What made you decide to write travel/culinary books? Were you maybe on a vacation, really enjoying the food, and thought, “I just have to tell people about this?”
What a marvelous question, and yes, you’ve drilled down to the heart of my books: I couldn’t wait to share what I had learned or experienced. On my first trip to Italy, Lisa Young, our host, and guide, was immensely helpful in teaching us about the importance of traditions and history of Tuscany, and especially about the foods found in the little Tuscan village of Poderi di Montemerano, which literally means ‘the farms of Montemerano’. (To better answer your question, I’ll quote from parts of my book.)
“It is nothing more than a wide spot at the top of a hill,” she explained to us, “surrounded by farmland and vineyards. Here was where the local farmers lived and worked since the time of the serfdom back in the thirteenth century.”
Poderi was also where she had lived for over twenty-five years as a young wife with her husband and two small sons. We ended up renting her little farmhouse in Etruria for the first ten days of our foray to Italy, and we have never been the same since.
“The foods you find here are considered traditional foods,” she explained, “and are considered ‘cucina povera’ or peasant foods as these were the most readily available—due to season, climate and region. Also, the most cost effective. A fisherman might fill his diet and belly with fish, but a farmer, far from the sea, would have to choose local products, such as seasonal vegetables, fruits, cheeses, poultry, or wild game simply because those things were accessible. A fish rarely would grace his plate.”
She also described for us the importance of traditions in the Italian culture:
Wikimedia Commons
“There is a very precise schedule to things in Italy, and everyone observes that schedule—even the Parliament stops at one o’clock and they go off to lunch and enjoy a full primo and secondo—nothing more, nothing less. It’s something about order, I think. It’s sort of a classical thing. Here in Italy people have a precise schedule within their lives that determines when they do things. And it’s not just a daily schedule, but a yearly schedule, too. For instance, you eat only seasonal vegetables during that season. No other time. And you are, of course, doing this with all your family. So, when I say there is a rigor to it, it’s through their schedule—it’s a kind of grid of things and everything fits into that grid. It’s not the Anglo-Saxon way of handling things—that’s for certain,” Lisa explained.
She pointed out that throughout Italy culinary dishes were specific to their region. Lo, to even the village, or individual family. A child, for instance, would never consider putting anything into their mouths that didn’t look or smell exactly like what he or she had eaten at their own grandmother’s table. It was not acceptable. No! Not ever! This was a real surprise to me.
But I was still quite interested in learning how to prepare some of the local dishes—their cucina povera. An excerpt from one of my chapters might explain one dish in particular—it was a simple vegetable soup:
“I remember ordering acquacotta,” I said, “because you had introduced us to that wonderful soup. You told us about how large oak trees were purposely left in the center of fields, so farm hands would have a nice shade tree to sit under in order to enjoy their daily aquacotta for lunch.”
“That was, of course, before my time,” Lisa said, “but I remember seeing some of those wonderful old photos taken during the early 1900s, when some of the people from the area, who were not allowed to own their own land at the time, were working in the fields. As I recall from one of the photos, the supervisor is seen carrying a large caldron of water, and someone else is placing onions into the pot as it is set on a fire to cook. The farm hands, during their lunch break, would eat the cooked onions, then drink the broth. That was the first aquacotta, a true peasant dish, which translates to ‘water soup.’ Later, when those people were given land in the 1920s, and could farm on their own, they could grow their own vegetables, and then they would put chard, potatoes, or carrots into the soup caldron and enrich it with tomatoes. So, the soup has a historical significance for this area. Aquacotta is a real testimony to where that culture came from.”
What I learned from my first trip through Italy was to listen to the people, be respectful of their culture, read up on their local history and be open to the joys of a world you have never before encountered.
Recommended Article: A September to Remember – a Review
Amazon Link – A September to Remember: Searching for Culinary Pleasures at the Italian Table
Thanks so much for hosting Carole Bumpus!