do recipe and is often used as a snack for children, as it is a simple, tasty and quick to prepare. Yet, that does not prevent it from being genuine; all daily recipes respect and fulfill the household rituals. Another example can be the Rice Doughnuts and the Bread