Cassata from Sicily, baked eel from Venice, pizza from Naples: Italian cuisine is characterised by its regional variations. This is a legacy of Italy’s history – the nation has only been united since the 19th-century and different regions retain their distinctive culinary traditions.
Carluccio's Italia
If you want to find out more about Italian regional cuisine, you couldn’t do better than start by reading Antonio Carluccio’s Italia: the recipes and customs of the regions (pub. Quadrille, £14.99). Celebrity chef Antonio Carluccio is something of an authority on Italian regional cooking, and has researched and written extensively on the subject. He has a real passion for introducing people to good food and showing them that there’s more to Italian cuisine than pasta and cappuccino.
Italia is a sort of gastronomic tour of Italy, beautifully illustrated with mouthwatering photographs of dishes to make, interspersed with pictures of the local people. The journey takes you from the mountains of Trentino Alto-Adige in northern Italy to the flat plains of Puglia in the south.
Pine Needles, Presniz and Polenta
The dishes he describes vary enormously. Many people know that northern Italians tend to use butter, while those in the south use olive oil – and many will also be aware that risotto and polenta are staples of northern regions such as Lombardy and Piedmont. However, Carluccio introduces the reader to a fascinating variety of regional dishes that you’d never see on menus outside Italy. There is his recipe for Eel Baked with Bay Leaves (Bisato sul’Ara), for example, which is a typical Venetian recipe, eaten on Christmas Eve.
Then there are the dishes from Friulia-Venezia Giulia, which have strong Austrian and Slovenian origins: there’s an unusual recipe for Roast Venison with Pine Needles (Arrosto di Capriolo al Pino), for example; and Presniz, a sweet Friulian pastry that is flavoured with rum soaked fruit and nuts. From Umbria there’s a dish that uses the famous Castelluccio lentils; a recipe for braised swordfish from Calabria, and a hearty polenta dish from the Abruzzo called Polenta alla Spianatora, which means ‘polenta on the table’ – yes, really, the dish is plumped in the centre of a special wooden table and everyone just pitches in and helps themselves.
Italian Regional Festivals
The nice thing about this book however, is that it’s more than just a cookbook. As well as the recipes, Carluccio tells you a bit about the history and geography of each region, so you can understand the background to the gastronomy. He also talks about regional festivals and ingredients, which really inspires you to get out there, book a cheap flight to Italy and find out more for yourself.
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