Читать книгу Italian Recipes For Dummies - Amy Riolo - Страница 35

“La cucina di un popolo è la sola esatta testimonianza della sua civiltà.”

“The cuisine of a people is the only true testimony of their civilization.”

—ITALIAN PROVERB

Creating traditional Italian food is a respected form of craftsmanship, just as goldsmithing, pottery-making, weaving, playing music, singing, wine-making, painting, sculpting, designing clothes and textiles, and architecture are. Just as one wouldn’t normally pick up a paintbrush or sing for the first time and become a master, neither would someone who made pasta or pizza. Mastering Italian cuisine takes desire, passion, commitment, practice, and patience.

Traditional Italian recipes have been perfected over centuries, sometimes even millennia, so it is important to treat them with the respect they deserve. Each Italian dish that we prepare gives us the opportunity to pass down generations of love, talent, knowledge, and culture. Italians believe that by creating the recipes of our ancestors, we continue to honor them even after they leave this world. Carefully adhering to culinary customs is a sign of respect to the community and cultures that created them.

While modern Italian chefs and cooks do take many creative liberties in the kitchen, they do so after mastering the basics and the reasons behind them. If you know, for example, how to make a true Cacio e pepe condiment to toss with pasta and its rich history of being prepared by shepherds in the Roman hills, then you are likely to update the recipe while maintaining its integrity. The Italian viewpoint on recipe makeovers is similar to how many people feel about remakes of popular songs. Unless the new version is as good as or better than the original, it’s best to stick to tradition. Because Italian cuisine is already revered the whole world over for its taste and appeal, making it better than the original is no short order. Most of us, myself included, are delighted to be able to recreate many of our childhood favorites with as much accuracy and precision as possible.