L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, MARCH 5, 2020 www.italoamericano.org 10 L'Italo-Americano L entils are the best. They're ver- satile, they are low in calories, high in fiber, pro- teins and vitamins. Most importantly, this simple legume is delicious, regard- less of how you decide to cook it. The love story between the Mediterranean world and lentils goes back a long way: we find them in the Old Testament, when Esau notoriously renounced to his progeny for a bowl of them, but also in many tombs in the Valley of the Kings, in Egypt. In Italy, we known them also as "la carne dei poveri" (paupers' meat), because in the past they were a favored source of protein among the least for- tunate. Our forefathers the Romans loved them a lot: they came in the largest quantities from North Africa, especially from Egypt, and it seems they became so popular in Republican Rome that even Cato the Elder, famous Roman senator and histo- rian, was a fan: apparently, we owe him the idea to dress them with oil and vinegar. Although widely considered a food for the masses, all imperial Romans loved their lens esculenta — that's lentils in Latin, of course — which they consu- med in great quantities along with spelt, chickpeas and peas. There was even a Roman gens, the gens Cornelia Lentula, named after them. They were proud and arrogant people, accor- ding to Cicero. Their taste and their ver- satility made of lentils a real staple in the ancient Romans' kitchen, as the reci- pes preserved in Apicius' De Re Coquinaria can attest: Apicius was a bit of a cele- brity chef, who doubled up as a pharmacist and, thanks to his famous culinary con- coctions we know what Romans liked to eat. He sug- gested to boil lentils, then dress them with pepper, cumin, coriander seeds, mint, rue, pennyroyal, vine- gar, honey, garum (Rome's infamous fish sauce) and cooked wine. In alternative, he continued, you could add a sauce made with leeks, coriander seeds and leaves, pennyroyal, rue and mint seeds, as well as a tad of silphium root. Of course, Apicius would conclude, everything had to be "tied together with olive oil." The Romans were so enthusiastic about lentils they even used them as a beauty product. Galen, Rome's most famous doctor (although he came from modern day Turkey), assu- red that a paste made with boiled lentils and honey could cure skin burns, as well as repair skin damaged by the cold. Matrons would use them as a face mask to even out their skin tone, a practice described in detail even by the immortal Ovid, one of Rome most talented poets, who said that a poul- tice of lentils, barley, egg, ground deer horns (yes, I know…), spelt, honey and daffodil's bulbs could make the skin as soft and smooth as that of a child. Lentils even came handy to make sure the emperor didn't get angry: when Caligula — the ultimate imperial villain — deman- ded an Egyptian obelisk to adorn his circus on the Vatican Hill, it was a cargo of 175 tons of lentils that kept, apparently, the gigan- tic architectural wonder solidly tied to the ship tran- sporting it from Alexandria of Egypt to Rome. We're talking about the obelisk we can still see today in Saint Peter's Square, by the way. With the coming of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, lentils acqui- red their mentioned fame of food for the paupers. This meant they were hardly part of the rich and famous' culi- nary debaucheries, but remained solidly entrenched in the eating habits of nor- mal people. They were chea- per than meat, but they gave just as much energy, and they could fill your stomach like nothing else, especially if you had them with a nice slice of home made bread. Lentils were also considered light enough to be consu- med in giorni di magro, that is, in those days when the Catholic Church called for fasting, like Ash Wednesday or the Fridays of Lent. Lentils have become trendy again in recent years: with Italy turning more and more green and the amount of vegetarians and vegan increasing, they represent an incredibly versatile, healthy and cheap source of both protein and iron. And we shouldn't forget that Italy is home to some incredibly delicious varieties of lentils, too! The most popular, at least internatio- nally, must be the Lenticchia di Castelluccio di Norcia, whose fame is only second to that of the beautiful land it grows in, Umbria. These len- tils are small and very easy to digest, because of how thin their skin is. They are also protected by an IGP (Indicazione Geografica Protetta) denomination. Then we have the Lenticchia di Altamura: green and large, this particu- lar lentil has been saved from disappearing thanks to the Ministry for Agriculture, that recently included it in Italy's list of Traditional Agro-food Products. Popular are also the Lenticchie Rosse del Montelfeltro (or di San Sisto) an ancient variety of lentils that became famous thanks to the ongoing trend of rediscovering ancient grains and legumes. They are slightly larger than your average lentil, but they are highly digestible and don't need to be soaked before being cooked. They are deli- cious served with maltaglia- ti. The most curious of Italian lentils must be the Lenticchia Policroma (that means multi-colored!) di Mormanno, cultivated in the Pollino National Park, the largest Italian national park, in Calabria. This variety has been grown on the Mormanno plateau since time unmemorable and it is characterized by the fact it comes in more than one color: it's green, it's pink and it's beige! The Lenticchia Policroma di Mormanno is great to make the quintes- sential comfort food: soup. Just sauté some garlic with a bunch of chili peppers, typi- cal ingredient of Calabrian cuisine, add the lentils and water until they are cooked. Serve with bread and, of course, a good dash of extra virgin olive oil and voilà! Your healthy dinner is ready. Lentils, what an essential staple of the Italian larder. They mask themselves as the humblest of legumes, but in fact, when they enter the kit- chen, every ingredient bows down in respect, for the humble lentil truly is the real queen of Italian tables. The humble lentil: a queen of the Italian kitchen CHIARA D'ALESSIO Lentils have always been a staple in the Italian kitchen, since the times of the Romans (Copyright: Dreamstime) LIFESTYLE FASHION FOOD ARTS ADVICE

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