FuoriBorgo

Slow Food: buy less, spend more, don't waste!

The press conference at the Slow Food Cheese festival we went to a few weeks ago, was quite an eye-opener for me in many ways, and a call to action: 22,000 tons of edible food are thrown away every day in households in the United States, and 4,000 tons in Italy. The results of this massive waste, coupled with the widespread industrialization of the food supply, are far-reaching and severe.  We need to stop wasting food, and buy less food overall.  And we must spend proportionately more on the food we do buy, in order to get high-quality food that's healthy, safe, and priced to give the farmer a fair income.

I'm writing about Slow Food: buy less, spend more, don't waste! at the co-op today.

the cheese & fish taboo

No, no, no:  in Italian cooking, combining cheese & fish is an absolute no-no, a culinary taboo.  Did you know that?  In fact, the workshop I attended at Cheese, 2011 addressed it.  It was a marvellous experience - a proper food workshop, with headphones and live translations like in the United Nations, scholars and journalists and chefs seriously discussing the flavors we were tasting.

Our teacher was Luciano Zazzeri, the chef and owner of La Pineta, the renowned seafood restaurant on the Tuscan coast, who likes to describe himself as first and foremost a fisherman.  He had prepared a variety of dishes to prove to us that the right cheese with the right fish can in fact complement each other perfectly.  In the process, he produced dishes that are both new and fascinating (to us Italians, at least). 

So we tasted and discussed sea urchins, mussels, Mediterranean mackerel (sgombro) and squid prepared with different fresh and aged cheeses, and paired with carefully selected white and red wines.  In fact, we broke yet another culinary taboo by drinking certain red wine with fish.  It was quite a learning experience for me - a culinary revolution!

Exploring and challenging these canonical rules of national and regional cuisine, which are built not only on questions of taste but also anthropological and sociological issues, made this so much more than a simple food workshop.  Thank you, Slow Food!

Cheese, 2011

My oh my, but there was a lot of cheese at Cheese, 2011, the festival organized by Slow Food in the streets of the little town of Bra, Piedmont, the other week!  A marvelous celebration of this food in all its richness and diversity, made by artisans throughout Italy (and few stands dedicated to foreign cheeses) using both traditional and modern methods.  Though they all start with only a few basic ingredients, it is amazing how many different varieties of cheese there are - every imaginable flavor, texture, and form.

Cheese, 2001 was an absolutely wonderful event, but I question the name.  Given that it was a cheese show in Italy, with 99% of the stands promoting Italian cheeses, it seems to me more sensible to have called it Formaggio instead.  After all, Italian words are all the rage in Anglo-American cuisine - isn't every green pasta sauce called "pesto" nowadays, and anything bready with a topping called "pizza"?  Aren't Italian culinary terms like frittata, biscotti, farro, and passata widely used these days?  I know that Slow Food has a preference for English terms.  Still, I think they should name this festival "Formaggio".  Besides, I happened to google "cheese bra", and it produced some pretty confusing results!

Cheesed out?  Hope not, because there'll be more cheese tomorrow, and the deepest cheese tabu in Italy!

Italian country kitchens

 

To me, a great kitchen isn't just a place where one can prepare food for the family, but also where the family gathers to enjoy that food.  

Aren't these great kitchens?  

One can always dream ...

Norcia, Umbria

 

At night, Norcia was magical.  And it made us forget the packs of foreign tourists and the flocks of Italian kids on summer camps that during the day seemed to take over this beautifully quiet town at the eastern edge of the Umbria region - a world apart, of mountains and high plateaus, hunting for wild boar and truffles, that has little in common with the rolling hill country of neighboring Umbria, with its olive trees and grape vines.

What I will always remember with a smile about this visit to Norcia is Tom noticing a foreign guy painstakingly taking photos of his wife's capuccino, positioning and shooting it over and over on the outdoor table of the cafe where they were having breakfast, while she patiently waited for her first sip.  Tom said, "Look, a blogger!!!"

Assisi, Umbria

You know, I'd never been to Assisi before.  In fact, I'd never wanted to go to Assisi.  I was afraid of the crowds, and of the merchandizing of all things spritual.  And yes, there were crowds, and there was merchandizing.  And there was heat - it was such a hot day!  But Assisi was still all about the soul.

We started our visit at the upper end of town, and slowly descended the hill, walking among the beautiful medieval buildings of pink and white stone: by the time we reached the foot of the hill, we'd completed our little pilgrimage, and were ready for its culmination, the Basilica di San Francesco and the explosion of color of its frescoed walls, and the beauty of Giotto and Cimabue's art, which depict in an almost mystical way the life of Saint Francis in the various levels of the Basilica, all the way down the steep steps to the saint's crypt, where people of all nationalities - mostly young - prayed quietly.  

Yes, Assisi was still all about the soul.

Val d'Orcia, Southern Tuscany

Each time we drive through Val d'Orcia, Tom says, "It doesn't get much better than this, does it?"  And each time I answer, "No, it doesn't".

Chiusi

We arrived to Chiusi the town's saint day, and crowds of locals of all ages were chatting in the streets, while they waited for the bingo game that was going to be played in the main square.  We stayed in a gorgeous, renovated farmhouse - old doors that creaked and squeaked, terracotta tiled floors, and walls clad with ivy and pergolas draped with wisteria, whose roots had worked their way in the plumbing.

And on we went ...

farinata (and dancing anyone?) late at night

Tired and starving last night, the five of us followed a whiff of wood smoke in the air, which led us into the most improbable place, tucked away behind some tennis courts where the boys were playing another (!) tournament until late.  A little hole-in-the wall diner where we found a fire burning in two brick ovens - one for baking farinata, a traditional, thin focaccia made with chickpea flour, water and olive oil, and the other for grilling meat.  There we had one of the best, and yet most simple, dinners out, cooked by "mythic Beppe" as the chalk board informed us.  The chalk board also announced farinata, music and dancing on Friday nights, and dancing in that room after eating mythic Beppe's farinata sounded like a lot of fun.  

I haven't been dancing since ... hmm, prehistoric times.  When's the last time you went dancing?

Corner View ~ by the sea

Corner View is a weekly appointment - each Wednesday - created by Jane, where bloggers from all corners of the world share their view on a pre-arranged theme.  If you'd like to join in, please leave a link to your Corner View post in the comments below, and be sure to visit other participants too.

Thank you Lise for the theme today!

We went to Genoa this weekend, to see Mediterranean: from Coubert, to Monet, to Matisse: what a great exhibition!  A wonderful collection of paintings that celebrated the influence of the Mediterranean in painting, and as a way to develop new techniques for rendering colors.  It made me eager to learn more about art history, and grateful to live in a place where even in the gloomiest moments of winter, the landscape is colored by the orange and yellow of citrus fruits, and by the vast greens and blues of the Mediterranean, the sea by which we live.

The theme next Wednesday is "motion", and comes from Cole.  Valerie, would you please choose a theme for the following week, and email me?  Thanks!

Happy corner viewing!