Tag: Myths

The false Italian recipes abroad. Myths to dispel and dishes to discover – Italian Cuisine

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Even if the golden palm for the "creative reinterpretation" of Italian cuisine would be rightfully the Americans, it is less and less rare – when you are around the world – to stumble across dishes passed off for real delights of our cuisine, which in reality, in our eyes (and our palate) are aberrations in all respects.
Their origin is socio-anthropological and has its roots in the first emigrations of the late '800: not always could find 100% Italian ingredients, and so, taken by necessity, people tended to improvise, readjusting the typical recipes of the peninsula in based on contingencies and what was similar.

Between spaghetti alla bolognese, fettuccine Alfredo, garlic bread and pizza pepperoni, here are the false culinary myths that abroad are proudly and falsely exhibited as Italians.

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The 'spaghetti alla bolognese': pasta, meat, tomato and a lot of parsley. A nightmare for a Bolognese Doc (and more)

Bolognese Bolognese sauce is a species of great panacea used in any situation that requires it. Here, however, the sauce lends its name to a dish prepared exclusively with spaghetti, which would make the skin crawl to any Bolognese Doc (and beyond). There is no mention of the famous ragù prepared in the capital of Emilia with plenty and slowness, or fresh noodles: it is instead of spaghetti with meat, tomato and a lot of parsley.

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The 'garlic bread': a bread literally stuffed with garlic or drowned in garlic flavored butter

They call garlic bread and not bread with garlic not by chance. If you are thinking of a tasty bruschetta with fresh tomatoes, fragrant oil and a rubbed of garlic you are off the road: here the bread is literally "stuffed" with garlic (in supermarkets it is even ready, in pieces) or drowned in butter flavored with garlic. In America there are also those who consume a lot at lunch, and then return to the office. With all due respect to his colleagues.

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The 'fettuccine Alfredo': though the recipe has a truly Italian origin, in Italy they do not exist

In the United States I am a must: there is no "Italian" restaurant that does not offer it in the menu or supermarket that does not sell the tin ready with the Alfredo sauce. Funny to think that the recipe has a truly Italian origin: in Rome, in the early twentieth century, in Via della Scrofa was located the historic inn where Alfredo prepares his dishes. When Alfredo's wife gives birth to her first child, he prepares an energetic dish: egg fettuccine with butter and Parmesan cheese. Making this dish notorious are Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, Hollywood star of the turn of the century who, during their honeymoon in Rome, savor Alfredo's already famous cuisine. Struck by the goodness, the two give Alfredo two golden cutlery and a reputation overseas that leads the restaurant to become an unmissable stop for the jet set American visiting the capital. And if almost no one knows the story of the fettuccine Alfredo in Italy, in America – now much more "messed up" than the chef proposed – they are the Italian gastronomic symbol.

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Pizza pepperoni', that is when a double changes everything: pepperoni in English it is a spicy salami!

In the series, when a double changes everything: pepperoni in English it is a spicy salami that has nothing to do with peppers. The pizza in question is a kind of devil with a lot of cheese and – in fact – a generous dose of this sliced. Which often, it should be pointed out, assumes strange colors that border on the phosphorescent pink.

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Spaghetti & meatballs': remember them in the movie Lady and the Tramp? They are the typical comfort food American

Variation on the theme of those bolognese, spaghetti with meatballs are typical comfort food American, that food so familiar that it always manages to give a consolation to those who enjoy it. Very famous dish – remember it in the cartoon Lady and the Tramp? – is also a favorite of director Martin Scorsese, whose mother used to cook it. In Italy they do not exist, despite the tradition of adding meat to the sauce to exhaust the remains of Sunday lunch is still being carried out, especially in the south.

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The 'chicken Parmesan ': slices of chicken covered with tomato sauce full of garlic and lots of stringy cheese

The parmigiana is a religion in all respects, which in Italy is honored to the north, when to the south. It is with great amazement (not to say anything else) that sometimes we come across in chicken slices covered with tomato sauce full of garlic and lots of stringy cheese, passed off as a delicacy for the palate. Unless you also venture into such imaginative – and doubtful – reinterpretation of the classic Parmigiana.

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THE' 'Italian dressing': a condiment whose recipe is unknown, covering completely the taste of vegetables

If in Italy, when we season the salad, oil, salt, a little vinegar or lemon are enough, the question becomes more complicated abroad. Yes, because the intent is not so much to give flavor, but to completely cover the taste of vegetables. Free way then to an almost infinite series of sauces, among which figure theitalian dressing: the recipe is unknown to most people, but sometimes it is good taste to stay to wallow in ignorance, and never order it.

Marianna Tognini
September 2018

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