ALSO BY ELENA KOSTIOUKOVITCH TRANSLATIONS Foucault’s Pendulum, by Umberto Eco The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco The Island of the Day Before, by Umberto Eco Through the Lens of Aristotle, by Emanuele Tesauro Why Italians Love to Talk About Food Why Italians Love to Talk About Food ELENA KOSTIOUKOVITCH Translated from the Italian by Anne Milano Appel FARRAR, STRAUS AND GIROUX NEW YORK Farrar, Straus and Giroux 18 West 18th Street, New York 10011 Copyright © 2006 by Elena Kostioukovitch English translation copyright © 2009 by Anne Milano Appel Foreword by Umberto Eco copyright © 2009 by Umberto Eco Foreword by Carol Field copyright © 2009 by Carol Field Map of Italy copyright © 2009 by Jeffrey L. Ward All rights reserved Distributed in Canada by D&M Publishers, Inc. Printed in the United States of America Originally published in 2006 by Sperling and Kupfer Editori S.p.A., Italy, as Perché agli Italiani Piace Parlare del Cibo Published in the United States by Farrar, Straus and Giroux First American edition, 2009 This work was translated from the Italian version published by Sperling and Kupfer Editori S.p.A., Milan. Emanuela Guercetti first translated the work into Italian from the original Russian language. Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to reprint excerpts from the following: “Bodalsya Turin s Kokakoloi” by Elena Babaytseva courtesy of Nezavisimaya Gazeta. Italian Journey, 1786–1788 by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, translated by W. H. Auden and Elizabeth Mayer, copyright © 1962 by W. H. Auden and Elizabeth Mayer, reprinted by permission of Curtis Brown, Ltd. Sonetti by Giuseppe Giaocchino Belli, edited by Giorgio Vigolo with the collaboration of Pietro Gibellini, Mondadori, Milan, 1984. Le meraviglie d’Italia by Carlo Emilio Gadda, Einaudi, Turin, 1964. Il pentolino magico by Massimo Montanari, © Gius. Laterza & Figli S.p.A., Roma-Bari, 1995. Maccheronata. Sonetti in difesa dei maccheroni by Gennaro Quaranta, Arti Grafiche La Nuovissima, Naples, 1943. A Roman Journal by Stendhal, edited and translated by Haakon Chevalier, Orion Press, New York, 1957. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kostioukovich, Elena. [Perché agli Italiani piace. English] Why Italians love to talk about food / Elena Kostioukovitch; translated by Anne Milano Appel. — 1st American ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-374-28994-2 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-374-28994-8 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Cookery, Italian. 2. Food habits—Italy—History. I. Title. TX723.K6813 2009 641.5945—dc22 2008041566 Designed by Jonathan D. Lippincott www.fsgbooks.com 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 For Carla Tanzi Contents Map Foreword by Umberto Eco Foreword by Carol Field Preface Friuli Venezia Giulia The Sagra Veneto and the City of Venice Olive Oil Trentino Alto Adige Pilgrims Lombardy Slow Food Valle d’Aosta Jews Piedmont Risotto Liguria The Early Gifts from the Americas Emilia Romagna Calendar Tuscany Pasta Umbria Preparation Methods The Marches The Later Gifts from America Lazio and the City of Rome The Mediterranean Diet Abruzzo and Molise Democracy Campania and the City of Naples Ingredients Puglia Eros Basilicata Restaurants Calabria Pizza Sicily Totalitarianism Sardinia Joy Cooking Methods for Meat, Fish, Eggs, and Vegetables Sauces and Gravies for Pasta Pairings of Pasta Shapes and Sauces Notes Author’s Bibliography Translator’s Bibliography Acknowledgments Index