Italy in Small Bites

Rating:
Summary: Italy's Answer to Mezes and Tapas. Highly Recommended
Review: Carol Field is a major star in the field of Italian culinary writers to whom respect is shown by most major Italian food writers and many major bread baking authors for her important book 'The Italian Baker'. In turn, Field shows respect for many of her colleagues such as Patience Gray and Paula Wolfert in this book.

I was always puzzled when I read in books on Greek and Spanish food that the western Mediterranean tapas and the eastern Mediterranean Mezes of both Greece and Turkey were not the same as the Italian 'little dishes' labeled antipasto. The basis for this difference was that tapas and Mezes are made to be eaten as 'bar food' in the afternoon, several hours before sitting down to the final meal of the day. Antipasto, by its very name, on the other hand, is the first course of a large meal. The source of the puzzle is that I found it very hard to believe that there was an old Mediterranean tradition with well-identified dishes at both sides of the Mediterranean, but none in the center in Italy, the very heart of Mediterranean cuisine.

This book answers this question. Italy has not one, but two names for between meal snacks. The older, more traditional name for a snack in the afternoon, about the same time their English cousins are having tea, is called 'merenda'. Like tapas and Mezes, these are specifically made and served by Enoteca (wine bars) as well as being a traditional afternoon snack for agricultural workers in the fields. For this reason, one of the defining characteristics of merenda dishes is that they can be eaten while holding them in one hand. The derivation of the term 'merenda' can be traced back to classical Latin. The second term, 'spuntino' is a nineteenth century invention meaning a mid-morning snack, not unlike doughnuts at the morning coffee break. The author does not explore the origins of this word too deeply, but I would not at all be surprised to see it connected with the advent of the Industrial Revolution.

As one looks at the recipes in this book, it becomes clear that the distinction between 'merenda' dishes and all other Italian dishes is entirely based on when and where they are eaten. Almost every class of recipe in the book can be found in dozens of other Italian cookbooks. I have whole bookshelves weighed down with recipes for frittatas; egg tarts; polenta; grilled or marinated vegetables; condimento; bocconcini (small mozzarella balls); and Biscotti. But these are not even the stars of the merenda catalogue. Appropriate to Ms. Field's bread baking speciality, the real star of merenda is the enormous range of Italian breads and the things the Italians do with bread. This includes artisinal breads, focaccia, pizza, breads with olives and other vegetables baked within, and all the things Italians do with bread such as bruschetta, crostini, and Panini. Note that I tacked Panini on to the end of that list, as Ms. Field does not even mention sandwiches, let alone devote a chapter to it. This is odd, because in his Food Network series 'Mario Eats Italy', Batali devotes an entire show to merenda, and Panini are highlighted. But back to Ms. Field's book.

If any book will convince you that bread is even more important to the Italian cuisine than pasta, this book will do it. While bread appears on almost every page, pasta has but five minor mentions in the Index. Recall that the ubiquitous dry pasta of today is a very modern development. Dry pasta did not travel far beyond southern Italy until early in the twentieth century while bread has been made throughout Italy for millennia. In fact, one of the early chapters in this book is entitled 'In the Beginning There is Bread'. The most heartwarming feature of this chapter is a very long list of ways in which bread is traditionally turned into snacks. These are methods so simple the author is even reluctant to turn them into a full recipe. It should be no surprise that the supporting cast for these 'little bites' is the whole catalog of the Italian pantry such as olive oil, sardines, cheeses, onion, garlic, salame, ham, bresaola (salt cured beef) and butter.

For the person enchanted by every aspect of the Italian cuisine, this book is a real treasure. It gives real substance to a picture of how these merenda were eaten and dispensed by shops going back as far as Imperial Rome. In fact, the book raises some serious doubt about how modern is the 'fast food' phenomenon. It seems that cheap, fast, food from probably inferior products have been sold to lower income workers from Imperial times, through the Middle Ages, on the streets of Renaissance Florence, through to the nineteenth century. In fact, the author sees the merenda tradition disappearing and often had to rely on her interviewees' memory of what they ate as children.

Lest I overlook the recipes themselves, let me say they cover a very broad range of dishes (mentioned above) with especially strong coverage being given to bread recipes based on the classically Italian biga method for a very sticky sponge which is left to rise for between six (6) and twenty-four (24) hours. This is the basis of recipes for vegetable and cheese filled breads. A rustic brioche recipe is given and a fried dough, 'gnocco fritto', which appears very similar to New Orleans bignets.

I noted that many, if not most of these recipes can be found in one or another of the thoursands of Italian cookbooks. However, if you don't have thoursands of Italian cookbooks, I heartily recommend this one as a source of many interesting little dishes, both imprompu and long in preparation, but mostly easy except for the breads. One could easily make a very usefully themed collection of this and books on other little Mediterranean foods.

Highly recommended reading and recipes.

Rating:
Summary: Italy's Answer to Mezes and Tapas. Highly Recommended
Review: Carol Field is a major star in the field of Italian culinary writers to whom respect is shown by most major Italian food writers and many major bread baking authors for her important book `The Italian Baker'. In turn, Field shows respect for many of her colleagues such as Patience Gray and Paula Wolfert in this book.

I was always puzzled when I read in books on Greek and Spanish food that the western Mediterranean tapas and the eastern Mediterranean Mezes of both Greece and Turkey were not the same as the Italian `little dishes' labeled antipasto. The basis for this difference was that tapas and Mezes are made to be eaten as `bar food' in the afternoon, several hours before sitting down to the final meal of the day. Antipasto, by its very name, on the other hand, is the first course of a large meal. The source of the puzzle is that I found it very hard to believe that there was an old Mediterranean tradition with well-identified dishes at both sides of the Mediterranean, but none in the center in Italy, the very heart of Mediterranean cuisine.

This book answers this question. Italy has not one, but two names for between meal snacks. The older, more traditional name for a snack in the afternoon, about the same time their English cousins are having tea, is called `merenda'. Like tapas and Mezes, these are specifically made and served by Enoteca (wine bars) as well as being a traditional afternoon snack for agricultural workers in the fields. For this reason, one of the defining characteristics of merenda dishes is that they can be eaten while holding them in one hand. The derivation of the term `merenda' can be traced back to classical Latin. The second term, `spuntino' is a nineteenth century invention meaning a mid-morning snack, not unlike doughnuts at the morning coffee break. The author does not explore the origins of this word too deeply, but I would not at all be surprised to see it connected with the advent of the Industrial Revolution.

As one looks at the recipes in this book, it becomes clear that the distinction between `merenda' dishes and all other Italian dishes is entirely based on when and where they are eaten. Almost every class of recipe in the book can be found in dozens of other Italian cookbooks. I have whole bookshelves weighed down with recipes for frittatas; egg tarts; polenta; grilled or marinated vegetables; condimento; bocconcini (small mozzarella balls); and Biscotti. But these are not even the stars of the merenda catalogue. Appropriate to Ms. Field's bread baking speciality, the real star of merenda is the enormous range of Italian breads and the things the Italians do with bread. This includes artisinal breads, focaccia, pizza, breads with olives and other vegetables baked within, and all the things Italians do with bread such as bruschetta, crostini, and Panini. Note that I tacked Panini on to the end of that list, as Ms. Field does not even mention sandwiches, let alone devote a chapter to it. This is odd, because in his Food Network series `Mario Eats Italy', Batali devotes an entire show to merenda, and Panini are highlighted. But back to Ms. Field's book.

If any book will convince you that bread is even more important to the Italian cuisine than pasta, this book will do it. While bread appears on almost every page, pasta has but five minor mentions in the Index. Recall that the ubiquitous dry pasta of today is a very modern development. Dry pasta did not travel far beyond southern Italy until early in the twentieth century while bread has been made throughout Italy for millennia. In fact, one of the early chapters in this book is entitled `In the Beginning There is Bread'. The most heartwarming feature of this chapter is a very long list of ways in which bread is traditionally turned into snacks. These are methods so simple the author is even reluctant to turn them into a full recipe. It should be no surprise that the supporting cast for these `little bites' is the whole catalog of the Italian pantry such as olive oil, sardines, cheeses, onion, garlic, salame, ham, bresaola (salt cured beef) and butter.

For the person enchanted by every aspect of the Italian cuisine, this book is a real treasure. It gives real substance to a picture of how these merenda were eaten and dispensed by shops going back as far as Imperial Rome. In fact, the book raises some serious doubt about how modern is the `fast food' phenomenon. It seems that cheap, fast, food from probably inferior products have been sold to lower income workers from Imperial times, through the Middle Ages, on the streets of Renaissance Florence, through to the nineteenth century. In fact, the author sees the merenda tradition disappearing and often had to rely on her interviewees' memory of what they ate as children.

Lest I overlook the recipes themselves, let me say they cover a very broad range of dishes (mentioned above) with especially strong coverage being given to bread recipes based on the classically Italian biga method for a very sticky sponge which is left to rise for between six (6) and twenty-four (24) hours. This is the basis of recipes for vegetable and cheese filled breads. A rustic brioche recipe is given and a fried dough, `gnocco fritto', which appears very similar to New Orleans bignets.

I noted that many, if not most of these recipes can be found in one or another of the thoursands of Italian cookbooks. However, if you don't have thoursands of Italian cookbooks, I heartily recommend this one as a source of many interesting little dishes, both imprompu and long in preparation, but mostly easy except for the breads. One could easily make a very usefully themed collection of this and books on other little Mediterranean foods.

Highly recommended reading and recipes.