Why Italians Love to Talk About Food (64 page)

Another nutritious product is mullet roe (
bottarga
), which is pressed into amber-colored bricks of three or four kilos, salted, and dried. It is obtained from the sea but preserves well enough to be used in the central part of the island.
Bottarga
is a product of the port of Cabras, in the middle of the western coast of Sardinia, where the sea is plentiful, teeming with fish, and particularly abounding in mullet. At Cabras there
is a salt lake fed by seawater, so there are excellent salt marshes at hand. No less than 80 percent of the
bottarga
sold in Italy is produced there.
Bottarga
is eaten sliced or crumbled onto pasta. It is as rich in vitamins as old, nauseating cod liver oil, at one time the bane of every vulnerable child made to swallow this terrible substance.
Bottarga
is thankfully much tastier.

Some traditional Sardinian products are of such darkly decadent taste that even the government thought it was its duty to intervene to protect consumers. Without success, however: bans, as we know, only intensify interest. A case in point is Casu Marzu, otherwise known as Frazzigu, Becciu, Fattittu, or Gompagadu (that is, jumping cheese): the dialect forms vary depending on the location. This cheese is even more putrid than the pit cheese of Romagna. I tasted this cheese personally (though it's not allowed to be sold, it was offered to me by a local producer): it's true, as the widespread saying goes, that first you smell it with your nose, then you hear it with your ears (as the worms crawling in the cheese jump noisily onto the table), and only afterward do you taste it. Assuming, of course, that you have not lost the urge to. And assuming your finances will allow it: a small-sized one of these rotten cheeses can cost up to 150 euros at auction (furtively, since its sale is now prohibited).

 

The Sardinian's heart is devoted to the land, but he often works at sea.
³
Here big gray mullet are caught and cooked whole on the grill, rather than stewed or marinated, according to island tradition. Even the eighty-kilo dentex known as the
lupo marino
, or sea wolf, is cooked on the grill or over a fire. It is curious to learn that there is a stretch of coast in Sardinia, from Capo Caccia through Alghero and as far as Bosa, where lobsters are so abundant that, even in relatively recent times, people simply tired of eating them, and were content with vegetables and potatoes on holidays, to finally get a rest from the crustaceans. These lobsters are so big that they are called elephantine:
Palinurus elephas
. Today, the local population does not eat lobsters, but catches them to sell.

The stretch of coast where lobster catching is practiced is populated by Catalans. Catalonia, in fact, is a stone's throw away. Even the dialect here is Catalan, and the city of Alghero, whose current name means “place where there are many algae,” was called Barceloneta (“little Barcelona”) up until the sixteenth century. Therefore, the local population has a seafaring mentality, and does not cling, like the other inhabitants of the island, to a terra firma philosophy. The city of Alghero, with its ancient,
winding narrow streets, was taken from Genoa by the Catalans in 1354 after a year of siege. At that time the Aragonese kings lost no time in conquering a piece of Sardinia here, a piece of Sicily there, and Pedro IV, a particularly skilled and fortunate commander, became famous for pinning new, gratifying flags on his military maps.

In the Catalan part of Sardinia, unique specialities, such as donkey stew, are well known. Donkey, as a rule, is eaten everywhere on the islands (in the Aeolians, as well as in Ischia and in Lampedusa), where in the absence of roads and cars, donkeys are the only means of transportation, especially in mountainous areas. When the animal is worn out and its performance significantly diminished, the time has come to turn the old friend into a meal. And the donkey must necessarily be stewed for not less than seven hours, because its stringy meat cannot compare to buttery Angus fillets.

Donkey meat is eaten not only in the islands but also on the mainland, where it is prepared differently. In Castelvetro, in Piedmont, the
sagra
of donkey salamis is held every autumn. And in the very heart of the Italian plain lies a city whose inhabitants have elevated donkey
ragù
to the pearl of their cuisine: the refined, sumptuous, glorious city of the Gonzagas, Mantua.

Sardinian lobsters are prized, but perhaps no less esteemed is Sardinian octopus. The octopus is considered a kind of Aristotle of the animal world because of its intelligence. Despite having a high regard for its intellect, however, the inhabitants of the Apennine Peninsula and of the Italian islands eat it quite often. When buying octopus, experts observe a number of rules. First, they count the suction cups on the tentacles, which must be in two rows: if the suction cups are arranged in a single row, it means that the animal comes from the North Atlantic and is better left alone. Its flavor can never compete with that of octopuses found along the Italian coast.

The end of the Mediterranean octopus's life is humiliating and sad. It is banged against the rocks until it loses consciousness and its poor body goes completely limp. The ancient Greeks recommended slamming the octopus against the rocks no less than a hundred times. The only chance the creature has to avenge itself is to bite, as long as it has the strength to do so, and an octopus's bite is rather painful. But compassionate (or prudent) fishermen can use their teeth as well, and before striking the animal, they sever the nerve center located in its neck with a quick, precise chomp.

The most glorious fishermen, surrounded by a romantic aura and aggrandized in films, live on the other coast of Sardinia, on San Pietro Island. The only village on this island, which in itself is not very populous, is the sleepy town of Carloforte, which has become a fashionable vacation spot for northern Italian executives. The town comes
alive from May–June until the end of August, when the
tonnara
, the system of tuna traps, is lowered into the sea. For a thousand years now
ala azzurra
, bluefin tuna, have migrated to these shores each year in May, to then continue on to Tokyo aboard a cargo plane: there they serve to replenish the supply of ingredients for sashimi in the refrigerators of high-class restaurants.

William Black recounts how, as a journalist and photographer, he managed to obtain permission to participate in the
mattanza
(tuna slaying), a restricted, inaccessible ritual.
⁴
Other civilians on the motorboat were the owner of the fishing company, in a jacket and tie, and the expert assigned to inspect the tuna meat, who had come expressly from Japan. In the presence of the Japanese inspector-supplier, no hunter would harpoon the tuna in the side. The Japanese believe that this type of killing compromises the quality of the meat. Tuna can only be killed by slitting the throat.

The
mattanza
, the battle with the tuna amid fountains of spurting blood, against a background of ocean waves, is described as an exhilarating spectacle. Leading the team is the head harpooner, called the
rais
(as in Puglia), a sign of the ritual's Arab origin. Despite the undisputed barbarity of the
mattanza
, experts believe that it is a type of fishing that is acceptable from both an ecological and an ethical point of view. It is a battle between equals, and the number of prey caught with so much effort does not ultimately disturb the natural balance in a given area of the sea. It is an entirely different matter when the hunt takes place, perhaps in a more sanitized and less picturesque way, with the use of electronic equipment. In the wake of this type of “merciful fishing,” practically not a single live specimen remains in a radius of many kilometers.

The
mattanza
is a kind of Spanish bullfight, except that the deadly ballet takes place on the water. A tuna may weigh as much as three quintals (over six hundred pounds). In ancient, legendary times, specimens of four or even five quintals ended up in the traps. The tuna are caught when they are ready to reproduce (the males are then called “racing tuna”), at the peak of their sex hormone production.

Just as the killing of the pig brings all the farmers in the village together in the north and the south (some stuff the sausage, some boil the blood, others bring the new wine), so the entire community participates in the tuna butchering in Carloforte, just as in Calabria and Sicily. Before cans for preserving came into use, the meat was placed in wooden barrels. It was kept raw for a few days and was exquisite, but unscrupulous wholesalers sometimes extended the process on purpose, just to lower the prices with the threat that the meat might go bad. Like it or not, the fishermen of
Carloforte armed themselves with preservatives, albeit weak ones of short duration; this gave them the chance to fittingly place Sardinian tuna meat in wholesale fish markets all over the world.

 

The Sardinians have their sheep to thank for another illustrious typical product, Sardinian pecorino cheese, which appears on the table of every inhabitant of the island and of every Italian, as well as on the shelves of all the supermarkets on the planet. Sheep have always contributed to the survival and well-being of the people here. The animal, as we know, has a meek, gentle nature, and is sympathetic to its shepherds—even to the point that it ceases to require care just at the time when unbearable heat descends on all of Italy and the country closes down for the
ferie
(vacation period), namely, the month of August. At that time sheep stop giving milk; since there is no need to milk them, the shepherds can enjoy a well-deserved respite. It is no coincidence that Italy, mindful of these patriarchal rhythms, chooses August to rest. The culmination of the vacation period coincides with the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin on August 15, when all Italians celebrate: signs posted on the rolled-down shutters of shop windows unconditionally proclaim
CLOSED FOR FERRAGOSTO
(from
feriae augusti
, August holidays). In patriarchal society, this same period was considered ideal for making new acquaintances and engaging in courtships. It was then that farmers and shepherds could leave their villages for a few days, visit with friends and relations in neighboring towns, find a
fidanzata
(girlfriend) and get to know her. During this period feasts and drinking, (see “
The
Sagra
”), contests among popular poets and ballad singers, sack racing, and displays of physical strength were organized, and are still held today. Even the religious processions of the Assumption are occasions to show off one's physical vigor. It is the moment of glory for the region's brawny specimens, who in many towns and villages parade through the streets carrying statues weighing hundreds of pounds along with wooden crucifixes three meters high. And all thanks to the noble behavior of the inhabitants of the sheepfold.

It is the sheep that influence the rural calendar. In each season a particular cheese is produced. There are dozens of varieties of Sardinian pecorino known, in fact. The most famous of all is the Fiore (flower) or Fioretto (little flower). It is so named because at one time a flower was carved in the bottom of the chestnut wood molds (
pischeddas
) in which it was produced, and the imprint was then left on the ripe cheese. Now stainless-steel molds are used instead, but pecorino still retains this trade
name. Sardinian Fiore, in the past, ripened in special storehouses in maritime pine-woods, and the cheese acquired the fragrance of resin. Fiore is made with lamb rennet, its flavor is very intense, and even after a long ripening period it melts in the mouth.

As we have seen, the Ligurians use Sardinian cheese exclusively for their pesto. This is a legacy of the trading between Arborea, the ancient Sardinian capital, and Genoa, its ally on the continent. A taste for Sardinian pecorino is particularly enduring. Italians in America, who by and large have lost the fundamental concepts of a traditional cuisine, continue to demand their Sardinian pecorino in the supermarkets of the New World.