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Thursday, September 12. 2013

New World Foods of Italy

What would Italian cooking be like without their foods from the Americas?


Eg: tomatoes, potatoes, squash, baccala, corn (for polenta), bell pepper, chocolate, etc.


If you drive east from Milan on A-4, all you see are cornfields. It almost looks like Massachusetts, except for the Alps in the distance and the stone barns and farm houses.


Thanks, Columbus. Polenta is good stuff.

Posted by Bird Dog in Food and Drink, Our Essays at 12:52 | Comments (4) | Trackbacks (0)

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Interesting thought.

Not an authoritative source, but I found this:
http://chefsref.hubpages.com/hub/Italian-Food-Before-Columbus-History-of-Italian-Food

I also bookmarked some pages on the Columbian Exchange.
#1 Bulldog on 2013-09-12 13:31 (Reply)
" . . all you see are cornfields. It almost looks like Massachusetts."

Yes, I've been all over the world, and have gotten quite used to New World foods being a part of the local landscape; except for corn.

I don't know why, but, cornfields are just so North American to me that it is still odd to see them elsewhere in the old world.
#2 Charles on 2013-09-12 18:26 (Reply)
Some environmentalists were dead set against "non-native species" and that they should be eridacated where ever they were found. That term was in great favor until it was pointed out that lots of food stuffs around the world were non-native, ie corn in Italy and wheat in North America, etc. The had to adopt the "invasive" or pest species to make their point.
#3 blick on 2013-09-12 21:52 (Reply)
Heck, wasn't pasta imported from China? What the heck did Romans eat compared to modern Italian cooking?
#4 JorgXMcKie on 2013-09-12 22:04 (Reply)

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