| Notes on Aretine
Cuisine
Tuscan cooking, and in particular that
of Arezzo, is often considered a “poor cuisine,”
yet it is anything but “poor”. Aretine cuisine
might better be defined as simple, where simplicity
is intended as an ingenious use of herbs or similar
ingredients which is never too elaborate except in the
search for a constant balance and a sense of measure.
The food of the Arezzo area is country
cooking in a fertile land, though the hilly terrain
requires more care and fatigue to bear good fruits.
In the past, menial labor was uncommon in Tuscany and
most of the agricultural production was done through
sharecropping. Difficulties weren’t lacking, but
there was always sufficient production to live on and,
more importantly, there was a direct link between labor
and the fruits that would be produced by it.
Gragnone was a flourishing agricultural
center where the lives of the various sharecroppers
and landowners revolved around the seasons and their
respective activities: pruning, harvesting, threshing,
haying, the joys of harvesting the fruits, chestnuts
and grapes, making wine, picking olives, and “butchering
a pig”.
Products for quality cooking were available
to everyone, perhaps game was the sole property of the
owners of the villa, but all of the rest, from the wine
to garden crops to the precious olive oil, was shared
in a way similar to a modern cooperative.
The rediscovered recipes and the gastronomic
memories of those who were born and have lived in this
house recall the extreme richness of simple dishes such
as “ribollita” (made from everything from
the garden) or the “ciambellone” (a doughnut
shaped cake) for breakfast made with twelve eggs from
free-range chickens.
Thanks to its fortunate location and the
prosperity of the family, Gragnone left tangible signs
of it cultural and gastronomic traditions in tact. Recipe
books, shopping lists and the accounts of the sharecroppers
have become documents through which we can reconstruct
and discover how the inhabitants from the past ate and
lived.
We do not want to give our encounters with
you the formula of a simple “recipe” in
respect for those traditions. We would like to bring
forth the gastronomic balance that reflects the balance
of our earth, our landscape and our way of life. If
cooking means only to mechanically follow what was said
or done, one would loose the possibility to express
his or her self, which we believe is the essence of
“good cooking”.
So we will follow the recipes, take notes,
but we won’t forget to put in a touch of fantasy
and love.
It is important to know the history of
a dish and the products used in it and not limit ourselves
to use certain ingredients, but to look for top quality
prime resources. Learning about the value of the ingredients
we use will give us the possibility to know how to use
them with balance and enjoy them that much more at the
table.
The real value is not just the flavor of
a dish, or the way it is presented, but its history
or “story” and what we can add of our own
to make it unique. You will find the same ingredients
in the United States where you will reproduce (we hope!)
the dishes you make here. Or you could go to the local
greengrocer before you depart and buy what you’ll
need and after eight hours follow a recipe step-by-step
in your own kitchen. But, the dish will never be same
as what you try here, it might be tastier or more insipid,
but never the same. Like works of art, a meal is always
unique and unrepeatable.
Buon appetito! |
