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| The Sunday Express 02 - 05 - 2004 |
| The Pursuit of Piacere |
MAMMA mia! Here's how you should do it. Lovingly begin at the top and slowly work your way down. See what happens when I eat my way from the North to the South of Italy.
A cutlet jumps in my mouth in Rome as the Michelin-starred Romeo (pronounced Rome-ay-o) hovers around. 200 AD ruins stare back at me through the glass floor of a restaurant loo in Verona, the city of Romeo and Juliet, where marinated horse meat gallops on my palate. I eat where the highway men used to eat in 1866 Milano and in sublime Capri. I understand why Emperor Tiberius made this island his playground.
I try and distil the sensuality of Italy, expressed through its food and wine, music, fragrances, sensational scenery and art. All these are sources of pleasure, known in Italy as "piacere' and, believe me, the Italians are maestros at pursuing this skill. I roam around like (as author Fred Plotkin would say) Garibaldi with a fork, and come back wondering why the world thinks that Italian food is all about pizzas and pastas.
Verona
Let's begin by peering at the 200 AD ruins through the glass floor of Enoteca Segreta in Verona, where art, history and food flirt outrageously. Our gracious bachelor host Carlo Neruzzi (also a winemaker) opens very special wines for us.
Through his explanations, we enjoy the Pasta e Fagioli (beans and pasta soup) and salt cod from Norway (a favourite here), topped by tiramisu from nearby Treviso. While the spongy fingers, mascarpone, coffee and chocolate dessert are working their magic, Monte cheese is served with Lessinia honey—it actually tastes terrific together.
It is here, at the world's largest food and wine fair Vinitaly, that I am seduced by the greatest wines of Italy. Marchissa Antinori and his charming daughter Alessia regale me with some from their seven centuries-old Tignanello estates. Chef Moreno Cedroin's salt cod with gnocchi and calamari still lingers in my taste bud memories.
Milano
In the city of fashion, I chose to dine at the historic 150-year-old Berti's, once a favourite hangout of highway men. I feast on a typically Milanese meal of Ossobuco (shin of veal with a sauce of lemon peel, garlic and parsley), Cotelleta alla Milanese (breaded veal cutlet) and saffron risotto. The gorgeous gorgonzola comes from a town by the same name outside Milano. Back in my historic hotel Excelsior Gallia, a magnificent welcome gift in the form of Panettone, the classic yeast cake with egg saffron and raisins, awaits me.
Rome
I view the city from the terrrace of my hotel (where director Frederico Fellini once held meetings) and my heart skips a beat. At Michelin, Chef Adriano Cavagnini guides me through the intricacies of Roman cuisine.
You bet I love the Carciofi alla Romana (artichokes stuffed with mint and garlic and slow cooked in olive oil) and that "angry penne" (Pasta Arrabiata) done with tomatoes and peperponcino. Also, Anguille, the famous eels (which one is supposed to eat with Est! Est! Est!). We taste these in several family run osteria and ristorantes across town. But it is after stripping away layers of history in the Colosseum and the Pantheon and crossing the river Tiber to Trastevere, that I get my first taste of the Roman Saltimbocca ("jump in the mouth", when translated): sauteed veal cutlets topped with fresh sage and proscuitto crudo.
Dinner time is a different story. At Agata e Romeo, the husband-and-wife team of Agatha and Romeo conjure up exquisite works of art on the plate. I could go on and on about this 3,000-year-old indoor-outdoor museum of a city, and about my coffee at Antico Caffe Greco where Shelley, Byron, Goethe used to hang out. But I’ll move to where Tom Cruise hangs out—Capri (pronounced Kahp-ree).
| MEAL VOCAB |
A ristorante has a wine list with printed prices, and a menu that may include truffles and lobster.
The trattoria is a notch below the ristorante, but the food is just as good.
An osteria or locanda is often the best place to get value for money. Here, you often sit at tables with others and become friends over great food and decent wine.
The enoteca is an urban version of the Osteria, a wine bar with light food.
A pizzeria is not a place to stand up and eat a slice with a soft drink, but a
place to go in the evening (Italians never have pizza during the day).
A friggitora (fry shop) is for fast food and those magnificent gelatarias for the best in the world' Italian ice cream.
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Capri
Think Italian and spaghetti with tomatoes, mozzarella, stuffed eggplant, seafood salad and pizza come to mind. Over a glass of limoncelli made from Capri lemons, I learn that it’s actually the cuisine of Campania in Southern Italy.
The volcanic soil gives incredible flavour to all the fruits and veggies so that everything from peaches to tomatoes tastes magical. Chef Colucci Gian Nicola of the 200-year-old Grand Quisisana Hotel not only introduces me to the superlative pear-shaped sponge cake soaked in rum (Rum Baba) but also gives me its recipe.
This region is the heartland of dried pasta and has given the world spaghetti, macheroni and more. The pizza is the great culinary creation of Napoli—its origins date back to 2,500 years, when flat breads were dressed with oil, salt, herbs and sometimes cheese. But for me, it is the endless variety offish and seafood,
grilled or steamed with a sauce of olive oil and basil.
Everything which can be perceived by the senses finds greatest elevation here as nature is at her best. The salt-laden breezes refresh, the sounds of silence are broken by piercing seagull cries, the food has intensity of flavour and there is romanticism of the rocks, with the sea an impressionist's palette of cobalt blue, blue, blue...
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