The Weather & Energy Independence

Before we get to the Salone, a few words on northern Italy. As I mentioned last time, almost all of the flatlands in the Val D'Aosta and much of the Valle Padana ended up under water because an Atlantic cold front kept a huge Mediterranean low pressure system called Josephine from progressing to the northeast; her moisture-laden clouds stayed in one place and over the space of 4 days northwestern Italy got more than 700 mm of rain -- what they usually get in a year. The waters are gone now from the Valle D'Aosta, but it will take several years before all is repaired. Further down river the golene, the canals built to serve as reservoirs for floodwaters, are still water-filled, but things are slowly returning to normal. The consensus of the experts is that though the storm was extreme but not record breaking. What worries them is that the storms of 1993, 1994 (when Asti and Alba were flooded), and 1996 were almost as intense; they fear this concentration of extreme weather over a few years could be due to global warming, and that doesn't bode well for the future.

The other interesting bit of scientific news, from page one of "La Stampa," is that Carlo Rubbia, the Nobel Laureate physicist, recently said that, were one to build a solar energy plant in 50-square kilometer desertified section of inland Sicily, one could obtain enough energy to meet the needs of all of Italy's homes and factories. As one might expect, none of the politicians or anyone else who can decide to do this sort of thing picked up on it. But if the technology is available it would be worth doing both in Italy and elsewhere, for example Mexico or the American southwest, because it would put a big dent in the greenhouse effect.

Slowfood and the Salone del Gusto

Returning to the Salone del Gusto, it's a biannual quality food extravaganza put on by Slowfood, an organization founded in 1986 by Carlo Petrini, who was horrified by the opening of the McDonald's under Rome's Spanish Steps (he's a journalist and was working in Rome at the time). Mr. Petrini was doing more than making a simple decision to take tajarin (Piemontese taglierini) over burgers, of course -- the idea behind the movement is that people should cultivate the Art of Living, savoring life and the things that give it meaning and value. In other words, enjoy genuine foods rather than industrial junk, appreciate the history and culture of both where they live and the places they visit, respect the environment and our resources, avoid profit-driven biotech developments, and so on. To this end Slowfood publishes an excellent series of regional Italian cookbooks and travel guides, and will be expanding to cover other countries too; they also have good books on traditional cheeses, oils, beer, and other things, and publish hotel and restaurant guides too. It's obvious that a bunch of people in Bra, Mr. Petrini's home town, couldn't hope to do this all on their own, and they don't. Slowfood has established chapters called Condotte throughout Italy and is exporting the concept elsewhere, where the chapters are called Convivia; members pay their dues and in exchange are kept informed of an astonishing variety of enogastronomic initiatives, from tastings of one sort or another, to hikes and outings, to special dinners. At present there are about 400 chapters with more than 60,000 members, in more than 35 countries, and the thing seems poised to take off. For more information on the movement, see http://www.slowfood.com.

The membership gives Slowfood the financial backing necessary to do more than just publish guidebooks, and this is where things get interesting. They are devoting considerable energy to local specialties that are in danger of dying out (in Italy now, but one can expect them to export the concept), and are trying to support/save them. Some of the specialties are simply obscure, for example the Pitina, a kind of smoked meatball people used to make in the Alpine valleys north of Pordenone in Friuli when an animal died unexpectedly in an accident, so as to preserve the meat. Now, with refrigeration and such, making pitine is no longer necessary, but they are a reminder of a more frugal way of life when what now seem little things were instead very important.

Others are well known, though most people only get to see the industrial versions. For example, factories in the Veneto region churn out huge amounts of Asiago cheese, much of which is frankly insipid. In the past Asiago was made in the malghe (singular malga), the barns in the high alpine meadows where herders would spend the summers with their cattle. Asiago d'Alpeggio, the Asiago made with milk derived from mountain forage, is a completely different cheese: rich, and extremely complex. But it's a hard life staying up there for months on end (few creature comforts of any kind, including electricity in many cases), and as one producer said, young people aren't interested in doing it unless they can earn a decent living from it. As things stand individual farmers cannot, so Slowfood is working to provide them with incentives, and to explain to consumers why they should be willing to pay more for a vastly superior cheese, rather than buy the cheapest Asiago they can find. Here, in addition to preserving a product, the aim is to preserve a way of life and a region: if people can no longer survive in the malghe, they will go elsewhere and the land will return to nature. While some may argue that this is not a bad thing, it would mean the loss of a rural culture, and a way of life.

Other projects include protecting particular strains of plants and animals (e.g. Albenga's purple asparagus, or Sardegna's Sardo Modicana cattle, which are deep rust red and produce the milk used to make Casizolu cheese), and foods or techniques threatened by EEU bureaucrats (e.g. the spectacular lard cured in the caves of Colonnata, which the EEU health people have decided are unsanitary).

All the various preservation projects, called presidi, had booths in the one of the pavilions of the Salone, and there was quite a bit to see. There were also regional booths, and many booths from which artisan producers were presenting and selling their foods -- hundreds of kinds of cheeses and cold cuts, truffles, olive all'ascolana, and much more. The end effect was like an extremely high quality big city gourmet market, with lots to see and many people to talk to; the one criticism one could make is that the registration fees were such, I was told, that some of the really tiny producers of quality foods couldn't afford to come.

Endangered Cheeses!

The other thing Slowfood did a fine job of organizing was tasting sessions of one sort or another; they weren't free, but were interesting; I went to one dedicated to American microbrewery beer and American cheese, and was both delighted and shocked. Delighted because the beers assembled by Garrett Oliver, Brewmaster of the Brooklyn Brewery and the cheeses assembled by Rob Kaufelt, owner of Muray's Cheese Shop in New York, were superb, and shocked because Rob said that the US FDA is seriously considering a ban on all cheeses made from unpasteurized milk. For health reasons, they say, and while it is possible to catch something from unpasteurized milk, by the time a cheese has aged for 2 months all the pathogenic bacteria are dead. And even before then cheese made from unpasteurized milk is safe; if it weren't there'd be a tremendous number of sick Europeans, because many fresh cheeses, for example French Brie or Piemontese Toma, are extremely popular. There aren't.

Who does the cheese only from pasteurized milk law favor? Big American dairies that can afford pasteurizing equipment. And who does it harm, in the US? Consumers, who may find themselves unable to purchase cheeses such as Parmigiano Reggiano, Grana Padano, Gorgonzola, Pecorino Romano, Roquefort, real Cheddar, and the list goes on. But more importantly, it will harm small American dairy farmers and sheepherders, who have discovered that making high quality artisan cheeses gives them a means to survive. If the FDA approves this law, many will simply go out of business because they cannot afford the equipment, while others will collapse more slowly because the quality of their cheese will decline (pasteurizing makes a dramatic difference in the flavor of the cheese), and people will then buy the cheaper industrial versions. One would expect the US National Dairy Association to be against the provision, but it instead supports it because the larger members that supply industry have more pull.

This is a classic Slowfood issue, about preserving a way of life, and giving consumers the option of buying good quality food. If you're upset by the possibility of loosing the option of buying cheese made from unpasteurized milk, Slowfood is setting up a signature campaign and asks that you send an email to rawmilk@slowfood.com saying “I also eat raw-milk cheese.”.

Alas, things aren't rosy in Europe either. There's no move here to ban raw milk, because the tradition is too firmly entrenched. But the Bureaucrats of the EEU health service are well into passing a law that will equate commercial homogenized milk and with the fresh unhomogenized milk used by artisan cheesers, thus allowing the big industrial cheese makers to produce "raw milk" cheeses. As has often happened before, the health people show more concern for industrial bottom lines than they do for the consumers they're supposed to be protecting.

Ghisau: A Sardinian Beef Stew

Moving towards recipes, there were also cooked dishes to taste at the Salone; one of the most interesting was Ghisau, a Sardinian beef stew that was made, for the occasion, from Sardo Modicana beef and Neapolitan San Marzano tomatoes (because the cook couldn't get Sardinian; the San Marzano tomatoes are also a presidio -- they're the original plum tomatoes, and are extraordinarily rich). The cook said she simmered the ghisau for several hours, and the results were impressive. Here's a recipe drawn from Alessandro Molinari Pradelli's La Cucina Sarda. To serve 6 you'll need:

• 2 1/4 pounds (1 k) beef
• An onion, minced
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1 1/3 pounds (600 g) potatoes
• 10 ounces (250 g) ripe plum tomatoes, blanched, peeled, chopped, seeded, drained and blended
• 2 ladles beef broth
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• Shredded hot pepper to taste (optional)

Cube the meat, and peel and cube the potatoes.

In a broad terracotta pot, heat the oil and sauté the onion until it turns golden. Add the meat and brown it too, stirring the pieces about to brown all sides. Add the blended tomatoes, broth, check seasoning, and reduce the heat to the barest simmer for a couple of hours or more, adding the potatoes after an hour. Should the sauce thicken too much, dilute it with a little more broth. You can, if you want, also give it zing with some freshly shredded hot pepper.

Serve it steaming hot, with a Vermentino if you include the hot pepper, and with a Cannonau if you don't.

A printer-friendly version of this recipe.

Winding down, Tortadolce recently added to the Tatù thread (Tatù are Sicilian cookies) on the forum with this family recipe I am happy to pass along:

Here is an old family recipe for TATU' (pronounce 'THAY TWO'). Originally it was a mega recipe, as most of my Nana's recipes were. I've reduced it by 50%. It should yield about 100 cookies.

Cream together until fluffy:

• 3 (600 g) cups of Sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 1/2 cups Crisco (I use 2 cups Crisco and 1 stick of butter [for those outside the US, Crisco is a solid vegetable shortening])
• 1 Tablespoon of Vanilla Extract
• 1/2 cup strong espresso coffee, cooled
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1/4-1/2 cup grated fresh orange peel

In a separate bowl, sift together:

• 4 cups (400 g) flour
• 2 1/2 Tablespoons of Baking Powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup of unsweetened powdered cocoa (I use 3/4 cup)
• 1 1/2 Tablespoons of powdered Cinnamon (I use 2 Tbsp)
• 1 Teaspoon of ground cloves (I use 1 1/2 Tsp)

Incorporate the dry ingredients into the cream in batches, using the mixer, until well mixed. Move the dough to a bowl and mix in by hand 2-2 1/2 cups chopped walnuts. Add flour if the dough is too sticky (I added about another cup and a half) but not so much that the dough becomes hard or dry. A too soft or buttery dough will cause the cookie to go flat during baking. Cover dough with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

Form balls the size of quarters and arrange on parchment-lined cookie sheets. Place mid-rack of a 375 degree (F, 185 C) preheated oven. Check after 15 minutes. Bake until cookie is firm but not dry. Mine were done in about 18 minutes (I have a hot air oven). Cool on wire racks.

Prepare a quick powdered sugar and milk glaze flavored with Anise extract. Dip the top of the cookie in the glaze and set on wax paper to dry.

A printer-friendly version of this recipe.

Novello's on its Way!

Finally, the wine world north of us and elsewhere is gearing up for the flood of Beaujolais Nouveau that's set to invade the markets on November 15th. We're going to get hit sooner; Vino Novello is slated to hit the shelves on November 6th. Many million bottles; the Veneto makes the most, primarily from Merlot and Cabernet, followed by Tuscany, mostly from Sangiovese, and just about everyone else who has a red wine gets into the act too. What is it? Novello is a red wine produced though carbonic maceration, a process in which the grapes are placed whole in the fermentation tanks, which are then sealed up, and the yeasts on the skin and within the grapes do the fermenting. The result is an extremely distinctive floral bouquet vaguely reminiscent (to me) of cranberries, light body, fruit that reflects the bouquet, not much in the way of tannins, and lively acidity. Quaffing wine in short, and fine with roasted chestnuts or fatty grilled meats. But if truth be told, I much prefer traditionally fermented wines.

A presto,
Kyle Phillips
Webweaver, About Italian Cuisine

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