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

carried down the brand of the Consortium of the Purple Artichoke of S. Erasmo. Those who want to make the little Tuscan artichokes pass as Sant’Erasmo
castraure
are swindlers who should be exposed. They should be considered
castraure
thieves.” 7
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    In the Veneto there is an extensive peasant culture, similar to that found in Holland, which is unrelated to Mediterranean alimentary rituals. Indeed, the southern part of the region, the Polesine, is sometimes referred to as “Italian Holland” in the tourist guides. This area is situated below sea level and, like Holland, is the result of the reclaiming of marshes and swamps. The Veneto outside of Venice is a region without a center; there are neither inhabitants of the capital nor provincials here, but only numerous towns of modest dimensions, all with equal rights (Verona, Vicenza, Treviso, Padua, Bassano), none of which try to overshadow or surpass the others. They have only one thing in common: they seem committed to doing the opposite of what is done in Venice, or at least to doing the same things in a different way. Therefore, while legumes are an important ingredient in the cuisines both of Venice and of the rest of the Veneto, the capital and the region handle them differently. For the mainland part of the Veneto, dishes such as
risi e bisi
(rice with tender fresh peas) are characteristic. In Venice, this rice dish is almost exclusively made on April 25, for the spring festival of San Marco. On that day the doges would once solemly and publiclysample the
risi e bisi
and the
castraure
. During the other months of the year, Venice prefers risotto, especially with shellfish.
    In the rest of the Veneto, risotto is made with
zucca
(pumpkin), with asparagus, with Treviso radicchio, or with frog’s legs (see “Risotto”). The swamps and the immense semiflooded zones close to the Venetian Lagoon abound with eels, which the local inhabitants call
bisati
. And only a simpleton confuses
risi e bisi
, rice with peas, with
risi e bisati
, rice with eels. Along the coast, lagoon and marsh birds, ducks especially, are hunted and roasted.
    The Veneto was often used as a testing ground by aristocratic gastronomes and advocates of a culinary science who, when visiting their estates and dispensing advice to the farmers, experimented with new techniques of cultivation and selection on their lands, sometimes achieving truly remarkable results. In the fourteenth century, the physician and astronomer Marquis Giacomo Dondi Dall’Orologio imported hens never before seen from Poland and introduced them in the Veneto. Particularly esteemed for their beauty, they were meant to stroll around the marquis’s garden. This species is today called the Paduan hen,
pita padovana
. It has long feathers, large wattles, and plumage that displays a remarkable variety of colors, from black and white to silver and gold. Paduan hens, according to the age-old recipe, are prepared with an herb stuffing and placed in an ox or pig bladder, which is then boiled in a pot of water. The air is let out of the ox bladder through a narrow tube, to prevent it from bursting. This type of cooking method is called
alla canevera
, or
canevera
-style (the
canevera
is simply the tube or hollow cane that acts as a vent).
    We cannot overlook a Venetian specialty esteemed throughout the world: carpaccio. Carpaccio is thinly sliced beef, served raw like the Alba-style veal salad so loved by the Piedmontese (raw slices dressed with oil and lemon) or Alba-style raw beef (another Piedmont specialty, essentially a typical steak tartare). And yet, among all the different types of raw meat dishes that exist, it is the Venetian version that has managed to stand out. Today it is found on menus throughout the world. Its name transformed from that of a Venetian-born painter into the name of a dish, carpaccio can plainly be considered a local specialty. It was prepared for the first time around fifty years