Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Southern Staples
Pasta: Fuel of the South
In the 1954 cult film
Un americano a Roma
(An American in Rome), a US-obsessed Al-
berto Sordi snubs a plate of pasta in favour of an unappetising 'American-style' concoc-
tion. It only takes a few mouthfuls before Sordi thinks better of it, plunging into the pasta
with unbridled passion. It's hard not to follow Sordi's lead.
FESTIVE FAVOURITES
In Italy, culinary indulgence is the epicentre of any celebration and major holidays are defined by their specialities.
Lent is heralded by
Carnevale
(Carnival), a time for
sanguinaccio
('blood pudding' made with dark chocolate and
cinnamon),
chiacchiere
(fried biscuits sprinkled with icing sugar) and Sicily's
mpagnuccata
(deep-fried dough
tossed in soft caramel).
If you're in southern Italy around 19 March (St Joseph's Feast Day), expect to eat
zeppole
(fritters topped with
lemon-scented cream, sour cherries and dusting sugar) in Naples and Bari, and
crispelle di riso
(citrus-scented rice
fritters dipped in honey) in Sicily.
Lent specialities like the Sicilian
quaresimali
(hard, light almond biscuits) give way to Easter binging with the
obligatory lamb,
colomba
(dove-shaped cake) and
uove di pasqua
(foil-wrapped chocolate eggs with toy surprises
inside). The dominant ingredient at this time of year is egg, also used to make traditional regional specialities like
Naples' legendary
pastiera
(a shortcrust pastry tart filled with ricotta, cream, candied fruits and cereals flavoured
with orange water).
If you're in Palermo around late October, before the festival of Ognissanti (All Souls' Day), you will see plenty
of stalls selling the famous
frutti della Martorana,
named after the church that first began producing them. These
marzipan biscuits, shaped to resemble fruits (or whatever takes the creator's fancy), are part of a Sicilian tradition
that dates back to the Middle Ages.
Come Christmas, it's time for stuffed pasta, seafood dishes and national staples like Milan's
panettone
(yeasty,
golden cake studded with raisins and dried fruit), Verona's simpler, raisin-free
pandoro
(star-shaped cake dusted
with vanilla-flavoured icing sugar) and Siena's
panforte
(chewy, flat cake made with candied fruits, nuts, chocol-
ate, honey and spices). It's at this time that Neapolitans throw caution (and scales) to the wind with
raffioli
(sponge
and marzipan biscuits),
struffoli
(tiny fried pastry balls dipped in honey and sprinkled with colourful candied sugar)
and
pasta di mandorla
(marzipan), while their Sicilian cousins toast to the season with
cucciddatu
(ring-shaped
cake made with dried figs, nuts, honey, vanilla, cloves, cinnamon and citrus fruits). The Sicilians stop there,
though, further expanding waistlines with yuletide
buccellati
(dough rings stuffed with minced figs, raisins, al-
monds, candied fruit and orange peel, especially popular around Christmas).
Of course, it's not all about religion. Some Italian holidays dispense with the spiritual premise and are all about
the food. During spring, summer and early autumn, towns across Italy celebrate
sagre,
the festivals of local foods
in season. You'll find a
sagra della melanzana
(aubergine/eggplant) in Campania,
del pomodoro
(tomatoes) in Si-
cily and
della cipolla
(onion) in Puglia (wouldn't want to be downwind of that one). For a list of
sagre
, check out
