Why Italians Love to Talk About Food Read Online Free PDF Page B

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    Second Courses
Brovada
, pickled turnips (white turnips fermented in marc, grated, then stewed with salt pork in wine);
cevapcici
or
cevaps
(spicy pork and beef meatballs cooked on the grill);
smolz
(beans with olive oil, salt pork, and onion); Trieste-style
granseola
(spider crab meat sautéed in oil with garlic and parsley);
testina alla carnaiola
(sliced calf’s head with a sauce of boiled brain and horseradish). Additionally, goulash and gypsy-style hare (
à la bohémienne
), in white vinegar, are also legitimately considered specialties of Friuli Venezia Giulia, along with other Mitteleuropean dishes inherited from the Austrian occupiers, who were dominant here in the first half of the nineteenth century.
    Polenta.
Frico
(fresh Montasio cheese, cut into thin slices and fried in butter, often with potatoes or onions).
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    TYPICAL PRODUCTS OF FRIULI VENEZIA GIULIA

    Cheeses Montasio and Tabor.
    Resia garlic. Smoked sausage of meat finely minced in a
pestadora
(a hollowed-out wooden block), of various kinds:
pitina
(with wild rosemary),
petuccia
(with wild fennel), and
peta
(with juniper berries). San Daniele, Sauris, and Carsolino prosciutto.
    Radic di mont
or
radic dal glaz
, Alpine sow thistle, whose boiled shoots make a filling for savory pies.
    Desserts
Gubana
(a cake roll filled with raisins and pine nuts),
presnitz
(cakes of walnuts, raisins, and candied fruit).
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    TYPICAL BEVERAGE

    Grappa.

THE
SAGRA
    The word
sagra
(plural
sagre
) derives from the Latin
sacrum
: its early meaning refers to a popular festival dedicated to the patron saint of the village or town. But the
sagra
can also be a celebration of a certain dish or product, of a vegetable or fruit, of a wine, of a type of preparation, even of a specific part of the beef or lamb. In this way tribute is paid to the specialties (roast chestnuts, strawberries, frog’s legs fried in batter) for which a particular village or city is renowned.
    To mention a few at random: in the little Sicilian town of Ribera (Agrigento) in April, a lively orange
sagra
takes place (similar to the battle of the oranges at the Carnival of Ivrea): the participants cheerfully throw oranges at one another, race on oranges, slip and fall, and even get hurt. A
sagra
in honor of gnocchi is held in June at Castel del Rio, near Bologna. In July, in Tropea, there’s the
sagra
of “blue fish” (oily fish) and red onion. In July, in Castelfiumanese, the
sagra
of the apricots. In August, in Norcia, the famous lentils of Castelluccio are honored, and in Eboli, the local mozzarellas. In the village of Albanella in the province of Salerno, the
sagra
of the pizza is organized in August. In August, Sardinia celebrates the
sagra
of the tomato (in Zeddiani, in the province of Oristano) and the
sagra
of Vernaccia wine (in Nurachi, also in the province of Oristano). Many arrive dressed in traditional costumes. These are rowdy festivals, with music and dancing. In San Damiano d’Asti, in September, there’s the
sagra
of boiled meats. In the fall, in Marradi, near Florence, the chestnut
sagra
.
Torrone
(almond nougat) is the star of the November
sagra
in Cremona and the December one in Faenza. The radicchio
sagra
is the main event of the month of December in Treviso. A national exhibit of “meditation wines” takes place in Mantua, in the Palazzo Ducale, on the last weekend of April, and on the second weekend of the same month the “Festival of Lost Flavors” is held in Zerbolò, near Pavia.

    By Alexey Pivovarov
    The Italian
sagra
is pagan in origin. Ancient Roman festivals celebrating food and eating practices were described both by Ovid and by the encyclopedist Ambrosius Teodosius Macrobius, who lived in the fifth century A.D. at the court of the emperor Honorius, and who characterizes them as “things of bygone days.” Even after the triumph of the Christian religion, high spirits have continued to flourish on these days, and