2023 Author: Cody Thornton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-06-06 02:02
And finally it came. The heat, the time to enjoy a well-deserved rest, peace, tranquility and, last but not least, the food offered by the tourist resorts in which we find ourselves.
How many of us wake up already, accomplices summer holidays, with the view of the sea in front of your eyes and the scent of hot focaccia in your nostrils?
How many, on the other hand, are faced with the fresh, green and enchanting panorama of the mountain in summer, with that sparkling but pleasant air that refers to the scents of freshly baked bread, spread with good butter - mountain, of course - and accompanied by a local jam with berries?
Yet, although we love the food of the summer resort that hosts us, we often go with our thoughts to our hometown (or country) and its food, which for many months has nourished us but also pampered us.
The undersigned, for example, usually spends her holidays in the green Liguria, near Savona, where, for example, one can enjoy with pleasure the focaccia dipped in cappuccino that so much disgusted her the first years in which she saw the natives punctually proceed with the ritual.
As well as enjoying the hot porridge or the very tasty and soft ones Of Salt cod fritters, not to mention the delicate Octopus and Potato Salad and crunchy, tasty fried fish, perhaps just fished in nearby Noli. Or the delicious and juicy one mussel soup.
But … but sometimes with the thought, despite the sea, the relaxation, the fun and so on, he returns with the thought to his own city. In my case, it's about Turin.
Turin, with its croissants often still warm in the beautiful pastry shops and cafes of the center, with the refreshing bicerin, with its wide tree-lined avenues and beautiful arcades where you can enjoy yourself ice creams among the best in Italy, but also with its typical dishes.
They are images that surprise you lightning fast, a kind of vacationer's blues that you will probably hear from you too.
Just as the Sicilians will rethink with languor, while they enjoy their holiday in the tropics, at the crunchy ones arancine and soft ones panelle, the Bolognese will rethink the royal soup or al borlengo, the Leghorns to theirs cacciucco or the Romans to the tasty coda alla vaccinara.
Unique specialties that distinguish a place almost as much as its works of art. My place is in fact Turin, and although I may feel great elsewhere, in front of blue seas or green mountains, my thoughts often turn to its food.
First of all agnolotti. Which only in Turin and Piedmont are they called this: in other regions they call them ravioli and they have the most disparate fillings, which can range from pumpkin to herbs to ricotta. The Turin agnolotti, on the other hand, have mainly meat inside them, at least three types of good roast (veal, pork, rabbit) and give their best if they are seasoned with the same sauce, the same wet as the roast itself.
What about the Piedmontese mixed fried food, where you will find no shade of fish but cutlets and breaded apples, semolina, sausage, macaroons and, once upon a time, even brains and frogs? Tell me where else would you find such a particular and variegated mixed fried fish.
And the bagna cauda, the tasty sauce based on anchovies, garlic and butter with which to heat the winter evenings, dipping all kinds of crunchy vegetables into it, in a convivial ritual of taste and belonging?
And the green bath, with which to flavor anchovies and tomini, to treat yourself to a sinoira snack ”(Relatively) light but tasty, with all due respect to insipid small pans and cloying flutes?
But above all, how not to rethink the enveloping scent of braised in Barolo or of the hare al civet, which cook slowly in the earthenware pot, always the same, now all chipped, spreading their intense aroma throughout the house?
And finally, how not to think languidly about bonet (read "bunet"), a soft and creamy dessert based on cocoa and amaretti that you will find artfully made in no other place except in Turin and surrounding areas?
Well, if during the summer holidays the nostalgia for Turin assails me, now you know why.
And I'm sure that you too will have one or more dishes of the heart, dishes from your city which you think with melancholy even while enjoying your well-deserved holidays. What are these dishes what good are you only eating in your city? You tell us about them?