the patisserie of the area. Rum baba and brioche are both Neapolitan and French specialties. In Sicily, many Chefs still go by the name Monzu, which is a Sicilianized version of the word monsieur, because it was en vogue to have a French chef in Sicily during that period.
Mastering Time-Honored Italian Traditions
“La cucina di un popolo è la sola esatta testimonianza della sua civiltà.”
“The cuisine of a people is the only true testimony of their civilization.”
—ITALIAN PROVERB
Creating traditional Italian food is a respected form of craftsmanship, just as goldsmithing, pottery-making, weaving, playing music, singing, wine-making, painting, sculpting, designing clothes and textiles, and architecture are. Just as one wouldn’t normally pick up a paintbrush or sing for the first time and become a master, neither would someone who made pasta or pizza. Mastering Italian cuisine takes desire, passion, commitment, practice, and patience.
Traditional Italian recipes have been perfected over centuries, sometimes even millennia, so it is important to treat them with the respect they deserve. Each Italian dish that we prepare gives us the opportunity to pass down generations of love, talent, knowledge, and culture. Italians believe that by creating the recipes of our ancestors, we continue to honor them even after they leave this world. Carefully adhering to culinary customs is a sign of respect to the community and cultures that created them.
While modern Italian chefs and cooks do take many creative liberties in the kitchen, they do so after mastering the basics and the reasons behind them. If you know, for example, how to make a true Cacio e pepe condiment to toss with pasta and its rich history of being prepared by shepherds in the Roman hills, then you are likely to update the recipe while maintaining its integrity. The Italian viewpoint on recipe makeovers is similar to how many people feel about remakes of popular songs. Unless the new version is as good as or better than the original, it’s best to stick to tradition. Because Italian cuisine is already revered the whole world over for its taste and appeal, making it better than the original is no short order. Most of us, myself included, are delighted to be able to recreate many of our childhood favorites with as much accuracy and precision as possible.
La bella figura: Using food to make a good impression
If you’ve spent time in Italy or with Italians, you may have heard the term la bella figura, which literally means “the beautiful figure,” but transliterated means “a good impression.” Food is often intertwined with making a bella figura because it is an instrument to use to your favor when you are getting to know someone. If you are going to meet someone, or have been invited somewhere, you can bring an artisan food product, a good bottle of wine, or one of your handmade specialties to them to make a good impression. When entertaining, you should always offer your guests your best recipes, cooked with love. The foods you choose when entertaining (discussed in depth in Chapter 5) should be the best quality, best tasting, and best variety.
To make a bella figura when cooking for guests, you should either cook something very homey and close to your heart, or more elaborate dishes that you normally save for special occasions, in order to make a good impression and demonstrate your feelings for them. Doing this shows that you have invested a certain amount of time and care in preparing a meal for your guests, because their presence matters to you. Even a meaningful dish or two prepared with care or some thoughtful edible gift can go a long way in the hands of the receiver.
Staying the course: Italian meal planning
One of the biggest mistakes that non-Italians make when serving Italian food is not in the preparation of recipes themselves, but in the way that they are paired together. Fixed price “Italian” menus in the U.S. and United Kingdom, for example, often offer a soup as an appetizer and a pasta as a main course, which would never be done in Italy. Both soups and pasta dishes are considered first courses. Eating two together would not only be an overkill of calories and food groups, it would also take away from the integrity of each dish, which is meant to lead up to the second course.
These are the components of a traditional complete Italian meal, normally eaten at lunch (when the main meal of the day is eaten), but could also be eaten at dinner, especially if entertaining, or in a restaurant.
Antipasto: An appetizer begins the meal, although informal family meals and dinners at home might omit this course. Larger holiday meals or special occasion menus offer several appetizers.
Primo: A first course of pasta, gnocchi, risotto, or soup is always at lunch and sometimes at dinner. This is the heart of the Italian meal, and if you had to make only one dish and omit the rest, this course is it.
Secondo: A second course of seafood, fish, poultry, eggs, meat, or a vegetarian protein is usually served at lunch and dinner. On special occasions, there are several secondi, and at formal dinners you might have a few separate meat or seafood courses, starting with the lightest and ending with the more robust flavors.
Contorno: A side dish of cooked vegetables accompanies the secondo in the same course. Holidays and special occasions call for several contorni.
Insalata: A salad, most typically green or mixed, follows a meal at lunch or dinner.
Frutta/Noci: A plate of fruit, nuts, and/or cheeses usually follows the meal (sometimes by a few hours) and on regular days replaces dessert. In restaurants, this course is not as commonplace as it once was.
Dolce: A sweet dessert is usually not eaten at each meal at home, but always on Sunday and holidays and often in restaurants. At holidays and for special occasions, several types of desserts are served.
Caffé: An espresso coffee is considered to be the period at the end of a meal.
Digestivo: A digestive liqueur officially concludes a meal and helps to aid digestion.
Pairing complimentary dishes
In Italy a good meal is like a piece of beautiful classical music which requires each instrument and melody to be played in a specific time. The crescendo, or the highest point, lies at lunch time, either at the first course, or, if there is a second course, just as it begins. All of the other dishes need to play supporting roles, to either build up to the highest point or delightfully accompany the diner to the conclusion of the meal. From a nutritional standpoint, the various courses also offer more opportunities to showcase a wide range of nutrients from various food groups (protein,
