Italian eating rule number 4: opt for fresh and seasonal ingredients
You may have already heard this, but, just in case…
Fruit and vegetables (and fish, yes fish!) are cheaper, tastier and healthier, when in season.
Have you ever met a kid whose mom is quite apprehensive? He’s probably not allowed to get dirty, to play outdoors, to run and sweat, to face other children (and we all know how difficult that is). The result? He get’s ill more often than other children, he looks pale and sickly. He’s organism hasn’t developed defenses that would have made him stronger, healthier.
That’s what happens to produce cultivated in greenhouses and other fake environments. As they are packed with pesticides, that shield them from everything, they don’t have to protect themselves from “the outer world”, they don’t have to make any effort, so they don’t develop… nutrients!
Italian eating rule number 5: enhance the flavors, don’t cover them
Enhance the flavor of every single ingredient: don’t let one overcome the other.
I’m sorry to say this, also because I’m a big fan of REAL American cuisine (soul, southern food is my favorite), but sometimes American food tastes all the same: garlic for savory dishes and sugar for the sweet ones. Of course, I’m talking about fast food, but also of industrial food/meals (that we now have in Italy as well).
Once my husband and I were on a beautiful island in Thailand, in a gourmet restaurant on the beach, with a big barbecue grilling all the fresh catch of the day. We had Barracuda, which is a delicious fish, meaty and with a strong flavor, but few people know this, and we found out only later on our trip, cause most of the time, the fish gets to your table covered in a mountain of sauce. You could eat the sauce alone, and it would be the same. After banning the sauce and asking to have the fish with anything but olive oil, it began my husband’s favorite fish, ever!
Italy has a big list of no-nos. Most of them have the intent of preserving flavors. No grated cheese on fish pasta (or it will cover the delicate fishy flavors). No co*cktails or cappuccino together with main meals, or you’ll cover all the flavors. There’s more of course, but it’s a long and complicated list…
Italian eating rule number 6: use a lot of herbs, spices, onion, and garlic
But remember: they’re supporting actors, not the main character.Spices and herbs are the magic bands that give a dish personality.
Try frying an egg.
Try sprinkling it with salt.
Try frying it after you’ve sauteed a garlic clove in the pan.
Try seasoning it with finely chopped parsley or chives.
You could spend a lifetime just trying eggs in different ways, and only using spices and herbs.
But if you pass the fine line of balance, these aromatic adds may overcome all the flavors and conquer your palate. Which is not what we want, unless we are sipping a cinnamon latte in December.
If you put a garlic clove, a few slices of lemon and a sprig of parsley inside the tummy of a fish you’re going to bake or grill, you’ll get a marvelous result. The flesh will be exalted by these aromas, you won’t sense them immediately, but only after chewing a bit. First comes the fish, then the aromas. If not, why spend all that money of freshly caught, non-farm-raised fish? That’s what you paid for, you are cooking it to make it digestible and tastier, not to upset it into something else.
