Let’s Eat Like The Italians
Italian mealtimes are happy social occasions when the family gathers to chat and enjoy the cooking that mama has prepared for them. Let us explore eating Italian, further.
Italians love explaining in great detail exactly how to make their traditional dishes – with each version differing from the last! Because Italian cooking differs from one region to the next, it varies enormously.
The secret to successful Italian cooking and eating is by enjoying your cooking (and eating) so don’t be too concerned about sticking slavishly to any one recipe.
The tingling challenges of Italian antipasti are so diverse and so pronounced that even the most harried housewife with little time to spare can produce, in a couple of minutes, a platter as colourful and appetising as a painter’s rainbow palette; all these originating from the least complicated items of the rich store on hand.
Tuna and sardines glisten with a sheen of top-notch olive oil; slabs of shiny green and scarlet peppers add lustre to any dish; ripe olives as fat as babies beckon, and pickled olives add interest with a light green shade, with or without a vermillion core. Anchovies present a perfectly tart promise coiled around capers or drowning in memorable tomato sauce. Large circles of mortadella beckon flanked by circles of profound red salami; and, if one takes the time to slice the tomato and dust it with freshly-grown herbs served with hard boiled eggs the juicy bright slices add festivity to any table.
Paper-thin slices of Parma ham served with fragrant orange melon slices are an assault of colour on the eye followed by the very first bite; the tingle of vinegar rising in the nose, or the seductive caress of olive oil on the tongue.
A minimum of fuss and maximum ingenuity goes a long way to a perfect start designed to captivate the imagination of all eaters at the start of a meal.