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N. 220, OCTOBER 2010 L’ACCADEMIA ITALIANA DELLA CUCINA A CULTURAL INSTITUTION OF THE REPUBLIC OF ITALY FOUNDED IN 1953 BY ORIO VERGANI www.accademia1953.it C IVILTÀ DELLA T AVOLA ACCADEMIA ITALIANA DELLA CUCINA INTERNATIONAL EDITION

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Page 1: Accademia Italiana 10-10

N.22

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2010L’ACCADEMIA ITALIANA DELLA CUCINA

A CULTURAL INSTITUTION OF THE REPUBLIC OF ITALYFOUNDED IN 1953 BY ORIO VERGANI

www.accademia1953.it

CIVILTÀDELLATAVOLAACCADEMIA ITALIANA DELLA CUCINA

INTERNATIONAL

EDITION

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C IV ILTÀ DELLA TAVOLA 2010 • N . 220 • PAGE 2

T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S

DEAR ACADEMICIANS…

3 Cuisine and the State of the Nation(Giovanni Ballarini)

FROM THE EDITOR

5 The Cuisine of the “Three-Ps”(Gianni Franceschi)

CULTURE AND RESEARCH

6 Palermo Street Food(Cinzia Militello)

8 Undiscovered Naples(Massimo Pisani)

10 How Spaghetti ended up in Cans(Marino de Medici)

12 The Lemon Citrus of Pietrasanta (Monica Cofone)

14 Molise Corn (Enzo Nocera)

15 Tasting a Museum (Francesco Ricciardi)

17 Futurism in Venice(Giovanni Denora)

19 The Prickly Pear in Sicily(Laura Ghittino Courir)

On the cover:Detail from Il Mercato del Verziere, by Alessandro Magnasco (circa 1733) at the National Gallery at the Sforza Castle,Milan. See the article on page 25.

OCTOBER 2010 / N. 220

PUBLISHERGIOVANNI BALLARINI

EDITOR IN CHIEFGIANNI FRANCESCHI

ASSISTANT EDITOR AND ART DIRECTORFRANCESCO RICCIARDI

EDITORIAL SECRETARYTILDE MATTIELLO

COPY EDITORSILVIA DE LORENZO

LAYOUTMARIA TERESA PASQUALI

TRANSLATORSNICOLA LEA FURLANDONALD J. CLARK

THIS ISSUE INCLUDES ARTICLES BYMonica Cofone, Giovanni Denora,

Marino de Medici, Laura Ghittino Courir,Cinzia Militello, Enzo Nocera, Massimo Pisani,

Francesco Ricciardi.

❖ ❖ ❖

PUBLISHERACCADEMIA ITALIANA DELLA CUCINA

VIA NAPO TORRIANI 31 - 20124 MILANOTEL. 02 66987018 - FAX 02 66987008

[email protected]@accademia1953.it

www.accademia1953.it

EDITORIAL OFFICEVIA CASALE TOR DI QUINTO 1 - 00191 ROMA

TEL. 06 3336102 - FAX 06 [email protected]

❖ ❖ ❖

MONTHLY MAGAZINEREG. N. 4049 - 29-5-1956

TRIBUNALE DI MILANO

PUBLISHED BYRICCIARDI & ASSOCIATI SRL

VIA DEL CASALE DI TOR DI QUINTO 1 ROMA

Rivista associataall’Unione StampaPeriodica Italiana

CIVILTÀDELLATAVOLAACCADEMIA ITALIANA DELLA CUCINA

INTERNATIONAL EDITION

L’ACCADEMIA ITALIANA DELLA CUCINAÈ STATA FONDATA NEL 1953 DA ORIO VERGANI

E DA LUIGI BERTETT, DINO BUZZATI TRAVERSO,CESARE CHIODI, GIANNINO CITTERIO,

ERNESTO DONÀ DALLE ROSE, MICHELE GUIDO FRANCI,GIANNI MAZZOCCHI BASTONI, ARNOLDO MONDADORI,ATTILIO NAVA, ARTURO ORVIETO, SEVERINO PAGANI,

ALDO PASSANTE, GIAN LUIGI PONTI, GIÒ PONTI,DINO VILLANI, EDOARDO VISCONTI DI MODRONE,CON MASSIMO ALBERINI E VINCENZO BUONASSISI.

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C IV ILTÀ DELLA TAVOLA 2010 • N . 220 • PAGE 3

Cuisine and the State of the NationBY GIOVANNI BALLARINIPresident of Accademia

“Awareness of the Academymust constantly be increased”.

D ear Academicians, Academy isa word that evokes a place oflearning, study and excel-

lence. The word comes from thename of the gardens dedicated to thehero Academo, or Ecademo, a sort ofgymnasium for training and develop-ing the body, before it came to referto a school for training the mind. Itwas a public area conceded to theteacher Plato to instruct an elitegroup of students, among them Aris-totle, who spent twenty years of hislife there, first as a student, then as anassistant and finally as a teacher him-self. “To teach” is not really an appro-priate verb for the true meaning ofAcademy in that it evokes a bureau-cratic method of transferring knowl-edge, while in the true Academy boththe teacher, his assistants (as wewould call them today) and the stu-dents sought to gain knowledge to-gether, using a method with a nameall its own, sunphilosophein, firstcoined by Aristotle, which soon mu-tated into the more commonlyknown term symposium.

The spirit of the original Academyand of every successive Academy(such as ours) is not merely abouttransmitting existing knowledge im-posed irrefutably from above, butrather is a continuous and sharedsearch (with a very different methodfrom that which today is attributed tothe term “academician” also used in apejorative sense for to refer to aknowledge that is both fossilized andhardly, if at all useful).

To paraphrase one of Plato’s no-tions (or that of one of his disciples)academic knowledge cannot betransmitted, but only continually con-

structed or reconstructed, and thatlike a flame, to must first be born andcommunicated after a long period ofdiscussion of the subject, and onceborn must be able to feed itself. Anacademic discussion must employfriendly rebuttals, non-hostile ques-tions and answers, opinions exam-ined without prejudice and evaluatedwith deliberate reflection, all in apleasant environment, like the firstAcademy beneath the trees of thepark of Academo (which accordingto tradition were Plane trees). A dis-cussion in our Academy has its refer-ence point in the conviviality of thetable and in the pleasantness of thesymposium.

The original Academy was not onlyconcerned with ideas but also withconcrete problems, both general andpractical: among them, the conceptof pleasure. Our Academy must re-search a great variety of subjects. Re-search and life are two concepts thatmust always be closely joined in or-der to avoid falling into sclerotiza-tion, which has led to the death ofother academies with noble pasts.

Is Italian cuisine in crisis? Or arethe values that distinguish it in crisis?Or perhaps we cannot manage tocomprehend the new values that arereplacing the old ones during thecontinuous process of social changeand evolution which is occurring in-dependent of our sensibilities, habits,opinions and above all our tastes?Remember La Rochfoucauld’s affir-mation: “Our self esteem tolerates thecondemnation of our tastes betterthan that of our opinions”. Thesewords have never been truer thanthey are today; this broad and distin-

D E A R A C A D E M I C I A N S . . .

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guished theme and its consequencesare of vital importance for our soci-ety. A subject that can more easily beconfronted and academically debatedin the last century and a half con-cerns the changing relationships be-tween cuisine and the processes thatunfolded during Italian unificationand especially the transformation ofthe Italian state.

Cuisine and the state of the nationare two important issues that havemany and varied regional and his-toric roots, but which also have a so-

cial impact, especially in terms of theradical economic evolution of ourcountry, and consequently on ournutrition and cuisine. The fact thatthe latter is a “mirror of a society” isborne out by historic, literary, socio-logical testimony.

The emerging middle class un-doubtedly observed the relationshipbetween cuisine and the evolution ofsociety during the century from 1860to 1960. It also played a part in theinterpretation of cultural trends, andit was in this environment that our

Academy was founded and devel-oped.

In the last half-century many thingshave changed and will continue tochange with a speed that seems everfaster. We have witnessed the partici-pation of new social classes and cul-tures in the world of gastronomy in asocial condition that is both complexand delicate and which requires ourAcademy to remain faithful to its mis-sion of studying the culture and civi-lization of the table.

GIOVANNI BALLARINI

D E A R A C A D E M I C I A N S . . .

C IV ILTÀ DELLA TAVOLA 2010 • N . 220 • PAGE 4

ARGENTINA: BUENOS AIRES Alberto Lisdero, MENDOZARamiro MarquesiniAUSTRALIA: ADELAIDE Carmine De Pasquale, BRISBANEAlessandro Sorbello, CANBERRA Laura Giovenco Garrone,MELBOURNE Miro Gjergja, SYDNEY Renzo FranceschiniAUSTRIA: VIENNA Anthony HandlerBELGIUM: BRUSSELS Isabella QuattrocchiBRAZIL: BRASILIA Delegate to be named, RIO DE JANEIROFernanda Maranesi, SÃO PAULO Achille MarcoMarmiroli, SÃO PAULO SOUTH Giancarlo AffricanoCANADA: EDMONTON John Di Toppa, MONTREAL-QUE-BEC Giorgio Lombardi, TORONTO ONTARIO MarisaBergagnini, VANCOUVER Laura Rosazza PelaCHILE: SANTIAGO Tiberio Dall’OlioCHINA: GUANGDONG Vinicio EminentiCROATIA: SPLIT Riccardo MazzucchelliDENMARK: COPENAGHEN Piero MarottaUNITED ARAB EMIRATES: UNITED ARAB EMIRATES Dele-gate to be named, Honorary Delegate S. E. Paolo DionisiFINLAND: HELSINKI Enrico CasagrandeFRANCE: BORDEAUX Stephane Felici, PARIS Luisa Bran-lard PoltoGERMANY: BERLIN Claudio Ciacci, COLOGNE VittorioLucchetti, DÜSSELDORF Giovanni Cariola, FRANKFURTRodolfo Dolce, MUNICH Bernardo ZanghiJAPAN: TOKYO Glauco PompilioGRANDUCHY OF LUXEMBOURG: LUXEMBOURG MariaCristina Cogliati SansoneIRELAND: DUBLIN Paolo ZanniISRAELE: TEL AVIV Ever CohenLEBANON: BEIRUT Mario HaddadMOROCCO: CASABLANCA Claudio VoltolinaMEXICO: MEXICO CITY Franco Veciarelli, GUADALAJARALuca DoriNORWAY: OSLO Mauro BrecciaroliNEW ZEALAND: Delegation being reorganizedTHE NETHERLANDS: AMSTERDAM-LEIDEN Alberto Giano-

lio, THE HAGUE-SCHEVENINGEN Alessandro Argentini,UTRECHT Italo Romano De LorenzoPOLAND: WARSAW Tessa Capponi BorawskaPORTUGAL: LISBON Jose’ Manuel De Sousa Buccellato PRINCIPALITY OF MONACO: MONACO Fernanda CasiraghiUNITED KINGDOM: EDINBURG Ciro Campanella, LON-DON, Benito FioreCZECH REPUBLIC: PRAGUE Giancarlo BertacchiniREPUBLIC OF SAN MARINO: SAN MARINO Leo MarinoMorgantiDOMINICAN REPUBLIC: SANTO DOMINGO Mario BoeriROMANIA: BUCAREST Guglielmo FrinziSINGAPORE MALAYSIA INDONESIA: SINGAPOREMALAYSIA INDONESIA Anna MarmiroliSPAIN: BARCELONA Adolfo Valle, MADRID Maurizio DiUbaldo, VALENCIA Donata VolpiUNITED STATES: ATLANTA Angela Della Costanza Turner,BALTIMORE Delegazione in ricostituzione, BOSTON Gian-franco Zaccai, CHICAGO Nicola Fiordalisi, HOUSTON(TEXAS) Charles D. Jr Maynard, LOS ANGELES FrancescaValente, MIAMI Pasquale Emanuele Viscuso, NEW JERSEYCarlo Porcaro, NEW YORK Francesca Baldeschi Balleani,NEW YORK SOHO Berardo Paradiso, SAN FRANCISCOWalter Romanini, VIRGINIA Hartley Schearer, WASHING-TON D.C. Giuseppe CecchiSOUTH AFRICA: JOHANNESBURG Aurelio ArmandoGrech-CumboSWEDEN: STOCKHOLM Paolo PariniSWITZERLAND: Geneva-Léman Emilio Castelbolognesi,LAUSANNE-VENNES Dominique Bellomo, RHONE FrancoAntamoro De Cespedes, FRENCH SWITZERLAND Giulio Al-by, ITALIAN SWITZERLAND Paolo R. Grandi, ZURICHMaria Elisabetta Odermatt Capei TURKEY: ANKARA Delegato in corso di nomina, ISTANBULMetin ArHUNGARY: BUDAPEST Alessio Ponz De Leon PisaniURUGUAY: MONTEVIDEO S.E. Guido Scalici

DELEGATIONS OF THE ACCADEMIA ABROAD

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The Cuisine of the “Three-Ps”

F R O M T H E E D I T O R

BY GIANNI FRANCESCHI

“Around the world, Italiancuisine is freeing itself

from these heavy chains”.

I talian cuisine was once consideredthe cuisine of the” three P’s”: Pas-ta, Pizza and Pomodoro (toma-

toes). It used to be an excessivelyplain and limited cuisine, and as suchit was taken across the Atlantic byour expatriates, who were accus-tomed to this - so to speak - basicfood even in their mother country.These constraints were due, in part,to the difficulties encountered intransportation at the time: it was easy

to receive pasta and canned tomatoesfrom Italy. Other ingredients werenowhere to be found or they werevery expensive. Suffice to say that, atthe beginning of last century, a com-pany from Bologna was exportingcanned tortellini to the United States.We shudder at the thought of whatthey must have been.

Today, Italian cuisine around theworld has freed itself from the heavychains represented by the “three-Ps”thanks to fine chefs who shared theirknowledge, abilities and expertise,aided and encouraged by high-quali-ty and very fresh Italian productswhich were available thanks to arapid and efficient transportation sys-tem. To give just one example, Italianrestaurants in New York or Beijing,Sydney or Berlin receive buffalomozzarella almost the same day it ismade.

Our Academy has done a lot and isstill doing much to safeguard the au-thenticity of Italian cuisine, and toguarantee the high quality of ourwine and food products, all too oftenadulterated and falsified.

However, if nowadays Italian cui-sine has finally freed itself from thegrasp of improvising cooks, pseudo-Italian trattorie and restaurants, thesame is not true for some similarlynoble cuisines that are arriving in ourcountry.

Let’s talk about Chinese cuisine.The restaurants which offer Italianpatrons authentic food from the oldCelestial Empire can be counted onone hand. Instead, cities are teeming

with restaurants of all sizes, carry-outestablishments that remind us of theThree P’s. They offer menus limitedto spring rolls, Cantonese rice andthat oddity called fried ice cream. It isdifficult, if not totally impossible, tofind a lacquered duck, just to men-tion one superb classic Chinese dish.Typically these restaurants havecooks that simply improvise; theymuddle through, rummaging throughmemories of the poverty of their fam-ily meals.

Less a work of improvisation- atleast in our country - is Japanese cui-sine, where sushi and tempura, nowpart of our collective imagination,know no rivals. Rising-Sun inspiredrestaurants are less popular, becausethey are more expensive than Chi-nese restaurants. But the quality, ser-vice and ambience are far better.

Arab countries gave us the kebaband today many Egyptian pizza-mak-ers offer, besides Italian pizzas, thisroasted and highly aromatic lambmeat, cut into thin slices and servedin sandwiches. It's an exotic alterna-tive to the multinational hamburger.

The “global village” also reflects aform of gastronomy which often ne-glects originality and quality. Thetransition made by Italian cuisine,from the “three P’s” to today's suc-cesses, has been a long, slow and dif-ficult process. Focusing on quality,professionalism and originality, Ital-ian cooks have conquered the world.This is not the case for many othercuisines, worthy though they maywell be of our respect and attention.

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C U L T U R E A N D R E S E A R C H

Palermo Street FoodBY CINZIA MILITELLOCaltanissetta Delegate

An ancient, world-wide tradition.

V incenzo Borruso, professor ofCultural Anthropology special-izing in food at the Food Sci-

ence School of the University ofPalermo, accepted an invitation fromthe Caltanissetta Delegation andspoke to Academicians on the themeof Street Food: The Art of Communi-cation. He started off by stating thatfrom ancient times the working class-es of our country have spent much ofthe day outdoors and have been ac-customed to eating the food they buyfrom shops or food stands in thestreets.

Eating street food, oftentimes aloneor with others, certainly violates theprinciples governing how one eats athome and ignores the intimate ritualof sitting together at the same table,with a fixed hierarchy in terms of po-sition occupied, serving oneself orbeing served, depending on the levelof prestige enjoyed within the familyor group, the nature and position ofthe tables, or the mense. Mense in theLatin world were composed of a slabof bread on which the various disheswere set out for consumption. Fromthis came the word compagno de-rived from the expression cum paniswhich designated those who ate theirmeal together with bread.

However, this habit of eating in thestreet was always considered to be aform of communication, a sign of sol-idarity among the intermittent cus-tomers; acknowledging someonewho enjoys the same dish and revelsin the same aromas can give a senseof complicity and solidarity among

the impromptu consumers of streetfood. And between one bite and an-other, a comment or two on howgood it is, what a good choice wasmade, and how much better it is thanwhat one gets in a restaurant, comesnaturally.

Pompeii still shows us a series ofshops in which people could eatsome bread and something with thebread (companatico is another termderiving from cum panis) and drinkwine or water.

It is natural that in our country eat-ing food in the street was encour-aged by the climate; for manymonths of the year weather condi-tions allowed people to live out-doors, just as the climate led to thedevelopment of outside games andspectacles.

Today, with globalization, certainfood traditions similar to ours havebeen adopted by countries outside ofEurope, and a new Anglo-Saxon ex-pression, “street food” has beencoined, as well as “finger food” (deli-cacies), small portions of food to beeaten with one’s fingers. It should benoted that in the old days using one'shands to eat was considered a royalgesture. It was not until the 16th cen-tury that different suggestions weremade on how hands were to be usedwhen eating: Mr. Della Casa adviseslimiting their use as much as possiblewhen dining. But by then westerncivilization had invented the fork. Inany case the most obvious problemsnowadays derive from the fact thatstreet food - if we can really continue

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to call food that is prepared for con-sumption and distribution throughsales points and machines - is often-times not connected to the culinarytraditions of the country, and is be-coming instead “junk food” accord-ing to Coldiretti Italiana. This organi-zation has repeated the alarm sound-ed by American researchers in Na-ture Neuroscience; they report thathamburgers, fried potatoes and sweetsnacks are creating dependence andgenerating concern; even in Italy, theconsumption of fatty foods and sug-ary beverages, consumed by 41% ofchildren every day, is on the rise.

Traditional street food can befound in every part of the world, par-ticularly in Africa and Asia. In thecountries surrounding the Mediter-ranean Sea, the tradition is a long oneand over the centuries Italy has dis-tinguished itself - as have almost allof its regions - by inventing a seriesof dishes which even today charac-terize the land in which they werecreated.

Sicily represents one of the richestareas of our country for street food,with a tradition that has lasted forcenturies, bringing together the lega-cies of classical Greek and Romancivilizations, the Arabs and the Span-ish. Even today, in the midst of a totalglobalization of the food system, theconsumption of street food is signifi-cant; it has been little affected bynew trends which, when they are ac-cepted, oftentimes are adapted to tra-ditional Sicilian cooking. This is espe-cially true in Palermo which has in-corporated several new ways of eat-ing away from home, accepting thekebab and McDonald sandwiches

without forgetting any of its ownstreet foods. We can cite the sellingfrom panellerie, permanent and mo-bile shops set up on a cart or on a la-pa (Piaggios’s Ape three-wheeled ve-hicle, in which they fry (and you cansee) the oilseed cakes, flour friedwith garbanzo beans and parsley,cazzilli, fried potato croquettes withparsley, rascatura, whatever can bescraped from the pots in whichkneaded garbanzo bean flour andpotatoes have been cooked and thenfried in boiling oil, quagghi or friedeggplant, (whole eggplants split intoquarters and called as such becausewhen they are fried they resemblequails). This food is generally eatenin sandwiches made of very soft,round bread, or in malfade (anotherform of bread in Palermo) which hashad the soft inside part removed.Other food produced by the panel-laro are arancine, croquettes ofboiled rice filled with capuliatu ofmeat sauce with peas, and fried; avariation is the arancina with butterwhich is characterized by its conicalshape. There are panellari shopswhere one can buy typical Palermodishes for immediate consumption orfor take-out, such as i sardi a becca-fico prepared with deboned sardinesrolled in breadcrumbs, grape juiceand pine nuts; fried cicirello (smallfish) or squid, broccoli, cardoonesand artichokes fried in batter. Eventoday, bread and panelle is the typi-cal food of students between classesor workers taking a break. And eventhough they are now sold throughautomatic distributors set up in all theschools, friggi e mangia (fry and eat)adapted to a lapa is never missing

during recess time in the schools. Another type of street food still eat-

en frequently in Palermo, is the sfin-cionello, made from a circular base offlour batter on which tomato andonion sauce is applied and preparedseparately, salted sardines and bread-crumbs. A few minutes in the ovenand it is fragrant and ready to eat.Even today, using vehicles such asthe lapa or customized pickuptrucks, they are prepared and soldoutside schools during recess, or Infront of worksites. Another Palermostreet food, known throughout Italy,is u pani ca meusa , bread withspleen. It consists of a soft loaf ofbread filled with calf's spleen, boiledand cut into thin slices, fried withlard in a pan before placing it insidethe sandwich which is then cut intotwo halves.

The stigghiola occupies a specialplace among street foods. This islamb or goat intestines (and some-times even those of other animals)washed in water and salt, seasonedwith parsley or layers of onions, spit-ted or rolled and tied and cookedover coals. Classic stigghiola shouldcontain the curdled milk of the ani-mal (lamb or kid goat) still inside theintestine as the animal should bebutchered while it is still nursingfrom its mother’s milk. Seasonalstreet food includes babbaluceddi(small snails) cooked and seasonedwith oil and parsley and displayed inthe streets as pyramids built uponlarge flat baskets made of wovencane. They are sold and eaten on acabbage leaf and the shell is tossedon the ground after the snail hasbeen sucked out.

C U L T U R E A N D R E S E A R C H

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C U L T U R E A N D R E S E A R C H

Undiscovered NaplesBY MASSIMO PISANI

Naples-Capri Delegate

“Neapolitan cuisine is rich in simple

and tasty recipes”.

S everal years ago Intra Moeniaof Naples published a bookwritten by Academician Lejla

Mancusi Sorrentino entitled TheTwelve Masterpieces of NeapolitanCuisine. The author correctly liststhem as: minestra maritata (weddingsoup), ragù meat sauce, genovese(braised beef), sartù di riso (rice tim-bale) gattò di patate, (mashed potatocake), pizza, eggplant Parmesan,mozzarella, pastiera (ricotta cake),sfogliatella (filled pastry), and sorbet-to (sorbet).

However, in addition to these dish-es that are known the world over,Neapolitan cuisine is full of manyothers that, while less familiar, are noless sumptuous. These are the sim-ple, tasty, and almost spartan dailyrecipes, created through centuries ofexperience and care in the kitchensof rich and poor alike, by peoplepossessing great imagination, ifsometimes little else.

I would like to highlight some ofthem, and I will begin with salsiccecon friarelli (sausage with broccoli).Together they make up a substantialand successful second course, al-though the two ingredients may beenjoyed individually and can stand ontheir own. Friarelli is a kind of broc-coli that is grown in Campania. It isslightly bitter, has tiny flowers and canbe prepared in a variety of ways tocreate truly exceptional dishes.

But “the living end”, as we say, isto enjoy them “inbroscinati”, orsautéed in a pan with olive oil, garlic,and red pepper flakes. It is a simplefood of the poor using a locallygrown crop. The case of the sausagesis a bit different: they are cooked in apan with a little white wine or lightbeer and a bay leaf, but they must be“a punta di coltello”, or hand sliced,with the butcher filling the casingwith bits of prosciutto and lard cutfrom the piece of pork with a sharpknife, adding a little salt, black pep-percorns and a some red wine. Sals-icce con friarelli are such a wide-spread and popular second coursethat a famous pizzeria in centralNaples offers a pizza topped withsausage and broccoli, and calls it “al-la carrettiera”.

Another little masterpiece is thefrittata di scammaro (fasting dayeggless spaghetti omelet). A verylight dish, it is an omelet made usingspaghetti or linguine seasoned withgarlic, olive oil, pitted black olivesfrom Gaeta, and a handful of capersand parsley. It is scrupulously madewithout eggs. It must be crispy on theoutside and soft on the inside. It is adish typically served on ChristmasEve, but often in summer as wellwhen the hot weather calls for lightand fresh food.

Alexandre Dumas Senior, wholoved Naples and covered the length

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and breadth of the area in his carroc-cio, or carriage, frequently main-tained (rather snottily) that theNeapolitans enjoyed eating that hor-rible cephalopod octopus, amongother vile things. Later, with the cu-riosity of a true gourmet, he tasted itand found it so delicious that headopted the recipes for it. Whoknows if he ever tried genuinepolpetielli affogati in red sauce? Takecare, for the polpetielli must be gen-uine, found among the rocks, andnot their poor cousin the “sinischi”,which are bottom feeders.

They are easily recognized by thetwo rows of bumps on each tentacle,and they should be cooked, as Ed-uardo De Filippo said, “pippiando”,that is, simmering in a pot withpeeled plum tomatoes, oil, garlic,and a pinch of salt.

The sauce, thick and shiny, can al-so be used to season a plate ofspaghetti. Some of the older restau-rants in Posillipo still serve this,

sometimes adding black olives andcapers.

And now let’s turn to anchovies, sobeloved by Asti Academician Giovan-ni Goria, who has praised them onthese pages. This delicious silver,slippery little fish fragrant with thescent of the sea should be mustfreshly caught, preferably at night,because it does not exist farmed orfrozen. It can be served in an infinitenumber of ways: marinated in oil,vinegar or lemon, and dried red pep-per; arrecanato, i.e., cooked in a panwith a spray of vinegar, oil, garlic,breadcrumbs and oregano; deepfried or pan fried; ammollicato (mari-nated) or imbottonato (browned andbraised), or any way the imaginationcan invent. Delicious prepared in anymanner, anchovies are a classic foodof the poor: tasty, inexpensive andtied to local tradition.

Since we are on the subject of fish,we must not neglect the mixed friedfish from the paranze! Paranze are

large fishing boats, which run paralleldragging a net between them. At thebreak of day, when the paranze re-turn to port, one can buy the smallfish that were caught in the net, cleanthem, fry them in boiling oil, andserve them piping hot with a wedgeof lemon. A mixed paranza fry al-ways contains some mullet, small cod(you can eat the tail), sometimes asmall sole, some calamari rings andsome shrimp.

I could go on and on, but it wouldbe impossible to end this article with-out mentioning one more dish thathas made Neapolitan cuisine worldfamous. I refer to vermicelli or lin-guine with clams. It goes withoutsaying that the pasta must be hand-made, using semolina flour and slow-ly dried, like that produced in Grag-nano, Torre Annunziata, and Torredel Greco. The fresh clams shouldopen up in a sauce of olive oil, garlic,and red pepper flakes and served intheir shells over the pasta.

C U L T U R E A N D R E S E A R C H

The contribution of Academicians to this magazine isnot only welcome, but indispensible. Academiciansshould keep in mind some basic guidelines so thattheir writing - the fruit of their passion and labor -may be correctly and expeditiously published.

Articles: whenever possible, articles should be sent viaemail to this address:[email protected]

Article Length: Articles should be between 4,500 and5,500 characters (including spaces) in order to avoidbothersome cuts. Your computer should indicate thenumber of characters.

Convivial Meeting Reports: Please limit meeting reportsfor the Notes and Comments section to ten lines (equiv-alent to 600 characters including spaces) to avoidcuts. Reports that are received by the secretarial staffmore than 30 days after the event will be discarded.

Following these simple guidelines writers can be rea-sonably certain their work will be published accu-rately and in a timely fashion, thus avoiding thoseoften lamented unwelcome cuts.

The editorial staff reserves the right to verify facts andrevise articles, and to edit them according to spacelimitations.

GUIDELINES FOR SUBMITTING ARTICLES TO THE MAGAZINE

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C U L T U R E A N D R E S E A R C H

How Spaghetti ended up in CansBY MARINO DE MEDICI

Academician from Virginia

The story of an Italian entrepreneur.

I t is not news that Italian pasta hasclimbed to the top in the UnitedStates but it is surprising that the

United States is the second producerof pasta in world, just behind Italy,and that it is second, after Italy, in theconsumption of pasta per capita.However, if you ask a young Ameri-can which type of pasta he or sheknows best, the answer will beprompt: “Chef Boyardee”. Who is thisperson? It is not a joke and the nameis not fictitious: a chef with suchname really existed and the productthat he created, pasta in a can, stillexists and continues to be a favoritewith American kids and even outsidethe United States.

The chef’s name was Ettore Boiar-di. He was born in Piacenza, inNorthern Italy, in 1898. His familyemigrated to the United States andlanded in Ellis Island in 1914. Ettorebegan working with his brother inthe kitchen of the Plaza hotel in NewYork. He quickly developed hiscooking skills and became chef. Infact, he acquired such a reputationthat he was called to prepare a din-ner for President Wilson.

At age 24, he moved to Clevelandwhere he opened his restaurant IlGiardino d’Italia. He had grown amoustache in order not to appear tooyoung and adopted the name Hector.His spaghetti with meat and tomatosauce quickly became popular to thepoint that many customers began toask him for sauce to take home. ChefHector poured the gravy into milkbottles and added pasta and cheese.From the bottles to the cans it was afortunate transition. Hector contacted

a canning enterprise in Indiana, Vin-cennes Packing Company, and askedwhether it could can pasta with hissauce. They told him that it could bedone and Hector went ahead withthe canned spaghetti. He thus be-came the first industrialist of cannedpasta, and the cans featured him onthe label, moustache and all. Onlythe name had changed. Hector hadtired of pointing out the correct pro-nunciation of his name and decidedto print it in a novel way, so that itwould be easy to pronounce: “Boy-ar-dee”.

In 1938 he decided to move hiscanning operations to Pennsylvania,to be closer to the tomato cultiva-tions. He even went as far as produc-ing mushrooms in his cellar. Hiscanned pasta, especially his ravioli,reached a true economy of scale dur-ing World War II when they were dis-tributed as rations for the troops. Buttrue economic success came amongthe young and needy families thatcould buy food at low prices. In 1950Boiardi caved in to the offer of alarge company that bought him outfor the remarkable figure, at thattime, of 6 million dollars. The youngcook from Piacenza had struck it richin America. Not only that, he had be-come a media icon, by appearing inTV spots with his chef hat and theunmistakable moustache. He stayedon as a consultant until his death in1985.

The trademark “Boy-ar-dee” be-longs today to a big food conglomer-ate, Con Agra Foods, producer anddistributor of a wide array of foods,from all kinds of wheat to egg substi-

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tutes, canned tomatoes, Jewishsausages and frozen foods. Theseproducts are consumed in 97 percent of American households. Thecanned pasta invented by Boiardiwas a common staple on the table ofthe poor, particularly in the 1960s,and continues to be enjoyed by thenew generations. Just look at thewebsite www.chefboyardee.com tounderstand the kind of market thatBoyardee reaches: youth. The typesof canned pasta they like are the“overstaffed meat ravioli”, the “sportforkables”, the “minibites”, the micro-ravioli, the dinosaurs in sauce, andthe unfailing macaroni and cheese,probably the most popular foodamong American kids.

The canned pasta, however, is nolonger unique. For a few years it hasbeen accompanied by pasta to becooked in a microwave oven, knownas “taste microwavables”. To this addthe “microravioli cup, the “minibites”,and assorted “microcups”. To top itall off there are “pizza and dinnerkits”, with whole wheat to boot. Tryit out: the website Boyardee is fun forall, creative and clever with its adver-tising for kids.

A bit of advice: don’t tell Americansthat the Boyardee foods have lownutritive value. Their advantage isthat they are “shelf stable”, that isthey can stay longer on the shelves ofsupermarkets. And you can quickly

open a can and warm up the content.Ettore Boiardi understood all thisperfectly well and, most importantly,he knew how to protect his inven-tion. The same cannot be said aboutanother chef, Alfredo, who becamefamous for his Roman fettuccine withplenty of butter and parmesan

cheese. He had his inventionsnatched away from him, with nocopyright protection. The result wasthat the name Alfredo appears every-where, entwined with pasta, rice,chicken, fish and all sort of food con-coctions, another vile blow that dam-ages Italian gastronomy.

C U L T U R E A N D R E S E A R C H

ACCADEMIA E-MAILThe following e-mail addresses, conveniently arranged by office, arenow available to facilitate communications:

Office of the [email protected]

Office of the Secretary [email protected]

Headquarters [email protected]

Magazine editorial office (Rome)[email protected]

Giuseppe Dell’Osso National [email protected]

The Accademia website is www.accademia1953.it

Among other things one can view and download the last three issuesof Civiltà della Tavola (pdf files).

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C U L T U R E A N D R E S E A R C H

The Lemon Citrus of Pietrasanta BY MONICA COFONE

A unique citrus made by the grafting of two fruit trees.

T he fascinating world of citruscan be traced back almost 4,000years; they were cultivated in

an area ranging from India to the FarEast and spread to Greece around the3rd Century BC and then on to Italywhere they were introduced in the2nd Century BC. The oldest docu-mented citrus are pomelo (a relativeof grapefruit) and citron plants.

Virgil was the first Latin writer torefer to citron as “the apple tree of LaMedia”, and to describe its character-istics, foliage and flowers. Because ofits prevalence throughout the Arabworld, the Crusaders were probablythe first to introduce the bitter orangeto Italy upon their return from Pales-tine in the 11th Century.

According to Targioni Tozzetti,lemons and bitter oranges were firstcultivated in Tuscany in the 1300s.There are many 15th and 16th Centu-ry descriptions of gardens and or-chards referring to the importance ofcitrus in our region. There is an elo-quent 16th Century description of theSquare of the Orange Trees in Massaduring the rule of the Malaspina fami-ly. As A. Tagliolini notes, there is agood deal of archaeological evi-dence: a system for channeling waterand the design of the wall surround-ing the garden of the La RinchiostraVilla in the Massa plain. Traces of

trellises indicate citrus orchards with-in the walls of Pietrasanta. The or-chards, which were well exposedand enjoyed an excellent micro-cli-mate seemed to justify the tribute of2,000 lemons and oranges that thefeudal lord was required to pay tothe Medici court at the beginning ofthe 16th Century.

The earliest classification of citruswas done by G.B. Ferrari, who in1646 in Rome published Hesperidessive de malorum aureorum culturaet usus in Rome in 1646. This volumewas followed by J. Commelyn’s Ned-erlanntze Hesperides (1676) andNurnbergische Hesperides (1708),Linnaeus’s Species Plantarum, editedin 1753, G. Gallesio’s Traité du Cit-rus (1811), A. Risso and A. Poiteau’sHistoire Naturelle des Oranges(1818), and W.T. Swingle - The CitrusIndustry (1948) by H.J. Webberwhich included a chapter on the tax-onomy of the Citrus genus.

Citrus plants belong to the Ru-taceae family, a subspecies of theAurantionoids . There are manygenuses, among them Citrus, whichincludes the major species: C. limon,C. medica, C. paradisi, C. auran-tium, C. sinensis, C. bergamia, andthe numerous cultivars that exist foreach species, particularly the Citrusgenus: C. limonimedica, C. hystrix.

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The citron of Pietrasanta belongs tothe Citrus limonimedica (lemon cit-rus) cultivar, which was introducedinto the Medici gardens at the begin-ning of the 17th Century. Accordingto the classification by Sienese JesuitG. B. Ferrari, however, it actuallyoriginated in the countryside aroundPietrasanta.

In 1996 an international conferenceentitled The Gardens of the Hes-perides: Citrus in History, Literature,and Art was organized by the Centerfor the Study of the Historic and Con-temporary Gardens of Pietrasanta un-der the direction of A. Tagliolini.Speaker David Freedberg cited theG.B. Ferrari’s text describing thelemon citron of Pietrasanta: “The Etr-uscan land around Pietrasanta, whichborders on Liguria, generates themost delightful and sweetest oflemons, called cedrino (citron),which are a result of the grafting (sothey say) of the citron plant, whichfor its perfume and simplicity isknown as cedrato. Once transplant-ed, the land around Florence, the wetnurse of all lemons, produces two va-rieties worthy of the highest ofpraise. She calls one “smooth” be-cause its skin is less rough, and theother “rough” because of its protrud-ing bumps which are known asbroncone in the local dialect because

they resemble rough and pricklybranches. There has never been afruit like it. It grows better aroundFlorence than Rome, and sometimesachieves the shape and weight of alime. Quite often it has an elongatedand swollen shape, and it is narrowerat the top. Sometimes it resembles abreast, with its nipple shaped tip, orcan appear to be swollen like auterus due to the unborn fruits with-in. The peel is tender and pale goldwhen mature, full of pointed depres-sions and spiky warts, shriveled fromits wrinkles and sweet owing to itsfragrant tips. It is pleasant to eat to-gether with another fruit. The two-fingers wide fleshy part is tender andsweet on the palate; the part coveredby ten or eleven acidulous cellularmembranes is truly succulent. It con-tains almost twenty seeds. The tree,which is of a delicate nature, cannottolerate extreme heat or cold, and itcan grow to a height of six cubits. Itis stimulated by Spring to a persistentflowering, and is soon covered by abeautiful thick green foliage that isoften curly.

The same tree also produces a sim-ple and abundant product that har-bors one fruit inside of another, eachof which can be separated from theother. And it is also true that in thefarthest reaches of Etruria, the coun-

tryside near the city of Pietrasantawhich is rendered extraordinarily fer-tile owing to the warm breezes fromthe nearby sea, produces citronedlemons that are almost always haveother lemons inside. These oftenhave blunter ends and are more coni-cal than other lemons. Some of these,which can be divided into many seg-ments, contain another lemon inside,and when it is split in half, beyondthe golden skin and white flesh, re-veals a whitish pith, and rarely, athird fruit curled up like an embryo.From the open incision in the inner-most fruit one can even observe acompact brood of tiny lemons.Sometimes the uterus of the externalfruit splits open spontaneously, pro-ducing other lemons that resembleentwined fetuses or conjoined new-borns, bursting out rather than beingborn because they cannot emerge bythemselves. It is recognized by every-one that this species of lemon exudesa more intense perfume than otherlemons and that the internal fruit issofter and more delicate than the ex-ternal”.

This description and the imagesthat accompany it point to a uniqueplant with an intense perfume andmultiple fruits nestled one inside theother, but like all beautiful things, it isextremely delicate.

C U L T U R E A N D R E S E A R C H

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C U L T U R E A N D R E S E A R C H

Molise CornBY ENZO NOCERA

Academician, Campobasso DelegationF. Marenghi Research Center

The food of the poor in a study by Gioacchino Murat.

U ntil a few centuries ago, pizzaand greens were the onlyfood of peasants, prepared

each day. The ingredients of this dishare, even today, corn-based focacciawhich in former times was cookedon the stone of the hearth and thegreens were fried with oil and hotpeppers; every once in a while tunabelly or pig’s lard was added.

The cultivation of corn or Indianwheat, as it was also called, began tospread throughout upper Molisearound the first half of the eighteenthcentury, in approximately 1730, andthen spread to Central Molise be-tween 1800 and 1820, and even tothe flatlands of lower Molise.

In the well-known study by Muratat the beginning of the nineteenthcentury, the word used was to refer tocorn was granone; it was so wide-spread in the “Contado” of Molise(which later became the Province ofCampobasso in 1806) that it threat-ened and reduced the cultivation ofwheat. The people preferred it towheat for the sole reason that, creat-ing a branny style of extremely coarse

bread, it took longer to digest andgave a greater feeling of being full.

But this starchy plant did not pro-vide much healthy nutrition becauserather than being prepared well leav-ened and well cooked, it was eatenwithout being highly fermented,without salt, and often in the form ofa focaccia barely warmed under theashes.

In fact, several towns of upperMolise and the northernmost area ofMolise enjoyed healthy air because oftheir exposition and high altitude;their inhabitants should have had“good coloring” and “personal vigor”;instead they appeared to be “cachet-ic, pale, indolent and weak” and of-ten suffered from pellagra because oftheir poor nutrition.

In the past and in all seasons, thepeasants had to manage both theirwheat and corn in order to haveenough to get through the day.Every day they had to balance lunchwith dinner and it was a constantharsh struggle.

Corn polenta was also used a greatdeal and was usually seasoned withoil in which garlic was fried; occa-sionally, they mixed in crushed wal-nuts, mosto cotto or some vinegar;those who could mix in salt, pepperand a few pieces of smoked pork fatwere considered fortunate; to finishthe meal, they might enjoy some ca-cio cheese. Almost everyone mixedin some capsico baccato (hot pep-pers). The shepherd in the mountainsor along the cattle tracks prepared itwith milk.

In summertime, during the scogna,or threshing season, at mealtimethere was the aroma of polenta richwith sausages and small pieces of ba-con fried over low heat, prepared ina large soup pot where everyone

dug in with their spoons, numbedfrom working the chaff, to the soundof the crickets.

Reading the Murat study teaches usthat in these regions the custom andpractice was to sit down for a mealtwice a day, in addition to breakfast.Lunch was organized at noon and theevening meal, dinner, was eaten atdusk. The peasant ate three times aday during the winter and four or fivetimes during the summer. In summer-time, in addition to the afternoonmeal, it was the custom to dividemeals between two dry and two hot.And since one usually ate at the ex-pense of others, the two dry mealsconsisted of good pork meat, eithersmoked or aged, a lot of cacio,enough bread to fill the belly, and co-pious amounts of wine. The hot mealswere made with good meat, eitherboiled, roasted or prepared in a pan;the vegetables were seasoned withthe broth of the meat and there werelarge quantities of bread and wine.

During the winter, a meal was tak-en two hours after sunrise, at noon,and in the evening; the first two win-ter meals were dry and consisted offocaccia made of granone, accompa-nied by either a bit of cacio, or a littlesalt pork or salted fish, sardines,some slices of garlic, an onion, andaccording to the time period, radish-es, rape seed, celery or fennel.

In the evening vegetables were eat-en, but always with focaccia madefrom corn mixed with wild or gar-den-grown herbs, depending on thepeasants’ resources; or simple polen-ta from corn seasoned only with oil.

Polenta, rich in sauces and flavors,was often the main dish and at timesthe only dish the peasants ate in themorning and it had to last them untiltheir evening supper.

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BY FRANCESCO RICCIARDIAcademician Rome-Eur Delegation

A gastronomic guide in the heart of Milan.

M any of our museums, somemore than others, containworks of art that have as

their theme food and the table. Gas-tronomy can represent a key to un-derstanding an art collection, or be aguide to help visitors avoid getting“lost” in a multitude of unrelated anddisparate works of art. And that is ex-actly what the Academy did severalyears ago when it released its travel-ing exhibit The Colors of Taste, whichfocused on the civilization of thegood table in Neapolitan painting byanalyzing works of art on display inthe museums of that city.

Now Skira publishers offers us anew volume to add to this trend: TheTaste of Art - A Gastronomic Guideto the Museums of the Sforza Castlein Milan, a handy book by AndreaPerin and Francesca Tasso (ManagingConservator of the artistic collectionsof the Milan museum). It is small and

easy to consult (6 x 8, 96 pages, 16euro) but significant in terms of itscontent. The guide was developed tohelp visitors to the Sforza Castle mu-seums appreciate not only the formalvalue of the works there, but alsotheir gastronomic significance(Alessandro Magnasco’s Merchant ofVerziere appears on cover of this is-sue.)

Many Academicians will recall thatthe Sforza Castle hosted anothergreat exhibit in 2003, organized bythe Accademia Italiana della Cucinato commemorate its 50th anniversary.Art and History at the Table was anoriginal interpretation of two cen-turies of history through the evolu-tion of the “food lists”, and includedmany valuable menus on display forthe first time.

We know that art and cuisine haveoften shared a close bond throughoutthe course of history. Jewelers, ce-

C U L T U R E A N D R E S E A R C H

Tasting a Museum

BARTOLOMEO STEFANI’S PUMPKIN SOUPOne of the recipes in the guide is for this pumpkin soup described by Bartolo-meo Stefani in The Art of Cooking Well (Mantua 1662, p. 28): “Take thepumpkin cooked in broth, so that it is tastier, and pass it through a sieve; takesix ounces of almonds pounded in a mortar, dilute it with a glass of milkstrained through gauze. Put the pumpkin in the oven with fatted capon broth.When the pumpkin is almost cooked, add four egg yolks and the juice of fouroranges; it will be delicious.

In short, the ingredients are: a quart of chicken broth, 4.5 oz. peeled al-monds, 1.3 lbs. pumpkin or butternut squash, peeled and cleaned, 1/2 cupmilk, 2 oranges, 2 egg yolks, beaten. Preparation: cut the pumpkin/squash in-to pieces and add them to the boiling broth. Once cooked tender, puree themtogether with the beaten egg yolks. Add the almonds, which have been ma-shed with a mortar and pestle, diluting them with a bit of milk. When thesoup is ready, add the juice of two oranges.

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ramicists, glass blowers have workedto create some of the most opulentdining services; often artists andcooks worked on similar projects, foryears interpreting the banquet as agrand dramatic stage set in whichfood and tableware converged in thecreation of a single and complete(though ephemeral) system.

Have we not established that cui-sine itself can be considered an art?And don’t various types of art, within

the framework of their time, sharethe same cultural substratum? And fi-nally, is it not true that figurative artconstitutes an indispensable source -as the Academy has amply shown inthe preparation of its own exhibits -for documenting nutritional habitsand understanding what and howpeople eat?

This guide constitutes the most re-cent contribution to the fascinatingworld of the relationship between

figurative and culinary arts, and pairsseveral works on display at theSforza Castle museums with a recipefrom the appropriate era, region, andcontext. As one would expect, thejuxtaposition succeeds in establishingrelationships in both directions, fromartworks to the cuisine, and vice-ver-sa, with historical data intersectingwith cultural ideas. These elementsare all dealt with in this guide, de-spite its “pocket-sized” nature.

Taking into consideration the culti-vation of ingredients (fruits, vegeta-bles etc.) and the many variations intheir cooking that have occurred overthe course of centuries, The Taste ofArt presents the recipes in their origi-nal form and explains how they areprepared today. Thus this little guideevokes (while remaining faithful tothe ancient flavors) the ingredientsand modern instruments at our dis-posal. We hope that other Italian mu-seums will follow suit on this intrigu-ing and promising example of theSforza Castle’s culinary-historic en-deavor.

FRANCESCO RICCIARDI

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C U L T U R E A N D R E S E A R C H

INTERNET, BLOGS, FACEBOOK AND THE ACCADEMIA WEBSITE

Recently some Delegations have expressed an interest in opening theirown websites. In order to avoid content conflicts with the Accademia'sofficial website, the Office of the President has expressly stated thatthis is not possible. The Office of the President would like to stipulatethat online conversations among Academicians and/or Delegationsin blogs and on platforms such as Facebook are permitted. However,in these cases the use of Accademia logo is not allowed, and contentshould not discuss or involve the Academy’s organizational activities.

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C U L T U R E A N D R E S E A R C H

Futurism in VeniceBY LAURA GHITTINO COURIR

Venice Delegate

On the road opened by Marinetti.

C ommemorating an historicalevent is always important, butwhen it is a centennial and the

event happened in your OWN CITY,it is a must. And this is what the Dele-gation from Venice did. The protago-nists were Futurism and the ClockTower. On July 8, 1910 a multitude ofleaflets (800,000) flew from the towerin Piazza San Marco - a long list of ac-cusations and provocations againstVenice and its inhabitants. Just theyear before, Filippo TommasoMarinetti had founded the Futuristmovement, its members selectedfrom among the most famous intel-lectuals; painters, writers, musicians,actors, dancers, and, finally, in 1930,chefs). On December 28, 1909Marinetti published the Futurist mani-festo and signed it himself in a Turinnewspaper, the Gazzetta del Popolo.The founders’intent is well known:rejection of styles of the past, em-bracing new more dynamic lifestyles, and injecting the future with acertain élan vital. In fact, the leafletsthrown at the passers-by, (actually,more specifically “on the crowd re-turning from the Lido”) contained on-ly a summary of the complete mani-festo, which was read by DelegateLaura Ghittino Courir. Here are a fewof the most significant ideas: “We re-pudiate ancient Venice, exhaustedand flabby from its centuries-old de-

votion to sensual pleasures, whicheven we ourselves used to love… Wewant to heal and cure this city, mag-nificent sore of the past… Let’s burnthe gondolas, those rocking arm-chairs… Let’s free Venice from itsmoney-grubbing moonlight”.

Even Italian cuisine did not escapefrom Marinetti’s ferocious criticism.The least unwelcome was probablyhis critique of pasta, described as “aball that Italians have chained to theirstomachs, convicts serving life sen-tences”. He of course preferred rice.He liked to combine his dishes withothers that were unusual, uncom-mon. It cannot be denied that he hada wild and creative imagination, withrisky, and yet well chosen names anddefinitions. Such a fertile imaginationwould give birth to new currents inall the arts. Traditional cuisine in thetypical Italian family was, one mightsay, subdued - based on local prod-ucts and little imagination. The newideas would give birth to “the culi-nary arts”, allowing the more famouschefs to create dishes that would sat-isfy the still uncontaminated palatesof millions of people in Italy andabroad. Cuisine made its grand en-trance alongside the other arts. TheDelegation from Venice decided tocelebrate the event with a dinner fea-turing dishes of that time and recall-ing in particular the “aerobanquet”which took place in Bologna in 1931.The ideal location for this convivialmeal was the Taverna La Fenice, anhistoric establishment opened as awine bar in 1894, which, over timebecame one of the favorite meetingplaces for the most important person-alities in the world of culture andhigh society. D’Annunzio, a regularpatron, gave it its current name in1910 and it seemed appropriate to re-

turn there to celebrate this doublecentennial. Its owner, Giovanni Tre-visan reserved a room, and willinglycollaborated on the creation of themenu with his chef Andrea Bonde-san. A series of tastings were servedin colorful little bowls made of differ-ent plastic forms; at the time, plasticwas a new material, and the foodwas called “simultaneous and chang-ing morsels”; new, wonderful tastes:creamed dried salt cod on a layer ofpolenta with cuttlefish ink, giganticbeans with crystallized droplets ofvinegar, melon mousse with baconsquares, absolutely delicious. Every-thing was accompanied with a glassof Ribolla Gialla Spumante Livon. Atthe table, after the brisk reading ofthe Manifesto, rice was served -obvi-ously - and it came in two versions:“green rice” with a cream of peas,pistachios and spinach, and risottorombi d’ascesa , a risotto withcaramelized orange peel. Then carneplastico (plastic meat), a dish pre-pared a bit oddly: veal meatballs withtwo types of vegetables forming theeleven letters in F.T. Marinetti’s name,served fried and sprinkled with hon-ey. Lastly, “steel spheres” - ice creamwith transparent mint balls. The otherwines were excellent: Soave MonteCarbonara 2009 Suavia; Palazzo dellaTorre 2007 Allegrini, and Recioto diSoave Passito Capitelli Anselmi. Dur-ing the dinner, which could not havebeen more stimulating and satisfying,the Academicians exchanged smallcards with thoughts written on them,as the futurists loved to do. Amongthe more amusing ones: Tra una‘risata’ e l ’altra , (between one“laugh/risotto” and another) and Lacucina è evoluzione, evviva il futur-ismo (cooking is evolution, so, longlive futurism).