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A Canino (VT) and asparagus festival dedicated to the Middle Ages


Bloglines to my readers an interesting article on the feast of asparagus in Canino (province of Viterbo ) read this morning on the website of the courier service

Here's an excerpt:

ROME - A record to break and 1,500 beat eggs. Canino, a town in the province of Viterbo, is preparing to celebrate the green asparagus, king of local production, with a three-day recipes. From April 23 to 25 you can taste first, second and even sweets made with asparagus. It is scheduled for Saturday 24 'jumping competition "of omelettes.

THE "MANGIATUTTO" - in Viterbo know him as "mangiatutto" due to the fact that asparagus does not throw anything away . Green asparagus is grown in areas of Canino surrounding the city: its organoleptic characteristics depend on the types of land, limestone or volcanic origin, and an environment characterized by a mild and temperate climate; just think that in winter the temperatures are below zero degrees on certain days and in summer range from twenty-five and thirty-two degrees. For this fortunate climate, asparagus Canino mature much earlier than elsewhere (it has already brought together in January) and this allows for a huge crop of excellent quality.

not only food - during the event you can visit the ruins of Castellardo, strong in the Middle Ages who controlled the road lets you travel to Rome to avoid the swamps dell'Aurelia . In exceptional cases there will be a visit to the Etruscan necropolis of hundred rooms in the village of Musignano, property of Prince Torlonia. Not to be missed, always in the vicinity, the Etruscan necropolis of Vulci with the park and the old city . Along a path that fuses nature and archeology can also admire an old mill in 1860 and a waterfall that has polished the basalt rock. Continue here

Source: corriere.it

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The power of ancient Rome to the seventeenth century

Bloglines to my readers an article found on Blog.it , how it changed the way you eat forever. The blog also contains recipes and articles very interesting ( also read "The banquets of Imperial Rome in anticipation of Christmas 2763 in Rome ) for who was passionate argument.

Here is an excerpt of the article:

[...] One can not but from ancient Rome, where, to be honest, tastes and customs were very different from those that modern Rome offers. Pretty much everyone knows the disgusting use to slip two fingers in my mouth after a meal to empty the stomach and start over the banquet, always lying limply on their couches. If you decide to reach the end of the meal ended with fresh lettuce for 'grease'. But that's not all our ancestors loved to mix wine with sea water and prepared a delicious mix of cheese milk with a sprig of fico perché questo conteneva una sostanza che lo faceva cagliare. Inoltre consideravano le fave bollite una leccornia, baciavano a bocca chiusa se avevano mangiato il porro e cuocevano i cavoli in acqua nitrata o aceto stagionato per combattere la nausea.
A darci numerose indicazioni sull’alimentazione del suo tempo, sia quella sulle tavole dei nobili che su quelle dei poveri, è il poeta Orazio che, come noi oggi, amava i cibi semplici ed economici quali malve, cicoria, olive, sosteneva che niente fosse meglio di pane e sale per togliere la fame e odiava a tal punto l’aglio da credere che l’avesse inventato una strega di nome Canidia. Orazio racconta che i ricchi mangiavano cibi inusuali come ostriche e pavone e che on their tables dare combinations would call scary, like the thrushes with the seafood. The cooks at their service struggles to invent more and more extravagant recipes with food and sometimes sought unthinkable. Many came from remote parts of the empire, such as fish sauce or wheat from the Iberian Peninsula from Libya and agricultural products from Africa, a particular delight was considered the Sicilian fruit (not really change anything), the honey of Calabria and apples of the Piceno territory. But the poet not only tells the banquets of nobles, where after each course arrived slender two slaves: one was cleaning the table with a purple cloth, remove all traces of the other food while the wealthy diners will rinse your hands in water and wine. Offer advice to ordinary people: prefer the eggs in elongated than round, choose the mushrooms, finish your meal with more black, open them with soft drinks (our appetizer). In the Middle Ages
increases consumption of grains and decrease the meat for the benefit of protein legumes. The color of bread, henceforth, to indicate social class, as well as the geographical area of \u200b\u200borigin of each individual and will be coined as' pottage 'to indicate everything edible that accompanied the bread, of course the center of' foods, especially of poor and farmers. As for the rich, for their life has always been easy, with tables laid in which nothing was missing: soup, stewed meat preparations produced by as blancmange, fruit and spices, which were more abundant than they were a symbol of magnificence. In this excellent site have found a gem: in Rome in the Dark Ages were eating the Zanzarelli, a sort of ancestor of our stracciatella soup, in which the egg was used for the exterior and there was plenty of saffron, cinnamon, pepper, ginger and nutmeg. Very popular also the soup of lettuce with fresh herbs called, precisely, Roman, kid roast chicken, roast pork, which was called 'pig upside down' because in its preparation was all that was inside out and vice versa, then the sauces od'aglio plums, whose flavor was muted with almond or grape juice and cakes cooked in the embers of the fireplace. The banquet, then, were a real show: there was an appetizer of fresh fruit accompanied by wines from the mold, the 'first service' with various soups, the 'second' service with stews, roasts and and interludes, our side dishes. Only then you could get up and dance to the music being played from start to finish meals. The wine was just white, because red, robust, was considered suitable for those working in the fields. It ended in bellezza con dolcetti vari e come digestivi semini di anice o cardamomo.
A cavallo tra Medioevo e Rinascimento divenne famoso il Maestro Martino, che perfezionò la sua arte culinaria proprio a Roma, nelle cucine del Vaticano. In questo periodo si consumavano minestre a base di latte e riso e carne di selvaggina che venivano preparate in crosta di pane, ma proprio lui dette inizio a una grande tradizione romana: quella della pasta asciutta, cucinando per primo maccheroni e vermicelli conditi con uvetta, burro e sale.
Nei secoli del Rinascimento la cucina cambiò molto, grazie alle patate, al mais, al tacchino e al cacao che furono portati dalle Americhe, o al caffè e al tè dall’Oriente. Tutti prodotti che però ci misero molto per affermarsi: la patata ad esempio fu usata nell’alimentazione umana solo a partire dal Settecento e lo stesso il mais, usato per disperazione come unica alternativa alla morte in tempi di carestia, sottoforma di polenta. E sempre dopo il Seicento la bevanda del cacao, la cioccolata calda, fu scoperta da re e regine [...] continua qui