Why Italians Love to Talk About Food by Elena Kostioukovitch Read Free Book Online Page A

crabs (
granseole
), including those without a shell during the molting period (soft-shelled crabs, or
moléche
), which are eaten after being dipped in egg, floured, and fried. In the
bàcari
(taverns) scattered throughout the city, on the other hand, everyone consumes a
cichéto
(a little snack) from time to time, to soothe their hunger pangs: a little anchovy wrapped around an olive; half a hard-boiled egg with oil and pepper; creamed
baccalà
on toast; a little marinated fish; a roasted, seasoned scallion; a slice of artichoke heart with garlic and parsley or fried in batter; a little meatball; Spanish white beans boiled and seasoned with oil, onion, vinegar, and parsley;
nervéti
(pieces of gristle boiled and seasoned the same way). To eat them, you spear them with a toothpick. After which, an
ombra
(equivalent to an eighth of a liter) of white wine is called for to cleanse the palate.
    Few spectacles are as picturesque as the daily fish market in the city of Chioggia or in the center of Venice, a couple of steps from the Rialto bridge. Here prized fish and crustaceans, even imported ones—grouper, monkfish, lobster—make a fine display, along with poor man’s fish, such as
sarde
(sardines) cooked
in saòr
, or in a sour sauce (that is,
in carpione
, fried and marinated with onions and vinegar).
Sarde in saòr
is one of the oldest Venetian dishes, a very important source of nourishment for sailors and fishermen, who carried it with them, on board the boats, packed in precious barrels: the salt, vinegar, and oil served to preserve the fish, while the vitamin C in the onions helped to prevent scurvy.
    By contrast, fresh fish is not eaten in the rest of the Veneto, between Padua and Verona, in the cities formerly under the powerful duchy of the Sforzas. Instead, dried fish is generally consumed, such as
baccalà
Vicenza-style, a great classic. Here vegetable gardens dominate, with their unforgettable local varieties. In the markets one glimpses bunches of wild herbs from the lands around the lagoon, such as
bruscandoli
(hop sprouts) and
carletti
(hop flowers), and numerous artichokes in all stages of growth.
    Artichokes have a truly eventful “life journey” and can appear for sale in five distinct forms. In their youthful period they are known by the name
canarini
(the first cutting); these are very small, and are dipped in
pinzimonio
, olive oil with pepper and salt, or breaded and fried. Then come the
castraure
(literally “castrations”), fruit of the second cutting of the buds of the main stem; farmers do this to stimulate the growth of the remaining artichokes. The
castraure
are small, vernal artichokes to be cooked with garlic and oil or fried in batter. Finally, true artichokes (resulting from the third cutting) appear, to be prepared in a variety of ways. But that’s not the end of it,because there are also artichoke bottoms (from the fourth cutting), delicious morsels to be sampled boiled, grilled, or fried, while the fifth cutting of the plant yields the flowers that have bloomed, to be gathered in bouquets and admired in all their purple glory.
    The artichoke of the Veneto (from Sant’Erasmo, an island in the Venetian Lagoon) is so famous that its cultivators are interviewed as if they were movie stars, revealing Shakespearian passions behind the relaxed image of the produce gardener:
    Â 
    When he speaks about
castraure
his eyes shine, as if he were in love. Giovanni Vignotto, a Sant’Erasmo native born in 1935, has an uncontrollable passion for the cultivation of the purple artichoke of Sant’Erasmo:
    â€œIs it true that there are false
castraure
of Sant’Erasmo?”
    â€œUnfortunately some scoundrels sell small Tuscan artichokes as
castraure
from Sant’Erasmo. Generally the authentic
castraure
are found at the Rialto market and in some of the best restaurants in Venice, which reserve them in advance. The crates that contain them have