Why Italians Love to Talk About Food

475 Pages·2009·4.48 MB·English

by  Elena Kostioukovitch

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