Italy vs France, a rivalry that moves from the football field to the table. How many times did you order a theoretically Italian dish and find yourself face to face with the misguided French version? The cousins from beyond the Alps have a lot of imagination: let's taste them together virtually!
We move the proverbial rivalry between Italy is France from the soccer field (there is even a dedicated entry on Wikipedia!) to the table with a hint of irony. The gastronomic competition between the two neighboring countries has been subtly alive forever with peaks linked to particular events: as when in 2010 theUnesco has decided to mark the typical French meal as a World Heritage Site, a 1-0 result then overturned when Italy took home the Pizza and the Mediterranean diet as official treasures to protect. Although we discovered that several typical French dishes were imported by Caterina de 'Medici, the cuisine from beyond the Alps has absolutely all of its (tasty) because. Still, it's easy to joke about Italian dishes misrepresented by French cuisine with a heart swollen with healthy patriotism and a smile on his lips.
When traveling abroad, it is good practice to try local cuisine and venture into new tastes. But it can happen that nostalgia has the upper hand or that curiosity leads us to order a national dish. If you decide to order some in a French restaurant Spaghetti Bolognaise you might hear Dante's voice admonishing you with a "Leave all hope, or you who come in!. It also happens in the United States, but since this time there is not an ocean in the middle, it is hoped that the influence of Bologna will arrive more easily. But no. Basil, garlic and everything that can accompany the minced meat to give that touch of Italian style is put together as a condiment to some big spaghetti, probably overcooked. The first clue that you should raise the antennas are spaghetti: if it were a recipe really of Bolognese origin, would not the egg noodles as a base? Luckily, on October 17, 1982, the Italian Academy of Cuisine filed the official recipe for Bolognese ragù at the Bologna Chamber of Commerce …
It is always an Italian first course to make the French-Italian friendship jump: it was 2016 when the French site Demotivateur.fr published a video of carbonara butterflies… cooked in a single pot. The abomination has now been removed from the web, but there are still many articles and comments on social media to remember the risky revision. In practice, the short pasta was cooked with the onion and the bacon into small pieces to then add an improbable mixture of cream, Parmesan, egg yolk not beaten and finally a sprinkling of parsley. Even Barilla herself, who appeared in the video, distanced herself from the gastronomic slide. However, it still happens to find a plate of creamy pasta with a raw egg yolk in the center … Bon appétit?
Another blue thrill for the traditional Italian palates is the use of gnocchi in the French recipe of Tartiflette: la gnocchiflette. Bacon, cheese reblochon, onion and cream taste the fresh pasta instead of the classic potatoes. The Alps were not enough to stop the contamination of the typical dish of Haute-Savoie, which in our eyes seems at least funny and bizarre, and certainly makes us regret the gnocchi to Castelmagno! No wonder the recipe is presented on video from the same site Demotivateur.fr of carbonara one pot …
Imagine walking along the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, it's summer and you want to enjoy a good ice-cream. Looking around you, you find yourself choosing between the colored signs of Glace à l'Italienne, translated into Italian gelato, then find yourself in a cone of hand soft ice cream, or American ice cream. Prepared in special refrigerating machines and served as if it were on tap, it is a type of light ice cream very distant from the traditional national ice cream. If you are in France and want to enjoy a real ice cream as we know it, you will have to look for the key word: g-e-l-a-t-o!
We close with what is not a real dish, but the main seasoning that we find in Italy in 90% of the recipes: extra virgin olive oil. We use it to cook, season raw and complete all dishes that are looking for that extra something that makes them perfect. Available in various types to accompany different recipes, it is important to know the secrets to choose the right oil, even for a simple side salad. But in France the situation is different: first of all, unlike our habits, salads are served as entrée, or appetizers. Simple or complex, they will never be "banal" salads seasoned with a drizzle of olive oil: they are enriched with Vinaigrette. Oil, vinegar and mustard form the traditional recipe, which can be declined in interesting variations. There is no French salad that is not drowned in this tasty sauce, but far from the tradition of the Mediterranean diet and perhaps "too" for the purists of extra virgin olive oil.
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