Italy (and, hence, italian food history) has, possibly, the richest urban history of the whole planet and the enviable culinary habits of the Bel Paese are an indissoluble part of its traditions and habits.
Many of the most famous italian traditional dishes and recipes take their name from a city: bistecca alla fiorentina, spaghetti all'amatriciana, prosciutto di Parma to just name a few.
That is, I, being Italian, can tell that it is not just food that we are talking about here: it is rather about a food culture that goes proudly along with an intimate connection italians have with the territory, the peoples and their roots.
For the foreign visitor, a villa among the hills surrounded by the rural idyll of nature and the farmers' simple and genuine lifestyle is perhaps the exemplification of all that italian culinary tradition represents.
My recommendation to you, if you're willing to discover the traditional, genuine history of italian food, is not just to walk through the woods and the hills in Tuscany, but to walk through the many cities of the italian peninsula, smelling and tasting their specialties and listening to the stories about them and the people who created and still maintain them alive.
If you're wandering why the circular shape, it was not for the esthetics: the hole at their center, allowed the friselle to be practically transported with a cord that was passed through them to form a sort of collier : that way they could either be hung for conservation or for comfortable transportation.
When talking about italian food history, you might have sometimes heard the expression civilt della tavola (civilisation of the table).
This definition embraces the many and different aspects of a culture, which find their expression throughout the food: from agricultural economy to recipes for pickles, from family bonds to the right technique for spitting olive seeds. Food is fascinating, but indeed more fascinating still is who produces it, cooks it, eats it and talks about it.
There are even studies that want to prove that the italian way of cooking and eating brings benefits to people's health and that it is, therefore, to learn and adopt in some of its gastronomic lessons.
So, back on track: today's clich of the villa surrounded by olive trees, with salami and prosciutti everywhere and the farmer diligently looking after these products (I love this image!) have been accurately tailored on the (magnificent) Tuscan countryside.
I woud say that italian food history combines elements of the italian alimentation history and of the italian gastronomy. But do not let my word fool you: this journey is going to be certainly a pleasure. Discovering means also uncover savors and tastes not known before.The deeper we will go together into the italian gastronomy, the more variety an richness comes to the surface.
Freselle, then, were a typical staple food, not a specialty, and were popular where fresh bread could not be consumed.
In the end, this is the beauty of this journey: we will not reach a destination, but will always find new starting points.
The Renaissance
Indeed these products are traditional and follow long prescribed preparation methods and processes, but observing more closely we will together discover that italian food history and, for that matter, of Italy in general, is less of a simple farmers' tradition as we think.
A FARMERS' TRADITION?
It is not a chance that gastronomic literature found so many and so noticeable exponents in Italy: the economic development, civil, technical, humanistic and artistic advancement of the many Comuni (Commons), was not having any equal at the time (possibly not only in Europe).
The color depends on both the baking time and the flour composition (more or less wheat/barley flour): color can then range from light to (very) dark brown.
Indeed, these books were not covering eating habits, but gastronomic expertise: one thing is nutrition and alimentation habits of the common people, linked to their territories and products, another is a treatise on the art of combining the finest ingredients, from the different parts of the known world to satisfy even the most exigent of the palates.
And again, it is not a coincidence that the recipes described in these books were very similar to each other: if you think about it, this fact is hardly surprising.If it's true that these books were if not commissioned at least, certainly, endorsed by those who could afford gastronomy as opposed to a simple diet, then you will not fail to notice that the public to which the subject of these works appealed was neither too wide, nor disconnected.
Up to the first half of the 17 century, and by looking at the first documentations produced in 1861 (just after Italy's Unification) to give an account of the status of the italian population, endless accounts can be read of how precarious and poor the dietary conditions of the common people in the countryside were.
The poverty of farmers' diet is still today echoed in many of the proverbs that have been handed down.
This fashion for spices was in a large part due to the desire to touch, feel, possess the exotic, whatever it was. Courts in medieval Italy (and across Europe) were resting on the everlasting battles to be recognised as the most rich, noticeable and extraordinary.
Typically porduced in Apulia, it is widely known in Campania (fresella). In the italian language, thanks to the re-discovery of the local traditions, the term frisa is becoming more common.
But from all this, we should not err, thinking that what we have today was created then and only from the customs of the noble classes.Those times most probably marked the birth of the Italian gastronomy as we could think of today: at the same time, they were leveraging numerous distinct habits that for centuries (or millennia) had characterised the Italian and other territories and that would later mark the borders of national vs regional cuisines.
As an example, think about the vegetable (especially olive) oils used in the southern parts of Italy (nowadays produced and consumed all over it) and the use of animal derivatives (like butter, lard and lardo) in the north.
Many of the most famous italian traditional dishes and recipes take their name from a city: bistecca alla fiorentina, spaghetti all'amatriciana, prosciutto di Parma to just name a few.
That is, I, being Italian, can tell that it is not just food that we are talking about here: it is rather about a food culture that goes proudly along with an intimate connection italians have with the territory, the peoples and their roots.
For the foreign visitor, a villa among the hills surrounded by the rural idyll of nature and the farmers' simple and genuine lifestyle is perhaps the exemplification of all that italian culinary tradition represents.
My recommendation to you, if you're willing to discover the traditional, genuine history of italian food, is not just to walk through the woods and the hills in Tuscany, but to walk through the many cities of the italian peninsula, smelling and tasting their specialties and listening to the stories about them and the people who created and still maintain them alive.
If you're wandering why the circular shape, it was not for the esthetics: the hole at their center, allowed the friselle to be practically transported with a cord that was passed through them to form a sort of collier : that way they could either be hung for conservation or for comfortable transportation.
When talking about italian food history, you might have sometimes heard the expression civilt della tavola (civilisation of the table).
This definition embraces the many and different aspects of a culture, which find their expression throughout the food: from agricultural economy to recipes for pickles, from family bonds to the right technique for spitting olive seeds. Food is fascinating, but indeed more fascinating still is who produces it, cooks it, eats it and talks about it.
There are even studies that want to prove that the italian way of cooking and eating brings benefits to people's health and that it is, therefore, to learn and adopt in some of its gastronomic lessons.
So, back on track: today's clich of the villa surrounded by olive trees, with salami and prosciutti everywhere and the farmer diligently looking after these products (I love this image!) have been accurately tailored on the (magnificent) Tuscan countryside.
I woud say that italian food history combines elements of the italian alimentation history and of the italian gastronomy. But do not let my word fool you: this journey is going to be certainly a pleasure. Discovering means also uncover savors and tastes not known before.The deeper we will go together into the italian gastronomy, the more variety an richness comes to the surface.
Freselle, then, were a typical staple food, not a specialty, and were popular where fresh bread could not be consumed.
In the end, this is the beauty of this journey: we will not reach a destination, but will always find new starting points.
The Renaissance
Indeed these products are traditional and follow long prescribed preparation methods and processes, but observing more closely we will together discover that italian food history and, for that matter, of Italy in general, is less of a simple farmers' tradition as we think.
A FARMERS' TRADITION?
It is not a chance that gastronomic literature found so many and so noticeable exponents in Italy: the economic development, civil, technical, humanistic and artistic advancement of the many Comuni (Commons), was not having any equal at the time (possibly not only in Europe).
The color depends on both the baking time and the flour composition (more or less wheat/barley flour): color can then range from light to (very) dark brown.
Indeed, these books were not covering eating habits, but gastronomic expertise: one thing is nutrition and alimentation habits of the common people, linked to their territories and products, another is a treatise on the art of combining the finest ingredients, from the different parts of the known world to satisfy even the most exigent of the palates.
And again, it is not a coincidence that the recipes described in these books were very similar to each other: if you think about it, this fact is hardly surprising.If it's true that these books were if not commissioned at least, certainly, endorsed by those who could afford gastronomy as opposed to a simple diet, then you will not fail to notice that the public to which the subject of these works appealed was neither too wide, nor disconnected.
Up to the first half of the 17 century, and by looking at the first documentations produced in 1861 (just after Italy's Unification) to give an account of the status of the italian population, endless accounts can be read of how precarious and poor the dietary conditions of the common people in the countryside were.
The poverty of farmers' diet is still today echoed in many of the proverbs that have been handed down.
This fashion for spices was in a large part due to the desire to touch, feel, possess the exotic, whatever it was. Courts in medieval Italy (and across Europe) were resting on the everlasting battles to be recognised as the most rich, noticeable and extraordinary.
Typically porduced in Apulia, it is widely known in Campania (fresella). In the italian language, thanks to the re-discovery of the local traditions, the term frisa is becoming more common.
But from all this, we should not err, thinking that what we have today was created then and only from the customs of the noble classes.Those times most probably marked the birth of the Italian gastronomy as we could think of today: at the same time, they were leveraging numerous distinct habits that for centuries (or millennia) had characterised the Italian and other territories and that would later mark the borders of national vs regional cuisines.
As an example, think about the vegetable (especially olive) oils used in the southern parts of Italy (nowadays produced and consumed all over it) and the use of animal derivatives (like butter, lard and lardo) in the north.
About the Author:
Many of you are probably researching about Italian food traditions. You can find some of the best information that you are looking for about these traditions on the Internet.
