Anything goes in The Snug, General Discussion's rebellious little brother. An off-topic den of iniquity where any subject not covered elsewhere may be discussed. Well, anything except golf, Star Wars and Arsenal.
For which all their annoying little traits ( and their tanks....one forward gear,six reverse..) for me are forgiven.
And they have my life long admiration and affection.
Yes Italians are all about simple pleasures in life and enjoying food but they are extremely precious and protective about thier traditional recipes and how they are cooked. This comes from hundreds of years of food history and the classic recipes are almostvreligious. The original recipes are literally kept under lock and key somewhere I can’t recall at the moment.
Carbonara can only be cooked one way. Ragu can only be cooked one way. Certain pasta shapes should only be used for certain dishes. Etc, etc.
Variations to these recipes cannot properly be called the given names.
The Italians write Street graffiti everywhere about how recipes should be prepared. It is that serious.
Yes, but each different commune has it's own 'correct' way of cooking a specific dish, in parts of Liguria, pesto is made with walnuts, simply because there are no pine trees , don't even consider suggesting it's not authentic! As sendo says the only common denominator is the best ingredients cooked simply.
( and an inate disdain for the cuisine of any neighbouring areas! ).
Tenners, having spent two wonderful weeks in Italy this summer, ‘the best ingredients cooked simply’ totally sums up Italian cooking. A ladle full of passata spread on pizza dough, with a few shavings of Parmesan and basil leaves, tastes 100 times better over there than it does here in the UK.
Whilst there I became more intrigued by ragu recipes and having read the posts about them above, will have a go at one over the next week.
Tenbury wrote:Yes, but each different commune has it's own 'correct' way of cooking a specific dish, in parts of Liguria, pesto is made with walnuts, simply because there are no pine trees , don't even consider suggesting it's not authentic! As sendo says the only common denominator is the best ingredients cooked simply.
( and an inate disdain for the cuisine of any neighbouring areas! ).
Yes there are regional variations of many recipes but there are not of many of the traditional classics such as carbonara, arrabiatta, amatriciana, etc, etc.
These are recipes that originated in one place and have only one proper way of cooking them.
The Italians are extremely protective about this.
The same way certain regional foods in Italy, France, England etc have Protected Geographical Status such as many cheeses, jersey potatoes, whitstable oysters etc. In Italy they have a similar regional protection status for these recipes where the ingredients are set in stone. Any deviation is sacrilege.
the italian dishes with "set rules" and groups of people dressing up and defending the precious scroll with the original recipe are not that many in the end. and they probably evolved from previous recipes, so who decided that that was the moment it became whatever it is called and that is the only right way to do it?
if i can't find guanciale and pecorino romano but i have some good pancetta and parmesan, who ****ing cares! we can debate whether it still is "carbonara" while we're eating it, eh?
and even if the answer is no we will be well fed and happy anyway.
though i have to admit that when you swap eggs, cheese and pork with vegan options, i wouldn't really call it carbonara. a bit like veggie haggis... it just doesn't make sense.
but then again, it becomes a matter of semantics more than food.
this doesn't mean i won't pick you up on the horrific cooking habits you guys have, but that's just cos i like being a twat.
p.s.: thinking of it, i think pancetta is a generally accepted substitute for guanciale in a carbonara, but that's not true for amatriciana... go figure!