L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2022 www.italoamericano.org 28 L'Italo-Americano LIFE PEOPLE PLACES HERITAGE TRADITIONS T o d a y , I t a l i a n f o o d i s k n o w n a l l o v e r t h e w o r l d a n d o u r d i e t , t h e Mediterranean, is consid- ered one of the healthiest. The importance we give to tradition in the kitchen is legendary, so it isn't surpris- i n g t h a t s o m a n y o f o u r recipes and dishes have a long history behind them. But things have changed, too. Economic development, cultural changes and, more r e c e n t l y , g l o b a l i z a t i o n , affected the ingredients we use and also the food choices we make daily, but in what way? Up to the years of the Sec- o n d W o r l d W a r , p e o p l e ' s diet was very much tied to what agriculture and farm- i n g w o u l d p r o v i d e . O u r economy was largely based o n t h e p r i m a r y s e c t o r , with industries mainly limit- ed to the northern regions of the peninsula. This translat- ed into a diet made of what was seasonal and available, with an accent on legumes s u c h a s b e a n s o r l e n t i l s , p o l e n t a i n t h e N o r t h a n d pasta in the South, fish along t h e c o a s t a n d c h e e s e o r , more rarely, meat, near the mountains. Bread was the real staple of everyone's diet: families would buy flour, make their bread and then walk to the village oven to bake it. "Fare il pane" was an important social moment in small rural communities and t h e v i l l a g e o v e n a p l a c e where gatherings occurred easily. Meat wasn't that com- mon on our pre-World War Two tables, with most fami- lies eating it only on special occasions. In the country- side, poultry and pork were the most common, with the latter being a real lifeline for many families: in Italian, we say that del maiale non si butta nulla, "nothing of a pig goes to waste," because of the old tradition of using every part of the animal to make something you could eat, from meat cuts to salu- mi. Even its blood would go into recipes like sanguinac- cio, a spicy sausage that was particularly common in rural areas, and that you can still occasionally find at some butcher's today. T h e W a r , o f c o u r s e , brought everything to a halt: there were rationings and food, especially in the cities, became suddenly scarce. In those years, it wasn't unusu- al for people from villages and towns to go ask for food from friends or relatives liv- ing in the country: farmers were lucky because they had a direct source of nutrition they didn't need to pay for. The 1950s marked the beginning of Italy's econom- i c b o o m a n d , w i t h i t , a change in the way Italians a t e . F a m i l i e s ' i n c o m e increased considerably and we started eating more and in a more varied fashion: for instance, meat appeared on Italian tables more often and no longer only on special days. Fruit and vegetables remained important, and s u g a r c o n s u m p t i o n increased, while legumes, la carne dei poveri ("paupers' m e a t " ) , w e r e c o n s u m e d m o r e r a r e l y . I t a l i a n s couldn't get enough meat: poultry, beef, pork, cold cuts of all kinds. You name it, we ate it every week, and meat consumption became syn- o n y m o u s w i t h e c o n o m i c well-being. In this sense, we shouldn't discount the role of the media, especially tele- vision, in the way we chose w h a t t o e a t , b e c a u s e t h e advent of commercials made certain products more popu- l a r t h a n o t h e r s , d e e p l y affecting the way families spent their money on food. The 1980s were a partic- ular moment in our culinary history because that's when Italy fell in love with Ameri- can fast food. McDonald's and its Italian counterpart, t h e n o w d e f u n c t B u r g h y , w e r e a l l t h e r a g e a m o n g t e e n s , w h o d r e a m e d o f America while having fries and cheeseburgers on Satur- day afternoons after school. I n t h e s a m e y e a r s , I t a l y developed a taste for more exotic flavors, too: oriental cuisine, especially Chinese, b e c a m e p o p u l a r , w i t h restaurants opening every- where, thanks to the estab- lishment of a large and well- adapted Chinese community in the country. The 80s were a time of abundance, but also of culi- nary change. Because if it's true that we embraced burg- ers and international cui- sine, we also began paying more attention to our health. Those years were charac- terized by more people with high cholesterol, higher inci- dence of cardiovascular dis- eases, and the fear of meat- derived illnesses such as the "mad cow" craze: all factors that rose our awareness of the risks of excessive meat and fat consumption. They were also the years when we became conscious that what we have on our plate can affect greatly the environ- ment. Today, Italians are very much aware of what they eat and do, on average, prefer a healthy and well-balanced diet, something to which, in the end, we are culturally u s e d . T h e r e i s a s i n c e r e interest in sustainability and avoiding waste, and many families learned how to eat local and seasonal. Sales of whole foods increased, espe- cially in the past 20 years, as w e l l a s t h e p o p u l a r i t y o f health stores specializing in organic produce or "free- from" options. But while we are certainly m o r e c a r e f u l w i t h t h e a m o u n t o f m e a t w e c o n - s u m e , w e r e m a i n q u i t e reluctant to become vegetar- i a n o r v e g a n , e s p e c i a l l y w h e n c o m p a r e d t o o t h e r countries like the UK or the US. At the same time, even the smallest local supermar- kets do offer meat-free prod- u c t s , s o m e t h i n g t h a t w a s unthinkable only a handful of years ago. The way we eat, so, is in c o n t i n u o u s e v o l u t i o n . Thankfully, healthy eating is part of our tradition, so we don't have to go far to find good options! The way we eat: how Italy changed culinary habits through the decades CHIARA D'ALESSIO Fresh pasta. Pasta remains a staple of our diet (Photo: Shutterstock)

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