Flavours Explores How Italians Have Adopted The American Way With Disastrous Consequences

Before we start, I just want to ask a question. Bearing in mind all the meals Lillian is going out for on The Archers, not once has she made any mention about putting on weight in the whole of the Christmas period and now into January. I do wonder whether all her work outs with Paul are keeping the weight off!

That leads me neatly into a serious topic which was flagged up on the Radio 4 Food Programme earlier in January regarding the impending food crisis in Italy.

Flavours is passionate about Italian food but it appears all is not going well in the country aside of the economic problems they are now experiencing.

 

In Italy these days, childhood obesity in those of elementary school age is the highest in Europe and the Italians are very concerned about the future of their children. You might be asking what this is all about seeing as we often hold Italy up as a paragon of virtue with respect to healthy Mediterranean food habits. But slowly, despite the regional passion and love for traditional foods, youngsters are beginning to experience big problems.

A recent state funded study showed alarming levels of obesity especially in the south whereas in the past, people here were amongst the thinnest; Spain Portugal and Greece also bringing up the rather enlarged rear so Italy is not alone in this situation.

Flavours holidays was interested to learn that what appears to be happening is this; even though regions like Piedmont, Liguria or even Sicily hold on to their old dishes, the foods Italians traditionally ate sparingly as seasonal treats like pastrami or lasagne, to name just a couple of examples, have become so mainstream people are eating them all the time with disastrous consequences.

Not only do young people share their predecessors’ love of regional cuisine they also enjoy the fast food which is slowly infiltrating the Italian psyche and what is disparagingly called: ‘The American Way’. So if you add high fat to high fat, a lack of physical exercise as so many young people have abandoned their rural lifestyles, then the recipe is definitely one of disaster. The addiction to sitting glued to computers may well also be to blame.

The problem is passion and self-discipline do not make great bedfellows and with the Italians love of food, if they do not practise a little self-restraint, this worrying trend may well metamorphose into an epidemic.

There is the other matter of lack of nutritional education and cooking skills amongst young parents and the increasingly lazy lifestyles amongst teenagers. Just think how easy it is to consume high calorie levels by just snacking on a few slices of salami or serving a packet of tortellini; it’s all too easy.

Our cookingcourses at Flavours tend to focus on the very best produce available and we like to produce balanced menus which focus on flavour rather than quantity. I am beginning to believe the old adage ‘a little of what you fancy does you good’ with great emphasis laid on ‘little’.

It is obvious that high fat meals should not become the norm but perhaps more importantly it is essential to increase the exercise we all take every day. That is the key to this debate. 

Yes, food availability and price in real terms has affected our eating habits but over and above all of this our lack of hard physical work is taking its toll. 

So may we recommend a Flavours cooking course followed by a week’s Pilates in the sun? It’s just a thought, but a nice one! 

A Roundup of our Favourite Italian Cookbooks

Italian cooking is about far more than food.

Each authentic dish expresses the history and traditions of a region, the seasonal flavour of local ingredients or the powerful relationship Italians have with technique and taste.

Some Italians will tell you that this innate understanding can’t be learnt from any cookbook and that skills are handed down through generations.

However, if you don’t have an Italian family kitchen to hand, or a long-line of pasta aficionados to turn to, there are plenty of books that do a good job of filling in. Here are few of our favourites:

 The Silver Spoon, 1950: No aspiring Italian cook should be without this bible. Italy’s most successful cookbook, ‘ll cucchiaio d’argento’, was compiled by a group of Italian cookery experts more than 50 years ago. It’s the ultimate cookery compendium and contains regional specialities from across the country. It’s been updated over the years but still sticks to its philosophy of authenticity. Supplementing the recipes are guides on aspects such as 'how to set an Italian table' and 'how to compose a traditional Italian meal'.

The Classic Italian Cook Book, Marcella Hazan,1990: An authority on Italian cuisine, Hazan’s first cookbook strictly follows traditional Italian techniques, and her recipes are blissfully untouched by American or British influences. With a preference for preparing food by hand, rather than machine, and cooking on the stove rather than oven, Hazzan’s recipes truly communicate the intrinsic relationship Italians have with cooking.

Made in Italy, Giorgio Locatelli, 2006: The owner of London’s Michellin starred Italian restaurant, Locatelli’s love affair with food began aged five, when he started helping out in his family’s restaurant in northern Italy. Five years in the making, Made in Italy saw Locatelli returning to his home village to reconnect with his culinary roots. Expect everything from pizettes and nettle risotto, lobster linguine and Sorrento lemon soufflé, to cepe salad and calves liver in vinegar.

Food of Italy, Claudia Roden, 1990: As an English food-writer, Roden realised that she’s need to put in some real legwork to compile an authentic Italian cookbook – and it paid off. Visiting kitchens in every region in Italy, the pages are enriched with history, geography, culture and regional tales, making this far more than a collection of good recipes. From dumplings and deserts to pastas and polenta, learn how to cook more than 300 authentic regional dishes, as well as gain an understanding of distinct flavours across the country.

The Geometry of Pasta, Jacob Kenedy, 2010: For something super-stylish and more contemporary, look no further than this classy, black and white book. Focussing on the basic principle of matching the right pasta to the right sauce is an innate skill that Italians acquire through years of observation and practice. Us Brits, however, could benefit from a few pointers. Aimed at helping you to develop an instinct for matching pasta and sauce, The Geometry of Pasta reveals the science, culture, and philosophy behind pasta shapes and sauces. Simple to follow, a delight to read, and it looks great on the kitchen shelf!

The Economics of Italian Cooking

Indulge in Food Archaeology and Dig Up Some Money-Saving Tips From The Past

All over Italy there are different traditions but all have one thing in common: seasonality, using all kinds of ingredients and local produce. In the UK we moved a long way from this trinity and our reliance on expensive, pre-cooked, pre-packaged food has led to our shopping bills growing exponentially.

With increased pressure on household budgets people are rethinking how to feed themselves and their families in a nutritious and tasty manner without spending excessively. Reining in food expenditure definitely doesn’t mean cutting back on taste, variety and health. I would like to suggest a little more effort might actually result in far better home cooked meals. With a little forward planning, preparation and inspiration from one of the finest peasant cuisine traditions in the world, weekday meals might be transformed into banquets. Certainly visitors to our Italian cooking courses have gone away with skill and knowledge they all say has transformed their approach to food in general.

Typically, in the past it was the women who made decisions about food and they became experts in making the very best use of everything available; innovative application of wheat, olive oil and eggs, as basic examples have inspired legends.

If we are going to tighten our belts in these economically straightened times we should learn from these experts. Old bread becomes breadcrumbs, cheap cuts of meat are used for Polpetonne, potatoes are the staple ingredient for soup and even the humble tomatoes can be transformed into an unctuous sauce with some home grown basil and the best olive oil your budget will allow. Polenta and Focaccia can all form the economic basis of something delicious. What is missing in terms of expense and instant pre-packaged, short-lived gratification is compensated for by zing and taste and I know which I would rather have.

I suppose we have to reinvent our passion for both food and ingredients while re-acquainting ourselves with knowledge which was in danger of being lost. What is required is a little time and love of what we are producing, buying and ultimately preparing and eating. For example making soups with cabbage, beans and cheese ends up being so hearty it is impossible to want anything more than a piece of fruit and you are likely to have enough left over for lunch the following day. If anything, soups and stews often improve with an additional marinade post cooking. They have always been an economic way to feed a family and have the added benefit of being such a social and easy food should you wish to sprinkle a few guests around the table.

Pasta e Fagioli is another hearty dish which can become as smooth and oleaginous or soup-like according to your taste, but basically you are looking at a traditional combination of beans and pasta cooked with the onion, garlic, herbs and stock. You can add pancetta or even toasted bread with Fontina cheese on top if the mood takes. Yet, rest assured this wonderfully filling dish will be far more satisfying than anything that emanates from a packet and will cost a fraction of the price.

What we should also do is make friends with our butchers once more, find out what the cheap cuts are and ask for inspiration if you don’t know how to use them. The Italian butcher and media star, Dario Cecchini would say that we have been wasting money for years buying expensive but tasteless meat like chicken breast and fillet of beef. He likes to promote the unusual cuts and suggests a delicacy such as Polpettone which is a Tuscan version of meatloaf. Flavours’ cooking scholars, while in Tuscany, all try to make the pilgrimage to his shop which is such a magnetic draw and usually takes a minimum of half an hour to be served amidst opera and string quartets.

So, the very best beef to use for this dish? Well, it’s is shin or shank and your butcher will need to prepare this for you, nothing fancy but oh so delicious. The recipe is simple too. Mix ground beef, red onion, egg, garlic, thyme, salt and pepper together in a bowl and form into a large ball then coat it in breadcrumbs. Transfer to a roasting dish and cook for 15 minutes at 425 then another hour at 375

You see, come home, open a glass of Italian wine, prepare the dish, clear up whilst it does its first quarter of an hour in the oven, turn down the heat and soak in a bath for an hour.

With a little thought we can build slow food, peasant food back into our way of life. We should embrace this shift from consumerism, fast food, convenience and think about why we eat. The Italians have always known why, how and when; if you make your own lasagna with nutmeg in the Béchamel sauce, fresh Mozzarella and shin beef you will never return to a pre-cooked version.

Take a leaf from the Italians, whether it’s basil or parsley and embrace the food that has persisted all over Italy and if you’re really serious you might want to book a week’s cooking holiday in Umbria or Tuscany and bring your new-found skills back home.

Our guide to Italian cheeses Part 2

Italy: Excite, Experiment And Enjoy Cooking With Her Cheeses

Continuing from Part 1 of Our guide to Italian Cheeses, we now move to southern Italy for a product emanating from Puglia that hasn't yet reached its centenary and is thought to have emerged as a convenient way of using up ritagli, those scraps left in the production of Mozarella. Originally it was wrapped in Asphodel leaves whose greenness guaranteed freshness but these have been replaced, alas, by plastic.

Ricotta, literally translated as ’ re-cooked’ is another softie made of milk whey from sheep, cow, buffalo or goat milk utilised in general cheese production. However, it’s not really a cheese as casein isn’t coagulated and it does spoil very quickly. Chef, Alastair Little’s recipe laid ricotta on sheets of fresh pasta as part of a stuffing comprising Parmesan, nutmeg, spinach and seasoning, this is then rolled up, sealed in foil, poached gently and served with a simple tomato sauce. Its versatility secures its place in the cooking of Italy or you could simply eat it with honey, a little cinnamon, a few hazelnut biscuits (tozzetti) and a sweet white wine if you were feeling particularly lazy.

One cheese synonymous with Italian cuisine is Gorgonzola, a bit of a thug with its bite and saltiness, if made with goats’ milk. It’s a blue cheese crafted since the 9th century but didn’t attain its greeny-blue characteristic tattooing until a couple of hundred years later.

Lombary and Picardy in the north produce most and it enjoys protected geographical status (DOC) and is a product of magic and organisms which produce the veining. It’s a cows milk cheese amalgamated with penicillium. Metal rods are inserted then removed to create tubes for air to pass allowing the mould to metamorphose into hyphae. It is this process that result in this artistry of veining, try it with succulent pears that dribble everywhere for a startling contrast or poach them for a stunning salad served with a mixture of gorgonzola and mascarpone, a confection dreamed up by Peter Gordon.

Which leaves us with Parmesan, we all thought was a powder sold in green, red and white striped small tubs with a sickly aroma, years ago. Nowadays shavings of fresh Parmesan will grace a green salad oiled with a mustard dressing, coat parsnips or form part of a breadcrumb coating for fish which is a distinct no-no within the cooking of Italy. Parmigiano Reggiano is a toughie, hard and granular and taking its name from the region where it was originally produced. As early as the 14th century references to Parmesan were cropping up in literature and even Pepys mentions it when he buried his precious cheese to preserve it from the ravages of the Great Fire of 1666.

Cooking In Italy relies on these beautiful natural products, experiment by all means, but most of all, enjoy.

Our guide to Italian cheeses Part 1

Italy: Excite, Experiment And Enjoy Cooking With Her Cheeses

Cooking in Italy would be impoverished, nay incomplete, without the addition of cheese. Like wine, this precious commodity responds to temperature, humidity, soil fertility human ingenuity and animal husbandry. It’s an organic result of a process dating back at least 8000 years.
Necessity is the mother of invention, the sun’s rays on fresh milk required a method to halt despoliation and preserve a nutritious foodstuff; e cosi, cheese was the solution. Although this technological leap forward appears to have originated from the Middle East it was the Romans who understood how essential this skill could be in shaping cooking back home in Italy.

The Romans were evangelists, spreading the good news across their Empire, but like so many of their aesthetic sensibilities and innovations, at the collapse, the ‘big society’ approach was lost and each region in Italy began to experiment, exploiting their particular geology or climatic variation to develop products which, to this day, vary both season by season or year on year. Nevertheless names such: Parmesan, Grana Padana, Ricotta, Gorgonzola and Burrata are synonymous with cooking in Italy.

These cheeses delight our senses and excite our palettes with their gloriously original and idiosyncratic personalities. Gorgonzola for example collapses in a Victorian swoon at the first sign of heat, whereas Parmessan is stoic, strong and awkwardly rubbery should you overcook it. Grana Padano, on the other hand will exude a sweet, fruity taste whilst offering up a crumbly grainy texture, hence ‘grana’ the Italian for ‘grain’. It’s the Grande Dame of cooking in Italy, having an illustrious 1000 year old history being first produced near Milan by Cistercian monks.

If preservation is the goal, Grana Padano takes the cup as it can last up to two years without harm as a consequence of its slow ripening process and is incredibly popular in Italy’s cuisine. Of course, this being Italy, competition is always bubbling beneath the surface and other grana cheeses are made but Grana Padano will be fire branded to show to whom it belongs, so be certain you check the stamp.

Burrata on the other hand has a transient, fresh beauty which is considered past its best just 48 hours after production. It’s a typical combination of cooking passions in Italy: the outside is solid but inside the reward is a soft slithery textured marriage of mozzarella and cream, burrata after all meaning ‘buttered’.

Join us on Wednesday when we explore more of the delectable selection of cheeses used in Italian cooking!